  
| List Price: | | $495 | | Upgrade Price: | | $n/a | | | |  | | |
eLin is an exciting new system for HDR compositing in After Effects. Developed by The Orphanage, Inc and used on several feature films, including HELLBOY, JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, the once proprietary technology eLin is now free for non-commercial use.
What's HDR Compositing?
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. HDR images contain values beyond visible white. When you composite with HDR images, some nifty effect happen due to working with these "overbright" values -- see below for some examples.
How does eLin work?
The Pro version of After Effects features a 16-bit color mode. eLin redistributes this color space to accommodate some overbright values. The result is that eLin images appear dark unless viewed with a corrective layer. Scripts and plug-ins assist you in converting your source material into eLin space, and converting the results back to either video or film color spaces.
“We created eLin to work more organically with film and other High Dynamic Range material,” said Stu Maschwitz, Orphanage CTO, “but we now use it on every project, from A-list movies to commercials.”
“eLin completely changes everything in After Effects and the way I will look at compositing in it forever,” said Joe Pavlo, Visual Effects Supervisor for HBO’s Rome. “I thought I would only be getting this from Shake for a long time to come.”
“One of the principal challenges in using After Effects for high-end work is its lack of floating-point color support,” elaborated Maschwitz. “eLin cheats floating-point performance out of After Effects’ 16 bits-per-channel mode, effectively promoting every basic After Effects function to HDR. Even third-party plug-ins gain a color performance advantage with eLin.”
What are the advantages of eLin?
- Safely round-trip Cineon files without losing any data
- Color correct according to lab specifications (points and stops)
- Basic compositing operations take on a photographic quality
- eLin improves most built-in AE features, like motion blur, depth of field, glows, and even basic transformations
- eLin helps you manage gamma issues, such as images coming from different platforms and sources
- Work with ILM's OpenEXR file format
- EVERYTHING looks better in eLin!
Example images
[View Tutorials from Stu!]
Before #1
A normal After Effects composite using a standard test image. Note how the motion blur of the ball causes the highlights in the hair to appear flat and un-photographic.
Before #2
In this example, the ball is converted into the log space of the Kodak test image. The comp looks better, but it still doesn't look right. Compositing in log space handles some overbrights (the hair highlights), but mixes colors in an unpredictable fashion.
After eLin
In eLin, not only are the HDR highlights handled properly, but the motion blur is lent a realistic, photographic feel thanks to the "true linear" nature of the eLin color space.
Rollover with your mouse to see eLin processed image (may take a moment to load)
Untitled Document
Click here for larger eLin processed image
System Requirements
Adobe After Effects 6.5 Pro Bundle, Mac or PC
More Information on other sites
Support
For online support use eLin Group
Free version vs Commercial version
- The free version is fully fully-functional, with no watermarking or restrictions but can only be used on non-paid, non-commercial projects.
- The commercial version removes the popup window and licenses a single user for commercial.
- To purchase a serial number for the commercial license place your order below. A serial number will be sent to the email used during checkout.
- Site licenses are also available upon request.
Note: eLin has a highly sophisticated tracking device built-in that automatically detects whether any money has been made from its use
|
