0106 Toonit Manual.Indd

Give film/video a cartoon look.

ToonIt! for Film/Video

Four great plugins for After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Premiere Pro

[ from: Digital Anarchy] [render code by] f/x tools for revolutionaries

www.digitalanarchy.com ToonIt! Film/Video: Table of Contents

Introduction to ToonIt! 1 Easy, believable cartooning 1 Breakdown of ToonIt! filters 1 Roto Toon filter 1 Outlines Only filter 2 Goth filter 2 Blacklight Edges filter 2 Installation & Specs 2 Support & Registration 3 Where to find the tools 3

ToonIt! and Speed 4 Multi-processing support 4 Example of speed tests 4 Final Cut Pro notes 4 Note about FCP render times 5 Note about interlaced footage 5 How to work with ToonIt! speed 5

Filter 1: Roto Toon 6 About this manual 6 About Roto Toon params 7 Blur Type section 7 Blur Type 7 Blur Radius 7 Blur Thresh 7 Blur Quality 8 Roto section 8 Roto 8 Flatness 9 Simplicity 10 Roto Quality 10 Strength 10 Level 11 Temporal Fix 11

Halftone section 11 Halftone 11 Dot Size 11 Dot Quality 12 Blur Outline section 13 Use Main Blur 13 Outline Color 13 Blur Type 13 Outline Blur Radius 13 Outline Blur Thresh 14 Blur Quality 14 Soft section 14 Soft 14 Soft Strength 14 Soft Thickness 15 Soft Outline Quality 15 Comic section 16 Comic 16 Comic Sensitivity 16 Comic Strength 17 Comic Thickness 17 Comic Antialias 17 Comic Outline Quality 17 Shadow section 18 Shadow 18 Shadow Threshold 18 Shadow Antialias 18 Tint Foreground 18 Stipple section 19 Works with Blur params 19 Stipple 19 Stipple Density 20 Stipple Threshold 20

Fine Tune params 21 Lighter 21 Blend with Original 21 Filter 2: Outlines Only 22 About this manual 22 About Outlines Only params 23 Fine Tune params 23 Outline Color 23 Blend with Original 23 Blur section 24 Blur Type 24 Blur Radius 24 Blur Thresh 25 Blur Quality 25 Soft section 26 Soft 26 Soft Strength 26 Soft Thickness 26 Soft Outline Quality 26 Comic section 27 Comic 27 Comic Sensitivity 27 Comic Strength 27 Comic Thickness 27 Comic Antialias 29 Comic Outline Quality 29 Shadow section 29 Shadow 29 Shadow Threshold 29 Shadow Antialias 29 Stipple section 30 Stipple 31 Stipple Density 31 Stipple Thresh 31

Filter 3: Goth 32 About this manual 32 About Goth params 33 Color section 33 Type 33 Color 33 Level 33 Color Width 34 Blur section 34 Blur Type 34 Blur Radius 35 Blur Thresh 35 Blur Quality 35 Fine Tune section 35 Blend with Original 35 Filter 4: Blacklight Edges 36 About this manual 36 About Blacklight Edges params 37 Edge section 37 Color 37 Edge Width 37 Invert 37 Blur section 38 Blur Type 38 Blur Radius 38 Blur Thresh 38 Blur Quality 38 Fine Tune section 39 Blend with Original 39

Introduction to ToonIt! Finally! An easy way to give video footage that sought-after cartoon look. ToonIt! uses advanced algorithms to process your image and create cartoon shading and lines. ToonIt! plugins free you from time consuming techniques like rotoscoping and hand painting.

ToonIt! analyses an image, then reduces its color palette and detects where the important edges are. The edges are used to shape and control areas of color. ToonIt!ʼs edges can be rendered to produce a pen & ink look. Use ʻedges onlyʼ options to create a realistic line drawing. Combine diﬀerent styles and outlines to create even more variation. Voila: youʼve been toonʼed.

This plugin set is a collaboration between Digital Anarchy and the technology company Toonamation.

Easy, believable cartooning

Achieving a cartoon look with other methods is time- consuming and limiting. ToonIt! gives you the power of new technology designed by Toonamation speciﬁcally for animators and video editors. An easy- to-use interface and custom controls give you unlimited ﬂexibility. No other cartooning solution produces such good results with so little work.

Using the four filters in ToonIt!, you can effortlessly cartoon in several different styles, including: Flat Cartoon, Graphic Novel, Comic Noir (b&w), Half-Tone (dots), Stipple, High Contrast, Line Art and Neon Edge.

Breakdown of ToonIt! filters

There are four plugins in this package. The primary tool is Roto Toon; you will probably use this filter the most, as it creates a full-fledged cartoon image. The Outlines Only filter is an edge detection version of Roto Toon. Goth creates a high contrast effect. Blacklight Edges is a stylized edge detection filter.

Roto Toon filter Roto Toon is the full ToonIt! package working together. This filter contains the internal rotoscoping and edge detection composited together to produce a fully-fledged cartoon effect. Three rotoscoping algorithms plus a half-tone effect, the entire Outlines set, individual blurring and detail parameters… The works!

