Edge Adjustment in a script - example file included

What type of scripts do you need?

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Simma
Posts: 98
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 2:57 pm

Hi all,

I find that on every green screen project I do, I constantly have to go through the process of setting up at least an light wrap effect and and edge blend effect. Unfortunately, After Effects does not (unlike every other compositing software) have build in effects for these kind of edge adjustments. Easy to set up sure, but it actually takes quite a bit of time on every project. Also, it clutters the timeline with a lot of layers.

I set up a project where I tried to put all these effects onto a single layer and the controls needed for adjusting them. The techniques are based on those by Stu Machowitz, Mark Christiansen and a light wrap script by Jeff Almasol. It contains edge blend, light wrap and edge color correction.

My idea for the script is the following:

- Mark your fg layer and mark the layer(s) underneath it that is the background. Run the script.
- In your main composition, you get two more layers, one edge adjustment layer and a null that contains all the controls. (Hopefully there is a way to get rid of the null and have the controls directly on the edge adjustment layer.)
- In the edge adjustment composition, you get a couple of precomps that creates the effects. In these precomps it would be nice if all the transform data (anchor point, position, scale, opacity) were connected to the source fg and the source bg. This way, if you scale or move your fg or bg in the main comp, the edge adjustment would still line up.
- Also it would be nice if the source fg and source bg had effects on them, that these were connected to the source as well. That way you could do additional color correction of your fg/bg and your edge adjustment would follow the same way.
- Since the edge adjustment comp now contains three precomps, each with a couple of copies of fg/bg, it takes a bit longer to render a frame in the main composition. That okay, but say that you don't need to do a edge color correction, then it would be nice if you din't have to render the edge color correction precomp. Would it be possible to have a couple of checkbox among the controls that could enable/disable the precomps? That would be cool.

Anyway, these are just some ideas. It would be fantastic if someone wanted to look at the file and come with other ideas. Also, I don't know a thing about scripting so I don't know how hard it would be to pull this off or how much time it would take. Project is CS5.

There would be several advantages to a script like this compared to plug-ins available. First, it would be free or at least a lot cheaper than the plugins. Second, you'd have all the controls you want, fully adjustable. Three, it would work in 32bpc, unlike any other that I know of.

What do you guys think, good or bad?
Attachments
edge adjustment.zip
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Simma
Posts: 98
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 2:57 pm

Any comments? I could make a CS4 file as well if needed... Or maybe the idea just isn't any good?
lodestar08
Posts: 3
Joined: July 25th, 2010, 12:49 am

sure, I only have CS4 at the moment but would love to check this script out.

thanks,

dM
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