CE PixelSampler
Take your compositing techniques to the next level! Better keying, auto collision detection, event triggers, and many more! This one is a must see!
When I first started working with After Effects, I came across a difficult problem in which I didn’t want to solve it by animating keyframes by hand. As usual, I applied expressions to the problem, but at the time, expressions didn’t really solve it the way I wanted either. Now, with the release of After Effects CS3, my vision has come to life. I have created the CustomEffects that utilize the new sampleImage expression. These CustomEffects have made my job easier and I hope that they’ll help you as well.
This tutorial will show you how you can simplify the keying process, trigger expression events to control layers of your choice, and even do an automatic collision detection. Possibilities are endless.
Warning!
sampleImage expression seems to be unstable in some cases, and since PixelSampler is based on that expression I strongly recommend saving your work before doing a RAM Preview.
Below you can download probably the most powerful preset package ever released. This package includes:
- PixelSampler (grab a color from a pixel or a range of pixels)
- ColorSampler (compare two colors and see if they match)
- ColorHSL (calculates hue, saturation, and lightness for use with expressions)
- MatchingValues (compare any two values and see if they match)
This tutorial focuses on PixelSampler, but other CustomEffects are also mentioned. They are build so that people who don’t like expressions could still take advantage of them. Take ColorHSL for example. This converts RGB values to HSL. This can be easily done by using expressions, but using this CustomEffects simplifies the process by allowing to use the pickwip tool and point to one of the HSL values.
If you don’t know how to handle my CustomEffects make sure to wait till the end of the tutorial and to read this short article.
Download: PixelSamplingPowerPack_win.zip (After Effects CS3)
Download: PixelSamplingPowerPack_mac.zip (After Effects CS3)
Hi George :-)
Yes, we would like some more presets, so work on your deployment tool and post some tutorials more often.
Your secret fan
Kopiart said this August 18th, 2007 at 7:16
both download adresses are same(mac version)
plz upload a ‘win’ version.
p.s. anyway I am a your secret student. (of course ^^)
p.s2. One day (as soon as it possible) i want to donatate for your great website.(I mean our school!!!)
secret student said this August 20th, 2007 at 16:40
Sorry for that. The link should work now. And by the way… you could also use the Mac version if you follow my instructions on “What CustomEffects are” page that you can find on the right hand side of my site.
I’m an very happy that my tutorials are helpful. Keep visiting me and keep writing comments. They keep me going. When I see comments I know that someone is actually learning from my tutorials.
Cheers and good luck with your After Effects!
Maltaannon said this August 20th, 2007 at 17:17
Hello Jerzy,
what a very nice tutorial and I think it is really great to share it with everyone!
A few years ago I made a 35 mm SLR groundglass simulation, complete with an analogue exposure needle and an effect that simulated the mirror flipping up when a picture was taken. I manually keyframed the needle to point completely down when the image went black because of the flipping mirror and I also applied a wiggle expression to the rotation of the needle to make it look like it was responding to the changing luminance of the subject that was “photographed”.
Now I can use your prestes for this!!! I could even make an all digital scale and drive the values for f-stop or shutterspeed by the luminance or grayscale values of the pixelsampler. (When I have installed production premium cs3 ofcourse, which was delivered yesterday by UPS to my doorstep).
Lot of compliments (also for the other tutorials, they are really great)
Robbert-Jan van der Does said this August 23rd, 2007 at 18:27
Hey there-
This tutorial was awesome. It answered some “Is that possible?” questions that I had. I’m really impressed with the work you’re doing - I know how hard putting these tutorials together can be. And the whole custom effects thing is very exciting as well.
Thanks so much for your contributions to the After Effects community. Keep up the good work!
Best regards,
Aharon Rabinowitz
Aharon Rabinowitz said this August 23rd, 2007 at 21:07
amazing!
i´ve watched the most of you tutorials - being impressed!! but pixelsampler is … wow!! you had me already with the “keyin thing” (taking the value of an color-area for the key color) and now i see this is just the beginning. possibilities for ps seem to be endless. i can´t wait for my cs3 to be installed to play with it…
thank you for this!! R.
hey, get a mac and build the installers for the rest of us ;-)))
Roggy said this August 24th, 2007 at 10:22
Hello Jerzy
This tutorial is a high level and really simple to understand. I had a fun time. Professional/simple/humourous, this tutorial is a must see.
Thank you.
Daum said this August 28th, 2007 at 8:02
Hi,
this is a very usefull tutorial! And Aharan himself wrote a comment here! You, Aharan and Andrew are my AE gurus!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
massimiliano said this September 5th, 2007 at 19:44
Hi all!
I am really excited. Keep up the great work. Good resources here.
G’night
kiloutimuk said this September 13th, 2007 at 3:27
Hi Jerzy,
This is a very useful Tutorial you have done here.
A must see)
Cheers,
Thorsten
http://www.StrongMocha.com/
(DFX (Digital Effects) VFX (Visual Effects) Compositing Food)
Thorsten Meyer said this September 15th, 2007 at 11:15
I very appreciate your tutorial and your modesty.
Is very generous to care about mac user!
Thank you
Lucien said this September 19th, 2007 at 20:36
Man, your tutorials are great..and I think that your ideea regarding the custom effects is a great one and will help many people.
