[Sapphire Plugins For After Effects Mac 20
Sharif Garmon
To load a plug-in in Adobe After Effects, go to the Effects menu andopen one of the Sapphire folders. You can double click on an effectto insert it into your current layer's effects, or drag it onto thedesired location in your current layer.
All OpenColorIO information below applies both to Color Management within the Sapphire Preset Browser, Sapphire Effect and Transition Builder, and Sapphire Flare Designer as well as to the new OCIOTransform effect in Sapphire 2020.
At the bottom you see all the presets; you can enlarge or shrink themwith the slider at the bottom. You can also switch to a table viewthere, as well as viewing the preset on your source, over black, orover the sample footage. You can also see the source all by itselffor comparison.
You can create new categories as well, by typing into the Categorydrop-down menu after clicking Add New Tag.... Boris FX recommendssticking to the shipped categories when possible, for compatibility.But adding your own tags within categories (new color names, forexample) is encouraged.
The Preset Browser has a "Use Static Thumbnails" checkbox in certain effects.When checked, the thumbnails use a pre-rendered image to improve performance.If "Use Static Thumbnails" is not checked, the thumbnails will render on thefootage the Sapphire effect has been applied to back in the host.
If playing through the preview window in the Preset Browser, Flare Editor, orEffect Builder, is using too much memory, "Render on Still" is availablein the view menu. This will reduce the memory usage of the preview windowby rendering all frames using the same host frame.
The preset browser may be configured to load presets from and/or save presetsto user specified locations. The load location and save location may bedifferent. If the locations are different, load will show presets from both the loadlocation and the save location. Save will only use the specified save location.
The Flare Designer lets you completely customize a lens flare. Youcan add or remove elements, copy them, customize how each elementlooks, and even how it reacts to the center or edge of the image. Youcan also interactively move the flare around to see how it will lookas it moves.
All the panels of the Flare Designer are movable, so you can adjustthe user interface itself to suit your work flow. The main panels arethe view window, where you see the flare you're working on, theElements panel which lists all the elements of the flare, and theProperties panel, which lets you adjust the properties of thecurrently selected element (or elements). There's also a toolbar ofelement templates at the top.
You can also duplicate an element using standard copy/pasteoperations, or select it and click the two pages icon at the bottom ofthe Elements panel. You can then adjust the copy's parameters in theParameters panel.
The gear-looking element is the "advanced element" type; it has lotsof controls and is very customizable, but it's recommended foradvanced users only. The other types get you most of the same lookswith simpler parameters.
Along with all the standard element types, you can import your ownimages to use as elements. Click the picture frame to import an imagefile. The image data will become part of the flare, so it doesn'tneed to keep a reference to the original file.
To combine two flares into one, or add many elements at once, you canimport another flare into your current flare; this will add all theother flare's elements to your current flare. You can also just openthat flare, which replaces your current flare with that one. Toimport and add to your flare, use Insert Flare (down-right pointingarrow in the toolbar), or File... Insert Flare. To import andreplace, use Open Flare (folder icon in the toolbar), or useFile... Open Flare.
There are a few common control types. Sliders with numbers to theleft control numeric params; you can drag the slider thumb, but youcan also drag in the number text field to increase or decrease thevalue. You can also click in the number field and type any value youwant.
Some elements have a Gradient; there's a special gradient control toadjust those. The stops are below the color swatch; you can drag themleft and right to move them. Drag down to delete. Click in the colorgradient to add a stop there. Control-drag to "stretch" neighboringcolors, and shift-drag to push neighboring colors. The trianglesabove the color gradient allow you to control the interpolation of thecolors between stops. Ring Thickness lets you easily turn a spot orfan of rays into a ring; turning Ring Thickness down from 1 hollowsout the center. This lets you still have fine control of the colorswithin the ring, even if it's very thin.
Note that saving a lens this way does not save your plug-insettings; it only saves the lens flare definition itself (the thingsyou can change in the flare designer). You can save a preset in thehost application to save everything -- the flare and all the regularplug-in parameters.
