v2.0.x Rowbyte Fast Bokeh Pro

Rowbyte Fast Bokeh Pro creates a smooth Depth of Field bokeh blur using a Depth Map

Rowbyte Fast Bokeh Pro is designed to deliver smooth Depth of Field bokeh blur, utilizing a Depth Map.  It’s very fast, handles edges properly, and is easy to use.

Fast Bokeh Pro for After Effects

Fast Bokeh Pro is a plug-in for After Effects that creates a smooth Depth of Field bokeh blur using a Depth Map. It’s very fast, handles edges properly, is blur radius independent, and easy to use.

Fast Bokeh Pro is also available for OpenFX (DaVinci REsolve/Fusion)

Why Another Lens Blur Plug-in?

Fast Bokeh Pro is different from all the other Lens Blur plug-ins out there because of the following features:

1. Very fast and blur radius independent.
2. Handles edges properly.
3. Gaussian (Faster) or Spherical (HQ) Bokeh Blur

What’s New In v2.0

Fast Bokeh v2 comes with some great new features like Custom Image Bokeh Shapes, Zone Control and most importantly GPU Acceleration using modern technologies like Metal/Compute.

Fast Bokeh Pro Features

Blur Radius Independent

Fast Bokeh’s performance only depends on the image size, but not the amount of blur applied, so you can expect a near-constant render performance.

No Hard Edges

Get expanded object boundaries. Fast Bokeh Pro handles edges as you would expect. There are still limits because the plug-in doesn’t have information about occluded objects in the render, but it does a reasonable job of avoiding hard edges and halos as much as possible.

Smooth Bokeh Blur

This plug-in creates a smooth Gaussian-like fast blur or Spherical shaped Bokeh Blur. Gaussian-like Aperture Blur is lightning quick while Spherical shaped Aperture Blur is a very high quality yet still reasonably quick.

To explain, the spherical Bokeh Blur, while not as fast as Gaussian, is still radius independent and performs well.

32-bit colors

32 bpc is not only supported but also recommended for the best quality.

Focus Point Selection

Use a point parameter to select the focus point automatically without having to enter the focus depth manually.

How Does It Compare To Other Lens Blur Effects?

We recommend you try it yourself, but for reference here is the same scene rendered using AE’s Camera Lens Blur Effect, Frischluft’s LensCare plugin, and Fast Bokeh (Gaussian Aperture and Spherical Aperture).

• AE Camera Lens Blur Effect
• Frischluft’s LensCare
• Fast Bokeh Gaussian
• Fast Bokeh Pro Spherical

The main differences with Crossphere Bokeh are that Fast Bokeh renders much faster but it is less configurable.

Effect Controls

Go to Effects->Rowbyte->Fast Bokeh to apply the effect.

• Blur Radius: The radius of the blur.
• Depth Map Layer: The layer to use as a Depth Map.
• Invert Depth Map: Invert white and dark pixels in the depth map. By default white pixels are background and dark pixels are foreground.
• Focus Distance: Set the current focus distance of the Depth Map.
• Aperture Type: Set the Aperture type to Gaussian (Faster) or Spherical (High Quality).
• Focus Point: Use a point parameter to set the focus depth instead of adjusting it manually.
• Intensity Boost: Boost the color intensity. Useful for large blur radii and transparent images.

Compatibility

After Effects CS6 and Creative Cloud. In summary, tested with CC 2017, CC 2018, CC 2019. macOS 10.8 and above or Windows 7 and above.

Important Note

Use Depth Maps without anti-aliasing for the best results.

Pro Features

Spherical Aperture Bokeh Blur and Quick Focus Point parameters require the plug-in to be registered with a license code. A watermark appears if the plug-in isn’t registered and you’re using the ‘Pro’ features, however, the watermark is visible only when pro features are used.