Thanks for sharing your knolweage
vucheria said this September 23rd, 2007 at 15:44
Hey Maltaannon!
this is just a gr8 stuff. Thnx4it.
Regards…..Sandy
Sandy said this October 16th, 2007 at 21:02
Hi Maltaanon.
Recently I download your Pixel Sample custom effects, everything works just like you explain in your tutorial, but I don’t know why when increase the value of width and height the point source no change at all, and when write the expression on th text layer nothing happens. please help. I have some ideas with this custom effects.
Sorry my english is bad.
I hope more new stuff from you
Greetings from Costa Rica, Central America
CR Chis said this October 26th, 2007 at 1:01
Same problem here :(
Lorenzo said this October 26th, 2007 at 18:33
I’m very happy that you find my PixelSampler interesting. Are you sure you’re dropping the PixelSample preset to an empty area of the comp window? Make sure you do. After that a new ShapeLayer will be created. If you don’t get that than you’re doing something wrong.
If you don’t have an empty space in your comp window than just create a new empty ShapeLayer and drag the PixelSampler to that layer in the timeline window.
I hope this helps.
Maltaannon said this October 26th, 2007 at 19:57
The problem was an error in the expression. I wrote a bad word on this. The problem in the value of width and height is there, but the Pixel Sample works fine. Thanks a lot.
I hope you make more interesting tutorials.
CR Chis said this October 27th, 2007 at 5:54
Yo te leo desde tijuana, tus tutoriales son geniales, muchas gracias por tu interes.
R
Cuando logre obtener ganancia economica con los conocimientos aprendidos en tu “school” te remunerare.
Gracias y Salud!
ramses said this November 27th, 2007 at 23:47
I’m new to After Effects, so I’m quickly trying to absorb as much as I can. Your tutorials and presets are excellent; aside from being very creative and clever, I really enjoy your sense of humour and you’re just a really nice guy. Thanks for sharing so much - I really appreciate it and will certainly make a donation. Cheers from Canada!
sheathe said this December 18th, 2007 at 1:31
Hi Maltaannon.
Just wanted to say thanks for the tutorials, they’ve taugh me alot. You CE presets are awsome, i would like to see all presets written this way, it’s so much easier to deal with. Pixel/color sampler looks great too, i will porberly use it for keying. Nice Robot render too ;)
Thanks alot for the effort, and watch out for George’s mental health ;p
Etum said this January 13th, 2008 at 9:32
Wait, there are no XML files in the windows edition zip, can i use the ones from the mac edition? Because they don’t show up as “missing” in AE.
Just wanted to let you know, i’m going for the Mac ones :)
Best wishes from Denmark.
Etum said this January 17th, 2008 at 6:06
Okay, sorry for the multiple comments. Just wanted too say; i used your installer, and it works perfect. Thanks alot. *off to play*
Etum said this January 17th, 2008 at 6:13
Thanks, I am your new student.Hope to get cool tutorials. Keep in touch.
yared said this February 7th, 2008 at 7:01
genius!!!!
michelegavazzeni said this February 23rd, 2008 at 20:12
Hi Maltaannon, another amazing tutorial you made there :D
It costed me some time to install and check everything, but it was double worth it ! I’m looking forwards to your DVD
Cheers from Holland
Bob said this February 29th, 2008 at 19:15
Hi Maltaannon, I think the Pixel Sampler is great. But I am having the same problem as CR Chris above. When I originally installed Pixel Sampler it worked as per your tutorial but now it won’t work at all. I have tried creating a new shape layer and aplying the preset without success. I hope you can help because I think it is awonderful tooi for keying.
Ian Hayward
AUSTRALIA
I.Hayward said this March 12th, 2008 at 23:15
Somehow I never get across those problems you describe, and I’m testing it with many different machines whenever I have a chance, so forgive me but I think you must be doing something wrong. Don’t create a Shape Layer - just drag PixelSampler onto the comp area, but not on any layer. It should do it’s job. If not - let me know.
Maltaannon said this March 13th, 2008 at 8:04
I have tried both methods, ie creating a shape layer and by dragging the preset into the Comp area, but still it won’t work. I have also removed and reinstalled the preset a few times but still noresult. I’m wondering if any one else is experiencing this problem. As I said previously, when I first instaled the preset it worked. Even now when I open up the original AE project that worked, it no longer functions. Any help wouuld be gratefully appreciated.
regards
Ian Hayward
AUSTRALIA
I.Hayward said this March 13th, 2008 at 11:05
Do you get any error messages, or it just doesn’t work? Contact me via the Contact Form in the contact section please. I’ll write you back and then you’ll be able to send the the project file. Maybe that will get us somewhere.
Maltaannon said this March 13th, 2008 at 12:15
How don’t I install this preinstall, turns on the software to have the problem which the similar expression makes a mistake?
sdfa said this April 8th, 2008 at 17:37
I first time install the preset,and got this problem.Whatever I installed,like 3Dextrude or PixelSampler,got the same error prompt:
After effects warning: Undefined value used in expression.Could be an out of range array subscript?
expression disabled.
error occurred at line 0;
Comp:”Comp 1″
layer:…..
Property:’Reference Point’
My AE CS3;
Windows OS;
johnbaby said this May 10th, 2008 at 13:13