General description of ToonIt plugins

Version 1.0 of ToonIt has been very popular since its introduction in June 2007. Version 2.0 includes many effects intended for the first release but were left out because of development time considerations.

There are five plug-ins in the Red Giant ToonIt set. They will appear under the Red Giant ToonIt category or menu in the Effects options of your host application.

- Roto Toon is the primary cartooning tool that creates a full-fledged cartoon image.
- Outlines Only filter is an edge detection version of Roto Toon.
- Goth creates a high contrast effect.
- Blacklight Edges is a stylized edge-detection filter.
- Heat Vision is new to version 2.0. This effect resembles infrared radiation when applied to an image.

The five plug-ins in After Effects' Effect menu.

About Roto Toon

Roto Toon is all of the ToonIt options working together. You will probably use this filter the most. Roto Toon contains the internal rotoscoping and edge detection that together produce a fully realized cartoon effect. There are nine rotoscoping styles that generate color fields, plus three artistic color effect groups. There are two traditional Outline effects and four more stylized Outline effects to choose from.

Go to the Roto Toon plug-in

About Outlines Only

Outlines Only is like Roto Toon with the color fields stripped out. The plug-in contains all of the edge detection algorithms included in Roto Toon. Outlines Only will disregard all the color in the footage and reduce it to black edges against a white background. Choose between Soft edges with mild shading, hard Comic edges, Shadow ink & paint fills, and other styles like Stipple and Woodcut.

Go to the Outlines Only plug-in

About Goth

The Goth plugin produces a high-contrast effect for extreme stylization. The Goth effect is all about reducing an image into three color values — dark, light and midtone — then mixing them into a high-contrast image. Goth makes use of an internal color rotoscoping to create a high-contrast effect for your footage.

Go to Goth Toon plug-in

About Blacklight Edges

Blacklight Edges makes your image stand out as if the edges have been placed under a blacklight. To create this effect, the plug-in runs an edge-detection algorithm on your footage, then maps a specialized color gradient to the resulting edges. Blacklight creates a very stylized look, like the Goth and Heat Vision filters.

Go to Blacklight Edges plug-in

About Heat Vision

Heat Vision is a very simple plug-in that creates a visual effect which resembles infrared radiation images. The plug-in generates a burst of rainbow colors that map themselves to the tonal values of the image. This creates the look of a Heat Vision display.

Go to Heat Vision plug-in