Outlines Only filter This ﬁlter contains all of the edge detection algorithms included in ToonIt! This will disregard all the color in the footage and reduce it to edges on a white background, which can be kept as is or composited back onto the original footage. Soft Edges with mild shading, hard Comic edges, ink & paint Shadow ﬁlls, and noise Stippling are all included and are fully customizable.

Goth filter This filter will run the internal rotoscoping algorithm to flatten the entire image into three colors, a dark, a light, and a midtone. You can change the algorithm used, the midtone color, and how much or little the image is affected. This produces a very high contrast effect for extreme stylization.

Blacklight Edges filter This ﬁlter will run the ToonIt! edge detection algorithm on your footage and map a specialized color gradient to the resulting edges, making your image stand out as if the edges have been placed under a blacklight.

Installation & Specs

ToonIt! is supported on Mac 10.3.9, 10.4, and 10.5 +higher, and runs natively on Intel Macs. The plugins are supported in Windows 2000, XP Pro, XP Home, Vista 32-bit, and Vista 64-bit.

On Mac systems, ToonIt! works in After Eﬀects 5.5 +higher, including AE CS3. It is also compatible with FCP 4.0 +higher and Motion 2.1 +higher. On Windows and Vista systems, ToonIt! works in After Eﬀects 5.5 +higher, including AE CS3. It is also compatible with Premiere Pro 2.0 +higher.

Installation is simple and directed towards your host applicationʼs Plugins folder. For help installing ToonIt!, please refer to our installation guide. You can download that document here: www.digitalanarchy.com/toon/ToonIt- Install.man.

Support & Registration

Registration occurs when you purchase the ﬁlter. We register you in our database using the contact information you supplied upon purchase, and the serial number weʼve given you. If you need a serial number, installer, or any other material support, just contact [email protected].

We hope that you ﬁnd ToonIt! to give you all the control you could want, while simple enough that you can set everything up in a few minutes. Itʼs our desire to make sure youʼre satisﬁed with your purchase. If you have any questions, comments, or whatever, weʼd love to hear them. Send an email to [email protected].

If youʼre having trouble with ToonIt!, please make sure to go through the intro video tutorials available at www.digitalanarchy.com/toon/toon_tutes.html.

Where to find the tools

ToonIt! filter names are prefixed with ʻToonItʼ. In After Effects and Premiere Pro, the ToonIt! filters appear in a Digital Anarchy sub-menu in the Effects menu. In Final Cut Pro and Motion, the filters will appear under a ʻDigital Anarchyʼ folder in the Video Filters bin.

About Render Speed ToonIt! is an very render intensive product. Using the default values, we have averaged around 2-3 seconds per frame for SD footage, and about 12-13 seconds a frame for HD footage on both PCs and Macs.

Multi-processing support

We are working towards faster speed upgrades and multiprocessing support, which will be available in ToonIt! 1.1, a free update for owners of the product. Version 1.1 will include speed upgrades and optimization along with multiprocessing support.

However, ToonIt! will never be a real-time or even a semi-real time product, so please plan your render time accordingly. Check our website www. digitalanarchy.com for a timeline on the update.

We are aware of ToonItʼs speed and are committed to improving the render times. However, we are even more ﬁrmly committed to making sure that the quality of the results are rivaled only by manual rotoscoping. This is what makes ToonIt! stand out and makes the product worth using.

Quality vs Speed

ToonIt! is a quality vs. speed effect. It requires a lot of processing to create the effect and keep all the frames consistant over time. Other cartooning effects, including the Cartoon filter in our PlasmaFX plugin set, use Posterization algorithms to create a quick and dirty cartoon effect. This is pretty fast but doesnʼt create as nice of a look and there tends to be a lot of jitter from frame to frame.

One of the main features of ToonIt! is its ability to create a smooth animation over time with very little jitter. The smoothness and consistancy of the results is really only matched by hand rotoscoping. If you compare ToonIt vs. doing this eﬀect by hand, itʼs actually a very fast process, even if you have to render out a sequence over night.

Another wonderful aspect of ToonIt! is how it holds up when dealing with human faces. This is one of the most diﬃcult kind of images to sell digitally and where most cartooning ﬁlters fall apart. ToonIt! provides pretty spectacular results and again, that is a reason that its render time is high.

Example of speed tests

In our tests on a dual 1.8 ghz PPC Mac, we are averaging about 5-6 seconds a frame using SD footage. This was using default settings in Roto Toon. On the Mac Pro Dual 2.6 Intel Xeon processors, our tests were averaging around 4 seconds a frame. We experienced similar times under Windows XP Pro. Vista 32- bit was a little faster than XP because itʼs 64-bit. This refers to RAM previewing as well the ﬁnal output render.

Speed releases will be addressed in a free version 1.1 update. However, ToonIt! will never be a real-time or even semi-real time product. Itʼs too render intensive.

Final Cut Pro notes

Due to the way Apple handles FxPlug plug-ins and the way Final Cut Pro handles the Canvas video display, ToonIt! is extremely slow in FCP 5.1.4 and below. We were unable to build in the proper workarounds to make the rendering times faster in FCP 5.1.4 and below. That improvement is also coming in the free 1.1 update.

Apple seems to have ﬁxed the video display issues in FCP 6.0 (part of Final Cut Studio 2). This means that ToonIt! is faster in FCP 6.0 and higher.

