Fast Box Blur After Effects

After Effects Lens Blur
Fast Box Blur After Effects Missing
How Fast Is A Blur

Gaussian Blur isn’t just silly to say, it’s silly to use. Let’s explore why you should quit using it and look at a few alternatives.

There are a lot of different blur options in After Effects (fourteen to be exact), yet, for the most part, designers and mograph artists usually stick to one of two blurs: GaussianBlur and FastBlur. Both are capable of getting the job done, but both are lacking in a few ways. Let’s focus on the GaussianBlur and take a look at why you should quit using it forever.

Seriously, stop using Gaussian Blur.

Add any Blur (‘Box Blur’, ‘Fast Blur’, ‘Gaussian blur’, whatever) Add a ‘Levels’ effect where you set “Alpha Input Black” = 128 Add a “CC Composite” effect The blurriness of your first filter takes care of the feather radius.
Ben Waardenburg on Box Blur. Box Blur is similar to Fast Blur and Gaussian Blur, but Box Blur has the added advantage of an Iterations property, which allows you to control the quality of the blur. So basically the basic blur adds a sort of box-ish blur to the image. However, the more iterations, the more times the blur is applied over the image.
See full list on rocketstock.com.

After Effects no longer crashes when the AVLayer.compPointToSource scripting method is used with a 3D text layer. The match name of the Fast Box Blur effect is “ADBE Box Blur2”.

A Couple of Reasons Why Gaussian Blur Stinks

1. No Repeating Edge Pixels

Notice how the gaussian blur creates a spill around the edges.

Ever wonder why the edges of your frame are darker than the center of the frame? Well it’s because GaussianBlur doesn’t have a Repeat Edge Pixel feature. A RepeatEdgePixel feature will allow your edges to interact in a more natural way, making it ideal for adjustment layers and full-composition layers.

2. Lack of Control

Notice how different each blur iteration looks within the box blur.

Another problem with the GaussianBlur (and Fast Blur, for that matter) is the lack of control over the way in which your blur is processed. With GaussianBlur you only have the option to adjust blurriness, but you don’t have the option to adjust the number of blur iterations in your scene. This results in some very unnatural blurs.

After Effects Lens Blur

A Couple of Alternatives to Gaussian Blur

1. Fast Blur (Good)

The blur properties are identical, but Fast Blur has Repeat Edge Pixels

As the name implies, the FastBlur is fast, but you might be surprised to know that FastBlur actually produces an identical blur result as GaussianBlur. However, the biggest difference between GaussianBlur and FastBlur is the RepeatEdgePixels feature which allows the blur to not become fuzzy near the edges of the frame. The RepeatEdgePixels feature makes the FastBlur ideal for adjustment layers and layers that take up the entire composition.

2. Box Blur (Great)

The Box Blur adds greater control and more natural blurs, with the added Repeat Edge Pixel feature.

My favorite quick blur to use in After Effects is the BoxBlur. Like FastBlur, the Box Blur has a Repeat Edge Pixels feature, but the Box Blur takes it one step further. If you simply leave the Iterationsvalue at 1, all of your blurs will have slight vertical and horizontal artifacts in them. I’ve found that these imperfect stylizations can give a project a much more organic look than simply using a Fast Blur. If you want the Box Blur to look more like a Fast Blur, simply turn up the Iterations and watch as the Box Blur converts itself to a more traditional style blur.

In the words of the good people at Prolost:

Box Blur = Alway, Fast Blur = Sometimes, Gaussian Blur = Never. – Prolost

While all of the blurs included in this list are usable, if you really want to get the best looking blur possible, the Lens Blur is by far your best option. However, the Camera Lens Blur can take a while to render on your computer, so it’s best to use it sparingly.

What is your favorite blur in After Effects? Have you ever been asked such a nerdy question? Share in the comments below.

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MMaker's YTPMV & 音MAD Reference Doc

This living document is a more-or-less related to YTPMV/音MAD reference doc that I’ll be continually updating. I hope you may find it useful!

