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SmoothKit Release Notes for After Effects

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Autograph
Baselight
Catalyst Edit
Diamant and Dustbuster+
Final Cut Pro
Flame
Fusion Studio
Grass Valley Rio
HitFilm
Media Composer
Motion
Natron
Nucoda
Nuke
Resolve
Scratch
Silhouette
Vegas Pro

Version 4.0.3C | August 6, 2024

  • Fix for Apple Silicon users

Version 4.0.3B | July 3, 2024

  • Updates REVisionActivate v24.06.1, fixes some licensing issues mainly on Windows.

Version 4.0.3A | October 21, 2023

  • REVisionActivate 23.10.0, fixes issue in macOS Sonoma not showing up during installation

Version 4.0.3 | February 2, 2023

  • Windows: Fixes an issue with Microsoft latest runtime
  • Mac: Removes potential error with REVisionActivate and hostname mismatch

Version 4.0.2 | March 22, 2022

  • Fixes a licensing issue in AE 22 and over

Version 4.0.1a | October 27, 2021

  • Installer needed for Mac OS 12 (Monterey)

Version 4.0.1 | October 25, 2021

  • Fixes AE 22 MFR issue

Version 4.0 | September 21, 2021

  • Adds support for M1 systems
  • Adds support for AE MFR

Version 3.5.3a | November 17, 2020

  • installer needed for Apple Big Sur OS

Version 3.5.3 | July 6, 2020

  • Trial version on Windows could crash (licensed version ok)

Version 3.5.2 | June 7, 2020

  • Updated documentation

Version 3.5.1 | October 15, 2019

  • SK Diffuse could crash on application

Version 3.5 | October 9, 2019

  • Mac OSX - Catalina Ready
  • Import Premiere project in AE with our plugins, there could be a parameter offset

Version 3.4.1 | January 14, 2019

  • Fixes a bug of crashing when activating or deactivating the license from within a plug-in.

Version 3.4 | December 3, 2018

  • Implements new RE:Vision Effects licensing scheme.

Version 3.3.5 | March 23, 2018

  • Fixes a bug in Simple Gaussian that didn't properly scale the Y blurring kernel when doing X and Y separately.
  • Fixes a bug in SK Directional with Splines where it didn't work properly sometimes on adjustment layers in AE.

Version 3.3.4 | January 23, 2017

  • Fixes a crashing bug. (Developer note: in premult/straight conversions)

Version 3.3.3 | January 6, 2017

  • Fixes a bug on Macintosh where a message of "PiPL mismatch" was displayed upon loading any of the SmoothKit plug-ins within After Effects.

Version 3.3.2 | October 14, 2016

  • Fixes a bug where SmoothKit Z Blur crashes upon application.

Version 3.3.1 | October 7, 2016

  • Added an update checker for future version updating. The update check runs on the local machine, and must be manually run.

Version 3.3 | July 23, 2014

  • Adds cross OS support with a single registration key.
  • Last version to support AE 7.0, CS3 and CS4, and PP CS4.

Version 3.2.1 | September 13, 2013

  • Fixes an issue with SK Directional and SK with splines when using an alpha channel for a modulator

Version 3.2b | June 17, 2013

  • Adds installer support for Adobe CC.

Version 3.2 | January 8, 2013

  • SK Sharpen: Fixed an issue with Max Deviate Threshold not working with Contrast
  • SK Accumulate: Tent mode did not work properly with Samples not equal to 1.0
  • SK ZBlur: Greyscale Interp mode SquareRoot Falloff could cause a crash in floating point image projects
  • SK ZBlur: Focal Point could be inverted vertically
  • SK ZBlur: There was a possibility to get infinitely large numbers in floating point image projects with real tiny alpha values

Version 3.1 | May 3, 2012

  • Added changes necessary to work in Adobe CS6 applications
  • Multires mode now defaults to "Small Rings Remove"

Version 3.0.3 | April 21, 2011

  • Fixes a bug where SmoothKit can crash.
  • Adds installer support for Adobe CS5.5 products.

Version 3.0.2 | February 22, 2011

  • Fixes a bug where SK Directional With Splines did not work properly on images transprent pixels.

Version 3.0.1 | July 9, 2010

  • Adds floating license capability for Effections floating license purchases.
  • Mac Only: updated August 17, 2010. Version 3.01b fixes a problem where SK Directional with Splines did not properly load in AE CS5.