Note about FCP render times FCP likes to give really rough render time estimates while rendering. The app usually starts at the worst-case time scenario and then gradually chips time away from the estimated ﬁnish.

As you work with ToonIt!, keep this factor in mind when you evaluate how long the render will actually take: Does the render dialog start at 25 hours and stay there? Or does the time estimate gradually start going down as the render progresses (such as saying 20 hours after a few frames have been rendered, then saying 13 hours after a few more frames have rendered a few minutes later).

Note about interlaced footage Right now, we recommend deinterlacing any interlaced footage and completing all ToonIt! work in a Progressive frame state.

For instance, in relation to our FCP render time note above, the speed issues are mainly generated by FCP forcing ToonIt! to render twice per frame, once for each ﬁeld. By working with progressive footage, you can instantly cut the render times in half.

Tips for ToonIt! speed

So you have ToonIt! set up for a 30 minute production. The visuals look great. You hit the ʻRenderʼ button and your host app calculates that a ﬁnal render will take almost 3 days…! Yikes.

Render in Sections For something as long as 30 minutes, we recommend doing it in sections or splitting up the rendering between machines. ToonIt! is actually quite stable; weʼve worked out all of the crashing bugs and memory leaks, so you donʼt need to worry about the product crashing during render.

Render as image or Targa sequence For a long project that has huge render times, you could render the project out as an uncompressed image or Targa sequence. That way, if anything goes wrong during the render, you will have all of your frames up to the crash intact, and not be left with a corrupted QuickTime .mov ﬁle. You could then start rendering from the frame where everything went wrong and not have to re- render everything all over again.

After you get your full image sequences, just pop them back into After Effects or Premiere and render the sequence out with your final target codec of choice. Rendering out image sequences takes no time at all; the only drawback is that image sequences can take up more disk space than a compressed movie file while initially rendering everything.

Work at half-resolution Here is another way to change your workﬂow to speed things up. The ToonIt! eﬀect looks very similar at lower resolutions as it does at full resolution. You can set everything up at half (or even quarter) resolution and then wait until you go to lunch to render out the full sequence.

Composite using other layers If youʼre trying to composite other effects on top of a ToonIt layer, render out the ToonIt effect and use the render in your timeline instead of the layer with ToonIt! applied to it. You can then turn off this rendered layer and use the original layer when you do the final render.

Evaluate your footage

ToonIt! will do its darned best to ʻtoonifyʼ your footage with a minimum amount of tweaking when you ﬁrst apply it. The results of this toonʼing, however, are largely based on the quality of your footage. As with most things graphic, the better your source material, the better your ﬁnal results.

Visual information is brought out by good lighting, attention to composition, and the quality of the capture. For instance, capturing directly to a hard drive when shooting will produce much better results than capturing oﬀ a DV tape. You will get a cleaner image with less image grain. The better your results, the less initial tweaking youʼll have to do to get a good, solid toon.

ToonIt! tends to give a better image when working with progressive footage. When possible, try deinterlacing your footage ﬁrst, render out a Toonʼed sequence, then import that into your ﬁnal interlaced project.

Filter 1: Roto Toon

Roto Toon contains the internal rotoscoping and edge detection composited together to produce a full-fl edged cartoon eff ect. Three rotoscoping algorithms plus a half-tone eff ect, the entire Outlines set, individual blurring and detail parameters…The works!

About this manual

Our screenshots for Roto Toon will show an After Eff ects CS3 interface. However, the parameters look and work exactly the same in Final Cut Pro, Motion and Premiere Pro. This page After Eff ects 7.0/CS3 screenshot shows the fi rst eight Roto Toon parameters in each host application. When there is a diff erence in host apps, we will highlight that information in this manual.

After Eﬀ ects 5.5-6.5 screenshot

Final Cut Pro screenshot

Motion screenshot Premiere Pro screenshot

About Roto Toon params Roto Toon parameters fall into some basic categories: Blur, Roto, Halftone, Outline, Blur Quality, Soft, Comic, Shadow and Stipple. Each section is described below according to its group. A few uncategorized parameters are discussed in our ﬁnal Fine Tune section.

Blur Type section

This group of parameters sets the Blur style and properties used Blur Type parameters by the rotoscoping algorithm.

Blur Type Select between a Box Blur or a Gaussian Blur for the rotoscoping algorithm to use. Box will generally give you better final results than Gaussian, which tends to soften the image. Both blur methods are present to give you a choice when creating your final effect.

Blur Radius Sets the radius of the selected blur type. The higher this is, the less color detail will be apparent in the footage, or the color areas will blur together better.

Original footage.

Blur Radius at 3 (the default). All other Blur Radius at 15. There is less detail in the params at defaults. footage; especially in the background foliage, details are blurred together.

Blur Thresh Threshold of the blur effect. How much of the footage is actually affected by the blurring before being passed to the rotoscoping algorithm. The higher this value is, the more of the frame will be affected.

Blur Thresh at 15 (default). Blur Thresh at 30. At a higher value, more blurring Other params default. occurs. The shadows in the girlʼs scarf arenʼt as deep, and the background leaves appear softer. Blur Quality Menu to switch between a Fast and High Quality blur. Leave this set to Fast so that any parameter tweaks or interaction is relatively quick, then set it to High prior to rendering.

