Prolost EDC

User’s Guide

The Prolost EDC Animation Presets are a set of utility presets that I keep handy for common tasks in After Effects.

Installing Prolost EDC

Prolost EDC requires Adobe After Effects 2020 or later. Some presets may work in After Effects CS6.

  1. Double-click Prolost EDC 2.5.zip to expand it, and open the Prolost EDC 2.5 folder. Inside, you'll find the Prolost EDC folder, which contains the Prolost EDC presets.
  2. Copy this Prolost EDC folder to your User Presets folder. The location of this folder varies with your operating system and your version of After Effects. Locate the User Presets Folder.
    • If you are installing an update, you can copy the new presets right over the old, or move the previous version to a safe location and then install the new version in its place.
  3. Now launch After Effects, and reveal the Effects & Presets panel. Under User Presets, you should see Prolost EDC. Twirl that open to reveal the presets.

The Presets

These tools are simple, and have no dependencies. They’ll keep working even if you uninstall EDC or move a project to another computer that doesn’t have them installed.

Color Correction

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Prolost Levels
Prolost Levels

Supercharged Levels with color pickers, printer lights, more.

Color RGB Gain
Color RGB Gain

Set the R, G and B gain using a standard Color Picker control. A very basic color corrector.

Gray Balance
Gray Balance

One click neutralizes gray.

Motion Graphics

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Prolost Pixel Perfect
Prolost Pixel Perfect

Force a layer to snap to integer pixels. Toggle switches let you constrain Position or Anchor Point values, or both.

Prolost Spanner 2D
Prolost Spanner 2D

Easy and powerful setup for aiming one layer at another. Learn more.

Prolost Front/Back Visibility
Prolost Front/Back Visibility

Easily make a 3D layer's visibility dependent on which side is facing the camera. Learn more.

Prolost Arrow
Prolost Arrow

Draw a customizable arrow on your image. Learn more.

Prolost Array
Prolost Array

Arrange layers in a row or grid. Learn more.

Prolost Pixels Per Frame
Prolost Pixels Per Frame

Animate a 2D layer in X and Y by choosing exactly how many pixels it should move per frame. Learn more.

Rect to Polar
Rect to Polar

Better default values for the Polar Coordinates filter.

Prolost Wiggle Position
Prolost Wiggle Position

A slick UI with some nice options for everyone's favorite expression, wiggle(). Learn more.

Prolost Fast Blur
Prolost Fast Blur

The modern, GPU-accelerated Fast Box Blur, with a slider that works like good old Fast Blur. Learn more.

Line
Line

Default settings and linked parameters turn the Beam effect into a handy line-drawing tool.

Grids

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Grid by Width
Grid by Width

Better default settings for the Grid effect, allowing you to easily set the spacing with a single Width slider.

Prolost Unit Grid
Prolost Unit Grid

Set the Grid effect by number of grid cells in X and Y. Learn more.

Prolost Mosaic by Size
Prolost Mosaic by Size

The same Mosaic effect you know and love, but you can set the size of the blocks in pixels, like a sane person. Learn more.

Editorial

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Prolost Opacity by Markers
Prolost Opacity by Markers

Animate layer opacity with markers. Learn more.

Prolost Stereo Levels
Prolost Stereo Levels

Intuitively animate audio.

Prolost Breakdown Wipe
Prolost Breakdown Wipe

Automate a wipe reveal for VFX breakdowns. Learn more.

Channels

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Shift Channels Red Only
Shift Channels Red Only

Blacks out the G and B channels, leaving only R.

Shift Channels Green Only
Shift Channels Green Only

Blacks out the R and B channels, leaving only G.

Shift Channels Blue Only
Shift Channels Blue Only

Blacks out the R and G channels, leaving only B.

Shift Channels to Black
Shift Channels to Black

Best thumbnail ever.

Shift Channels to White
Shift Channels to White

Second best thumbnail ever.

Shift Channels Alpha to RGB
Shift Channels Alpha to RGB

Moves the alpha channel to RGB, and sets alpha to full-on.

Shift Channels All Red
Shift Channels All Red

Replaces the R, G and B channels with the contents of the R channel.

Shift Channels All Green
Shift Channels All Green

Replaces the R, G and B channels with the contents of the G channel.

Shift Channels All Blue
Shift Channels All Blue

Replaces the R, G and B channels with the contents of the B channel.

