In amongst the 400+ plugins that come with a native installation of After Effects are a few rough gems.  These are plugins that are useful and valueable tools but are too often neglected, or forgotten completely.

In part 2 we examine the following plugins:

• remove colour matting
• channel combiner
• linear colour key
• CC glass
• caustics
• wave world

If you missed part 1, check it out here.

In each video I have an example where I combine multiple effects together to make a preset that can be easily used in the future with one click.  In the first video, I combine the offset filter with CC wire removal to make a preset that seamlessly tiles a layer.  In the second video I demonstrate how to use the channel combiner along with the remove colour matting plugin to create an unmultiply effect within After Effects.  

I have saved both of these as After Effects presets – .ffx files – using version CS5.  You are welcome to download and use the presets here.  Just download, unzip, and copy the two ffx files into the presets folder within the After Effects application folder.

In the discussion of ‘wave world’ and ‘cc glass’ plugins I mention how I used them together to create waving flag – there’s a separate video tutorial that goes through the flag waving project in fine detail here.

Return to After Effects Anecdotes for more video tutorials by Chris Zwar.