Version 3.0 | May 11, 2010

  • Added support for 64b for After Effects and Premiere CS5.
  • Significant speed enhancements.
  • Better error handling within Premiere.
  • SK Z Blur: adds Highlights (specular) render controls
  • SK Sharpen is much faster, adds edge suppression. Also changed Multi-Res checkbox to a menu with 2 different types
  • SK Gaussian: Repeat Pixels mode now has better behavior
  • Bloom mode now works properly on images with a non-full alpha
  • SK Directional With Splines: Added "Use Mask Opacity" in menu to be more clear

Version 2.2 | July 28, 2009

  • Fixed a problem in floating point with View Mode set to Deviation Map.
  • Fixed a problem using Deviation Source in SK Gaussian Per Pixel.
  • Fixed an issue using SmoothKit StairCase Suppress with certain Alpha Modes and images with non-full alpha.
  • Fixed a memory leak in SmoothKit Staircase Suppress.
  • Fixed potential issue with SmoothKit Frame Accumulate with large frame windows and AE's Multi-Processing preference turned on.
  • More accurate rendering with SmoothKit ZBlur on images with pixels with non-full alpha.
  • Fixed a problem with SmoothKit Directional pixels if the source had pixels with non-full alpha.
  • Fixed a potential issue in Combustion with SK Directional, Gaussian Per Pixel and Diffuse where Combustion could return an auxiliary buffer not the same bit depth as the main input and cause the plugin to crash. Now a red frame is returned to indicate that your inputs must be the same bit depth.

Version 2.1.1 | February 11, 2009

  • Fixed a bug where large frame times caused SK Sharpen to function abnormally (and perhaps even report an error).
  • Fixed a bug where animating the radius in SK Sharpen did not properly work.

Version 2.1 | January 20, 2009

  • Fixed five plugins in SmoothKit V2 that had a problem with optional image inputs when they were not the same size as main input (bug only seen AE 7.0 and later).
  • Fixed Z Blur so that when no z-depth image is selected that the plugin produces a red frame instead of simply not working (which could cause the plugin to never work properly).
  • SmoothKit Gaussian Per Pixel: fixed a problem where the "Size Modulation Control" was not working as expected.
  • SmoothKit Gaussian Per Pixel: some Process Modes when used with a Max Deviation (threshold) setting of less than 100% would leave a black fringe when an image had pixels with less than 100% alpha.
  • SK Directional Per Pixel: Fix a bug where the alpha of the source was not copied in View Modes other than Blurred Result.
  • SK Directional with Splines: Fixed a bug that, when used, caused Fusion to hang. SK Directional with Splines is not supported in Fusion and now simply does nothing instead of causing Fusion to hang.
  • Fixed a bug in SK Gaussian and SK Staircase Suppress that caused "Repeat Edge Pixels" to not work properly in 16bpc for some host applications.
  • Fixed a bug in SK Frame Accumulate that caused 16bpc mode to not work properly for some host applications.

Version 2.0 | February 14, 2008

  • Projects that used 1.x versions of SmoothKit (SK) will not work with version 2. However, SmoothKit v1 and v2 can reside in your plugins folder at the same time so that old projects will continue to work properly. SK v2 plugin names start with "SK",whereas v1 plugin names start with "SmoothKit".
  • SK v1 Gaussian was renamed in SK v2 to Gaussian Per Pixel Blur to make room for two new blurring tools: Zblur and the simpler-to-use Gaussian.
  • Gaussian Blur now has the option to blur in the vertical and horizontal directions separately.
  • Diffuse Blur adds logical modes "min of max" and "max of min" and edge smoothing control.
  • New Sharpen plugin with a "multi-res" mode that significantly reduces usual sharpening ringing artifacts.
  • New ZBlur tool with extensive greyscale image controls to interactively shape a focus-like effect.
  • In After Effects and Combustion, Directional Blur With Splines is a new tool is included to perform a directional blur using a host's 2D roto splines
  • New compositing alpha handling modes are introduced including "grow alpha" which allows you to blur without creating inner transparency on large blur kernels.
  • A new blur filter mode option, "Bloom", that better preserves highlights
  • New option to extend (repeat) the frame edge or blur it (also necessary to handle processing windows, region of interest (ROI) properly).
  • SK v1 Channel Viewer is no longer necessary because display tools are embedded in each plugin as a View Mode in each plugin. For example, Deviation Modulator being used within a plugin can be viewed using a View Mode such as "Show Deviation Map". In this way we have removed a lot of guesswork as to exactly how Modulator clips are being used within a plugin.
  • More aggressive multi-threading overall (significant speed-up in some cases on multi-core systems).
  • Optimized "smart" processing of rectangles in tools within After Effects 7.0 and later, using AE's smart rect local domain of definition and with automatic alpha-based auto-cropping elsewhere).
  • Support for floating point processing in AE 7 and over

Version 1.4 | May 25, 2006

  • Added Intel support for Final Cut Pro. Read about limitations.
  • On the Macintosh, for all applications except Final Cut Pro you need to delete the previous set of plugins for SmoothKit in your plugins folder, because the name of the plugin files have been changed
  • On the Macintosh users of After Effects 7.0 or later will see a significant improvement on G5 CPUs running Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger).