Roto section

This group of parameters sets the type of rotoscoping algorithm used by the Roto Toon ﬁlter. There are options to controls the appearance and behavior of the Roto algorithm.

Roto The meat of the Roto Toon plug-in! This menu allows you to select exactly which rotoscoping algorithm youʼd like to use with your footage. There are three settings to choose from. Roto parameters Use Roto1 The smoothest of the group. Blends analogous colors into smooth ﬁelds and holds the color true over the course of your footage. Uses Flatness and Simplicity parameters.

Use Roto2 A little rougher than Roto1, but preserves more detail and highlight information in the ﬁnal render. Deactivates the Flatness and Simplicity parameters and uses the Strength and Level parameters.

No Roto Bypasses the initial rotoscoping algorithm. Gives you a rougher set of color ﬁelds with higher detail, but no customization other than the Blurring controls.

Roto1. This setting gives the smoothest Roto2. This rotoscoping style preserves more imagery. Other params default. Use Flatness detail in your footage. Use Strength and Level to and Simplicity to customize results. customize results.

Flatness This spreads the color ﬁeld bands out across the footage. Flatness makes highlights and shadows stand out a lot more, but also reduces the depth of the frame. The higher this is, the more ʻﬂatʼ the footage appears. Activated with Roto1.

TECH NOTE: Though Flatness can go to 60, itʼs really recommended that you do NOT go above 20. This is for the sake of speed and overall quality of the eﬀect. The amount of quality that you generate above 20 isnʼt worth the speed crippling. No Roto. Higher level of detail, but no way to customize the results because all Roto options are grayed out. Roto1, Flatness at 1. Other params default. Roto1, Flatness at 20. All other params default. The shadows and highlights are subtely more visible; look at her brighter forehead and darker hair.

Simplicity Controls the amount of color detail left in the frame. The higher this is, the less detail youʼll be able to make out in ﬁelds of color. Activated with Roto1.

Simplicity at 2, Roto1. Other params default. Simplicity at 25 (the limit). Notice how detail in the foliage is lost, and the womanʼs face looks slightly blurred. Roto Quality Set this to Fast in order to speed up the interactivity of the plug-in and to speed up render times. The trade-oﬀ to the boost in speed is the reduction of the ﬁnal render quality.

WORK TIP: One way of working with this option is to set Roto Quality to Fast while setting up the effect. Switch back to High just before the final render to use Roto Toonʼs full effect.

Strength Sets the visual strength of the eﬀect, making the separation between the dark, midtone and highlight segments more deﬁned. The lower this value is, the more blended together theyʼll appear. Activated with Roto2.

Strength at 100%, Roto2. Strength at 10%. There is less of a contrast Other params default. between lights and darks, which makes the footage look lighter overall.

Level Level controls the shape of the shadows and highlights in the ﬁnal Roto2 render. If Level is low, then the shadows are smaller/narrower. If it is high, the shadows become larger and more pronounced. Activated with Roto2.

Level at 90, Roto2. Other params default. Level at 10. The footage looks washed out because the shadow range is narrower.

Temporal Fix While this checkbox is on, Temporal Fix preserves minor details such as highlights and ﬁne edges after the rotoscoping algorithm has been run. Turn this option oﬀ for a fully softened frame.

Halftone section

This group of parameters sets and deﬁnes a stylization called Halftone. ʻHalftoneʼ is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of equally spaced dots of varying size. Halftone parameters The halftone process creates a basic optical illusion, in which these tiny halftone dots are blended into smooth tones by the human eye. Typically, halftone refers to a printing process; here we are referring to an onscreen visual.

Halftone Checking this will activate a Halftone stylization to be rendered along with the toon rotoscoping. The dots will actively size and position themselves based on the luminance of the frame.

Dot Size Determines the size of the halftone dots. The default is 3.

Halftone on. Dot Size at 3 (the default). Dot Size at 1.

Red/Green/Blue Angle

Individually determines the ʻprintingʼ angle of the separate halftone dot colors. This is really just a stylization choice.

Dot Quality The Fast setting allows you to quickly render the halftone. High produces a high quality version for the ﬁnal render. Original image.

Halftone on. Red/Green/Blue Shifting the R/G/B Angles by Angles set to defaults. 5 degrees changes the look of the image.

Blur Outline section

This group of parameters sets the Blur properties used by the Outlines created by our rotoscoping algorithm.

Use Main Blur Keep this option checked to pass the Blur settings from the Roto section down to the Outline section of the plugin. (Those Blur Outline parameters parameters are Blur Type, Blur Radius, Blur Thresh, and Blur Quality.) The same parameters in the Outline section are grayed out if Use Main Blur is checked.

Uncheck this if you want to have separately styled Outlines and Rotoscoped color fields. This will activate Blur Type, Outline Blur Radius, Outline Blur Thresh, and Blur Quality in the Outlines section. Use Main Blur turned off. Outline Color This sets the final color of all the edge detection results. The default color is black.

Blur Type Select between a Box blur or a Gaussian blur for the edge detection algorithm.

Outline Blur Radius Sets the radius of the selected Blur Type. Raising this value will result in less deﬁned edge areas, especially in shaded areas. Basically, the Outline is less present at higher values. Outline color set to deep red.

