Another free plugin! Alex4D Crop

It's an odd sort of compulsion. But I can't seem to stop.

So there I was, wanting to make frame using a clip on top of a few layers of stuff. Setting up a 'Travel Matte - Alpha' composite mode on top of a cropped generator seemed too long-winded for me. I could have used 'Mask Shape' with Rectangle, but the controls were still too fiddly.

So I created a version of the Crop section of the Motion tab.



A side-effect of my method is that if you feather the edges, only the cropped edges are blurred:


The crop can be inverted and you can choose the opacity of the area cropped:


Download it from

[alex4d.wordpress.com]

Not sure if I'll be able to do a new one every week...


Alex

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

DUDE! Been waiting for this for a LONG time. FINALLY, feather that only effects the areas that I cropped, and not the whole picture.

You gotta start selling these...I mean, for like $5 even. I'd buy it.

Do you have a DONATE button?


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Quote

You gotta start selling these...I mean, for like $5 even.

SHUT UP SHANE!!! Not EVERYONE is as thoroughly booked as you are!

Thank you very much Alex for your complimentary plug-ins!! They are very much appreciated and probably help many people that cannot otherwise afford to spend any money during these tough times. You are a Prince!! What goes around - comes around!!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

OK, fine. We need some good quality FREE plugins to point people to.

Now that you have these great free ones, make some good ones to sell...use the free ones to draw the crowd.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Alex - this is incredibly useful! Thanks

This looks superb. Must try.

- Loren

Today's FCP keytip:

Enable timeline A/V links with Shift-L !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.coml

Smashing. Many thanks.

You and Andy Mees rule.

Harry.

Harry Bromley-Davenport.

Another great plugin!

How difficult would it be to have an option to feather individual edges?



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Given the method I'm using, I'd have to come up with a different way of feathering.

I happen to like using point controls to directly set the crop area. Differing feathering per edge lends itself to slider controls.

Although, now you've got me thinking...



Alex

Hehe yes the point idea is nice but the individual controls for feathering is one thing that is missing from a crop features on most Apps!

Could you not do individual sliders for L R T B for the feather a bit like the crop function in the motion tab yet have the point crop for the actual crop?



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Actually...what's missing in the feathering parameter on most masking plug-ins...is a PER POINT feathering parameter (feathering surrounding each vertex of a mask). THAT makes rotoscoping & masking more precise. THAT would be a huge addition

YOU ROCK, ALEX!! Keep up the great work!!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Omg... This is a LONG wait, and a BIG FCP request- a plug in that doesn't HAVE to feather the entire image!

Yea, at least start a donate button. No reason why you shouldn't earn if you have something good to sell.



www.strypesinpost.com

I'm currently working on a slider version which is better for stills.

I'm making progress with having the option of different feather values per edge


Alex

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

Thank you So Much
I just did a credits scroll using your plug in


thannnnnnkkkkksssssssssssssssss

This is where I'm at with the slider version. It works better will stills and other non-standard content...





(edited once I solved a small fault)


Alex

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

Sweet man - sorry for making you think and invest more time working on it

Looks great though!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

After spending a while bug hunting this afternoon (the Crop controls didn't work very well with stills and clips that weren't the same size as the sequence), I saw your request for an option for differing feather values for each edge.

I took that opportunity to change the filter so that it uses the same UI as the built-in crop.

I've updated the plugin at my blog



Alex

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

Excellent man eggs sell lent!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

ROCK & ROLL, ALEX!!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

What's one more thank-you!!

But really! I've been cuttin' mattes to get the feathering I want. This is going to save so much time!

Is making a sizeable-on-both-axes round matte that feathers like this possible?! That's one I'd use and use and use, too!!

debe

Well, as the FxScript 'blur' command has an 'aspect' parameter, it might be possible to have two controls for the feather - one for horizontal feathering, one for vertical.

Shouldn't be too difficult to do. Is that what you'd like?


It is the different feathering value for each vertex of the mask that would be a problem.

alex

just... great

did you ever think about FxPlugs for Motion ? there we need a mask for edge softening, and it can't be center dissolving.

but again bravo for all that you are doing

---------------------------------
A Day late & a Dollar-short Productions

Alex-

This is fantastic. I saw the start of this thread the other day, and almost chimed in to ask if you could make a crop with individual feathers. I cannot tell you how much time I have spent creating work-arounds to soften selected edges.

I'm glad Ben King spoke up for me. Really this is HUGE. THANK YOU.

-Vance

Alex-

That sounds like a great idea, too...

I was thinking of something like the existing Mask Shape-Oval....where you can make a circular matte around an object using both horizontal and vertical scale to fit the item needing masking, with your feathering all around.

I've used a Gaussian Blur in the past to soften the edges, but it doesn't give as nice of a gradual sweep to nothingness as you are showing in your other filter.

Being able to adjust the horizontal and the vertical in the blur itself would be a nice added bonus for certain circumstances.

Does that make sense?

debe

I'll modify some of the Matte filters and post them next week.

Here's the result of the 'Eight-Point Garbage Matte - HV':


Horizontal feather:1
Vertical feather: 100

alex

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

I'm a long way from being able to make FxPlug-based plugins.

It is much easier to take Apple's FxScript-based plugins and make them that little bit better.

Given that the only plugins I guess that Color 2.X is likely to use will not be FxScript-based, I'll probably learn how to make plugins that requite FxFactory. Once I get my head around making Quartz Compositions, then Motion and AE users might get some useful plugins from me.


Alex