We’ve developed a custom user interface component for Digieffects plugin products.  At Digieffects we support an extensive range of host applications and each one has its own, proprietary method of storing saved preset information.  For our customers who use our plugin products on more than one of the host applications we support, transferring their custom settings between host applications has been a time-consuming, manual operation…until now.

Using the capability of the Digieffects Banner UI, you can store your preset information in XML files that can be accessed by all of your compatible host applications and shared with other users as well.

First, the “Digieffects” logo area, when clicked, acts as the “About” button.

The Blue Button

...is an especially fun feature we like to call the ‘Randomizer’...which oddly, randomizes all sliders and buttons, for showing some interesting possibilities. A great tool for brainstorming. Keep clicking…you’ll find an extensive selection of starting points for your work.

Buttons 1 – 4, and the Red Button:

Often, users find that they tend to re-use 2-3 effect settings again and again as a starting point, but they don’t require a full library system of presets, which are usually specific to each host application.  Not to mention the actual preset files are in some binary, proprietary format such that it’s impossible to view or edit the settings unless things are running.

In our scheme, we show 4 buttons labeled ‘1’ to ‘4’, and each acts just like a reset switch, except that it lets you reset to a different starting point. So, think of this as having 4 reset buttons or having 4 preset starting points.  The scheme is designed to work across all the compatible host applications on your machine (that have Digieffects Damage installed of course).  The setting you use in After Effects is the same as in Final Cut Pro…or Combustion.

The Red Button is our “record” button. It takes a “snapshot” of the current parameter settings for later recall.  We store all our preset data as XML files, which can be viewed or edited as normal text files.  There is no limit on the number of XML files you can store, but there is a naming convention you will want to follow to access them from the Digieffects Banner UI.

To edit existing preset information, or create your own:

The preset files are stored under

“/Applications/Digieffects/presets”  in OSX, or

in Windows, in the C: Drive:

“Program Files\Digieffects\presets”

You will see filenames that are formatted like this:

preset_DE_Artifact_p0001.xml

The number just before the ‘.xml’ represents which button it corresponds to.  If you open this file, you will see something like this:

<!—DEFX Param XML Configurator 1.0—>
  <module> DE_Artifact </module>
  <Source_Blend> 1.000000 </Source_Blend>
  <Random_Seed> 0.000000 </Random_Seed>
 
  That is, some numerical value is sandwiched between a tag pair. Go ahead and modify these to your taste, even while the program is running. The next time you click on that numbered button, the effect updates with those values as contained in the xml file.

Now, when you click on the “record” button while working in the Artifact plugin, there will be a new file called

preset_DE_Artifact_p_mypreset.xml

You can rename this to

preset_DE_Artifact_p0003.xml

so that it can be accessed by Button 3 in the Digieffects Banner UI inside the Artifact plugin in your host application.

 

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DE_Halo

Halo generates an effect simulating lens diffraction artifacts generated when shooting light-emitting sources at night or against dark backgrounds.  This effect is most effective with dark shots that include small bright areas (such as light sources and reflections). 

halo screenshot Digieffects
  In the twirl-down menu labeled “Digieffects” is the Digieffects banner UI.

Source Blend
  Controls how much of the original, unaltered image is blended in the final image.  A value of zero shows no original image, a high value of near 100…90 for example…will leave very little effect visible and a value of 100 will show only the original image and no effect, but the effect will render in a very short time…you can close your eyes and imagine your computer is more powerful…

Halo Shape
  In the real world (a place we avoid whenever possible), different lenses make light source ‘blooms’ different shapes as each lens has a specific iris shape and other factors that affect the visual effect created by visible light sources or extremely bright reflections in dark settings.    There are 5 different shapes available in the menu…choose wisely.

Halo Size
  This is a relatively straightforward parameter.  It controls the relative size of the Halo effect at each origination point in the image.  Less is more with this value.  It is quite possible with any particular combination of settings, to create illogical ghosting pattern effects ‘double image’ effects or even start to form visible grids at higher values.  If that’s exactly what you’ve been looking for…then we’ll call that a “feature”.

Halo Density
  Regardless of the underlying image information, the proximity of Halo points of origin can be controlled with the Density value.  Low values here may result in a more ‘patterned’ diffraction patterns. Higher values will cause Halo points of origin to get closer and closer together in areas where large regions of affected area exist.  This can become excess for most purposes at very high values.  Proceed with caution.

Color Controls

 

Qualifier
  These parameters define the source image grayscale range that will drive the effect.