Outline Blur Radius at 1. Other params default. OBR at 30. The absence of dark areas between the tree shapes makes them less deﬁned.

Outline Blur Thresh Threshold of the blur effect. How much of the footage is actually affected by the blurring before being passed to the edge detection algorithm. The higher this value is, the more that the frame will be affected.

Outline Blur Thresh at 2. Other params default. OBT at 30. The trees and grass appear blurred together The trees and grass have dark lines for deﬁnition. without lines providing deﬁnition between their shapes.

Blur Quality Menu to switch between a Fast and High Quality blur. Leave this set to Fast so that any parameter tweaks or interaction is relatively quick, then set it to High prior to rendering.

Soft section

These parameters determine the detail level of Roto Toonʼs edge detection, which Outlines the cartoon ﬁelds.

Soft Soft parameters Checking this enables the Soft outline edge detection method. This option generates ﬁne edges with soft areas of shading. Turning on Soft activates Soft Strength, Soft Thickness and Soft Outline Quality.

Turning off Soft removes the shape outlines that are present by default. This parameterʼs activation causes a definite shift in visual stylization. TECH NOTE: With Soft unchecked, Outline Color has no effect.

Soft Strength Determines the amount of soft shading present in the frame. If Soft Outline Quality is set to High, the ﬁnal eﬀects are more detailed than with Fast Quality turned on. The lines might be a bit more aliased in the lower Quality setting.

Soft turned on. Soft Strength at 0 (default). Soft Soft turned oﬀ, which removes the dark lines Thickness at 2 (default). Other params default. that are typically present.

Soft Strength at 100. Soft Thickness at 3.

Soft Thickness Determines the thickness of the major Soft edges. This parameter has a very narrow range, from 1 to 3. If Soft Outline Quality is set to High, the ﬁnal eﬀects are more detailed than with Fast Quality turned on. The lines might be a bit more aliased in the lower Quality setting.

Soft Outline Quality Determines the quality of the eﬀect. Set it to fast for better interaction while tweaking, and set it to High for the ﬁnal render.

Along with the varying render speeds, the Quality setting will determine how precise and defined the Soft effect looks. For instance, Soft Outlines at Fast Quality wonʼt look as defined as the ones at High Quality.

Comic section

This group of parameters sets and deﬁnes a stylization called Comic. You can think of ʻComicʼ as looking like the pencilled and inked edges of a graphic novel; black lines with no direct shading. In Roto Toon, this stylization varies depending upon how you set up the Comic parameters.

Comic Comic Outline parameters Produces harsh comic-book style edges with a little rough shading.

Turning this option on will activate the Comic parameters: Comic Sensitivity, Comic Strength, Comic Thickness, Comic Antialias and Comic Outline Quality.

Comic Sensitivity Determines how much detail will be picked up by the edge algorithm. Raising this will increase the amount of edge detail, adding in the color of Outline Color.

By default, this parameter is set to 50%. Lowering the value considerably, like to 10 or 20%, may cause the parameter to Original Roto Toon image. have no eﬀect. Raising the value to 100%, will saturate the image in the Outline Color because so much edge is added.

The higher the Sensitivity, the denser the comic outlines will appear in the dark areas. For instance, in our example below, notice how the color of the womanʼs shirt changes with Color Sensitivity. The lines start ﬁlling in around the darker parts of the image as the value goes higher.

Comic Sensitivity at 80. Other params default. Comic Sensitivity at 90.

Comic Strength Determines how heavily the Comic lines are drawn. Increase this for a heavier woodblock/linotype eﬀect. The default is 50%.

Comic Thickness Sets how thick the Comic lines are drawn. The value is limited to 1 (thinner) or 2 (thicker). The default is 2.

Comic Antialias A percentage slider for the ﬁnal result antialiasing to help tone down any jagged edges.

Comic Outline Quality Determines the quality of the eﬀect. Set it to fast for better interaction while tweaking, and set it to High for the ﬁnal render. The default is 75%.

Comic Strength at 70. Other params default. Comic Strength at 90. Linotype/woodblock stylization.

Comic Thickness at 1. Other params default. Comic Thickness at 2. Lines are a little thicker.

Shadow section

These parameters add an effect that we call ʻShadowʼ. Roto Toon Shadows fill in the cartoon color fields with a dark value. This can quickly create a dramatic effect.

Shadow Shadow parameters Check this to enable to Shadow edge detection effect. This will find the shadows of the image and fill them in with as much of the Outline Color as it can. Turning on Shadow activates three parameters: Shadow Threshold, Shadow Antialias and Tint Foreground.

Shadow Threshold Sets how much of the image is actually being ﬁlled in with the shadow. The lower the value, the less the shadow ﬁll. The default is 50%.

Shadow Antialias A percentage slider for the ﬁnal result antialiasing to help tone down any jagged edges. The default is 75%.

Original Roto Toon footage.

Shadow Threshold at 20. Other params default. Shadow Threshold at 30.

Tint Foreground Tint Foreground is a more extreme Lighter parameter. Tint Foreground leaves the footage colors but wipes out darks. It was built to ﬁll in the missing darks within Shadow outlines.

TECH NOTE: If Shadow and Tint Foreground are turned on and Shadow Threshold is set to 0, the Tint eﬀect will be applied to the whole image. Tint Foreground overrides all other color eﬀects, except the Halftone checkbox.

