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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects The Cartoon Effect (An Easier Way Than Aharon’s, I think!)

  • The Cartoon Effect (An Easier Way Than Aharon’s, I think!)

    Posted by Subgeniuszero on March 4, 2007 at 6:48 pm

    No offense to Mr. Rabinowitz, but I think I’ve found an easier way to create the cartoon effect on video. Here it is. I found this by poking around with Google. It seems that years ago Digital Fusion had this as a node-chain you could download, and some terrific soul translated the procedure into AE terminology. Here it is:

    First, precompose all desired footage into a precomp. Duplicate it, rename each comp. Next, add the following effects to the Top Comp:

    Blending mode: Stencil Luma
    Gaussian Blur: 2.3
    Contrast: 26
    Find Edges: Blend 0%
    Saturation: -100
    Contrast: 26
    Find Edges: Blend 50%

    Now add the following effects to the Bottom comp:

    Blending mode: Lighten
    Gaussian Blur: 6.8 (optional; I didn’t use this)
    Channel Combiner: RGB to YUV
    Gamma/Pedestal/Gain: Red, Blue, Green Gain 0.5
    Gamma/Pedestal/Gain: Red, Blue, Green Gain 2
    Channel Combiner: YUV to RGB
    Brightness: 21
    Posterize: 25

    Kirk Tabalotny replied 18 years, 6 months ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Justin Productions

    March 4, 2007 at 9:21 pm

    Hehe nice. Thanks for the info.

    Might not give better results than Aharon’s tutorial but..yeh, it’s easier.

    [subgeniuszero] “Gamma/Pedestal/Gain: Red, Blue, Green Gain 0.5
    Gamma/Pedestal/Gain: Red, Blue, Green Gain 2”

    By the way, is this an effect? I didn’t see it.

    Thanks.

    Justin Productions
    Tangerin01@hotmail.com
    Adobe After Effects 6.5 Professional

  • Subgeniuszero

    March 4, 2007 at 9:50 pm

    Yeah, it’s in there. In the search box, type “pedest” and it should pop up.

  • Aharon Rabinowitz

    March 5, 2007 at 4:30 am

    Absolutely no offense taken.

    Please post examples of this (Before and after if possible). I’d love to see it.

    Always interested in other ways to achieve an effect. But doing it my way does create opportunities for other looks and feels that you can’t get through most other methods. But that’s only good if you want those looks. And of course the more looks you can achieve (my way, your way, Jim Tierney’s way…etc.) the more options you have.

    One thing I did not mention in the tutorial, and that no other solution delivers, is that once you convert your video to cartoon, you can up-rez to Hi-Def sizes with no loss in quality. That’s because the video is converted to vector art.

    —————————————-
    Aharon Rabinowitz
    aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
    http://www.allbetsareoff.com

    —————————————-
    Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:

    https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=111087911

  • Andrew Kramer

    March 5, 2007 at 4:45 am

    What’s this Hi-def you speak of? Sounds interesting.

  • Subgeniuszero

    March 5, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    Now THAT is cool.

  • Kirk Tabalotny

    October 25, 2007 at 12:37 pm

    yes well everyone wants it easier… Yet another solution (apart from being Steve Jobs & buying Pixar) is to run your original video through VirtualDub using a simple filter called MSU Cartoonizer – gives you plenty of control over a range of variables (strokes, colour, saturation, etc)and is free (https://www.compression.ru/video/public_filters.htm). They’re an amazing Russian gang who do useful video filters & processors. You lose the upscaling benefit of Aharon’s technique, and get less time for coffee. Bugger – now I gotta find a new excuse for my tremors.
    Hey and to get totally nerdy, I found that Nucleo Pro won’t ‘commit to disc’ any comp layer that contains an Illustrator sequence (a memory issue apparently). Oh well.

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