Behavior group

New to Knoll Light Factory 3.0, the Behavior group defines four animated effects: Flicker, Blink, Pulse and Strobe. You can use these premade animations to quickly create effects like a blinking turn signal or a flickering star. The Behavior controls are easy and broad, with options like Cycle Duration for the animated light and Brightness of the behavior.

At left, Flicker behavior is active. At right, Blink behavior is active, and Delay is active because Use Lights checkbox is on.

Looping Behavior pop-up

By default, Looping Behavior is set to None, which turns off the parameter group. When one of the Behavior options is selected, the related Behavior controls become active. Each behavior animates in a looping cycle based on Cycle Duration [sec].

There are four kinds of Behaviors. Each is discussed below with a description and a graph of its opacity cycles.

Blink turns the lens flare on and off at a steady interval. When the blink reaches the Brightness Max or Brightness Min, it will hold briefly before changing that value again.

Graph of Blink opacity/brightness.

Flicker tells the lens flare to flicker in or out. Unlike Blink, Flicker uses random Brightness Min and Brightness Max points for the opacity curve, and 'flickers' between them. Flicker does not hold the opacity at any point.

Graph of Flicker opacity/brightness.

Pulse tells the lens flare to pulse in and out. Pulse differs from blink because it is a linear curve with tapered ends. Pulse does not hold the opacity at any point.

Graph of Pulse opacity/brightness.

Strobe tells the lens flare to strobe by quickly fading out from the Brightness Max, holding at the Brightness Min, and then instantly jumping to Brightness Max. Rinse & repeat.

Graph of Strobe opacity/brightness.

Strobe Fade [% of cycle]

Active when Strobe is selected. This slider controls the speed at which the Strobe fades as a percentage of the cycle.

Slider range is 0 to 100. The default is 100. High values make the strobing effect fade out faster.

Flickers per Second

Active when Flicker is selected. This slider sets the number of flickering cycles in a second.

Slider range is 0.1 to 10, measured in cycles, with a default of 1. High values create a faster animation. At a value of 2, the Flicker behavior will have 2 different peaks and valleys per second. At a value of 10, there will be 10 cycles per second, which makes the Flicker animate quickly.

Flicker Rest Duration [%]

Active when Flicker is selected. This slider sets the percentage of the flickering cycle in which the flicker rests in its 'off' state. Basically, it controls the duration of the rest period, and thus the name of Rest Duration.

Slider range is 0 to 100, measured in percentage, with a default of 10. High values create a longer rest period, which makes a flickering with fewer on/off states. At a value of 20, the Flicker behavior will rest for 20% of its cycle. At a value of 50, the Flicker behavior will rest for 50% of its cycle.

Brightness Max

Active when all behaviors are selected. Brightness Min sets the brightness of the on state of the behavior. It controls the peak of the opacity curve wave, which is the brightest point of the Looping Behavior.

The slider range is 0 to 200. The numeric range is 0 to 300. Default value is 100. High values create a brighter flare for the behavior.

Brightness Min

Active when all behaviors are selected. Brightness Min sets the brightness of the 'off' state of the behavior. It controls the low point of the opacity curve wave, which is the dimmest point of the Looping Behavior.

The slider range is 0 to 200. The numeric range is 0 to 300. Default value is 0. High values create a brighter flare for the behavior.

Cycle Duration [sec]

Active when all behaviors are selected. Cycle Duration controls the duration in seconds of each loop cycle. Basically, it sets how long the on-to-off state takes to happen.

The slider range is 0.01 to 60. Default value is 1, which gives one cycle of the behavior per second. If you change the default to 0.5, each cycle will take half a second and will produce two behaviors per second. A value of 2 will take 2 seconds, or twice as long, to complete one cycle.

Cycle Duration Randomness

Active when all behaviors are selected. This slider randomizes the frequency of Cycle Duration.

The slider range is 0 to 100. The default is 0, which turns off Randomness. High values create more randomness in the duration length.

Offset [sec]

Active when all behaviors are selected. Offset is an artificial start point that moves the start time of the behavior to a later point within the cycle.

Slider range is 0 to 10, measured as a cycle. The default is 0, which means the animation is not offset. At 0.5, the animation is offset by half a cycle. At 1, the animation is offset by one full cycle. At 1.5, it's offset by one-and-a-half cycles, and so on.

Here is a good way to think about Offset. Let's say you have a Behavior cycle for Pulse that lasts one second. At 0 seconds the light is off, at 0.5 seconds the light is on, and at 1 second the light is off. In this cycle, you create two flashing police lights. You want Light A off while Light B is on, which means you need to offset the two lights. Set Light A at Offset of 0 so it starts turned off. Set Light B at Offset of 0.5 so it starts halfway through the cycle.

Delay per Light [%] (After Effects only)

Active for all behaviors when the Location> Use Lights checkbox is active.

This control requires two or more After Effects Lights in the timeline. Delay per Light sets when each AE Light starts to animate the Looping Behavior. It sets a delay, measured in seconds, for the behavior across multiple lights.

Slider range is 0 to 10, measured in seconds. The default is 0, which turns off Delay. High values mean the delay between Lights is longer, which makes the behavior appear slower. A value of 0.25 creates a delay of 1/4 second between Lights. A value of 2 creates a delay of 2 seconds between Lights.

Delay Order pop-up (After Effects only)

Active for all behaviors when the Location> Use Lights checkbox is active.

This control requires two or more After Effects Lights in the timeline. Delay Order sets the order in which the Delay per Light affects the Light layers in the timeline. The options are:

- Layer Order: Sets Delay by the stacking order of layers in the timeline, moving from lowest in the stack to highest.
- Layer Name Forward: Sets Delay alphabetically by the layer names. For example, 'Flare 1, Flare 2, Flare 3' or 'Apple, Banana, Orange'.
- Layer Name Reverse: Sets Delay in reverse-alphabet by the layer names. For example, 'Flare 3, Flare 2, Flare 1' or 'Orange, Banana, Apple'.
- Randomize: Sets Delay by randomly choosing the layers. For example, 'Flare 2, Orange, Layer 1, Apple'.