Shadow and Tint Foreground turned on. Shadow and Tint Foreground turned on. Shadow Threshold at 20. Other params Shadow Threshold at 0. This makes Tint default. apply itself to the whole image, not just the Shadow areas. Stipple section

These parameters set and deﬁne a stylization called Stipple. ʻStipplingʼ is the technique of using small dots to simulate varying degrees of solidity or shading. This technique produces shaded line art illustrations in drawing or painting, in addition to being a printing and printmaking technique. In Roto Toon, our Stipple params create varying densities of noise to simulate that look.

Works with Blur params Stipple params can work nicely with the Blur parameters. In general, keep this concept in mind: The higher the Blur, the more random the Stipple noise generation.

Lowering the Stipple Thresh gives the stippling a lot of definition; it makes the noise more refined and shaped towards the initial subject. If you raise the Blur a bit and boost the Stipple Thresh to above 30, the noise will appear to “flow” more over the image, not holding as true to the original shapes. This can be an interesting stylization for the right footage.

Stipple Check this to enable stippling. This option will use varying densities of noise to shade the image. Turning on Stipple activates two parameters, Stipple Density and Stipple Thresh. Stipple parameters

Stipple Density Determines the amount of shading will be used in the image. This visually deﬁnes the stylization. Increase for higher contrast and heavy noise. The default is 50%.

Stipple Threshold Sets how much of the image is aﬀected by the stippling. The default is 50%.

Original Roto Toon footage.

Stipple Density at 60%. Other params default. Stipple Density at 80%.

Stipple Threshold at 30%. Other params default. Stipple Threshold at 50%.

Fine Tune params

Youʼll ﬁnd these two parameters mingled among the other sections in the Roto Toon palette. These eﬀects are special in and of themselves, so they get their very own section!

Lighter

Lighter is sort of its own beast. This parameter is a Weʼve actually been using the Lighter parameter combination of effects intended to lighten flesh tones throughout this manual. Our original footage without making colors desaturated. Lighter still leaves was a little too dark. Whenever we have indicated in the darks of your footage. Using Lighter, a cartoon ʻOther params defaultʼ, that statement was true effect could look like the Sunday comics, especially after except for Lighter, which was set to 20%. outlines are overlaid.

Lighter will raise the brightness of the frame via a percentage value to take care of any unwanted color blending in the tooning process. The more analogous two colors are, the more likely theyʼll get blended by the roto process. By raising the Lightness (or brightness), you reseparate out those colors a bit.

This parameter is also a good way to ﬁx your footage if it looks too dark. Kind of a low-level Brightness ﬁlter without any mid-tone control.

Blend with Original Lighter at 0. The Lighter at 50. The footage Percentage slider that will fade the results back into original Roto Toon. is lighter/brighter. the original image. This slider is located at the bottom of the parameter list.

Blend with Original at 30%. Blend with Original at 60%.

Filter 2: Outlines Only

Outlines Only is all edge detection algorithms. This ﬁ lter will disregard the color in your footage and reduce it to edges on a white background. The white can be kept as is, or composited back onto the original footage.

About this manual

Our screenshots for Outlines Only will show an After Eff ects CS3 interface. However, the parameters look and work exactly the same in Final Cut Pro, Motion and Premiere Pro. After Eff ects 7.0-CS3 screenshot This page shows the fi rst eight Outlines Only parameters in each host application. When there is a diff erence in host apps, we will highlight that information in this manual.

After Eﬀ ects 5.5-6.5 screenshot

Final Cut Pro screenshot

Motion screenshot Premiere Pro screenshot

About Outlines Only params Outlines Only parameters fall into some basic categories: Blur, Outline, Soft, Comic, Shadow and Stipple. Each section is described below according to its group. A few uncategorized parameters are discussed in the Fine Tune section.

Similar to Roto Toon, this filter can produce a variety of customizable effects: Soft Edges with mild shading, hard Comic edges, ink & paint Shadow fills, and noise Stippling. In fact, you will recognize most of the parameters from their appearance and behavior in the Roto Toon parameter list. In some ways, Outlines Only is Roto Toon with the color options stripped away.

Fine Tune params

Youʼll ﬁnd these two parameters mingled among the other sections in the Outlines Only palette. Fine Tune parameters Outline Color Sets the ﬁnal color of all the edge detection results. The default color is black. This color well is located at the top of the parameter list.

Blend with Original Percentage slider that will fade the results back into the original image. This slider is located at the bottom of the parameter list.

Original footage.

Outlines Only applied. All params defaults. Outline Color set to a reddish-brown color that we eyedroppered from the source footage.

Blend with Original at 40%. Outline Color is black. Blend with Original at 80%. Outline Color is reddish- Other params default. brown. This creates a very subtle cartooned image.

Blur section

This group of parameters sets the Blur style and properties used by the Outlines Only rotoscoping algorithm.

Blur Type Blur parameters Select between a Box Blur or a Gaussian Blur for the rotoscoping algorithm to use. Box will generally give you better final results than Gaussian, which tends to soften the image. Both blur methods are present to give you a choice when creating your final effect.

Blur Radius Sets the radius of the selected Blur Type. Raising this will result in less deﬁned edge areas, especially in areas with shading.

