I’ve added proper color-space conversion to Atlas, so you shouldn’t be getting any more over-saturated results.
The one remaining bug I’ve come across is the broken Reinhard ’05 mapping — please let me know if you find anything else broken or behaving unexpected!
Well, that was quick! Thanks to user feedback I was able to fix two nasty little bugs in the original release of Atlas right away.
As previously announced, here’s the first release of my new tone mapping plug-in for After Effects, Atlas.
The release is buggy and probably not fit for production, but it’s open-source so I hope to get some help to bring it up to speed! Atlas is released under the free GPL license.
This release is Windows only for now… however, the full source code is included, which means that anyone with more time on their hands than me can feel free to compile a Mac version. I didn’t try it myself, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t run on Mac OS X.
To compile the code you will need to download and link with the After Effects SDK. For legal reasons I unfortunately cannot distribute these files with Atlas. The required pfstmo libraries are included with the download, however.
The code is not yet well documented, but the plug-in itself is just about as simple as it gets, so you should find your way around easily if you’re familiar with the SDK.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of tone mapping, Wikipedia has a good introduction that should give you an idea of the use and functionality of this versatile technique.
Please note that for obvious reasons the effect is most useful in 32-bit color mode with 32-bit source images. It will work in lower modes but the resulting effect might not be what you expect.
Please go ahead and download Atlas and then let me know in the comments if you come across any bugs or have other suggestions!
The Celulight preview has sparked quite some interest in the After Effects community. People have written me with interesting projects and uses for the technology, so it seems there is a need for a plug-in like this.
I’m currently preparing a little beta test to find problems and fix some remaining issues. For this I need — you guessed it — Beta Testers!
Anyone interested please contact me and mention your version of AE and your PC specs.
Here’s a little something I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. If you’re producing traditional 2D animation or anime, this will interest you!
These are early beta screenshots, so things are bound to change.
My latest development is loosely based on the technology I came up with for my earlier After Effects’ plug-ins Normality and Reality. However, while the aforementioned plug-ins require a rendered normal pass from a 3D application to do their magic, this one simply takes a 2D outline drawing or cartoon cel as input.
Celulight’s purpose is to transform the inherently 2D nature of cel animation or comics into a world of pseudo 3D graphics. That’s where the algorithm from Normality comes into play, as Celulight allows you to light your 2D cel drawing as if it were a real 3D render! Since it’s based on Normality’s engine, you can use After Effects’ internal light sources to adjust your lighting. And to top it all off, it not only does diffuse shading like a regular 3D program, but can also do proper cel shading as shown below.
But the effect is much easier illustrated than explained in words:
Above is our source image. This is just a quick sketch of Tatsu from my Sleeping Dragon project — done in Photoshop, so it’s 100% 2D.
What’s important is that there are solid outlines around objects; that’s what Celulight uses internally to create a normal map.
Celulight automatically generates a normal map that can be used by Celulight directly or for advanced shading with Normality.
Run it through Celulight and don’t forget to add a light to your scene… voilà , instant shading.
In this case I’m showing just the diffuse component for illustration purposes.
Now for my favorite feature: Cel shading!
Gone are the days of flat 2D animation, Celulight adds the shadows and highlights for you automatically. Controls are offered to set the individual colors as well as the position of the shadow.
Advanced filtering smooths out the result as to alleviate the “creeping” effect which can occur during cel shaded animation.
Of course, playing with the various blend modes gives you a plethora of interesting effects to choose from.
So what’s left to do? Well for one, right now Celulight only “bevels” outward. I’ll add a feature based on the outline color that lets you vary the bevel from “off” to “inward” and “outward”. Then the filtering could be improved. Other than that, the plug-in is pretty much complete. Seeing as it works in real-time in SD resolution, there isn’t much optimization left to do.
When (and how) will Celulight be released you ask? That’s something I haven’t given much thought to so far. It really all depends on how much public interest there is in the technology. 2D animation isn’t as big as it used to be, so I’m not too sure what the size of the market for a plug-in like this is.
I’m also considering freeing Celulight from the shackles of After Effects by building a stand-alone version — but that’s only if there’s a demand for it, as I’m perfectly happy having it in AE.
Please, if you’re interested, let me know!
