Blackmagic Forum

Hi,

I'm learning Fusion and I can't figure how to connect lens flare after render node and tracker. I want lens flare follow tracked tip of wand in hand
Thanks a lot
Tomek

There is so much wrong with the setup of that tracker. You've come to the right place.
First: disconnect that tracker from its current connection.
Second: feed the tracker with the footage you want to be tracked. Make sure you've connected the footage to the *orange* input instead of the green one.
Then track the tip of your wand.
Then inside of your lensflare tool find the center of the flare, right-click the center and select--> connect to--> tracker-->unsteady position and you should be good to go.

Small correction: If you connect to Unsteady Position, it will be a displacement from (0.5, 0.5), so the flare will start in the center of the frame, then follow the wand's position relative to that. You actually want to Connect To > Tracker 1: Offset Position.

That will give you the actual location of your Tracker.

Right. Listen to what Bryan says. Bryan is right.

Thanks a lot
Tomek

Hi all, new to the forum. I actually signed up to thank you for the tip. I spent 4 hours trying to track the built in lens flares through the usual methods of attaching to trackers. nothing worked. I was pulling my hair out and then I saw this post. I had no idea you should right click on the center of the flare and attach it this way. that's insane. I would have never NEVER thought of doing this. I followed your instructions and it worked like a charm. thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Yeah, the Fusion interface has many features that it doesn't do a great job of advertising.

Pro-tip: try right-clicking EVERYWHERE.

You'll find key functionality you might have missed, like important context menus in the Viewers, both for the viewers themselves and, from the bottom of the viewer context menu, for the currently active tool as well (as you found in this example.) Likewise Modifiers, a really powerful feature, which can only be added by right-clicking on a given property in the Inspector. Connect To and Publish are also available in this same right-click context menu in the Inspector. And you can access a given node's context menu (the same menu you'd get if you right-clicked on that node in the flow) from the Inspector, Spline Editor and Keyframes pane, by right-clicking on the name of that node in those panes.

There's also hidden menus in a few places. For example, right-clicking on the memory display in the very bottom right of the UI will bring up a small menu with the option to Purge Cache, Re-Render Current Frame, and, reload FBX Meshes. And in Resolve's Fusion page, they even hid away the option to enable/disable proxy and auto-proxy behind a right-click menu on the playback bar (where the stop/start/next frame/etc buttons are). These options are all globally applicable and IMHO really should be (additionally) in the main menus, not hidden away in obscure context locations. But that's where they currently are.

Oh, and while I'm listing functionality that's easily missed: when dragging a connection from one node to another, if you hold down Alt (Option on macOS) when releasing the mouse button, you get a very useful little pop-up menu indicating the available input connections on the target node. This is a great help when making connections to nodes that have many inputs, eg finding the Garbage Matte input on a Delta Keyer. Alt/Option is also used for making pipe routers (little boxes that split up connections between nodes, making it easier to organise your flow and avoid connections crossing each other) - hold Alt/Option and click on any existing connection between nodes, and a pipe router will be created there.

Finally, do read the manual when you can, or at least flip through it. Since Resolve 16.2.7 it's now fairly complete and up-to-date for Fusion 16. Given the tendency to hide functionality away, it's perhaps more important to read the docs than it is with other software. Tutorials are great too of course, and there's a growing number on YouTube. But it can take a lot longer to find every feature from watching tutorials alone.

Wow, VERY helpful.. thank you for your comment. its really funny/sad. Fusion is such an awesome package and the only way to see while stumbling around in the dark is with help from you guys. its like a cult or something, nobody really knows what's going on until we get in our little groups and let in on the big secrets ha ha. I have read through the manuals and training and stuff, but as you know there's a LOT not covered in there. Found some REALLY awesome tuts on YouTube as well. anyways, thanks again for the help! I appreciate it.