Blur Radius at 1. Other params default. Blur Radius at 10.

Blur Thresh Threshold of the blur effect. How much of the footage is actually affected by the blurring before being passed to the edge detection algorithm. The higher this value is, the more of the frame will be affected.

Blur Thresh at 3. Other params default. Blur Thresh at 30.

Blur Thresh at 5. Blur Thresh at 25.

Blur Quality Menu to switch between a Fast and High Quality blur. Leave this set to Fast so that any parameter tweaks or interaction is relatively quick, then set it to High prior to rendering.

Original footage.

Soft section

This group of parameters determines the detail level of Outline Onlyʼs edge detection, which creates Outlines around the cartoon ﬁelds.

Soft Soft parameters Checking this enables the Soft outline edge detection method. This generates ﬁne edges with soft areas of shading. This option is turned on by default. Deactivating Soft will turn oﬀ Soft Strength, Soft Thickness and Soft Outline Quality.

Soft Strength Determines the amount of soft shading present in the frame. The default is 50%.

Soft Strength at 10. Other params default. Soft Strength at 90.

Soft Thickness Determines the thickness of the major Soft edges. The default is 1.

Soft Outline Quality Determines the quality of the eﬀect. Set it to fast for better interaction while tweaking, and set it to High for the ﬁnal render.

Soft Thickness at 5. Other params default.

Soft Thickness at 5. Other params default. Soft Thickness at 10.

Comic section

This group of parameters sets and deﬁnes a stylization called Comic. You can think of ʻComicʼ as looking like the pencilled and inked edges of a graphic novel; black lines with no direct shading. In Outlines Only, that visualization depends on how you set up the Outline parameters.

Comic Comic parameters Produces harsh comic-book style edges with a little rough shading. Turning on this option will activate Comic Sensitivity, Comic Strength, Comic Thickness, Comic Antialias and Comic Outline Quality.

Comic Sensitivity Determines how much detail will be picked up by the edge algorithm. Raising this will increase the amount of edge detail. The default is 50%.

Comic Strength Determines how heavily the Comic lines are drawn. Increase this for a heavier woodblock/linotype style eﬀect. The default is 50%.

Comic Thickness Sets how thick the lines are drawn. The default is 2. Comic Sensitivity at 60%. Other params default.

Comic Sensitivity at 80%. Other params default. Comic Sensitivity at 90%.

Comic Strength at 10. Other params default. Comic Strength at 100.

Comic Thickness at 7. Other params default. Comic Thickness at 15.

Comic Antialias A percentage slider to help tone down any jagged edges in the ﬁnal result.

Comic Outline Quality Determines the quality of the eﬀect. Set it to fast for better interaction while tweaking, and set it to High for the ﬁnal render.

Shadow section

This group of parameters adds an effect that we call ʻShadowʼ. Shadows in Outlines Only fill in the cartoon color fields with a dark value. Comic Strength at 80%. Other params default.

Shadow Check this option to enable to Shadow edge detection effect. This will find the shadows of an image and fill them in with as much of the Outline Color as it can. Turning on this option activates Shadow Threshold and Shadow Antialias. Shadow parameters Shadow Threshold Sets how much of the image is actually being filled in with the shadow. The default is 50%.

Shadow Antialias A percentage slider for the ﬁnal result, to help tone down any jagged edges from aliasing. The default is 70%.

Shadow Threshold at 40%. Other params default. Shadow Threshold at 50% (default).

Shadow Threshold at 30%. Other params default. Shadow Threshold at 40%.

Stipple section

This group of parameters sets and deﬁnes a stylization called Stipple. ʻStipplingʼ is the technique of using small dots to simulate varying degrees of solidity or shading.

This technique is popular as a means of producing shaded Stipple parameters line art illustrations in drawing or painting, in addition to being a printing and printmaking technique. In Outlines Only, our Stipple params create varying densities of noise to simulate that look.

Something to note about Stipple is that its diﬃcult to preview at Half or Low resolution. To get an idea of how the eﬀect will really look, you will need to look at a Full or High resolution preview, even just for a frame or two.

LEFT: Half resolution preview in After Eﬀects.

RIGHT: Full resolution preview. Stipple turned on. Other params default.

Stipple Density at 60%. Other params default. Stipple Density at 80%.

Stipple Check this to enable stippling. This will use varying densities of noise to shade the image. Turning on Stipple will activate Stipple Density and Stipple Thresh.

Stipple Density Determines the amount of shading will be used in the image. Increase this for higher contrast and heavy noise. The default is 50%.

Stipple Thresh Sets how much of the image is aﬀected by the stippling. The default is 50%.

Stipple Thresh at 60%. Other params default. Stipple Thresh at 90%.

Filter 3: Goth

Goth will run the internal rotoscoping algorithm to flatten the entire image into three colors, a dark, a light, and a midtone. You can change the algorithm used, the midtone color, and how much or little the image is affected. This produces a very high contrast effect for extreme stylization.

About this manual

Our screenshots for Goth will show a Premiere Pro interface. However, the parameters look and work exactly the same in After Effects 7.0-CS3 screenshot After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Motion. This page shows the Goth parameters in each host application. When there is a difference in host apps, we will highlight that information in this manual.

