Fl Out Of Focus Plugin for After Effects: How to Simulate Real Lens Behavior with Custom Shapes and Highlights
Fl Out Of Focus Plugin After Effects Download: How to Add Realistic Depth of Field and Blur Effects to Your Videos
Introduction
Have you ever wondered how to make your videos look more cinematic and professional with realistic depth of field and blur effects? If you are using Adobe After Effects, you might have tried some of the built-in blur filters, but found them lacking in quality and flexibility. Or maybe you have used some third-party plugins, but they were too slow or complicated to use.
Fl Out Of Focus Plugin After Effects Download
If you are looking for a fast, easy, and high-quality solution for adding realistic depth of field and blur effects to your videos, you should check out Fl Out Of Focus plugin. This plugin is a powerful tool that lets you create stunning camera blurs with the flexibility of 2D post-processing. It uses a depth buffer for its calculations, so you can add high-quality camera blurs to your 3D footage in 2D post-processing without the extensive render times youd experience in your 3D app.
Fl Out Of Focus plugin is not just another blur filter. It is designed to simulate the real optical behavior of a camera lens, including lens aperture shape, highlights, background distortion, and depth of field effects. It offers a wide range of options to adjust and customize the blur effects to match your desired style and mood. You can also use custom lens shapes and highlights to create unique and artistic effects.
In this article, we will show you how to download, install, and use Fl Out Of Focus plugin for After Effects. We will also share some tips and tricks for using this plugin effectively and creatively. By the end of this article, you will be able to add realistic depth of field and blur effects to your videos with ease and confidence.
How to Download and Install Fl Out Of Focus Plugin for After Effects
Fl Out Of Focus plugin is a product of Frischluft, a company that specializes in creating high-quality plugins for After Effects and other video editing software. You can buy or download Fl Out Of Focus plugin from their official website: https://www.frischluft.com/flair/fl_out_of_focus.php. The plugin costs $199 for a single license, but you can also download a free trial version that works for 30 days.
To install Fl Out Of Focus plugin on your computer, you need to have Adobe After Effects CC 2015 or later installed. You also need to have a compatible graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.0 or higher. Here are the steps to install Fl Out Of Focus plugin:
Download the Fl Out Of Focus plugin installer from the Frischluft website.
Run the installer and follow the instructions on the screen.
Select the folder where you want to install the plugin. By default, it will be installed in the Plugins folder of your After Effects installation.
Click Next and then Finish to complete the installation.
To activate Fl Out Of Focus plugin in After Effects, you need to enter your license key that you received when you bought or downloaded the plugin. Here are the steps to activate Fl Out Of Focus plugin:
Open After Effects and create a new project or open an existing one.
Go to Effects > Frischluft > Fl Out Of Focus to apply the plugin to a layer.
In the Effect Controls panel, click on the License button.
Enter your name and license key in the dialog box that appears.
Click OK to activate the plugin.
You can now use Fl Out Of Focus plugin for your videos. You can also check for updates and access the online manual from the Effect Controls panel.
How to Use Fl Out Of Focus Plugin for After Effects
Fl Out Of Focus plugin is a versatile and flexible tool that lets you create realistic depth of field and blur effects for your videos. You can use it for various purposes, such as enhancing your 3D footage, creating cinematic looks, adding motion blur, simulating camera movements, and more. In this section, we will show you how to use Fl Out Of Focus plugin for some common scenarios.
How to apply Fl Out Of Focus plugin to your footage
To use Fl Out Of Focus plugin, you need to have a layer with a depth buffer in your composition. A depth buffer is an image that stores the distance information of each pixel from the camera. You can generate a depth buffer from your 3D app, such as Cinema 4D or Maya, or use a third-party plugin, such as Element 3D or Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, to create one in After Effects. You can also use a grayscale image as a depth buffer, where darker pixels are closer to the camera and lighter pixels are farther away.
Here are the steps to apply Fl Out Of Focus plugin to your footage:
Create a new composition or open an existing one in After Effects.
Import your footage and your depth buffer into your project panel.
Drag and drop your footage layer and your depth buffer layer into your composition timeline.
