My advice regarding wacky transitions: Just say NO! And I'd agree that much of the time lensflares are cheesy, but sometimes they're just so amazing. I don't know how much time I've spent trying to get flares out of a shot from off-screen lighting sources -- but on-screen? I love flares. And I use them in reality more often than I use them in 3D. The sad thing about RDS lensflares is that they look wrong. Photoshop flares look great and you can animate them in AfterEffects, but it's hard to get them to line up with actual, on-screen sources. But the things we have to put up with, eh? I just hope nobody comes up with a "dirty lens" post render filter -- I'm sure somebody would just love it because it makes the image look gritty and real....