After Eﬀects 5.5-6.5 screenshot

Final Cut Pro screenshot

Premiere Pro screenshot Motion screenshot

About Goth params Because the Goth ﬁlter creates a very stylized look, its parameters are more limited than Roto Toon and Outlines Only. There is a Blur section as with all of the ToonIt! ﬁlters. Most of the other options are color related.

Color parameters Color section

The Goth eﬀect is all about reducing an image into three color values - dark, light and midtone - then mixing them into a high contrast image. This group of parameters chooses color behavior.

Type Selects which Goth algorithm will be used. Goth 1 has a heavy low color, while Goth 2 allows for more of the midtone to leak through the ﬁnal result.

Original footage.

Goth1 is Type. All other options at defaults. Goth2 is Type. All other options at defaults.

Color Color well that sets the color of the midtone. The default is red.

Level Sets the threshold or ʻdepthʼ of the Goth effect. At a high value, the image will fill with white. At a lower value, the image will fill with black.

The Blur Quality setting determines the amount of detail that is aﬀected. The subjectʼs edges wonʼt hold as true to the original image at a lower Fast Quality than at the High Quality setting.

Level at 20. Goth1 is Type. Color Width at 50. Level at 70. Goth1 is Type. Color Width at 50.

Level at 20. Goth1 is Type. Color Width at 30. Level at 70. Goth1 is Type. Color Width at 100.

Color Width Sets how wide the midtone color appears in the ﬁnal render. A higher value will ﬁll more of the frame with the midtone color.

Blur section

This group of parameters sets the Blur style and properties used by the Goth rotoscoping algorithm.

Blur Type Blur parameters Select between a Box Blur or a Gaussian Blur for the rotoscoping algorithm to use. Box will generally give you better final results than Gaussian, which tends to soften the image. Both Blur methods are present to give you a choice when creating your final effect.

Blur Radius Sets the radius of the selected Blur Type. A higher Blur Radius will make the eﬀect more noticeable along the edges of the subject in your footage. It will also make the ﬁner edge details disappear.

Blur Quality Menu to switch between a Fast and High Quality blur. Leave this set to Fast so that any parameter tweaks or interaction is relatively quick, then set it to High prior to rendering.

Fine Tune parameter Fine Tune section

Thereʼs only one ʻleftoverʼ parameter in the short Goth list.

Blend with Original Percentage slider that will fade the results back into the original image. This slider is located at the bottom of the parameter list.

Original footage.

Blend with Original at 40%. Goth2 is Type. Blend with Original at 70%. Level at 40, Color Width at 70.

Filter 4: Blacklight Edges

Blacklight Edges will run the ToonIt! edge detection algorithm on your footage, then map a specialized color gradient to the resulting edges. This makes your image stand out as if the edges have been placed under a blacklight.

About this manual

Our screenshots for Blacklight Edges will show a Premiere After Effects 7.0-CS3 screenshot Pro interface. However, the parameters look and work exactly the same in After Effects, Motion and Final Cut Pro. This page shows the Blacklight Edges parameters in each host application. When there is a difference in host apps, we will highlight that information in this manual.

After Eﬀects 5.5-6.5 screenshot

Final Cut Pro screenshot

Premiere Pro screenshot

Motion screenshot

About Blacklight Edges params Like the Goth ﬁlter, Blacklight Edges creates a very stylized look. This means its parameters are limited compared to Roto Toon and Outlines Only. There are Blur options, Edge options, and the ever-present Blend with Original parameter.

Edge section

Blacklight Edges maps a color gradient to the edges it detects in your footage. This group of parameters chooses the appearance of those edges. Edge parameters Color Sets the color that is mapped to the edges. The color will be arranged in a varying gradient on the edges, mapped with its complementary color directly at the extreme outside parts of the edges.

Edge Width Sets the width of the rendered edges.

Invert Inverts the edge eﬀect. Original footage.

Color is default red. Color is blue. Edge Width at 3.0. Color is still blue but Invert is Edge Width at 1.0. turned on. Edge Width at 2.0.

Blur section

This group of parameters sets the Blur style and properties used by the Blacklight Edges rotoscoping algorithm.

Blur Type Select between a Box Blur or a Gaussian Blur for the rotoscoping algorithm to use. Box will generally give you better final results than Blur parameters Gaussian, which tends to soften the image. Both blur methods are present to give you a choice when creating your final effect.

Blur Radius Sets the radius of the selected Blur Type. A higher Blur Radius will smooth out the segment edges between the low, mid and high colors. The edges will become more rounded, especially if you have Blur Thresh set higher than the default value.

Blur Thresh at 5. This image Blur Thresh at default 20. Color Blur Thresh at 35, which is the has sharper, extra details. is blue. Edge Width at 3.0. value limit. This image is softer.

Blur Quality Menu to switch between a Fast and High Quality blur. Leave this set to Fast so that any parameter tweaks or interaction is relatively quick. Set it to High prior to rendering.

Fine Tune section

Thereʼs only one ʻleftoverʼ parameter in our Fine Tune list.

Blend with Original Percentage slider that will fade the results back into the original image. This slider is located at the bottom of the parameter list. Fine Tune parameter

Blend with Original at 40%. Blend with Original at 70%. Original footage. Color is light gold. Edge Width at 2.0.