ISF4AE
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baku89
After Effects Plug-in enabling to use GLSL written in ISF as an effect
ISF4AE - Interactive Shader Format for After Effects
After Effects plug-in to allow using a GLSL code written in Interactive Shader Format as an effect. In short, it's an effect to build effects by yourself -- without struggling with complicated C++ SDK.
Additional ISF Specification
Since ISF was originally designed for real-time purposes such as VJing, it has some issues that do not meet After Effects'charasteristics. This section describes how the plug-in interprets ISFs and works with After Effects. The following explanation assumes that you have already understood the specification of ISF.
Limitations
At present, the plug-in does not support several types of inputs, persistent buffers, and custom vertex shaders. It also has a maximum of 16 inputs (exclude "inputImage" and reserved uniforms "i4a_" as mentioned later).
Supported Input Types
Note that "event", "audio", and "audioFFT" are not yet supported currently.
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"bool": displayed as a checkbox. -
"long": displayed as a dropdown list. -
"float": displayed as a slider by default. You can specify a type of UI by setting either constant below as a property"UNIT".-
"default": just a scalar; the value will be passed as it is. -
"length": represents a length in px. It is also displayed as a slider, but the value will be mapped from 0...<layer's width> to 0...1 when it is passed to a shader. -
"percent": displayed with "%" suffix. The value will be bounded as a uniform with divided by 100. For example, 50% in the Effect Controls panel will be passed as 0.5 to the shader. -
"angle": displayed as an angle input, and the range of value will be mapped so that radians in OpenGL coordinate (Y-up right-handed) fit with a direction that the rotary knob UI is pointing. The internal conversion from AE to GLSL is equivalent to the following formula:radians(90 - value).
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"point2D": represents a position in px. It will be mapped to OpenGL's normalized coordinate; (0, 0) at the bottom-left corner, (1, 1) at the top-right corner of the layer. -
"color": displayed as a color picker. -
"image": displayed as a layer reference input.
ISF Built-in Uniforms
Here are how the plug-in determines ISF built-in uniforms' values:
| Uniform | Description |
|---|---|
TIME |
When you load a shader referring to this uniform, the hidden parameters appear in the Effect Controls panel. You can use either layer time or custom value. |
TIMEDELTA |
Always set to a value that equals to an expression thisComp.frameDuration |
FRAMEINDEX |
Equivalent to TIME / TIMEDELTA, or TIME * (fps). |
ISF4AE-specific Uniforms
Inputs whose names begin with i4a_ are reserved by the plug-in. When you define the inputs shown below, the plug-in automatically binds values that would be useful to access the status of the Preview panel from a shader.
| Name | ISF Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
"i4a_Downsample" |
point2D |
Downsampling factor in Preview panel. For instance, the value is set to (0.5, 0.5) in half resolution. |
"i4a_CustomUI" |
bool |
Set to true when the effect requests an image for Custom Comp UI, which is only visible when you click and focus the effect title in the Timeline / Effect Controls panels. The pass returned by a shader will be overlayed onto the result layer.NOTE: you cannot refer to any image inputs on this pass. |
"i4a_UIForegroundColor""i4a_UIShadowColor" |
bool |
For referring After Effects' current color scheme to draw Custom Comp UI. Only available when i4a_CustomUI is true. |
"i4a_UIShadowOffset" |
point2D |
Same as above. Unlike user-defined inputs, the range of value is not normalized and will be passed in absolute px. |
"i4a_UIStrokeWidth""i4a_UIVertexSize" |
float |
Same as above. Passed in px. |
How to Build
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Clone this repo including its submodule, as shown below:
# At the root folder of SDK
cd Examples/Effect
git clone https://github.com/baku89/ISF4AE.git
cd ISF4AE
git submodule update --init
- Open the Xcode project and build it. The binary will automatically be copied under
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore/.
License
This plug-in has been published under an MIT License. See the included LICENSE file.
Similar Projects
- PixelsWorld: Scripting environment that supports Lua, GLSL, and shadertoy.com.
- Pixel Blender Accelator: A plug-in to run Pixel Blender, a shader format supported in Adobe products previously, in modern versions of AE.
- AE-GLSL: Working-in-progress repository by cryo9, which hinted me how to interoperate OpenGL and After Effects SDK.
Acknowledgments
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mizt, 0b5vr: They gave me many advices for handling AESDK/OpenGL.
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Patricio Gonzalez Vivo: One of my reason for being hooked on shaders is his cool project The Book of Shaders. This plug-in once aimed to support the format of its editor.
baku89