Channel Geometry

Apply different geometric transformations to each channel through a wide range of automatically animatable parameters.

This plugin has been completely redesigned in FxFactory Pro 6 to support advanced source and mask selection, chromatic aberration and animatable parameters.

The user interface encourages progressive discovery of the large number of features. Built-in presets offer shortcuts to popular styles and techniques. Master advanced techniques once and apply them to other plugins that share the same design.

Compatibility

Channel Geometry is compatible with Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Parameters

Presets

Presets contain a snapshot of your effect configuration. 26 built-in presets are available.

When you save parameter configuration to a file on disk, this file can later be loaded to recreate the same effect configuration. Presets generated in one video application can be used by the same plug-in running in a different video application.

Working with the Presets Browser

Preview

This parameter enables a canvas preview of the pixels selected through the Source and Mask parameter sections.

Previewing the Source and Mask

Channel Geometry

Model

The following options are available:

  • All — A single set of geometry parameters applies to all color information in the image.
  • RGB (default) — Three separate sets of geometry parameters allow you to manipulate the red (1), green (2) and blue (3) channels separately.
  • HSB — Three separate sets of geometry parameters allow you to manipulate hue (1), saturation (2) and brightness (3) separately.
  • CMYK — Four separate sets of geometry parameters allow you to manipulate the cyan (1), magenta (2), yellow (3) and black (4) channels separately.
  • YUV — Three separate sets of geometry parameters allow you to manipulate Y (1), Cb (2) and Cr (3) separately.
  • Oklab — Three separate sets of geometry parameters allow you to manipulate lightness (1), blue/yellow (2) and green/red (3) gradients separately.

Non-uniform Scale

Switches all geometry controls from a single Scale slider to separate Scale X and Scale Y sliders. When using a single slider, the corresponding channel is scaled uniformly along the horizontal and vertical axes. When specifying separate scale factors for X and Y, your media may be stretched non-uniformly.

Frame Margin

Lets you add a margin in Motion or After Effects to produce an output that is larger than the original. The extra space allows the effect to bleed pixels outside the frame.

This parameter is not available in Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro since neither application allows for the output of an effect to be larger than the original media.

Offset X

Distance to move the corresponding channel along the horizontal axis.

Offset Y

Distance to move the corresponding channel along the vertical axis.

Scale

Amount to scale the corresponding channel uniformly.

Scale X

Amount to scale the corresponding channel along the horizontal axis only.

Scale Y

Amount to scale the corresponding channel along the vertical axis only.

Angle

Controls the rotation of the corresponding channel.

Opacity

Controls the opacity of the corresponding channel.
Note that this parameter determines if any given channel is visible in the filtered output. When Model is set to RGB, for example, setting the Opacity 1 slider to 0% effectively cuts the red channel from the output. It is still possible to mix the filtered image with the original (unfiltered) media through the Channel Mixer parameters.

Flip

Controls whether the given channel is flipped (mirrored) along the horizontal axis.

Source

Parameters in this section allow you to choose a set of pixels to apply the effect to, based on a number of techniques:

  • Luminance Range: select a range of pixels based on their brightness.
  • Color Key: select a range of pixels through a keying algorithm.
  • Edges: select pixels according to an edge detection algorithm.
  • Person Contour: select the main subject in the video frame through an AI-assisted algorithm. Works best with human subjects.
  • Object Tracker: select pixels by tracking one or more objects across the frame.
  • Face Detection: select pixels by detecting the location of human faces and tracking them across the frame for the duration of the clip.

Choosing Source Pixels

Original (left), selecting the darkest pixels (center) and lightest pixels (right)

Original (left), selecting the darkest pixels (center) and lightest pixels (right)

Mask

Parameters in this section define a shape used to crop the output of the effect with. When using an object tracker or face detection, the same mask shape is replicated for each object or face that appears in the frame.

  • Off: no cropping occurs.
  • Rectangle: crop the output to a rectangular shape.
  • Oval: crop the output to a circular shape.
  • Gradient: crop the output to a linear gradient.
  • Bar: crop the output to a two-sided gradient.
  • Custom: crop the output to a shape defined by a custom graphic.
  • Text: crop the outut to a shape defined by a title.

Choosing a Mask

Rectangular mask (left), gradient (center), gradient mixed with Person Contour (right)

Rectangular mask (left), gradient (center), gradient mixed with Person Contour (right)

Animation

This section allows you to animate effect parameters over time.

Build In/Out

Enable and control animation progress through a set of parameters.

When the animation is Off, no transition in or out of the effect occurs.

When the effect is set to build in and out by Trimming, the following parameters are displayed:

The Trim slider defines a range where the effect has been fully built. Any time outside this range is spent building the animation in or out. For example, if the Trim range is set between 20% and 80%, the effect builds in from the start of the clip up to 20% of its duration. The effects builds out from 80% to the end of the clip. If the clip were 5 seconds long, the build in and out animations last 1 second each.

When the effect is set to build in and out through a Duration, the following parameters are displayed:

The Build In (secs) and Build Out (secs) give you an exact way to decide how long each animation should last. Should your selection not be applicable to the current clip, a warning will appear in the output. For example, if your clip lasts only 3 seconds, it would be impossible to have the build in and out animations both last 2 seconds each (as the total would be 4 seconds).

When the effect is set to build in and out through Keyframes, a single parameter is displayed:

The Build In (Easing) and Build Out (Easing) parameters let you choose the animation curve when animating by Trimming the clip or by specifying a Duration.

The Progress parameter gives complete control over the animation to you. You will need to keyframe the Progress parameter using features of the video app. Note that there are no easing options when manually animating via keyframes.

Offset X

Turn this parameter on to animate the Offset X distance for the corresponding channel.

Offset X Animation

Offset Y

Turn this parameter on to animate the Offset Y distance for the corresponding channel.

Offset Y Animation

Scale

Turn this parameter on to animate the Scale parameter for the corresponding channel. When Non-uniform Scale has been enabled, you will see separate animation toggles and parameters for Scale X and Scale Y, for each channel.

Scale Animation

Angle

Turn this parameter on to animate the Angle parameter for the corresponding channel.

Angle Animation

Opacity

Turn this parameter on to animate the Opacity of the corresponding channel.

Opacity Animation

Seed

A number that controls random aspects of the effect.

Click the New button to assign a new seed value. When the seed value is changed, the effect uses a different random sequence to produce a different output.