How to change the Blend Mode
& Use Lens Flares / Animated Elements

Lens flares & animated elements are the visual equivalent of sound effects for your videos. It's that subtle detail that can really make your footage pop. It's all in the details after all! This is a quick little guide on how you can these effects on your videos. Just follow the simple steps below and you are good to go.

Feel free to roam around our website, where you can check out a variety of Lens Flares & Animated Elements available, expertly developed by our team, simply by clicking this button:

You can find a variety of creative LUTs available, expertly developed by our professional team of videographers, simply by following this link: View Film LUTs

Mastering Blend Modes

Blend modes are crucial for using lens flares. They basically allow your footage to blend into the clip below in the timeline. Therefore you will need the flare file to be above the footage for example, Footage on track 1 and flare on track 2.

Pretty much all editing software allows blend modes due to how crucial and useful they can be. You can use blend modes to do a wide range of things. They can create some crazy cool effects when experimenting with them.

Using a video with a blending mode is one of the quickest ways to get a unique look. In simple terms, a blending mode tells the software how to interpret the colors and luminance of a video layer. For example, the 'Screen' blending mode will completely remove black pixels in your video, therefore blending the videos.

How change the blend mode & use Lens Flares | Adobe Premiere Pro

• Open Premiere Pro.
• Import the unzipped Lens Flare or Animated Elements folder into the project.
• Drag a chosen Flare Clip onto 'Track 2' of your timeline (You want to place it above your footage you want to have the Flares on). This effect will only work when the flares are placed above other footage.
• Click on the overlay clip and go to the effects panel.
• Open up the toggle ‘Opacity’.
• Change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Screen’.

How to change the blend mode & use Lens Flares | Final Cut Pro X

• Open Final Cut Pro X.
• Import the unzipped Lens Flare or Animated Elements folder into the project.
• Drag a chosen Flare Clip onto 'Track 2' of your timeline (You want to place it above your footage you want to have the Flares on). This effect will only work when the flares are placed above other footage.
• Click on the Flare Clip and go to the video panel in the top right of the screen. You will see a 'Video' & 'Info' tab, please select the 'Video' tab.
  
• You will see a 'Compositing' section where you can select your blend mode.
  
• Change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Screen’.

How to Change the blend mode | Davinci Resolve

• Open DaVinci Resolve.
• Import the unzipped Lens Flare or Animated Elements folder into the project.
• Drag a chosen Flare Clip onto 'Track 2' of your timeline (You want to place it above your footage you want to have the Flares on). This effect will only work when the flares are placed above other footage.
• Click on the Flare Clip and go to the panel on the top right of your program. You will see an 'Inspector' tab, please open this.
  
• You will see a 'Composite' section where you can select your blend mode.
  
• Change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Screen’.

How to Change the blend mode | Filmora

• Open Filmora.
• Import the unzipped Lens Flare or Animated Elements folder into the project.
• Drag a chosen Flare Clip onto 'Track 2' of your timeline (You want to place it above your footage you want to have the Flares on). This effect will only work when the flares are placed above other footage.
• Click on the Flare Clip and you will see an icon in the left-centre of Filmora that has 3 horizontal lines. Click this or type hotkey (Alt + E on Windows) (Command + E on Mac). This will open up a video panel in the top left of the program.
  
• Open up the 'Compositing' section.
  
• Change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Screen’.

How to Change the blend mode | Adobe After Effects CC

• Open After Effects.
• Import the unzipped Lens Flare or Animated Elements folder into the project.
• Drag a chosen Flare Clip onto 'Track 2' of your timeline (You want to place it above your footage you want to have the Flares on). This effect will only work when the flares are placed above other footage.
• Click on the Flare Clip and make sure you can see a toggle button on your clip in the timeline called 'Mode'. If you do not see this then please click the 'Toggle Switches / Modes' button that is in the bottom left of your program. This will open up the options to change the blend mode on your clips.
  
• Change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Screen’.

How to Change the blend mode | Power Director

All you need to do is change the blend mode to 'Screen' to use our Lens Flares or Animated Elements.

How to Use Lens Flares & Change the blend mode | LumaFusion

All you need to do is change the blend mode to 'Screen' to use our Lens Flares or Animated Elements.

Change the blend mode | Edius

All you need to do is change the blend mode to 'Screen' to use our Lens Flares or Animated Elements.

Change the blend mode | Vegas Pro

All you need to do is change the blend mode to 'Screen' to use our Lens Flares or Animated Elements. With Vegas Pro, you will need to change the track to 'Screen' rather than the individual clip.

Change the blend mode | Coral VideoStudio

All you need to do is change the blend mode to 'Screen' to use our Lens Flares or Animated Elements.

• In the Timeline, select an overlayed Lens Flare or Animated Element clip.
• In the 'Options' panel, click the 'Blending' tab.
• From the 'Blending Modes' drop-down menu, choose 'Screen'

How to use Elements with Camtasia

It's not possible to change the blend mode in Camtasia, but there is another method that works in a similar way. You will need to use the color key effect to remove the color black. Please see this tutorial below:

How to use Elements with Pinnacle Studio

It's not possible to change the blend mode in Camtasia, but there is another method that works in a similar way. You will need to use the luma key effect to remove the color black.

• Drag the chosen Element into your timeline above any clips you want to show the element on.
• Go to the 'Effects' panel and search for 'Luma Key'. Drag the Luma Key effect onto the Element.
• Open up the Clip Properties toggle as displayed in the video below. 
• Go to the 'Effect' toggle and click it.
• Change the 'Luma Center' to '100'. Play around with these Luma settings until you get your desired result.

Tips & Tricks using Flares

We have a bunch of tips for using Lens Flares that could come in really handy for you. Take a look below and see if they spark any ideas!

• Using flares as luminance layers to transition titles. This means you can use the luminance of a flare and tell the software to only use the bright parts of the shots to essentially introduce the titles.

And you're done!

It's quite straight forward isn't it? This is how you set up your flares to use on your videos. Get those creative juices flowing!

Have a play! Oh yes and don’t forget to tag us using #bouncecolor on your social media when you use products hosted on our store.

Should you find yourself troubled with any of the above, fear not, we've got you! Just let us know and we will get you going in no time.

Have fun!