BRAW Studio for After Effects is available now

by Nicolas on November 12th, 2019

Learn the basics of our new plugin BRAW Studio for After Effects !

BRAW Studio for After Effects works with two plugins :

The BRAW Studio Importer

First, the BRAW Studio Importer imports the BRAW Source footage into After Effects. There is no way to modify the RAW Parameters on the Source footage that you see in the Project Panel, but we will see in the next section that you will be able to tweak the parameters on each layer instead.

The Importer will decode your footage using the "Camera Metadata" Parameters that were available at the first import of this file through the After Effects session : if there is a .sidecar file next to the .braw file, the importer will decode the footage using the Sidecar values (but if the Sidecar is added next to the file after importing it, you will need to restart After Effects to see the modification applied).

If there is no Sidecar file next to the braw file, then the RAW Parameters inside the .braw file that were set when shooting will be used.

The importer will produce an image in 8bits / 16bits / 32bits according to your Project Settings.

The BRAW Studio Layer Settings to modify the RAW Parameters

Once you added the BRAW Source in a composition, you can add the BRAW Studio Layer Settings effect (available in the effect list in the "Autokroma" category) on your BRAW Layer. It won't work and an error will be raised if the layer is not coming from a BRAW Source file (for example if you precomposed the BRAW Source, then applied the Effect onto that precomposition).

For more information on the BRAW Parameters in the Layer Settings, please read the section about Source Settings in our article "Introduction of BRAW Studio"

Notes :

This effect should be at the top of the list, because any effect before it will be erased : indeed this effect works like a generator (it creates the image, so the image in input of the effect is not used, you will lose it !)

The BRAW Studio Presets are global and accessible whether you are in the Source Settings or Layer Settings, in both Premiere Pro and After Effects. They're all the same and it is a good way to copy RAW Parameters from Premiere Pro to After Effects or vice-versa

You can only apply rectangular masks on your braw layer if the layer settings is applied on it. Solving this on our side would mean drastically reducing performance, that's why we don't plan to fix this behavior. However, to obtain the same result, you can easily precompose your braw layer and create your mask on the composition

BRAW Studio Layer Settings supports 32 bpc (as well as the importer)

Working with Dynamic Link from Premiere Pro

You will be able to use Dynamic Link to work with Premiere Pro, but the RAW Parameters applied in the "Source Settings" of Premiere Pro will not be transfered by the dynamic link when from Premiere Pro you click on "Replace with After Effects Composition".

However, there is a workaround thanks to Sidecar files OR the BRAW Studio Presets feature.

If you export your RAW Parameter in the sidecar (by pressing the button "Update Sidecar" in the Source Settings) BEFORE sending the BRAW file to After Effects via Dynamic Link, then as described in the previous section, After Effects will load the values inside this Sidecar file.

Otherwise, if you already have After Effects and Premiere Pro open, you can apply the Layer Settings on your After Effects BRAW Layer, and then "Load sidecar" or "Load Preset" what has been saved with Premiere Pro.

BRAW Metadata in the comment section

In After Effects, once you apply the Layer Settings to a BRAW Layer, if the "Comment" section of its Source, which is available in the project panel, is empty, it will be filled with some BRAW Information.

For example, you can get in the comment section : "R.1 - S.4 - T.35 - G.0 - CR.12:1"

"R.1" means Reel : 1

"S.4" means Scene : 4

"T.35" means Take : 35

"G.0" means Good Take : false (G.1 would means : Good Take : true)

"CR.12:1" means Compression Ratio : 12:1

If you want to get more metadata here, please contact us !

If you don't want to apply any Layer Settings on top of your .braw, the quickest way to reach the Settings & License Popup is to go into the Interpretation of your .braw (right click in the item in the Project Panel!) and clicking the "More Options" button at the bottom left of the Footage Interpretation popup.

Working with low resolutions to improve performance

To get more performance from BRAW Studio, you should obviously reduce the playback resolutions. But you should choose 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 (1/8 being of course the fastest) instead of other resolutions (i.e. do not choose 1/3). They are faster because they are native to the way Blackmagic RAW file format works : each frame is encoded in the file in a progressive way that makes it really easy to decode it quickly in half, quarter and eighth resolution.

The BRAW Studio Source Settings Panel

Our V2 update of BRAW Studio introduces a new section of our Panel to let you color grade in a more efficient way and with Batch modifications to a selection of .BRAW !

BRAW Studio Version 2 Next Upgrade with Source Settings Panel

Want to know what we're working on ? Discover what's next for BRAW Studio : a brand new Source Settings panel for improved daily workflows !

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