Joe's Filters: Joe's Gradients

The Joe's Gradients plugin is a part of Joe's Filters, shareware utility and image processing effects for Final Cut Pro.

What it does

This filter simulates the effect of a traditional photographic gradation filter with plenty of aditional options. Gradients can be set from any one color to transparent or between any two colors. The gradient can be set to any angle or length, and can be offset towards or away from the middle. Gradations can be applied with various compositing modes and opacity.

Example Images

Original	default settings plus: to transparent multiply, 100%
Original	default settings at 180° plus: to transparent multiply, 100%
Original
default settings at 33° plus: to overlay, 100%	default settings at 33° plus: to subtract, 100%

The Controls

• Direction

  Sets the direction of the gradient.

• Width

  Sets the thickness of the gradient origin.

  Because this filter uses the FXScript Highlight function, gradients actually fade from a center line out to both directions. Width describes the thickness of the center line of the highlight gradient. This might affect results with large negative offset settings.

• Fade Length (0-300%)

  Sets the length of the gradient relative to the image size.

• Offset (-100 - 100%)

  This setting moves the gradient origin in towards or out from the center of the image.

• Dither

  This is an option for all FXScript gradients. Personally I've never seen it have much of an effect but I left it in anyway.

• Gaussian

  Causes the gradient to use a gaussian falloff instead of a linear falloff. This can look more natural sometimes.

• Foreground & Background

  Color pickers for the start and end color of the gradient.

• BG Transparency

  This checkbox overrides the second color and creates a smooth transition between the first color and complete transparency.

• Mode and Opacity

  Compositing controls to apply the gradient to the original image.

Suggestions

This filter is capable of simulating traditional color gradient filters such as Tiffen's Color Grad filters. I've found the most natural effects come from using desaturated colors and the multiply mode. Subtract can produce some amazing results, similar to cross-processing film. Play around with different colors and composite modes, this filter is very fast so experimenting shouldn't be painful at all.