The Node Graph is where you build the new effect. Processing flowsfrom the Source node to the Result node; you add whatever effects youwant in between to build a processing pipeline. Using multi-inputeffects like S_Layer or S_MathOps, you can also combine the outputs oftwo effects (or stacks of effects) into a single result.
To connect a node to the graph, drag it onto any line. If it waspreviously connected somewhere else, this will move it. You can alsodrag a node onto another node, which will connect it after the othernode. Shift-drag a node to disconnect it.
The Parameters panel is where all the parameters for the currentlyselected node can be edited and published back to After Effects orPremiere. It only shows parameters for one node at a time; to editparams for a different node, just select it in the node graph. Youcan rename the current node here; just type a new name into the NodeName box. You can also load a preset for the current effect from theParameters panel, choosing from the Boris FX-provided set of thousandsof presets or ones you've created yourself.
The checkboxes on the right side are used to publish params to AfterEffects or Premiere; published params show up as params in the finaleffect where users can make further changes or add animation.Non-published params don't appear in AE or Premiere at all; this canbe useful to simplify the params of the effect you're creating, orprevent users from accidentally changing important parameters. Theywill still take on their correct values, but users who just apply yourS_Effect preset won't be able to see or change them.
You can adjust params using the slider, by dragging directly on thenumbers, or by clicking in the number text and typing a new value.Shift-dragging on the numbers goes faster, and Ctrl-dragging on thenumbers goes slower.
The master checkbox at the top publishes orun-publishes all the params for the current node at once;this can be useful if you've got too many params defined and builderwarns you you have to un-publish some. In that case you have toun-publish all the params of one or more effects.
Each parameter has an animation button that allows you to defineanimations. In Transition mode, most nodes will have a predefinedparameter already animated in a way that makes sense for a transition,but you can change these. There are various animations you can choosefrom:
You can add nodes to the graph by double-clicking them in the Componentspanel or dragging them from that panel into the graph. If youdouble-click, the new node will go after the currently selected node,or just before the result if no node is selected.
To connect two nodes, drag the connecting output arrow from the sourceto the destination, or drag from the destination's input circle up to thesource's output. To connect multiple nodes to the same source node,you have to use the latter method, dragging from the destination tothe source.
Starting with Sapphire 10 Builder has a Mask node which represents the clip(or path) connected to the Mask input in the host. Connecting the Mask nodein Builder to an input of an effect will pass the clip from the host to theeffect. The Mask (and Background) nodes are only visible in Effect Builder,not in Transition Builder.
You can use Builder to create transitions as well as effects; juststart with S_Transition. In this case, the node graph will start witha default dissolve transition between the outgoing and incomingclips. You can play through the transition to see how it looks.
You can also change the speed of the the underlying dissolve byselecting the Transition node and adjusting Dissolve Speed; if youincrease that speed, the dissolve will happen more quickly in themiddle of the overall transition.
When you press OK to close the Builder interface, you will be taken backto AE or Premiere with the current effect as you've defined it. Thateffect will be stored with your project; to take it to a differentmachine you don't have to save any external files. (Pressing Cancelleaves the effect as it was before you started the builder UI.)
You can also save effect definitions as "presets", to share with otherusers or to define a look for a show or project. These presets aresimple text files, so you can send them via email or put them on ashared drive. They are cross-platform, meaning they work on all videosystems which support Sapphire and Builder, for instance Avid MediaComposer. These presets can be loaded back into Builder for furtherediting, and they also appear in the preset browser when loadingpresets for S_Effect or S_Transition.
Mocha is a planar tracking and masking utility that can save time onthe most difficult motion tracking and masking shots. It tracks theentire area of the mask, not just individual points, to significantlyreduce the tedium of manual keyframing.
Mocha looks for 3-d planes in the image: pixels that move together.Screens and signs are clear candidates, but Mocha can also trackfaces. It can handle objects obscured by foreground elements, and cantrack unlimited layers all at once.
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