Vegas → After Effects equivalents

Type	Vegas	AE
Effect	360° Stabilization	Window → VR Comp Editor.jsx, 3D Camera Tracker
Effect	Add Noise	Noise
Effect	AutoLooks	Lumetri Color
Effect	Bézier Masking	Shape layers, masking
Effect	Black and White	Black & White
Effect	Black Restore	Luma Key
Effect	Border	Bevel Alpha, Roughen Edges, masking
Effect	Brightness and Contrast	Brightness & Contrast
Effect	Broadcast Colors	Broadcast Colors
Effect	Bump Map	CC Glass + comp lights
Effect	Channel Blend	Channel Combiner, Shift Channels
Effect	Chroma Blur	Keylight + Key Cleaner + Advanced Spill Suppressor
Effect	Chroma Keyer	Keylight, Linear Color Key
Effect	Color Balance	Color Balance, Selective Color, Curves, Lumetri Color, etc.
Effect	Color Corrector	Color Balance, Selective Color, Curves, Lumetri Color, etc.
Effect	Color Grading	Color Balance, Selective Color, Curves, Lumetri Color, etc.
Effect	Color Match	Tritone, Lumetri Color, etc. (footage dependent)
Effect	Convolution Kernel	Fast Box Blur, Emboss, CC Glass, Find Edges, Sharpen Edges, Sharpen, CC Kernel
Effect	Cookie Cutter	Shape layers, masking
Effect	Crop	Linear Wipe, masking
Effect	Defocus	Camera Lens Blur
Effect	Deform	CC Bender, Warp
Effect	Dual Fish Eye Stitching	Resources:#1, #2, #3
Effect	Fill Light	Tint + Brightness & Contrast + Fast Box Blur
Effect	Film Effects	Noise, Add Grain
Effect	Film Grain	Add Grain
Effect	Gaussian Blur	Gaussian Blur
Effect	Glint	Starglow (3rd-party), various effect stacks
Effect	Glow	Glow
Effect	Gradient Map	Colorama
Effect	HSL Adjust	Color Balance (HLS)
Effect	Invert	Invert
Effect	LAB Adjust	Resources:#1 (Also look into color management, profiles)
Effect	Layer Dimensionality	Drop Shadow, layer styles
Effect	Lens Correction	Optics Compensation, CC Lens
Effect	Lens Flare	Lens Flare, Optical Flares (3rd-party)
Effect	Levels	Levels
Effect	Light Rays	CC Light Burst, CC Light Rays, CC Radial Fast Blur, masking
Effect	Linear Blur	Fast Box Blur
Effect	LUT Filter	Lumetri Color
Effect	Mask Generator	Set Channels, Fill, masking
Effect	Median	Median
Effect	Mesh Warp	Mesh Warp
Effect	Min and Max	Minimax
Effect	Mirror	Mirror
Effect	Newsprint	m’s Halftone (3rd-party), BorisFX halftone (3rd-party), various custom effect/layer stacks
Effect	Picture In Picture	Transform
Effect	Pinch/Punch	Bulge
Effect	Pixelate	Mosaic
Effect	Quick Blur	Fast Box Blur
Effect	Radial Blur	Radial Blur, CC Radial Fast Blur
Effect	Radial Pixelate	Mosaic Plane (3rd-party) (not exactly the same)
Effect	Rays	CC Light Burst, CC Light Rays, CC Radial Fast Blur, Optical Flares (3rd-party)
Effect	Saturation Adjust	Curves, Levels, Color Balance, etc.
Effect	Scene Rotation	Polar Coordinates + Transform
Effect	Sepia	Tint
Effect	Sharpen	Sharpen
Effect	Slow Motion	Time remapping + frame blending, CC Wide Time, Timewarp, Twixtor (3rd-party
Effect	Smart Upscale	Detail-Preserving Upscale, GPUResize (3rd-party)
Effect	Smart Zoom	Detail-Preserving Upscale, GPUResize (3rd-party)
Effect	Soft Contrast	Brightness & Contrast, CC Vignette
Effect	Spherize	Spherize
Effect	Starburst	Starglow (3rd-party), various effect stacks
Effect	Stereoscopic 3D Adjust	Resources:#1, #2, #3
Effect	Swirl	Twirl
Effect	Threshold	CC Threshold RGB
Effect	Timecode	Timecode
Effect	Tiny Planet	Polar Coordinates + Optics Compensation
Effect	TV Simulator	Various effect/layer stacks, Universe VHS (3rd-party)
Effect	Unsharp Mask	Unsharp Mask
Effect	Video Stabilization	Warp Stabilizer
Effect	Vignette	Vignette, masking
Effect	Wave	Wave Warp
Effect	White Balance	Curves, Levels, Lumetri Color, etc.
Media Generator	Checkerboard	Checkerboard
Media Generator	Color Gradient	Gradient Ramp, Colorama, masking
Media Generator	Credit Roll	Text layer(s)
Media Generator	Noise Texture	Fractal Noise, Turbulent Noise
Media Generator	Solid Color	Fill, solid layer
Media Generator	Test Pattern	Gradient Ramp, 4-Color Gradient, Mosaic, Tint, or just download the patterns
Media Generator	Titles & Text	Text layer(s)
Track Motion	2D Shadow	Drop Shadow
Track Motion	2D Glow	Drop Shadow
Transition	3D Blinds	Card Wipe
Transition	3D Cascade	Card Dance
Transition	3D Fly In/Out	3D layers
Transition	3D Shuffle	3D layers
Transition	Barn Door	Linear Wipe, masking + Transform, animating
Transition	Clock Wipe	Radial Wipe
Transition	Cross Effect	CC Cross Blur
Transition	Dissolve	Animate opacity, various Channel effects
Transition	Flash	Levels, Tint, solid layer
Transition	Gradient Wipe	Gradient Wipe
Transition	Iris	Iris Wipe
Transition	Linear Wipe	Linear Wipe
Transition	Page Loop	CC Page Turn
Transition	Page Peel	CC Page Turn
Transition	Page Roll	CC Page Turn
Transition	Portals	None (would need to be made/written manually)
Transition	Push	Transform, animate layers
Transition	Slide	Transform, animate layers
Transition	Spiral	Transform, animate layers
Transition	Split	Transform, masking, animate layers
Transition	Squeeze	Transform, animate layers
Transition	Star Wipe	Shape layers, masking
Transition	Swap	Transform, animate layers
Transition	Venetian Blinds	Venetian Blinds
Transition	Warp Flow	Reshape
Transition	Zoom	Transform, animate layers

Useful AE Shortcuts

Shortcut	Name
'	Enable title safe markings in viewport
], [	Set layer start/end point @ playhead
`	Maximize / reset size of panel
B, N	Set work area
C	Camera tool
Ctrl+(hold left mouse)	Preview audio for 10 (?) frames
Ctrl+(scrub mouse)	Preview audio
Ctrl+], Ctrl+[	Cut layer start/end point @ playhead
Ctrl+D	Duplicate layer
Ctrl+Home	Center layer in viewport
Ctrl+Shift+C	Pre-compose layer(s)
Ctrl+Shift+D	Split layer
G	Pen / Feather mask tool
H	Hand tool
LL	Show layer’s audio waveform
Shift+'	Enable grid in viewport
T, R, A, P, S	Transparency (opacity), Rotation, Anchor point, Position, Scale
U	Display animated properties
UU	Display modified properties
V	Selection tool
W	(w)Rotate tool
X	Scroll to selected layer in timeline
Y	Pan / anchor point tool

External AE Resources