Select your footage layer and go to Effects > Frischluft > Fl Out Of Focus to apply the plugin.
In the Effect Controls panel, under Source Layer, select your depth buffer layer from the drop-down menu.
Adjust the settings and parameters of Fl Out Of Focus plugin as desired.
You should see the blur effect applied to your footage according to the depth information of your depth buffer layer. You can preview the effect by scrubbing through the timeline or playing back your composition.
How to adjust the settings and parameters of Fl Out Of Focus plugin
Fl Out Of Focus plugin has many settings and parameters that you can adjust to customize the blur effect. Here are some of the most important ones:
Blur Radius: This controls how much blur is applied to your footage. A higher value means more blur, while a lower value means less blur. You can also animate this parameter with keyframes or expressions to create dynamic blur effects.
Focal Point: This controls where the focus is in your footage. You can use this parameter to create depth of field effects, where some parts of your footage are in focus and some parts are out of focus. You can also animate this parameter with keyframes or expressions to create focus shifts or rack focus effects.
Focal Range: This controls how much of your footage is in focus around the focal point. A higher value means a larger area of focus, while a lower value means a smaller area of focus. You can also animate this parameter with keyframes or expressions to create depth of field transitions or bokeh effects.
Aperture Shape: This controls the shape of the lens aperture, which affects the shape of the blur and the highlights. You can choose from different presets, such as circular, hexagonal, octagonal, or custom. You can also adjust the number of blades, the rotation, and the curvature of the aperture shape.
Highlights: This controls how the bright areas of your footage are affected by the blur. You can adjust the brightness, threshold, saturation, and color of the highlights. You can also use custom highlight shapes, such as stars, hearts, or text.
Background Distortion: This controls how the background of your footage is distorted by the blur. You can adjust the amount, scale, and rotation of the distortion. You can also use custom distortion maps, such as noise, gradients, or images.
Depth Of Field: This controls how the depth of field effect is calculated and rendered. You can adjust the quality, accuracy, and antialiasing of the depth of field effect. You can also enable or disable depth clipping, which limits the blur effect to a certain distance range from the camera.
You can experiment with different settings and parameters to create various blur effects for your footage. You can also save and load your own presets for Fl Out Of Focus plugin from the Effect Controls panel.
How to use custom lens shapes and highlights with Fl Out Of Focus plugin
One of the most unique and creative features of Fl Out Of Focus plugin is that you can use custom lens shapes and highlights to create artistic and stylized blur effects. You can use any image or layer as a custom lens shape or highlight shape, and Fl Out Of Focus plugin will use it to shape the blur and the highlights of your footage.
Here are the steps to use custom lens shapes and highlights with Fl Out Of Focus plugin:
Create a new composition or open an existing one in After Effects.
Import your footage, your depth buffer, and your custom lens shape or highlight shape into your project panel.
Drag and drop your footage layer, your depth buffer layer, and your custom lens shape or highlight layer into your composition timeline.
Select your footage layer and go to Effects > Frischluft > Fl Out Of Focus to apply the plugin.
In the Effect Controls panel, under Source Layer, select your depth buffer layer from the drop-down menu.
Under Aperture Shape or Highlights, select Custom from the drop-down menu.
Under Custom Shape Layer, select your custom lens shape or highlight layer from the drop-down menu.
Adjust the settings and parameters of Fl Out Of Focus plugin as desired.
You should see the blur effect applied to your footage according to your custom lens shape or highlight shape. You can preview the effect by scrubbing through the timeline or playing back your composition.
How to use background distortion and depth of field effects with Fl Out Of Focus plugin
Another powerful and realistic feature of Fl Out Of Focus plugin is that you can use background distortion and depth of field effects to enhance your blur effects. Background distortion simulates how a real camera lens distorts the background when it is out of focus. Depth of field effects simulates how a real camera lens creates a shallow depth of field when it has a large aperture.
Here are the steps to use background distortion and depth of field effects with Fl Out Of Focus plugin:
Create a new composition or open an existing one in After Effects.
Import your footage and your depth buffer into your project panel.
Drag and drop your footage layer and your depth buffer layer into your composition timeline.