Version 1.3.2 | August 18, 2004

  • Fixed a problem with crashing and hanging on multiprocessor Windows machines when deleting a plugin from a project or quitting a host application.

Version 1.3.1 | July 9, 2004

  • Fixes a crashing bug with SmoothKit Viewer from within combustion.

Version 1.3 | July 5, 2004

  • Fixes a rare crashing bug.
  • SmoothKit Staircase Suppress now has two extra modes that work only on aliased alpha edges. Previously the plugin could not handle staircases caused by alpha aliasing
  • SmoothKit Viewer now shows up as SmoothKit Channel Viewer.
  • SmoothKit Gaussian now properly handles a max deviation set to 0.

Version 1.2 | September 3, 2003

  • On Macintosh, only MacOS X and later supported
  • Multiprocessor support added for SmoothKit Gaussian
  • Altivec support added for Mac version
  • SmoothKit Temporal did not work in Digital Fusion and Boris Red. Fixed. Works in 16 bpc in DF 4.0+.
  • SmoothKit now works in Premiere 6.5 and above. Note recommended for Premiere Pro to use in Progressive Mode.
  • Avid systems (Symphony, Media Composer, DV XPress, Digital Studio?) via Profound Effects Elastic Gasket now officially supported. Note SmoothKit Temporal won?t work in Digital Studio (requires AVX 1.5)
  • SmoothKit Temporal replaced with SmoothKit Accumulate Frame, which is very much like SmoothKit Temporal but has more options. See manual for more information.

Version 1.1.1 | January 24, 2003

  • Most important change: In order to make workflow easier, we have changed the way you set up modulators for each of the filters. In prior versions, you set the Modulator source to "None" to not use modulators (and when a Modulator Source was set to "None" it did not matter what you set the Modulator Chan to).

  • In order to create easier workflow, all the Modulators by default now use the clip/layer/sequence/composite applied to as the Modulator. All Modulator source settings are labelled "ALT Modulator Source"... so you use "None" when using the clip itself as a Modulator, and point to the appropriate clip when you want a different source. If you want NO modulator, you'll need to make sure the Modulator Chan setting is set to "OFF".

    What to do with old projects to update to version 1.1:
    1. For each Modulator setting that you previously wanted no Modulator.
    The Fix: Make sure that the Modulator Chan setting is set to "OFF." Old projects will not have this setting, so you'll get different (and probably unwanted) results if you don't do this.
    2. For each Modulator setting where you used a Modulator. The Fix:
    The Modulator Chan options will have moved up by 1 (so, for example, a previous Luminance setting will now erroneously read Alpha). The fix: make sure you move the Modulator Chan setting down by 1 in the menu options.

    Why did we do this? Due to a bug/feature in After Effects (other application users were not affected, when a plugin requests a layer via a popup menu (as is the case for modulators in these filters), it gets those images before the application of filters and transformations. So, for example, if you apply SmoothKit Gaussian to "Layer 1" and use another layer, "Layer 2" as a modulator, then any filters or transformations to "Layer 2" will not be applied before its use as a modulator in SmoothKit Gaussian on Layer 1. In order to have filters and transformations applied before use as a modulator, apply the desired filters and transformations to the modulator in another comp (a "pre-comp") , then include that pre-comp into the composition with "Layer 1" and use the pre-comp as the modulator.

    This limitation in After Effects of modulator layers being retrieved without their filters does not apply when the ALT modulator clip is set to "None" (so that you are using the layer itself as a Modulator with all its filters applied). When the ALT modulator is set to "None" then the layer the filter is applied to is used with all the filters above it in the filter stack applied.

  • Gaussian: Now supports individual channel processing. Fixes a bug where a very large size blur could make application crash.
  • Directional: Now correctly handles images with alpha, smearing outside of the matte properly. Fixes some incorrect control channel mapping issues. Adds a new Direction Blur Type which maintains more crisp edges.
  • Temporal: Removes the 5 frames before and after limit (naturally the more frames you use, the longer it will take)
  • Diffuse: Fixes incorrect Inverse Scale Deviation option.

Version 1.0.1 | April 29, 2002

  • Fixed the Chroma option in the Gaussian filter of SmoothKit. (before this fix, erroneous colors were returned in the image when "Chroma" was selected).