Real-Time Filters for Avid Xpress DV, Xpress Pro, and Media Composer Adrenaline

You want fast filters? Is real time fast enough for you?

Thanks to powerful changes to Avid's AVX plug-in architecture, as well as some clever coding on our part, Boris Continuum Complete AVX can process images quickly enough to give you real time previews in over 30 filters. BCC AVX is a set of more than 170 native Avid filters.

"Yeah, yeah," you're saying. "Everybody says they have real time previews." Not like this they don't. Boris was the first to deliver an AVX plug-in, and we're the first to offer real-time performance in Xpress DV, Xpress Pro, and Media Composer Adrenaline.

avid plug-ins Blur set to 300? No problem. Keyframes? No problem. Multiple layers. Yup. Multiple layers, drop shadows, apply modes, and more, all playing back in real time. On a laptop, if you want.

The reason these effects play back so quickly is because Avid is passes us reduced-sized images - quarter or half size to be exact, depending on your settings - and we're processing them at least 30 frames per second.

Of course your system will impact just how "real time" the effects are. Supported systems include those with Mojo or Adrenaline hardware.

Our ability to process reduced-resolution images so quickly carries forward when it comes to outputting full resolution video. You will love the speed.

Plus the learning curve is minimal since these filters use the native Avid interface you already know. If that's not easy enough, hundreds of customizable presets help get you started more quickly than you can imagine.

avid real time Zero learning curve to get started. Real time playback. This is playing for keeps.

Of course, speed without power isn't worth much, so let's examine some specific features that are available in Boris Continuum Complete AVX.

Let's begin with apply modes. Other applications call them transfer or compositing modes. By whatever name, they offer powerful ways to combine layers, using channel information such as luminance and chroma to drive combinations..

For example, you can duplicate a layer and combine both copies using the Overlay apply mode. This increase the layer's saturation, while also increasing the detail in both the shadows and highlights.

BCC AVX makes it even easier in Avid. Start with footage of a child on a cloudy day, and apply the Composite filter. First notice that the filter opens entirely inside the Effects Palette. This is a distinct departure from other Boris plug-ins that open a custom interface, and is in itself a very cool feature.

3rd-party avid plug-ins

Nothing about the image changes just yet, because the default apply mode is Normal.

Set the Apply Mode menu to Overlay and set the Mix Layer menu to Filter Layer. Observe, indeed, that the output is much richerŠeven though the layer isn't duplicated!

avid video effects That's not only handy, it's fast. If this was your desired outcome, you would only need to render one layer. Most other applications would require TWO layers to achieve the same result.

The Overlayed version is in fact a bit too intense. Other applications require you to separately apply another filter to adjust this, but you can adjust brightness and contrast right in the Composite filter.

While many applications offer apply modes, BCC AVX offers the ability to animate them, which you can do here in the Composite filter. The animatable Apply Mix parameter allows you to animate between, and even combine, two different apply modes.

Because the default is Normal, you can very easily animate from no apply mode (Normal) to Overlay, simply by animating Apply Mix. In this case, set the Apply Mix to include a bit more of the original layer, which provides exactly the richness you need without overdriving any of the values.

Add as many keyframes as you want, and playback in real time.

In other circumstances, you might want to combine more distinctly different apply modes for extreme effects. You can then save your favorite combinations as a preset. You'll find, in fact, a number of presets that do just this.

However, animating between two apply modes is a much more complicated affair in other products. You must first render one composite - say, the Overlay version. Then render a second composite with another apply mode - say, Multiply. Then render the combination of these first two renders: a total of six layers and three renders to create what Boris Continuum AVX can do in two layers in a single pass, in real time!

It's important to note that the outcomes of various apply modes really depends on the footage. Luma and chroma values tend to be the driving forces in compositing. Some apply modes are optimized to handle footage that tends toward more or less intensity in these areas. It's easy to experiment when you know that the outcome plays back in real time.

But of course, you'll most often want to create a composite between at least two layers. To bring in the next layer, simply choose "1st Below" to create a composite between two layers.

What makes compositing with BCC AVX more interesting still is the ability to limit the application of the filter to part of the clip. Again, this is possible in other applications by creating two layers - a filtered layer and an unfiltered layer - and applying a mask to one of those layers. It's much, much easier to simply use filters with built-in masks and play them back in real time.

Most BCC AVX filters include a tool called the PixelChooser. As the name suggests, the PixelChooser allows you to choose which pixels are filtered. The first PixelChooser parameter group makes selections based on regions, such as inside a rectangle or gradient. This is useful for a wide variety of filters, such as the Mosaic filter, which you may want to apply only to a specific portion of the frame.The selection areas are fully animatable, of course, and -do I need to say it again? - play back in real time.

I'm going to show you some fun tricks with the other PixelChooser parameters, which operates on specific channels within your clip. Depending on the footage you're using, and the kind of effect you want to create, the channel you choose will vary. In this case, I'd like to constrain my Composite blend to the inside of the child's body, leaving the rest of the layer unaffected.

Choose the HSL Difference channel, which extracts a matte based on the differences in the hue, saturation, and lightness values of the clip.

The selection favors the water, so invert it by selecting the Invert checkbox.

That's better, but I can tell that I still have some tweaking to do. Adjusting mattes in Avid is fast with BCC AVX. I choose to show my matte, then make a few quick adjustments.

First, reduce the black threshold.

compositing and effects

Next, blur the matte to smooth the rough edges.

avid titling

Finally, choke the matte just a bit.

keying filters

To make sure I don't go too far, set the display back to the image. Continue to make any required adjustments. It's really just a half-dozen or so clicks total.

avid matte

Best of all, the matted composite plays back in real time!

avid compositing Animated apply modes, powerful mattes, multilayer composites, all in one pass, all in real time.

Note that this is a remarkably clean matte generated from mini-DV footage! No bluescreen, no special lighting (in fact hardly any lighting on an overcast day), and footage in a format that's notoriously difficult to key. So in addition to compositing power, this filter gives a very good idea of how powerful BCC AVX's keys are too.

The Composite filter offers other features in, and indeed so do the other Continuum filters, that I haven't even touched on. For example, Avid systems typically don't allow you to animate foreground elements in a matte without also affecting the background element. Recognizing this, BCC AVX includes geometric and drop shadow controls to most filters. You'll never be stuck again with having to choose whether to make a soft shadow or an animated shadow, or having to render a keyed element to scale it. Do everything you want in a single pass using Continuum.

The BCC Composite filter is just one of more than 30 real-time filters in Boris Continuum Complete AVX.

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