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JANUARY 21, 2002 Digital Film Tools 55MM Glass Filter Simulation Plug-ins
Digital Film Tools is an offshoot of Digital FilmWorks, a full-service Los Angeles-based visual effects studio. The tools they sell were borne out of the need to fix typical problems and create specific effects as well as implement a few very high-end features into affordable programs such as Adobe After Effects. This is the case with their Composite Suite set of plug-ins, which we’ll review shortly. It adds many advanced compositing and color correction tools to Avid systems and After Effects. Their latest offering, 55MM, frees the videographer or cinematographer from the need to use glass filters in production by re-creating these in post. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
I have always liked the idea of doing things in post as much as possible. That’s because when you can shoot a clean piece of video or film you are not limited by any process or filter that you have applied at the acquisition stage. When you add a filter to your lens, the effect is recorded permanently and can’t be removed later. On the other hand, if you record your images raw, you can fine tune your footage in post, adding the best effect for the specific program. And since the original footage is clean, you can also re-purpose it later – something you may not be able to due if the image was processed while being recorded. When Digital Film Tools sent us the announcement that they were releasing 55MM, I knew that it would be a very practical package and I was anxious to test it. Not only is it useful for the reasons I mentioned above but it also lets you fix in post problems that you may encounter in production, especially if you needed a specific filter that wasn’t available at the time of shooting. Many times throughout my career I have received footage for editing that had problems such as the wrong color balance, unflattering close-ups and dull skies. While most of these things can be fixed in post with standard tools, the process usually requires hours of tinkering with settings and combining effects. What 55MM does is make this process much easier, putting specific tools at your disposal that can take just seconds to set up.
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