Hello! My name is Liz Staley and I’m a long-time user of Clip Studio Paint (I started using the program back when it was known as Manga Studio 4!). I was a beta-tester on the Manga Studio 5 program and for Clip Studio Paint, and I have written three books and several video courses about the program. Many of you probably know my name from those books, in fact. I write weekly posts on Graphixly.com and on CSP Tips, so be sure to come back every week to learn more Clip Studio Tips and Tricks from me!

Lens flares have gotten a reputation in movies in recent years as being overused and “cheesy”, but they are an actual thing that occurs when light hits a camera lens and can be used to add interest and atmosphere to your illustrations or comics. If you want to be able to create this special effect, this article covers some very simple steps to make a beautiful rainbow lens flare!

Creating a Lens Flare

First, we’ll need an image to add our lens flare effect to! Lens flares happen when bright light such as the sun or a spotlight shine directly into a camera in film or photography. So a scene lit where the light source is shining directly at the viewer is the ideal one for a lens flare in illustration. So in the example below, where the sun is directly behind the character and shining toward the viewer, a lens flare could be seen.

I want to create a guideline for the lens flare to make sure that it follows a consistent curve. To do this, I created a new layer above my illustration and selected the Ellipse tool in the Direct Draw category. Open the Advanced Tool Settings by clicking the wrench icon in the lower right corner of the Tool Settings window. Then, in Shape Operation, make sure “Start from Center” is checked. 

Using the light source as a starting point, click and drag to create a circle. I dragged the circle out until I got to the point where I wanted my lens flare to sit. Lock this layer using the Lock Layer icon in the Layer Palette so that no more edits can be made to the guide. 

On a new layer above the guideline layer, use your favorite hard round brush in any color to draw out the shape of your light. Use the guideline we just created for the placement and also to keep the bottoms of your main shapes lined up. 

Now let’s make this lens flare rainbow colored! To do this easily, click on the Decoration category of tools. Then under the “Natural” tab, select the “Blurred Rainbow” brush. This brush should be included with the default brushes in Clip Studio Paint.

Note that if you do not have this brush for some reason, there is a free brush from Clip Studio Official available that will work exactly the same for this purpose!

https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1412093 

Click on the Lock Transparent Pixels icon in the layer palette, then use the rainbow brush to go over the lens flare shape you created before. I made my brush size slightly larger than my base shape, but still went over a few times to get more purple or red in some areas. 

Once you’re happy with the colors, turn off the “Lock Transparent Pixels” option in this layer. Then make two copies of the lens flare layer. Your layer palette should look something like the screenshot below. (Note that I had forgotten to turn off Lock Transparent Pixels before creating my copies so I had to do it for each layer individually before continuing)

Now we are going to blur each layer in a different way. We will start from the bottom layer in the stack and work upward, and I’m going to be turning off the other layers for these screenshots so that it’s easier to see what we’re doing, but you don’t have to do that.

On the bottom lens flare layer, click on Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur. Adjust the settings quite high so that everything is very blurred (your actual value might vary depending on the resolution of your image).

For the middle lens flare layer, click on Filter - Blur - Radial Blur. When the Radial Blur options come up, look at your image for the red X. This is the center of the radial blur. Click the X and drag it to the center of your light source. Make sure the Direction dropdown option is set to Outward, then adjust the Strength slider until you like the look.

Finally, on the top lens flare layer, use the Gaussian Blur filter again, but use a lower Strength than before.

Now set the lowest layer to the Overlay Blending Mode. Set the middle and top layer both to the Screen blending mode.

Now you can independently adjust the opacity of each layer to make the lens flare less intense. On another layer, add some faint white spots using the Soft airbrush tool and lower the opacity to mimic light hitting specks of dust. 

And you’re done!

Conclusion

As you can see, this effect is very easy to create but can add a lot of drama and interest to your images! Give it a try and I’m sure you’ll love the results using Clip Studio Paint tools!

For more information on CLIP Studio Paint, please visit https://www.clipstudio.net/en or https://graphixly.com