Here is the full feature list :

• Shape - Circle, Elipse, Square, Rectangle.
• Size - The size of the vignette.
• Feather - The amount of feather.
• Feather Mode - linear, smooth, ultra smooth.
• Position - Adjust the center to reposition the vignette.
• Color - Tint the vignette.
• Blending Mode - Add, Multiply,…
• Noise - Add noise.
• Noise Color - Tint the noise
• Noise Time - Animate the noise.
• Opacity - Adjust the transparency.

The Pro and Lite version are now compatible with After Effects and Premiere Pro (CS4 to CS6).

Download the PRO version 

The plugin has been converted to Native AE by Tobias Fleischer ! He is the man !!!

Those ports brings After Effects CS6 & Premiere Pro compatibilities on the table !!!!

The follwing are already online and remains free :

• ft-Technicolor (a quick 2-strip & 3 strip technicolor grading tool)
• ft-Filmic Contrast Lite (brings a filmic look to your videos with only 1 slider)
• ft-Vignetting Lite (a customizable vignette)
• ft-Clamp (keep controls over the pixels values)

Stay tuned for the other ones which should comes soon !!!

This version is based on the same principle but with some extra features as :

• Input channel selection
• Color mode (per channel process)
• Faster algorithm
• Boost effect

The Pro and Lite version are now compatible with After Effects and Premiere Pro (CS4 to CS6).

Download the PRO version 

The plugin has been converted to Native AE by Tobias Fleischer ! He is the man !!!

from json.org :

“JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition – December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.”

JSON is used a lot by web service as response to replace XML.

Why not using the XML object ?

AE’s XML object is handy, but yet have some weird way to access attribute, which in some case can become problematic. On top that the XML object comes with lots of methods and properties to handle properly an XML.
JSON is pretty much a native Javascript syntax. An object with Key/Values. So you can parse it with any kind of loop or js accessor. It’s easier and faster to handle, and lighter than XML.

from http://www.w3schools.com/json/json_intro.asp :

Much Like XML

• JSON is plain text
• JSON is “self-describing” (human readable)
• JSON is hierarchical (values within values)
• JSON can be parsed by JavaScript
• JSON data can be transported using AJAX

Much Unlike XML

• No end tag
• Shorter
• Quicker to read and write
• Can be parsed using built-in JavaScript eval()
• Uses arrays
• No reserved words

Why JSON?

For AJAX applications, JSON is faster and easier than XML:

Using XML

• Fetch an XML document
• Use the XML DOM to loop through the document
• Extract values and store in variables

Using JSON

• Fetch a JSON string
• eval() the JSON string

How to add it to AE ?

To add a JSON’s parser and stringifier to AE you could add this file to your script : https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/json2.js
Just minify the code and put it at the beginning of your script.

Even better, to make sure the JSON object is always available when you launch AE, you can download this file and put it into the “startup” folder in your script directory. So the JSON object and function will be loaded at AE startup.

FFMPEG is a command-line video/audio converter which supports lots of codecs and format but also can support some filters (blur, crop, scale, padding, LUT, …). And it’s freaking fast

Why using it ?

I only came across the video filter recently, and i’ll come back to it in future post. But the first/main reason I have been using it was for doing several conversion after render.
I’m rendering After Effects compositions into image sequences through several computers using Autodesk BackBurner and a script I made for it. That let me render the comps much faster.
Yet at the end I must deliver several formats as WMV, MP4, QT Animation, … So instead of creating a new AE project and converting PNG into those new formats, I’m creating 1 job on the renderfarm per format to convert it into. As a all picture, my AE script which send job to Backburner will first send the AE comp to render with after effects, and another job for each format depending of the AE render (this mean those job will wait for the AE render). Those depending jobs will use FFMPEG to convert PNG into the needed file.

How ?

Simple conversion :

ffmpeg.exe -i “\\pathToRenderFolder\image_%%5d.png” -r 25 -b:v 5000000 -c:v wmv1 -y “\\pathToRenderFolder\video.wmv”

-i is the input image sequence where %%5d is the number of digit (ie image_00000.png)
-r the frame rate
-b:v the bitrate of your video
-c:v the video codec (in this case windows media video)
-y means to overwrite the video file if it exists already
and then you specify where to save your video file.

Advanced conversion :

As PNG are RGB straight, if it does contain alpha, your RGB might look “weird” to you. Its because you need to premult the RGB with the alpha first.
To do that with FFMPEG we could use the filter graph, and draw the RGB in “overlay” mode.

ffmpeg.exe -i \\pathToRenderFolder\image_%%5d.png” -r 25 -b:v 5000000 -c:v wmv1 -vf “[in] split [T1],fifo, lutrgb=r=0:g=0:b=0, pad=in_w:in_h:0:0:0×000000, [T2] overlay [out]; [T1] fifo, pad=in_w:in_h:0:0:0×000000[T2]” -y “\\pathToRenderFolder\video.wmv”

All the other params are same as above, except for the Video Filter :
-vf  will duplicate the video 2 times (split) > we will turn the first video RGB to black and use it as a background (LUT) > we specify that the second video will be draw in Overlay mode (the overlay use the alpha as well) > then we draw the second video.
NB : by changing the LUT and especially the pad color (0xRRGGBB). You can change the background color to whatever you want.

Tada

Unsharpen Mask = mix(blurredImage, OriginalImage, 1.0 + Strength)

But I found this shell script that does download, compile, install everything for you ! That saved my ass . So in case you are in the same dilem (or in case I don’t remember about it in a few month :p ) here is the link for it : http://stronginference.com/scipy-superpack/

From the website :

DaVinci Resolve Lite – Free

The free DaVinci Resolve Lite includes the same high quality processing as the full DaVinci Resolve, however it limits projects to SD and HD resolutions, two color correction nodes, a single processing GPU and a single RED rocket card. Stereoscopic 3D features, 2K, noise reduction, power mastering, remote grading and sharing projects with an external database server are features only offered in the full DaVinci Resolve and are not included in this free DaVinci Resolve Lite edition. Download Now!

 

Only issue though the interface is only optimized to work with a resolution of 1920×1080. So if you are playing with it on you MacBook Pro, you might not be able to see the whole thing. So here is a small workaround you can do

1. Close Resolve
2. Open Terminal
3. type : defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.80
4. Start Resolve
5. Tada…