Beauty Box After Effects

Beauty Box After Effects
Beauty Box Plugin Download
Beauty Box Video For Adobe After Effects And Premiere Pro

Software Review:

Publisher: Digital Anarchy

Website: Click Here

Platform: PC & Mac

Description: Diffusion Filter

MSRP: $199

Download Demo: Click Here

Samples: Click Here

Expected Release:Available Now

Review Date: January 1, 2010

Reviewed By: Nikc Miller

Final Score:

Beauty Box 1.0 is a new video diffusion filter from Digital Anarchy, a company that got their start creating After Effects plugins, then left that market to focus on Photoshop plugins, and are now getting back to their roots with After Effects plugins once more. As they re-enter the video market with this skin retouching filter, they promise great looking diffusion with an automated user interface. This is a pretty sweet deal considering that most diffusion filters out there simply soften everything (foreground and background) and give the footage an unappealing 'Barbara Walters interview' look. A glance under the hood of Beauty Box 1.0 showed me just what I was missing when it comes to diffusion.

Beauty Box video for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro is a handy plugin designed and developed for After Effects which allows users easy retouching of their Videos. The application turned out in an approach to simplify the whole process and make it quicker and easier for non-designers and non-photoshop users. Beauty Box automatically identifies skin tones and eliminates imperfections, such as digital cosmetics, while leaving significant facial information sharp. It is used by such businesses as Park Road Post Production, NBC, and Universal Music. Beauty Box is a strong tool for virtually any product which needs individuals to look their very best.

A click of the Analyze Frame button, and the settings are automatically set.

Ease of Use
Beauty Box has a very intuitive design. My usual routine for working with new plug-ins is to first see what results I can achieve before reading any documentation. To my surprise, I was able to see great results with just a few clicks.

The workflow of Beauty Box is beautifully simplistic. A click of the 'Analyze Frame' button creates a mask based on the selected frame. In most cases, this is all you need to do. The mask it makes from the start frame produces retouching that's precise enough to clean up most shots. For more intricate results the 'Analyze All' button will analyze each frame and auto-adjust the mask.

A quick view of how Beauty Box masks its images.

Depth of Options
Surprisingly, Beauty Box is packed with tons of options, though its hard to say if you'll ever need to mess with them. Most of these options revolve around perfecting your mask. And while Beauty Box does a great job of automating the process, there's a lot of flexibility that allows for customization. Additional controls for blur and smoothing allow you to tweak the look of your footage. While most diffusion filters give a softness to the entire image, the key feature of Beauty Box is that it diffuses skin tones, and leaves the background alone.

Beauty Box After Effects

Review: Beauty Box for After Effects, Pg. 2

A split screen analysis shows how a little bit of diffusion can really make a shot look slick.
(.A - Beauty Box on left; .B - Uncorrected shot on Right)

Performance
Beauty Box is a choose-your-own-adventure when it comes to performance, mainly because of its range of usability. For quick results, a simple one-frame analysis creates a usable mask yielding pretty great results on your normal interview subject (not much movement). For an editor looking for ultra-specific results, Beauty Box offers the option to analyze the full comp while adding keyframes to each frame for precise masking. The results are pretty incredible.

As with anything, the more in-depth you go with analyzing and keyframing, the more time it's going to take to render this effect. But for the most part Beauty Box runs smoothly and efficiently.

Tested against another diffusion filter Beauty Box just looks better. Notice how theres no fog in the background of the shot effected with Beauty Box.

Value
At $199, Beauty Box packs a lot of value. The diffusion achieved with this filter simply looks great. Adding the auto-keyframing features sends this plugin over the edge by yielding great results in a very automated and user-friendly way. That being said, $199 is a good amount of money for any filter. Analyzing your filmmaking goals will quickly tell you if you are in the market for a diffusion filter of this caliber.

Be warned: Beauty Box is addictive. Once you start using it, you find yourself using it on all of your footage, all of the time. It really makes you wonder how you got along without it.

Final Comments
Digital Anarchy's Beauty Box is proof that not all diffusion filters are created equal. It perfectly balances good looking results with outstanding usability. While it's a great tool for any editor, I would highly recommend it to documentary filmmakers who shoot a lot of interviews.

Ease of Use	10.0
9.0
Performance	9.0
9.0
Overall Score	9.3

Beauty Box Plugin Download

Beauty Box Video For Adobe After Effects And Premiere Pro

Nikc Miller is co-producer of Livelihood, and director and editor of several award winning short films. He currently works as an After Effects Artist at Render Perfect Productions in Baltimore. Nikc specializes in consulting small businesses and entrepreneurs on how to increase their visibility by using video and multimedia.