Shift Channels to Luminance
Shift Channels to Luminance

Replaces the R, G and B channels with the Luminance of RGB.

Color Space

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HLS Wrapper
HLS Wrapper

A pair of Channel Combiner effects that convert from RGB to HLS and back, allowing you to do operations in HLS space in-between.

Cineon Lin to Log
Cineon Lin to Log

Converts log images to linear light using standard Kodak Cineon settings.

Cineon Log to Lin
Cineon Log to Lin

Converts linear light images to log, using standard Kodak Cineon settings.

Lin to sRGB
Lin to sRGB

Converts linear light images to the sRGB tone curve.

sRGB to Lin
sRGB to Lin

Converts sRGB images to linear light.

Alexa V3 LogC Lin to Log
Alexa V3 LogC Lin to Log

Converts from linear light to Alexa V3 LogC.

Alexa V3 LogC Log to Lin
Alexa V3 LogC Log to Lin

Converts from Alexa V3 LogC to linear light.

Lin to Kodak 2383 Emulation
Lin to Kodak 2383 Emulation

Converts from linear light to Cineon Log, then emulates a Kodak 2383 film print for sRGB preview.

Sony S-Log2 Lin to Log
Sony S-Log2 Lin to Log

Converts linear light to Sony S-Log2.

Sony S-Log2 Log to Lin
Sony S-Log2 Log to Lin

Converts Sony S-Log2 to linear light.

Sony S-Log3 Lin to Log
Sony S-Log3 Lin to Log

Convert from linear-light to S-Log3.

Sony S-Log3 Log to Lin
Sony S-Log3 Log to Lin

Convert from S-Log3 to linear.

Keying

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Linear Color Keep
Linear Color Keep

Shift Channels and Linear Color Key combined to keep the selected color rather than knock it out.

Shift Channels Alpha from Luma
Shift Channels Alpha from Luma

Uses the Luminance of RGB for the alpha channel.

Generators

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VFX Checkerboard
VFX Checkerboard

Creates a low-contrast grayscale checkerboard.

Hue Ramp Horizontal
Hue Ramp Horizontal

Creates a ramp of hues in X.

Linear Ramp Horizontal
Linear Ramp Horizontal

Creates a black-to-white ramp in X, pinned to the size of the layer.

Radial Ramp Corner
Radial Ramp Corner

Creates a white-to-black radial ramp from the center of the layer to the upper left corner.

Radial Ramp Side Edge
Radial Ramp Side Edge

Creates a white-to-black radial ramp from the center of the layer to the left edge.

Changelog

Version 1.0

Initial release including:

  • Color RGB Gain
  • HLS Wrapper
  • Hue Ramp Horizontal
  • Line
  • Linear Ramp Horizontal
  • Prolost Pixel Perfect
  • Prolost Spanner 2D
  • Prolost Wiggle Position
  • Radial Ramp Corner
  • Radial Ramp Side Edge
  • Shift Channels All Red
  • Shift Channels All Green
  • Shift Channels All Blue
  • Shift Channels Red Only
  • Shift Channels Green Only
  • Shift Channels Blue Only
  • Shift Channels to Black

Version 1.5

New Presets:

  • Cineon Lin to Log
  • Cineon Log to Lin
  • Grid by Width
  • Lin to sRGB
  • sRGB to Lin
  • Linear Color Keep
  • Prolost Arrow
  • Prolost Pixels Per Frame
  • Shift Channels to Luminance

Updates:

  • Prolost Pixel Perfect updated to resolve a possible expression error

Version 1.6

New Presets:

  • Alexa V3 LogC Lin to Log
  • Alexa V3 LogC Log to Lin
  • Lin to Kodak 2383 Emulation
  • Sony S-Log2 Lin to Log
  • Sony S-Log2 Log to Lin

Updates:

  • Cineon Lin to Log updated with correct custom name.
  • Prolost Pixel Perfect fixes a bug where it flat out didn’t work.

Version 2.0

New Presets:

  • Prolost Front/Back Visibility
  • Prolost Mosaic by Size
  • Prolost Fast Blur
  • Shift Channels Alpha from Luma
  • Shift Channels to White
  • Shift Channels Alpha to RGB

Updates:

  • sRGB to Lin updated with correct name.

Version 2.5

New Presets:

Updates:

  • Prolost Mosaic by Size bug fixes
  • Radial Ramp Side Edge bug fixes
  • Prolost Stereo Levels is now part of Prolost EDC