The easiest film effect that anyone can do

Nate North · Aug 15, 2011

I posted this in another thread over the weekend, but I think it was deleted so...

This is an example of using the "Leave Color" post effect in After Effects. It's very simple to use and can give a unique look to a project. I made this little demo reel in about 15 minutes to show you guys what you can do with your footage by turning a single knob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUNWWF8CyLY

Simply drop the leave color effect onto a clip or adjustment layer in AE, and then dial in your settings.

Dial the amount knob up to 100%
try both RGB and HUE in the settings to see which works best for your clip
Put a hue/saturation effect over it to align the colors from your original clip to best work with the filter.
That's it!

JakeSully · Aug 15, 2011

Awesome video!
That effect is great... Also known to the youtube crowd as the "Sin City effect"

DirtyPicturesTV · Aug 16, 2011

I like the fact that it's much more than a "Sin City" look, as it gives the footage excellent high color contrast and rich blacks. Now I'm gonna use it.

Thanks for the demo.

Cracker Funk · Aug 16, 2011

That footage looks terrific. Yeah, I've always liked this effect; had no idea it was actually easy to do. Thanks for sharing!

Nate North · Aug 16, 2011

DirtyPicturesTV said:
I like the fact that it's much more than a "Sin City" look, as it gives the footage excellent high color contrast and rich blacks. Now I'm gonna use it.

Thanks for the demo.

Forgot to mention, I threw a magic bullet looks No. 85 filter on there as well, so that's what's causing the rich blacks and curves.

If you guys find this kind of thing useful, I can post these micro tutorials every so often.

brianluce · Aug 16, 2011

Anyone pushed some of the lower bit rate AVCHD codecs like this? Wondering how it holds up.
I'm guessing this was shot on a high end platform.

Nate North · Aug 16, 2011

For codecs like AVCHD the leave color filter will actually improve your results, since resolution is your strength and color is your weakness in most cases.

What you wouldn't be able to do is push the blacks so deep, because the pixelization of the low bitstream codec becomes visible when you push it too far in post.

And yes, most of that footage was shot on a red MX.

Blade_Jones · Aug 16, 2011

Another one is this glowing effect. I forget what it's called but it causes the whites to glow out. As I remember it's a freeware effect.

Nate North · Aug 16, 2011

There are literally hundreds of these plugins, so it's hard to know which you mean. But perhaps I'll post a starglow demo as well. You can use that effect in conjunction with optical flares to create a better synthetic anamorphic lens look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ADbeH-pT4Q

Cracker Funk · Aug 16, 2011

Nate North said:
If you guys find this kind of thing useful, I can post these micro tutorials every so often.

Blade_Jones · Aug 16, 2011

Joe's Filter. That's what it was.

brianluce · Aug 16, 2011

Nate North said:
If you guys find this kind of thing useful, I can post these micro tutorials every so often.

Please do, with emphasis on micro. AE is a bear. Feed us with a baby dropper kind sir!

DirtyPicturesTV · Aug 17, 2011

Nate North said:
Forgot to mention, I threw a magic bullet looks No. 85 filter on there as well, so that's what's causing the rich blacks and curves.

Fortunately, I have Looks! :yes:

Thanks.

Nate North · Aug 18, 2011

If you're not too good with colorist work yet, Magic Bullet looks is a good way to get canned post effects in minutes. It's surprisingly versatile for a prosumer solution, and I recommend it for filmmakers starting out.