Feb 17, 2016 Digital Anarchy Flicker Free AE is a powerful new way to deflicker video.The program solves an issue that's common for many types of video footage, be it from lights/electricity and cameras being out of sync, time lapse or slow motion (high frame rate) video. The plugin is very effective at removing rolling flicker that occurs with LED & fluorescent lights or computer monitors. Software Downloads Get the latest. Purchase info. View website. Free Trial - Each download is a complete copy of the product that you can use for the trial period. Images are watermarked during the free trial. If you like it and find it useful, then you can buy a license to continue using it. Remove the plugin from the Adobe.
Digital Anarchy has just released a watermark-free beta version of their newest plug-in, Flicker Free! It removed flicker from slow-motion and time lapse footage. Check it out!
Flicker Free is a powerful new way of dealing with flickering video. It solves an issue that's common to anyone that does time lapse or shoots slow motion (high frame rate) video.
Based on research that Digital Anarchy co-founder did while at ILM, this new way of deflickering video makes it extremely easy for the end user to fix film and video with these problems. As with all Digital Anarchy products, we strive to create software that produces exceptional, professional results while remaining simple to use.
Currently Only for Adobe After Effects
Use This Serial Number: 2D88F4651F8D83CD12F069B5-D30E (Expires 2/10/14)
For more info please visit DIgital Anarchy's website here!
Posted by Spencer Knuttila
Digital Anarchy has developed a plugin called Flicker Free. Working with FCP, Premiere Pro and After Effects (among others) it very effectively removes flicker from time lapses, slow motion and refresh rate phasing (LED lighting and monitor screens).
Time lapse is a widely used filmmaking technique. It was first made popular during the video DSLR movement and since then a multitude of accessories and software support to improve the workflow has been developed. One aspect of these is flicker reduction software, smoothing out exposure shifts over a long period of time.
I’ve used a few selections that have been great at this process. Similar problems are present in other genres of filmmaking. As these become more popular, many are encountering new forms of flicker on a regular basis. Slow motion and LED lighting have become repeated offenders, as they become more accessible and cost effective. However these are different forms of flicker to the kind we often find related with time lapse.
LED and monitor screen flicker modulate and band. Slow motion can also, stemming from light sources and can be a lot more prominent than exposure shifts within time lapses. For these reasons, the same flicker reduction tools have not always been effective. Where these time lapse specific flicker reduction tools fall short, is where Flicker Free steps in.
Philip Bloom made a tutorial on a DIY method for slow motion flicker removal. This is only effective with certain types of slow motion flicker, where the conflicting light source is strictly on/off (no modulating). Opacity blending frames can also create a kind of motion blur, so the technique is not always effective.
Back onto Flicker Free. The software works by analyzing frames within your image, and how the luminance and brightness values relate with neighbouring frames. It then looks to smooth out these changes by adding light exposure alterations.
The plugin by Digital Anarchy is quick and simple to use, working seamlessly with your parent NLE system. It contains a few presets including time lapse, slow mo and a few different types of LED lights and monitor screens. It then has a few parameters including sensitivity, threshold, time radius and ability analyze channels independently/together. I strongly recommend checking out the instruction manual found here for explanations of how each parameter affects your outcome.
The test footage online is a little hard to determine due to the low quality output, so I put it to some test of my own. Below is a quick example timeline of a few conflicting clips I’ve found in my own archives (some 4 years old!). Pay particular attention to the modulating flicker resolution of clip 2, this is really where this plugin shines as modulating flicker is hard to remove.
It doesn’t remove all of it as you can see, but it does a pretty decent job for the most of it. In regards to the last clip, I thought I’d add three examples – original, preset applied and preset tweaked. This just gives you an idea of what it looks like in comparison to applying one of the untouched presets, and after you have adjusted the parameters to suit your clip.
It’s clear that in some cases you have to tweak the settings to get it just right. For reference, 90% of the other clips were just a preset. There was some flicker I wasn’t able to come close to removing in another clip (frame grab below), caused by my Ice Light. However this modulation was more of a band than a flicker, and I anticipated it would be a little too much for the plugin as the luminance values are very similar throughout the whole clip.
Digital Anarchy states that the larger the bands usually the more effective the plugin will be.
There are quite a few plugins out there that can resolve similar results. However these are usually tied up in expensive software packages. Flicker Free is simply a nice cost effective third party plugin to a NLE system of your choice. Whilst it shouldn’t be relied on as a fundamental part to any workflow, it certainly does well at getting you out of some otherwise awkward situations.
via Philip Bloom