Halftones

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

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

Parameters

Presets

Presets contain a snapshot of your effect configuration. 14 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 Menu

Preview

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

Previewing the Source and Mask

Halftone

Technique

The following options are available:

  • Dot (default) — Dots of varying sizes to represent lighter or darker colors. When using this technique, a separate angle parameter allows you to rotate the pattern for each color in the output. This is needed to faithfully reproduce the techniques used in the printing process when the same piece of paper would go through separate passes for cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
  • Hatched — Lines broken up to leave space any time brightness is below a threshold.
  • Line — Uninterrupted lines with varying thickness.
  • Circular — Concentric circles with varying thickness.

Size

Size of the pattern, relative to the frame.

Exposure

Exposure adjustment, applied to the media before the CYMK separation process. Raising the exposure helps when your input media is predominantly dark, which would produce a CMYK separation too heavy on the ink.

Sharpness

Sharpness of the details in the current Technique.

Contrast

Controls output contrast when Sharpness is less than 100%. On the highest level of Sharpness the contrast adjustment has no pixels to adjust.

CMYK

Enable to create a four-color output. When turned off, the output is black and white.

When the current Technique is Dot, and this parameter is on, additional Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black angles are available. When this parameter is off, a single Angle parameter becomes available.

Because this plug-in attempts a faithful simulation of the printing process, it is necessary to orient each subsequent layer of color (cyan, yellow, magenta and black) at a slightly different angle. In doing so, you reduce overlap and leave less white space in the page. The default values reflect one of the common choices used by the printing industry.

Saturation

Adjusts output saturation. This parameter is available only when outputting in CMYK.

Offset

When outputting in CMYK, this parameter determines the distance between each layer of ink.

Cyan

Set between 0% and 100% by default.

The slider lets you pick a range between 0% and 100%. Click the numeric controls to type a value in.

Magenta

Set between 0% and 100% by default.

The slider lets you pick a range between 0% and 100%. Click the numeric controls to type a value in.

Yellow

Set between 0% and 100% by default.

The slider lets you pick a range between 0% and 100%. Click the numeric controls to type a value in.

Black

Set between 0% and 100% by default.

The slider lets you pick a range between 0% and 100%. Click the numeric controls to type a value in.

Origin: Rig

When Source is set to either to use object tracking or face detection, this parameter lets you rig the origin of the effect to the center of a specific object or face.

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)

Relative to Face/Object

Off by default.

Chromatic Aberration

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

Build In/Out

Build In/Out lets you enable and control animation progress.

When the animation is Off, no transition into 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.

Size

Turn on to animate the Size parameter.

Size Animation

Exposure

Turn on to animate the Exposure parameter.

Exposure Animation

Offset

Turn on to animate the Offset parameter.

Offset Animation

Aberration Amount

Turn this parameter on to animate the Amount value specified under the Chromatic Aberration section. A number of standard controls allow you to control the animation:

Aberration Amount Animation


Animating the Aberration Amount with Directional (left) and Radial (right) Fringing

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.

Channel Selection

This section allows you to limit the effect to specific channels, leaving others unmodified.

Limiting Output to Specific Channels