 

Post Blur
  Increasing this value from zero will blur the entire image after the effect has been applied to ‘smooth’ the results.  As with most blurs…less is more.

 

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DE_Lightracer

Lightracer is an effect that simulates phosphorescence.  With the ranging tools and bloom shaping that can simulate viewing a light source through a lens, Lightracer is a useful part of the Simulate:Illuma toolbox.

lightracer

Digieffects
  In the twirl-down menu labeled “Digieffects” is the Digieffects preset bar.

Source Blend
  Controls how much of the original, unaltered image is blended in the final image.  A value of zero shows no original image, a high value of near 100…90 for example…will leave very little effect visible and a value of 100 will show only the original image and no effect, but the effect will render in a very short time…you can close your eyes and imagine your computer is more powerful…

Random Seed
  The Random Seed controls the way the “randomness” of the effect is implemented over time.  While the property range runs from 0-32000,  the value doesn’t represent the ‘amount’ of randomness so much as simply different randomness.  Note that this value can be used in multiple cases with the same value and the results will be predictable and similar in cases where consistent  use of the effect is required in several instances.

Previs
  Checking Previs will apply colored pixels over the areas of your image that will be affected by Lightracer under you current settings.  This can be helpful for very roughly visualizing how much of the image will be affected much faster than preview rendering, as certain types of operations (see below) may be render-intensive.  This feature is particularly visually meaningful in many cases when used with ‘Bypass Pre-mix’ checked. Note:  H/V Spacing has an effect of averaging out color values for the Qualifier (see below), so depending on those settings the Previs result may look ‘blocky’.

Bypass Pre-mix
  When this checkbox is checked, the source image is removed from the effect output,  leaving only the effect.  This can be useful for a night time reflection on water for example, where things like city lights may be quite visible, but the inherent detail in the architecture can’t be seen…
  Source Blend remains controllable.

Qualifier
  These parameters define the source image grayscale range that will drive the effect.  Use Previs to see roughly what areas are qualified for processing—-  zero-alpha black (0,0,0,0) pixels means those areas are not processed, speeding up processing time.

 

Trace Brush Control

 

Spacing (H), (V)
  Lightracer has the ability to create a minimum spacing between highlights so they don’t become an undefined ‘mass’.  The spacing can be adjusted independently for vertical (V) and horizontal (H) gaps.

Size Min/Max
  Set the size range between Min(imum) size and Max(imum) size for the ‘blooms’ that the effect will create on the source image.   The wider the range set here, the more of a “twinkling” effect that can be achieved when the Random Seed does its thing…particularly useful for the sparkling light in the big open shot of your next sensational game show “Who Wants to Own an Oil Company?”

Angle Min/Max
  Many of the ‘Bloom Shapes’ create effects that can be rotated…again, think of the camera star filter when rotated for video or film…   Setting the range of rotation between Min(imum) and (Max)imum to define how much these effects will rotate when manipulated by the ‘Random Seed’.

Alpha Min/Max
  As with many effects of this type, the ‘bloom’ of Lightracer’ is applied to your source image using an alpha channel compositing operation.   The Min(imum) value determines how opaque the dimmest portions of the effect will be, while the Max(imum)  value determines how opaque the brightest portions will be in the final output.

Use Single Color
  Check this box if you prefer all the ‘blooms’ to be the same color instead of being driven from the source image colors.

Singular Color
  Use the eyedropper or the color picker to choose the color of the ‘blooms’ when you have ‘Use Single Color’ checked.

 

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DE_Luminus

Luminus is an effect that simulates the visual impression of a glow.  Luminus manages to be an easy-to-use effect with a concise tool set, yet it creates very fluid glow effects that will prove to be a worthy workhorse for a post production or effects artist.

Luminus Screenshot

Digieffects
  In the twirl-down menu labeled “Digieffects” is the Digieffects preset bar.

Source Blend
  Controls how much of the original, unaltered image is blended in the final image.  A value of zero shows no original image, a high value of near 100…90 for example…will leave very little effect visible and a value of 100 will show only the original image and no effect, but the effect will render very quickly…

Glow Radius
  A glow manifests itself as light appearing to radiate out from a source point…when we see something ‘glowing’, we judge its brightness by how far the emitted light seems to travel from its source before falling off completely.   By adjusting the ‘Glow Radius’ value, you control the apparent distance from the source areas that the light seems to travel as it ‘diffuses’ and falls off…  A higher value increases the ‘distance’ the effect will ‘spread’ from the source areas.  As the amount of ‘spread’ increases, the visual density will become more diffuse.