Select your footage layer and go to Effects > Frischluft > Fl Out Of Focus to apply the plugin.
In the Effect Controls panel, under Source Layer, select your depth buffer layer from the drop-down menu.
Under Background Distortion, enable Distortion by checking the box next to it.
Adjust the Amount, Scale, and Rotation parameters of Background Distortion as desired.
Under Depth Of Field, enable Depth Of Field by checking the box next to it.
Adjust the Quality, Accuracy, Ant ialiasing parameters of Depth Of Field as desired.
Optionally, enable Depth Clipping by checking the box next to it and adjust the Near and Far parameters to limit the blur effect to a certain distance range from the camera.
You should see the background distortion and depth of field effects applied to your footage along with the blur effect. You can preview the effect by scrubbing through the timeline or playing back your composition.
Tips and Tricks for Using Fl Out Of Focus Plugin for After Effects
Fl Out Of Focus plugin is a powerful and flexible tool that can help you create realistic and artistic blur effects for your videos. However, there are some tips and tricks that can help you optimize your workflow and performance with this plugin, as well as create different styles and moods with this plugin. Here are some of them:
How to optimize your workflow and performance with Fl Out Of Focus plugin
Fl Out Of Focus plugin is a fast and easy plugin to use, but it can still take some time and resources to render, especially if you use high-quality settings and large blur radius values. Here are some ways to optimize your workflow and performance with Fl Out Of Focus plugin:
Use a lower resolution or a proxy for your footage layer when you are working on your composition. This will reduce the render time and the memory usage of Fl Out Of Focus plugin. You can switch back to the full resolution when you are ready to export your final video.
Use a pre-rendered depth buffer layer instead of a live 3D layer for your source layer. This will avoid recalculating the depth buffer every time you make a change to your 3D layer or your camera. You can pre-render your depth buffer layer by applying a depth matte effect to your 3D layer and exporting it as an image sequence or a video file.
Use a lower quality setting for Fl Out Of Focus plugin when you are previewing your effect. This will speed up the rendering process and give you a rough idea of how the effect will look like. You can increase the quality setting when you are ready to export your final video.
Use a smaller blur radius value for Fl Out Of Focus plugin when you are previewing your effect. This will also speed up the rendering process and give you a rough idea of how the effect will look like. You can increase the blur radius value when you are ready to export your final video.
Use the Region of Interest feature in After Effects to render only a part of your composition that contains the blur effect. This will save you time and resources by rendering only what you need to see. You can enable the Region of Interest feature by clicking on the button next to the Preview panel or pressing Ctrl+Alt+B on your keyboard.
How to create different styles and moods with Fl Out Of Focus plugin
Fl Out Of Focus plugin is not only a realistic blur tool, but also an artistic one. You can use it to create different styles and moods for your videos, such as dreamy, dramatic, romantic, or futuristic. Here are some ways to create different styles and moods with Fl Out Of Focus plugin:
Use different aperture shapes and highlight shapes to create different bokeh effects. Bokeh is the term used to describe the aesthetic quality of the blur and the highlights in an image. You can use circular, hexagonal, octagonal, or custom shapes for your aperture shape and highlight shape, and adjust their parameters to create different bokeh effects.
Use different colors and saturation levels for your highlights to create different color effects. You can use warm colors, such as red, orange, or yellow, to create a warm and cozy mood. You can use cool colors, such as blue, green, or purple, to create a cool and calm mood. You can also use desaturated colors or grayscale colors to create a subtle or dramatic mood.
Use different amounts and scales of background distortion to create different perspective effects. You can use a high amount and a low scale of background distortion to create a fisheye effect, which makes the center of your image bulge outwards. You can use a low amount and a high scale of background distortion to create a tilt-shift effect, which makes the edges of your image blur outwards.
Use different focal points and focal ranges to create different focus effects. You can use a low focal point and a low focal range to create a shallow depth of field effect, which makes only a small part of your image in focus and the rest out of focus. You can use a high focal point and a high focal range to create a deep depth of field effect, which makes most of your image in focus and only a little out of focus.
dcd2dc6462