Toolfarm.com New Product Alert:
Boris Continuum Complete AE v6 is Here!

Boris FX, the leading developer of integrated effects technology for video and film, has released Boris Continuum Complete 6 AE (BCC 6 AE). BCC 6 AE brings nearly 200 filters to Macintosh and Windows versions of Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro! Download a Free Demo.

All purchases of BCC 5 AE made in 2009 will receive a free upgrade. BCC 5 AE purchases made through Toolfarm during this time may contact sales@toolfarm.com for a free upgrade as an electronic download.

New Feature Highlights:

13 New Filters ranging from realistic 3D vector graphics extrusions to organic 3D deformers to painting and image restoration. The new 3D Objects category includes Extruded Text, Extruded Spline, Type-On Text, and Layer Deformer. New image restoration filters include DV Fixer, Smooth Tone, and Pixel Fixer. New image painting filters consist of Charcoal Sketch, Pencil Sketch, Water Color, and Cartoon Look. New OpenGL filters include Lightning and Tile Mosaic.

New Filters:

BCC Extruded Text

OpenGL-accelerated 3D text generator with built-in 3D shatters and a warp deformer. This filter uses AE masks for defining custom bevels, extrusions, and text on a path. The resulting 3D object adheres to AE’s native camera and light controls. Multiple 3D materials can be created from AE layers or external image files featuring texture and bump maps as well as reflections. Each material can be individually saved as a preset and applied to the front, back, bevel, or extrusion surface of the text object. The text object can be further deformed and animated with a number of innovative deformers such as Bend, Taper, Twist, Shatter, Ripple, Pulse, or Curl.

The BCC Type-On Text filter enables the user to generate text that automatically types-on the screen. This filter is OpenGL hardware accelerated.

Creating extruded 3D type-on text effects within Adobe After Effects is now an easy and simply process. The BCC Type-On Text filter includes a full featured title generator that offers control over the leading, tracking, character and paragraph styles of the 3D text element. Create animated text type-ons that fly in from behind or toward the camera or slide into view from the top, left, bottom or right of the screen either letter by letter, word by word or line by line. Use any image or video clip from the timeline to add textures or reflection maps that animate in real-time over the extruded text element. This filter also includes the ability to use the AE native 3D camera and lighting system or users can use the built-in camera and light controls.

The BCC Extruded Spline filter generates a 3D extruded shape from a 2D After Effects spline mask shape. This filter is OpenGL hardware accelerated.

This filter utilizes state of the art OpenGL technology to enable users to generate and extruded shape from any AE generated mask shape. Users can extrude shapes using the built-in AE pen path tool or imported vector art from Adobe Illustrator. This powerful filter can even use the built-in AE native camera and lighting system, or users can use the camera and light tools that are included in the comprehensive filter user interface. Any image or video track from the AE timeline can use used as reflection or texture maps for the extruded surface and the generated 3D shapes can can be subject to the built-in 3D warp and deform functions.

The BCC Layer Deformer distorts 2D image layers in 3D space with built-in controls for 3d effects such as ripple, wave, sphere. This filter is OpenGL hardware accelerated.

Use the BCC Layer Deformer to generate useful 3D shapes such as planes, cubes, spheres, cylinders and deform these 3D objects using the built-in vertex and pixel shaders. Create a bulging cube that shatters off into a million pieces or a rippling plane shape and use any image or video clip from the timeline to add textures or reflection maps. This filter also includes the ability to use the AE native 3D camera and lighting system or users can use the built-in camera and light controls.

The BCC DV Fixer filter is designed to soften or remove diagonal stair-step artifacts, aka jaggies, from an image clip while protecting other areas of the image from the softening process.

The filter uses proprietary algorithms to detect visible aliased diagonal edges that are typically found in DV video clips and then process the pixels only along these edges to achieve a smooth artifact free result. The filter is easy to use and features on-screen view modes, which are accessible via a convenient pop-up menu option within the filter UI, that enables the user to fine tune the detected jaggy edges prior to performing any image processing.

The BCC Smooth Tone filter smoothes or softens an image while preserving the important detail contrast areas.

With the advent of HD image technology, many times the image result is what can be referred to as being too sharp. What this means is that certain areas in the image, such as the pores on a subjects skin, may become too prominent. The Smooth Tone filter applies a complex image smoothing algorithm to these areas in the image but does not affect extreme specular highlights or catch-lights, which results in smoother skin tones while preserving important areas of detail contrast within the image.

The BCC Cartoon Look filter simulates a rotoscope toon-animation look.