Glow Intensity
  The intensity value controls the amount of effect in the target areas.   While the immediate visible result seems to be a ‘brightness’ control for the glow (assuming you are applying it in a traditional way), the way that appearance is created is by swelling the central ‘glow’, which will actually gradually fill the area set in the ‘Glow Radius’ with a more opaque effect as you increase the ‘Glow Intensity’ value.

Qualifier
  The ‘Qualifier’ parameters control the criteria for what part of the image you will affect with Luminus.

 

Glow Mode
  The Glow Mode options use blend modes similar to Photoshop to composite the Luminus effect with your source image.

Screen-
  Looks at each channel’s color information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. If you aren’t a color scientist, rather than have you sit there with that vacant stare, we could summarize by saying that the darker portions of your source image will be affected by the ‘glow’ effect in Luminus, while the brightest areas will not be affected.  Screen is often used over some other image blend methods due to the fact that the effect is not as likely to create large areas of flat, unnaturally blown out white.

Add-
  Adds the values generated in Luminus with the source image values underneath on a per-channel basis.  This will always result in brighter values and in some cases might end up obscuring appealing highlight detail in your end result if your source image is already relatively bright.  Add mode will create a (conventionally)  visually desirable result with overall dark images with small areas of brightness that can be accented, such as a lit cityscape at night for example.

Subtract-
  The opposite of ‘Add’, the color values are subtracted from each other.   Subtract will work best with a brighter source image unless your intention is to drive a significant portion of affected areas to absolute black for further compositing operations.

Difference-
  For each color channel, subtracts the darker of the input values from the lighter. Where the effect creates white, the source image color will become inverted; where the effect creates black, the source image will be unaffected.

Multiply-Takes the values generated by the effect and  multiplies that value with the underlying source image color channel value and divides by maximum value calculated on the color depth of the project.   Simple right?  Yeah…not so much.  In a nutshell, (the universal measurement of effective summarization), the resulting color is never brighter than the original.  If the effect or source image color is black, the resulting color is black.  If the effect is white, the source image is unaffected. 

Lighter-
  Each result color channel value is the higher (lighter) of the source color channel value and the corresponding underlying color channel value.

Darker -
  Each result color channel value is the lower (darker)  of the source color channel value and the corresponding underlying color channel value.

Overlay-
  Works as both ‘Multiply’ and ‘Screen’ simultaneously.  For values above mid-gray (128 in an 8 bit environment for example), ‘Overlay’ will operate as a screen, making light areas ‘pop’ or glow a bit and for areas below mid-gray, a multiply operation increases apparent contrast and color saturation.

Hard Light-
  Multiplies or screens the input color channel value, depending on the original source color. The result is similar to shining a harsh spotlight on the layer. For each color channel value, if the underlying color is lighter than 50% gray, the layer lightens as if it were screened. If the underlying color is darker than 50% gray, the layer darkens as if it were multiplied. This mode is useful for creating the appearance of shadows on a layer.

Soft Light-
  Darkens or lightens the color channel values of the underlying layer, depending on the source color. The result is similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the underlying layer. For each color channel value, if the source color is lighter than 50% gray, the result color is lighter than the underlying color, as if dodged. If the source color is darker than 50% gray, the result color is darker than the underlying color, as if burned. A layer with pure black or white becomes markedly darker or lighter,  but does not become pure black or white.

Use Source Colors -
  When this box is checked, the Luminus effect is generated using the colors in your source image.  Leaving this box unchecked will generate the effect using the colors specified under ‘Color Bias’.

Color Bias -
  Only applicable when “Use Source Colors” is NOT checked. The Color Bias value determines how much influence the ‘Dark Color’ and ‘Bright Color’ parameters have on the Luminus effect.  The higher the value, the more the effect uses Color Bias values will only affect your image when the ‘Use Source Colors’  parameter is unchecked.

Dark Color -
  This “swatch” indicates what color will influence the darker areas of your image when ‘Use Source Colors’ is unchecked and the ‘Color Bias’ value is set sufficiently high to affect your footage.  Click on the color swatch to bring up a color picker, or by clicking on the eyedropper tool, you can pick a color directly from the footage itself by simply clicking on it.

Bright Color -
  This “swatch” indicates what color will influence the brighter areas of your image when ‘Use Source Colors’  is unchecked and the ‘Color Bias’ value is set sufficiently high to affect your footage.  Click on the color swatch to bring up a color picker, or by clicking on the eyedropper tool, you can pick a color directly from the footage itself by simply clicking on it.

