LensPro III is a new After Effects plugin from AlphaPlugins, the creators of software for both Photoshop and AE. It seems as if AlphaPlugins has bought out Panopticum’s line of software, including the popular Engraver for Photoshop. In fact, the LensPro III manual still bears the Panopticum name. The good thing about this is that this product is in its third version, having been developed for years by Panopticum. Fortunately, it seems as if AlphaPlugins is committed to improving on the software, and as of this review, LensPro III is in its sixth revision, meaning that it has gone through six rounds of bug fixes and feature improvements.
LensPro III contains six different modules, all of which create various sorts of lens and crystal effects. The crystals can take on various shapes and colors, and can be mapped onto text, used as borders, or animated for various sorts of special-fx.
The first module is just named LensPro III, and from what I gather is meant to be the generic, do-it-all module. This contains a particle engine that allows you to animate multiple crystals, and have them fly around the screen in various ways. The second module is named Foam, and is basically the same as LensPro III, except that the crystals can be linked together in matrices to form bubbles, helix arrays (like DNA strands), and radial spoke-like configurations. The next module is 3DObject, which allows you to load in a 3D file and then smash it into a bunch of glass pieces. The Universal module seems to be the same as the LensPro III module, except without the particle engine. Triangle lets you create stained-glass windows, which can then be shattered. Finally, Speckles creates a frosted glass effect, and can be combined with the other effects for an added texture.
Ease of Use
Installation was relatively easy. The software can be downloaded from the website, and from there it’s just a matter of running the exe file. However, the installation package defaults to the C:\Program Files\Adobe\After Effects 7.0\Support Files\Plugins\Panopticum path. Since I’m running AE 6.5, installing it in this path would result in the software not appearing in my version of AE. Be sure to change the default path to the plugins folder in your version of After Effects.
The first time you run the plugin, a little window will pop up asking for your name, company name, and serial number. If you purchased the software from their website, they should have sent you a serial number to enter here. Otherwise, you can choose to use it in Demo mode, which puts a grid of red and blue lines through the screen.
Creating simple effects with these modules is fairly straightforward. With the exception of the 3DObject module, you can just create a new composition, load a video or background image into your timeline, and then apply the effect. You should see something right away. With the 3DObject module, you need to load a 3D model by going to the “Options” tab; AlphaPlugins has included a bunch of models for you to experiment with. Additionally, all of the parameters in every module can be animated with keyframes, and this is done in the same manner as all other After Effects plugins (i.e., clicking on the stopwatch next to the parameter you want to animate).
By far the easiest module to use is Speckles, which only has one parameter to adjust. However, the rest of these modules have a ton of parameters, which can get a little confusing. And, unfortunately, not all of them are explained very well in the manual, and many are explained in broken English similar to some of the assembly instructions that come with Ikea furniture. I’d recommend just adjusting the parameters to see what effect they create, and making notes for future reference.
