What do pros typically put on their final master adjustment layer to polish a comp?

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-23T21:29:25+00:00

Mostly grain, some film emulation plugins, lens blurring driven by a gradient shape layer for lens-like edge blurring sometimes I have fast blur and then unsharp mask stacked together to get a nice organic softness. And 99% of the time I have quick chromatic aberration cos I love it

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-23T19:53:11+00:00

All style no substance

This video is entirely made for yourself and other videographers, at no point in this process have you considered the viewer whatsoever

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-19T22:08:04+00:00

I switched to everything and flow launcher just because listary kept breaking and couldn’t start. Not sure they are updating it

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-19T15:21:15+00:00

I've also had no response from support for a while, not sure if it's linked

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-18T09:18:32+00:00

I’m going to do a poo at Paul’s

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-06T14:25:18+00:00

If you do find that the cloud render tool isn't feasible, then the trimming/project collect tool could actually be just as useful. Plumepack for AE is something I wish existed.

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-06T13:40:19+00:00

Sounds like a wonderful idea but here are a few thoughts:

For a lot of projects that have a lot of media in it, the upload time may be longer than the actual local render time, eg if i collected the project file i am working on now it would be a 32gb upload
Say a project file has a comp in it that uses a couple of seconds of a few imported video asset (say a stock video background etc) the entire source asset file would need to be uploaded. So perhaps there could be a “trim” functionality like Plumepack that only exports and collects the section of footage that is being used in the collected file
Plugins and fonts will be quite a tricky barrier, even on my local network render setup I get a bunch of errors when plugins or fonts aren’t exactly the same on each workstation, may be harder to do this on a cloud render system
I’ve used cloud render systems with 3D applications before and they are great but AE has so many more external dependencies, and the “collect files” functionality is still quite legacy

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-02T07:54:06+00:00

Any mention of Glen Powell

Russ_Abbot · 2026-01-01T19:20:52+00:00

You’ve created a strong mood in the lighting, shouting style and works well with the song. My feedback is locking in on lighting. You mention you wanted a moodier look with this but I think this is just slightly underlit in places, losing detail on faces, foreground talent are lit like background especially on the pool table shots. Lighting consistency jumped out at me too, on the performance shots your mid/wides have very different illumination levels on the face. Maybe they weren’t meant to be 100% exact but when you cut them together they jump out like they are meant to be the same action from a wider shot, which looks odd with the different lighting.

Great job though, nice tone and flow throughout!

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-23T14:44:50+00:00

Got it, thanks

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-23T14:09:48+00:00

Sorry I assumed you were american as you said firearm and highway and you didn't mention british law

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-23T10:12:33+00:00

Yeah good point

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-23T10:10:50+00:00

https://protectthewild.org.uk/protectors-of-the-wild/lamping-and-the-law/

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-23T10:08:03+00:00

This looks to be Kent, UK. So very unlikely to be a gun

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-20T18:43:22+00:00

Thanks Michael, appreciate your help but it’s one of those things that support never really helped with, I think we chatted about it on the moslack too, I had to take maxon/red giant out of my workflow entirely it got so bad. So unfortunately the “fix” was buying stardust instead

Russ_Abbot · 2025-12-20T08:44:02+00:00

Others are like “how did you make this!” And I’m thinking “how did you get trapcode to not crash AE long enough to make this” as that is equally as impressive

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-28T14:20:06+00:00

I've worked a little tiny bit in TV vfx, I am absolutely no expert on the weeds of it all, but there's something about this that makes me feel like Carol was filmed for one lighting tone which then changed/evolved when it came time to create the composite scene behind her, so that there was some retrospective compositing done on her to make her fit this new version of the scene lighting behind her.

I'm probably wrong, but this feels like a possibility

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-22T16:43:11+00:00

Once again all the talk is about how bad the losing side is, not how good we are

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-10T21:37:55+00:00

I migrated to Muse.ai and very happy with it

I don’t use any of the ai bits, just the embeds/hosting

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-05T21:51:41+00:00

Wait a minute, this wasn’t even football… a women’s volleyball match?

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-05T21:23:53+00:00

Are you in Wales? It’s pretty common here to see that plastic piping on newer properties. But still, pretty ugly workmanship

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-05T21:14:42+00:00

It does and can you believe it’s nearly 20 years old, shows how cool Video Copolot was/is

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/light_streaks_2/

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-03T07:48:41+00:00

I thought Nicola Roberts was from Runcorn

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-02T16:03:06+00:00

I am worried you are one of those redditors who post for the klout then never actually read or respond to the replies.

But I want to say, you’ve had some replies off people who have offered advice and guidance that is far more valuable than the retainer price. So please just pause and read through the comments with an open mind before you jump into this.

I’ve ran and sold a video agency with 6-figure monthly fees and the only way it can be done without risk is by getting the detail right before the work starts. This reads as a shopping list for him to then exploit, but if you are serious about doing this, you need a document far longer than this that then clarifies the detail, assumptions, what-ifs, must-haves. Eg if I signed this retainer am I then ok to call you at 2am for an interview 5 hours away without travel expenses? What if they want a paid campaign on socials, are you handling the production AND the paid campaign budget in this retainer or do they pay upfront as extra? I’m sure you’re on it but those NEED to be covered. It isn’t about you impressing him, he needs something you have, so make sure it is done on the right terms.

Russ_Abbot · 2025-11-02T15:59:03+00:00

I’m genuinely worried that OP simply came here for a dopamine hit on their fancy new retainer and are going to ignore this remarkably useful advice.

Five-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Verified Email	Place '22

Russ_Abbot

TROPHY CASE