Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 648)

642 USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Plug-ins, scripts, and automation
Last updated 12/21/2009
Some plug-in installers—including the installers for Keylight and Color Finesse—install documentation for the plug-
ins in their subfolders in the Plug-ins folder.
Documentation for Cycore FX plug-ins is available on the Cycore website . For more information, see “ Effects overview
and resources ” on page 388.
Documentation for fnord ProEXR plug-ins is available in a PDF document on the fnord website . For more
information, see “ About 3D Channel effects ” on page 430.
Documentation for Color Finesse is available on the Synthetic Aperture website . For more information, see “ Color
correction and adjustment ” on page 279.
C/C++ plug-ins and the After Effects SDK
Many plug-ins for After Effects are written in the C/C++ programming language using the After Effects SDK. Effect
plug-ins written with C/C++ have the filename extension .aex. For information on developing plug-ins for After
Effects with the C/C++ SDK, go to the
After Effects Developer Center section of the Adobe website.
Kas Thomas provides a tutorial on the MacTech website that shows step by step how to write an After Effects plug-in.
Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit
Increasingly, many effect plug-ins for After Effects are written in the Adobe Pixel Bender language. Pixel Bender is
designed to improve the performance of image-processing operations by taking advantage of multiple processor cores;
multiprocessing for Pixel Bender effect plug-ins does not rely on the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously option
being selected.
Effect plug-ins written with Pixel Bender have the filename extension .pbk (for single-kernel effects) or .pbg (for
multiple-kernel effects).
The Pixel Bender language is also used to write effects and filters for use with other Adobe software, including Flash
and Photoshop.
For more information about Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit, go to the Pixel Bender section
of the Adobe website.
Tom Beddard provides several Pixel Bender plug-ins and supporting materials on his subblue website, including a
Droste effect and Fractal Explorer effect .
Where to find more plug-ins for After Effects
For information on plug-ins available for After Effects, go to the After Effects plug-in page on the Adobe website.
Other resources for purchasing and learning to use plug-ins for After Effects include the Toolfarm website and Lutz
Albrecht’s plug-in guide on his Mylenium website .
To exchange plug-ins, scripts, projects, and other useful items with other After Effects users, go to the After Effects
Exchange on the Adobe website.
For other sources of plug-ins, see “ After Effects community resources ” on page 7.