What are your Top 3 Go-To Matchboxes? I’ll go first…

I think this was the tool to project onto position passes.
Lewis wrote so many great tools, including my own favorite: LS_Contacts
I’ve said it many times: @lewis for President.

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Sticking things on Ppass renders from 3d or action. For moving objects anything with rest in world space as a sep aov will work as well. Just link a camera…

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What I use on an almost daily basis:

Postman Multi
LS Lumps
Coloured Frame

And seasonal like for Crok Beer at Xmas because it makes the most wonderful glitter.

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My go-to’s

K_BlurMask
A2_Beauty
The Noise

runners up-
Y_Glows
All the ADSK utility shaders - Dropshadow, ColorCorrect, Image

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Wait a second. Isn’t MasterGrade a matchbox?

That thing has pretty much replaced my colourCorrect node.

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Yes it is. Would be on my list of most used Matchboxes by a mile.

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If you could do front back matte I would use it more often. However, anything tricky I always just jump into log and everything is nailed by colour correct and colour warper.

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Almost use is.

  • Wireless
  • Edge Blur
  • Crok Beauty
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I have no idea how to use A2 Beauty. Every time I open it up, I take one look at the results and think it’s just a frequency separator that doesn’t seem to work.

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I think I need to go and watch a video or two that explains A2 Beauty.
I have always used crok_beauty and as a result didn’t give A2 enough time

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Also if you have a fxphd subscription:

Class 2 of https://www.fxphd.com/watch/?idCourse=573, Christoph using A2Beauty

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Much appreciated @allklier - watched the videos. It bothers me that I can see the edge. I used to use a spark for beauty work called o-gi by photron in japan. Then I watched some photoshop tutorials and got into frequency separation in a big way. It’s pretty good with a dollop of paint. Feels like working with a canvas.

I have always felt that Ls Ash doesn’t do as good a job at sharpening than Filter or Adsk matchbox sharpen. However, by accident I discovered that the new Ls lumps does a better job at sharpening than all of them.

You nerds should have a play with the matchbox called equaliser

Enables you to sharpen/blur different bands of detail.

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Do you mean this @PlaceYourBetts Shader: crok_equalizer

*discreet *edit
I gave it a go but I think the Lumps method has the edge - give it a try

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To do this I usually use the “laplacian” method.

Yes, tools like A2Beauty can be useful if you have to move fast, and if you use a light touch. But anything that blurs and sharpens leaves artifacts if you drive it too hard. Just the nature of the process.

As you wrote - frequency separation by itself isn’t the solution, but if you use it as a wrapper around paint or other tools, it can make the end result superior.

At the end of the day there are no short-cuts. We’ve tried for centuries without luck. You want good results, need to put the elbow grease in.

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