 

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DE_Photogust

Photogust creates point-origin radial and traditional blurs that, when used with the brightness controls for each channel (red, green and blue), can create effects that go far beyond most ‘light ray’ effects.

photogust screenshot Digieffects
  In the twirl-down menu labeled “Digieffects” is the Digieffects banner UI.

Source Blend
  Controls how much of the original, unaltered image is blended in the final image.  A value of zero shows no original image, a high value of near 100…90 for example…will leave very little effect visible and a value of 100 will show only the original image and no effect, but the effect will render in a very short time…you can close your eyes and imagine your computer is more powerful…

Zoom Amount
  The Zoom Amount slider adjusts the amount of ‘stretch’ that is included in the effect.  A negative value ‘shrinks’ you image content, leaving the Photogust trails stretching (or ‘zooming’) back to the original image edges…sort of a boxy ‘pucker’ toward the chosen center point if you will…  A positive value will, not surprisingly, create an inverse effect.  The image will seem to be pushing toward the viewer with the Photogust ‘stretch’ emanating from the chosen center point.

Center
  This is the previously mentioned ‘center point’.  The center point is the point of origin for Photogust’s calculations.  Click on the crosshair to manually place the center point on your source clip, or simply adjust the X and Y position values.

Color Controls
  Twirl down this menu to access the individual color channel ‘Brightness’ controls

 

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DE_Radiance

Radiance is a glow effect that has the ability to operate with independent control of tonal range and intensity for each color channel.  Radiance also employs series of blurring tools to change the pattern character of the effect.  When you add multiple compositing modes to the tool set, the versatility  of Radiance really…um…‘shines’.

radiance screenshot

Digieffects
  In the twirl-down menu labeled “Digieffects” is the Digieffects preset bar.

Source Blend
  Controls how much of the original, unaltered image is blended in the final image.  A value of zero shows no original image, a high value of near 100…90 for example…will leave very little effect visible and a value of 100 will show only the original image and no effect, but the effect will render very fast…life is forever a series of tradeoffs.

 

Blur Size
  A fairly straightforward parameter…higher numbers increases the blur amount.

 

Blur Mode

 

Center
  The Radial Zoom and Radial Spin blur patterns are based on a center point.  You can move the center point by changing the coordinate values, or by clicking on the target and then clicking on the video overlay window.

 

Color Controls

 

Modulate Color
  This control acts almost like a tint control to force the image to be more biased towards the color that you select using this palette. Most of this coloring occurs in the mid- to hi-lite areas of the image. Pure white here means there will be no ‘tinting’.

Composite Mode
  The Composite Mode options use blend modes similar to Photoshop to composite the Radiance effect with your source image.

None
  This composite mode will show the result of the effect working on your source image without showing the source image underneath.  This mode can be used very effectively when you desire the glow from one piece of footage composited over a different background clip.   (you could work on your ghost compositing skills for instance…you can’t have too many shows about haunted stuff…)

Add-
  Adds the values generated by Radiance with the source image values underneath on a per-channel basis.  This will always result in brighter values and in some cases might end up obscuring appealing highlight detail in your end result if your source image is already relatively bright.  Add mode will create a (conventionally) visually desirable result with overall dark images with small areas of brightness that can be accented, such as a lit cityscape at night for example.

Multiply-
  Takes the values generated by the effect and  multiplies that value with the underlying source image color channel value and divides by maximum value calculated on the color depth of the project.  Simple right?   We forgot to mention that there is a system requirement for the software, but you’ll need a supercomputer to translate the docs.  In a nutshell, (the universal measurement of effective summarization), the resulting color is never brighter than the original.  If the effect or source image color is black,  the resulting color is black.  If the effect is white, the source image is unaffected. 

Screen-
  Looks at each channel’s color information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. If this statement seems unsatisfying,  don’t worry.  For those of you not living in your parent’s basement studying color theory, we could summarize by saying that the darker portions of your source image will be affected by the lighter effect in Radiance, while the brightest areas will not be affected.  Screen is often used over some other image blend methods due to the fact that the effect is not as likely to create large areas of flat, unnaturally blown out white.

