Update the Add Grain effect to use GPU and 32-bit

[ckuehne]

I need to apply grain frequently in my work to clean plates I’ve created, and it needs to match the 6k/4k HDR plates I’ve been provided. I prefer Add Grain to Match Grain, as it’s quicker and more accurate for me to manually set it. Because of the size of the plates, and the lack of GPU acceleration in this plug-in, it’s the main bottleneck in my rendering speed, plus 32-bit would help with color fidelity. Obviously, multiframe rendering would be great, too, but I would at least love GPU acceleration to start!

[kaczorefx]

Please move this to the top of priorities.
Since we're now all moving towards ACES which requires working in 32bit, not having a grain effect that works in 32bit makes most of the compositing work almost impossible to do. It's hard to think of an effect that doesn't require grain matching with the background plate, and now every time we apply the add grain effect all, overbright values get clamped, so we CAN'T use the effect on any new production 😕

[Philip Bowser]

Yes please! After Effects is way behind other free software for modern workflows. Not being able to do really basic things in 32bit color space makes it really frustrating. We pay serious money to use this software and tools like Blender's compositor and Fusion clearly understand the need for 32bit, linear workflows. Why is After Effects soooooo behind on this? It's not 2005 anymore.

Upgrade Add Grain and Match grain to 32bit. In fact, upgrade everything to 32bit. The reshape plugin, CC Composite, all of it. There's no point in destroying data that you don't have to. We'll wait for the longer render times if it means being able to actually use the stuff.

[ievfx]

100% Agree with this. As the Head of Motion Design within a NUKE-Based VFX Company, issues like 32-bit grain are on of the last things we need to really start compositing and finaling VFX shots out of AE instead of NUKE.

If Adobe seriously embraced color-management and 32-bit FX the way Foundry has, they could seriously disrupt how VFX are done.

[Paul2176261782dn]

yes I agree with everything said here. Found this thread as I'm trying to figure out how I'll re-grain my 32-bit shot

[Rocketbottle]

Absolutely! I work mostly in ACES and 32-bit. Please upgrade the "Add Grain" plugin.
... but by all means, don't stop there. Everything inside AE should work in 32-bit.

[Gabe Valente]

Adding my vote to this one as well.
Surprised that this fairly basic effect isn't compatible with 32-bit color...

[Point Line]

Adobe you are in serious danger of becoming obsolete.

[MutinyFX]

Agreed, this is the #1 block to our linear ACES HDR pipeline. Please make this effect 32bit.

[Rocketbottle]

Bump up this topic!
I fight with this in every project, since I work in 32-bit almost without exception. Please Adobe, there is no tool for decent grain management at the moment. It's not for film emulation only, every digital camera has noise too we have to match in compositing. Grain overlays are not a way to go in my opinion.

[kaczorefx]

Oh come on, AE 2022 and grain is still not 32bit?!?!?!?!

[Dan Pochtrager]

THIS IS STILL VERY NEEDED

[Roei Tzoref]

as a workaround, and since grain or sharpen are operations that usually benefit from working in log 10-bit integer color space anyway, you can simply convert your footage from its color space to Log using Color profile converter or OCIO plugin, do the grain, then Convert it back.

an example here is in 07:36
https://youtu.be/1OuHZOeU4DQ?t=456

[Rocketbottle]

UP!

Film grain overlays don't do it.

[dsol21]

There's still so many essential plugins that still don't support 32bit float (or work unpredictably in colour managed space), but this is probably the most egregious omission.
And GPU acceleration would be a huge boon too.

[natevplas]

Adobe, do you hear us? We don't need a new AI gizmo! We need BASICS!! Like a grain effect that actually works with today's workflows! I'm seriously considering switching to NUKE for any compositing because of this, and how sloooooowww AE is with EXRs.

[adrian wyer]

update the grain to 32bit, add gpu support to speed things up, and maybe even consider native OCIO/ACES color workflow or, as others have said, you are completely irrelevant in the current VFX space.

[jedivish26]

Not just the grain and noise settings but the color management as well. If you ask me color management in AE is terrible and the whole thing needs an immediate overhaul. Working with multi channel exrs and ACES in Nuke is a breeze compared to the crazy and often confusing processes in AE. Have been using AE for 20 years now and if things dont change I'll have to abandon it completely

[Rocketbottle]

Upvoted again.

Please Adobe. I have spent the better part of a year looking for a decent alternative for the grain plugin. So far nothing as capable and uncluttered as Add Grain. The tool does just what I want, but lacks 32-bit support.

[Joanna26443531nz2j]

Adobe please.

It's literally a 30 minute job for a dev.

We're already getting OCIO ACES support in the beta, sweet.

Please just give us a working 32bit grain effect, without it, all your efforts with introduceing ACES into AE are mute, because the minute anyone uses Add Grain (which is probably on 80% of vfx shots) it will kill the entire ACES workflow 😕

[Rocketbottle]

People, please remember to upvote to keep Adobe's attention. Seem to be that the only way to get improvement, is to shout loudly and often.

Shame

[Nate VP]

Just coming back to be a squeaky wheel!  I love a lot of the workflow improvements Adobe made in the 2023 release, including ACES!  Let's keep the momentum going with more quality of life enhancements and fix Add Grain!  Come on Adobe, you can do it!

[deadaether]

This is absolutely essential. As others have said, with more and more jobs working in ACES, some kind of noise matching is absolutely essential to even basic compositing. I'm currently facing two series without this vital tool, and its a bit awkward to have to ask the camera crew to shoot noise plates for me everytime.

I know its not as simple as pressing the "make 32bit" button when you're coding, but we desperately need this tool to be able to make use of literally anything else in it. Content aware fill is, in practical terms, useless without the ability to match noise.

[mrk888]

One more vote from me. ACES without 32bit support of basic film postproduction plugins like regrain/degrain is rather useless. Same goes for Photoshop and the lack of 32bit support for the content aware functions that make generating, say, clean plates so much faster.

C'mon Adobe - let's make "I'll do this in AfterEffects" great again.

K.

[mrk888]

I've checked out today Boris FX UltraGrain plugin, part of the Sapphires plugins, and it seems to work pretty well in my 32bit ACEScg comp without doing any clamping. Pity we have to buy 3rd party plugins for such basic functionality. All BorisFX stuff is 25% off until midnight CET today should anyone be interested. 

[mrk888]

https://borisfx.com/videos/sapphire-2023-intro-to-s_ultragrain/