The look of cartoon roto-scope animation, which was recently popularized with feature films such as quot;A Scanner Darklyquot; and quot;A Waking Lifequot; and may also seen in memorable advertisement campaigns for Charles Schwab was once only possible with many hours of painstaking rotoscope painting and compositing along with the use of large-scale dedicated image processing systems. With the BCC Cartoon Look filter, this look is now available to anyone who can drop a filter onto a clip. The filter includes many pre-set looks and styles, all available via the filters' preset pop-up menu. You can even make your own presets and apply them to any other clip in any project. This filter is easy to use, yet provides parameter controls to achieve the right look with any source material.

The BCC Charcoal Sketch filter simulates the painterly look of an image that was created using charcoals.

With the Charcoal Sketch filter, generating the look of an images that was created by an artist using charcoals has never been easier. Simply drop the filter onto any clip and the image is immediately transformed from a standard shot into a charcoal sketch. The filter includes easy to use pop-ups to determine the weight or line width and the desired level of detail.

The BCC Pencil Sketch filter simulates the look of a hand drawn pencil sketched image.

The Pencil Sketch filter is another of the new quot;art-lookquot; filters that are included in the BCC 6 set. Simply apply this filter to an image clip to emulate the look of an animated pencil drawn sketch. This filter includes many apply modes which can be used to blend the generated pencil lines with the original image to produce unique stylized looks.

The BCC Water Color filter simulates the wash look of a water color painting.

Watercolor paint-style images can easily be generated from any source material with the addition of the BCC Water Color filter. This filter includes the ability to control the color and weight of the contour edges as well as the desired level of contouring. Save your own preset looks or use the included user-modifiable preset looks to generate wash or water color effects.

The BCC Pixel Fixer filter repairs pixels in the image that are the result of dust on a camera lens or imaging sensor.

Digital video and still photography, while making it easier to have immediate access to source material comes with some disadvantages over film source material. One common problem / disadvantage is with the cameras' image sensor. Sometimes pixels on the sensor stop working, with the result of quot;badquot; pixels in the image. Instead of clone-painting to remove or disguise the bad pixel in each frame, the BCC Pixel Fixer automates this process. Simply center one of the source points in the filter over the bad pixel and it is removed from every frame in the clip. This fast to render filter includes source points to remove up to 10 quot;badquot; pixels per filter instance.

The BCC Lightning filter generates simulated lightning bolts or plasma arcs. This filter is OpenGL hardware accelerated.

The new BCC Lightning filter can be used to emulate photo-real auto-animated lightning bolts that emanate from single or multiple sources (sheet lightning), single bolt point-to-point timed strikes or even quot;Van De Graafquot; generator or quot;Tesla Coilquot; high-voltage electrical plasma arcs. Dozens of static and animated presets are available for this filter and are accessed via the built-in preset pop-up selector.

The BCC Tile Mosaic filter simulates an image that is comprised of hand-cut opaque tiles. This filter is OpenGL hardware accelerated.

Use the BCC Tile Mosaic filter to generate the look of hand-cut tiles from a still or moving clip of images. The filter includes parameters to control the relief of the tiles as well as the shape of the tile pieces and the position of the light as it hits the tile surface. Other options include the ability to control the grout width and color.

Support for AE’s Camera and Lighting System

Many BCC filters - including Extruded Text, Type-On Text, and Extruded Spline - are now integrated with AE’s camera and lighting system for easy, intuitive setup using AE’s native tools and controls.

Import AE Mask Paths into Boris Continuum Complete Filters

From 3D text on a path to custom bevel profiles and extruded spline objects, AE masks can now be used to control the geometry of BCC 6 AE filters. Now there is no need to learn a custom user interface or switch to a different application to adjust spline shapes. Users may take advantage of AE’s familiar mask tools for all custom spline work. Additionally, all BCC 6 AE filters feature the ability to load custom AE spline masks into BCC’s built-in PixelChooser matte and masking system for ultimate control over the filtered result.

Custom Animated Presets

This unique feature lets users save and re-use every parameter animation in every BCC filter - even across host applications and platforms. BCC 6 AE includes 1000+ factory-installed animated presets. Animated presets are now saved in an industry-standard XML format so that they can be viewed and edited by any XML-compliant text editor.

Single-Click Custom Preset Navigation Tool

Lets users easily browse presets without opening a pop-up box. Both static and animated presets are immediately applied and the host preview window is automatically updated to reflect the selected preset. Over 1500 factory-installed, user-modifiable presets are included with BCC 6 AE.

Built-In Motion Tracker Enhancements

Are found in almost every filter. Users may now save motion tracker data from one filter and load the saved data in another filter or in After Effects itself.

Significant Performance Gains

Every BCC 6 AE filter is either OpenGL-based or multiprocessor-accelerated for ultimate rendering speed on modern computing and graphics platforms.

Boris Continuum Complete AE v6 Pricing:

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us anytime. We're here for you.

Colin Sharp,
VP Sales, Toolfarm, Inc.

www.toolfarm.com
415-462-1982