Overlay-
  Works as both ‘Multiply’ and ‘Screen’  simultaneously.  For values above mid-gray (128 in an 8 bit environment for example), ‘Overlay’ will operate as a screen, making light areas ‘pop’ or glow a bit and for areas below mid-gray, a multiply operation increases apparent contrast and color saturation.  The base color of the source image is not replaced, but mixed with the blend color to reflect the lightness or darkness of the original color.

Hard Light-
  Multiplies or screens the effect color channel value,  much like ‘Overlay’ depending on the original source color.  For each color channel value, color lighter than 50% gray, the layer lightens as if it were screened. If the underlying color is darker than 50% gray, the layer darkens as if it were multiplied. This mode is useful for creating the appearance of shadows on a layer.  Hard light can create areas in the composite of 100% white or black.

Soft Light-
  Multiplies or screens the effect color channel value like ‘Hard Light’ depending on the original source color.  The main difference is that ‘Soft Light’,  while it can create the most evident changes in the source clips when ‘Radiance’ produces white or black…it cannot result in a composite that shows black or white in conventional use.

Lighten-
  Each result color channel value is the higher (lighter) of the source color channel value and the corresponding underlying color channel value.

Darken-
  Each result color channel value is the lower (darker) of the source color channel value and the corresponding underlying color channel value.

Difference-
  For each color channel,  subtracts the darker of the input values from the lighter. Where the effect creates white, the source image color will become inverted; where the effect creates black, the source image will be unaffected.

Color Dodge-
  For each color channel,  any bright values generated by the effect will brighten (and effectively desaturate to some degree) the colors in the source image.

Color Burn-
  Will result in using any darker shades created by the effect to darken the source image (and effectively increase the saturation as well).

Exclusion-
  Similar to Difference, but lower in contrast.  Generating white values in Radiance will invert the source image color values. Black generated by the effect produces no change in the source clip.

 

***And we forgot to mention, there is one more mode as a bonus called Linear Blend,  but you won’t see it here in the pop-down menu.  Why?  Because, after the image gets past this point, Linear Blend is what “Source Blend”  control does back up top…even though it’s applied last…it’s uh…technical.  

 

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Troubleshooting / FAQ

 

Digieffects Banner UI Troubleshooting/FAQ:

Q: Why doesn’t the numbered button hi-light?

A: The effect couldn’t find a valid preset file for that number.

Q: Why don’t the parameters change when I press the numbered buttons and they do hi-lite?

A:  The preset files contain identical values.

Q: Can I use the preset file I created while in Final Cut Pro on one machine and use it in After Effects on the same machine, or email the file to my colleague so that he can use it on Combustion and have him modify the preset and email it back to me so that I can use it on my Boris?

A:  You…have a lot of free time don’t you?...but yes, you can do any and all of those things.

Q:  Help! I think I messed up my xml files!

A:  No worries. We won’t crash. But you can re-install the preset files by themselves, or contact support and we will email you the default preset files.

 

Luminus Troubleshooting/FAQ:

Q: Color Bias has no effect.

A: Uncheck the Use Source Colors button.

Q: I’m getting a ton of banding. What’s wrong?

A: In certain glow modes, a combination of low Threshold value,  high Glow radius and  intensity values will cause us to lose some precision in our calculations. We are currently working on a fix.

 

Radiance Troubleshooting/FAQ:

Q: I can only see a pure color, like green, and nothing else, what’s wrong?!

A: This happens when you have one or more of the following:   1) a very low Threshold value for that channel, 2) a very high GlowIntensity value for that channel, 3) a pure color picked in the Modulate Color section

Q: The ‘rays’ I see while in Radial modes look very aliased.

A: Check the Quality setting in your host application. Ex. “Draft” / “Best” in After Effects, or “Preview” / “Best” in Combustion.

Q: The final image doesn’t look too processed no matter how high the blur size is.

A: This can happen in certain Composite modes and also depends on the Source Blend value. Remember,  what you see past this stage is the purely processed image (..which is seen using the “None” choice) composited on top of the non-processed image using one of the Composite modes chosen…  and, on top of that, the whole thing goes through a final Linear Blend compositing via Source Blend.  So this works like a 3-layer compositing in Photoshop.

 

Known Bugs:


  * Sometimes when changing parameters or scrubbing along the timeline, the effect might not update the image correctly. In RadialZoom mode, for example, you might see only a small circle around the crosshair as you move it around the screen. This only affects interactive sessions and not during batch rendering. We are currently working on the fix.
  * Sometimes during previews and changing parameters interactively, random rectangular areas of the image turns black. This is a multi-threading bug and will affect 4-8+  core systems. We are currently working on a fix.

 

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