The Milky Way plug-in renders high quality visualizations from audio tracks.

The plug-in simulates the MilkDrop visualizer for WinAmp - it uses the same .MILK presets, giving instant access to over 3600 presets! Visit www.milkdrop.co.uk for more presets, or check the WinAmp MilkDrop forums for new releases.

The Milky Way plug-in uses software based 3D rendering, to render high resolution images, without conflicting with After Effects's OpenGL renderer. However, this does have limitations, primarily:

• Only one Milky Way effect should be applied per project! This is very important. We recommend you create your audio visualizations in a separate project, render it, and use the resulting footage in another project.
• The 3D renderer stores the rendered image, to reuse this for the next frame's video echo effect. Footage should be rendered sequentially from frame 0, allowing the visualizations to accumulate over time. Starting a render midway through a composition will still work, but will produce different results.

• Field and Frame rendering support (results will be different)
• Presets can be chosen from the ~MilkyWayPresets directory installed with this plug-in, or the Milkdrop directory installed with Winamp.
• 1024x1024 (trial version) or 4096x4096 (registered version) maximum resolution
• 8 and 16 bit project support (registered version)
• MMX and SSE optimized (registered version 8bit projects)
• Alpha Channel support (registered version)

• AUDIO SOURCE LAYER

Set this to the layer with the audio data to apply the visualization to. The Effect can not be applied directly to an audio only layer - apply the effect to a new Solid layer and set the audio source layer parameter to the audio track.

• AUDIO GAIN (dB)

The audio "volume" can be preamplified to increase or reduce the audio visualization effects.

• PRESET

This selects from the available MilkDrop presets. The Preset is changeable from the effect window only.

• PRESERVE ALPHA CHANNEL

When checked, the plug-in preserves the alpha channel created by the 3D renderer, allowing the effect to be composited on other layers. This is available in the registered version only.

• TEXTURE SETTINGS

The texture settings control the background rendering, and generally do not need to be adjusted. Texture size is the image size used to create the image, and should be close to your render resolution. For example, if rendering to HDTV, increase the texture size to 1024 or 2048 for more detailed results. Larger values increase render times and memory usage. Grid X and Y values control the per pixel mesh size - experiment with these values for more information!!

The plug-in requires a registration email address and serial number. Registration information can be entered when the plug-in is first run, or by clicking the "Registration..." button in the plug-in's "About..." dialog.

If the plug-in is unregistered, or the trial period has expired, a watermark (large red X) is added to the plug-in output, and plug-in features are disabled.

The registered version of the plug-in includes 16bit project support, MMX/SSE support, alpha channel support and large format support. A separate installer for the registered version is sent when the plug-in is purchased.

The plug-in saves registration information in the user's application data area. On WindowsXP, this is usually "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ObviousFX\Plug-ins\MilkyWay.ini"

Additionally, if the user has Administrator privileges, registration is also stored in the "All Users" application data area, allowing all users of the PC to use the registered plug-in.

The ~MilkyWayDLLs directory installed with this plug-in includes Mesa, SDL and projectM libraries, distributed under the GNU Library General Public License. All LGPL licenses are included in the ~MilkyWayDLLs directory, and include information on source code availability. The MilkyWay.AEX plug-in is a "work that uses the Library", and falls outside the scope of the LGPL. (see MilkyWayLicense.rtf).

To uninstall, simply delete the following files from the Plug-ins\ObviousFX\Effects directory:

• MilkyWay.AEX
• MilkyWayLicense.rtf
• MilkyWayReadme.rtf

and the following directories

• ~MilkyWayDLLs
• ~MilkyWayPresets

The ini files (see the Additional Files section above) can be left on the system, so the plug-in remains registered if reinstalled.

1. The registered plug-in is limited to 4096x4096 resolution, due to the 3D rendering system. Please contact support@obviousfx.com if larger resolution support is required.

2. Only one Milky Way effect should be applied in a single project. Applying the effect twice (or on different layers) will produce unknown results.

3. The plug-in is designed to render from frame 0 onwards - the background renderer is reset at frame 0. Starting a render mid sequence will produce random results, as the echo effects used in visualization must accumulate over time.

4. Field and Frame renders will produce different results (due to the iterative render process).

5. The Preserve Alpha Channel parameter can not be keyframed, as this setting is used to configure the 3D renderer.

6. The Preset parameter can only be changed from the Effect window, not the Timeline window. This is due to the use of a custom parameter, and is a "feature" of After Effects.

7. Not all Milkdrop functionality is implemented, such as the solarize, brighten and darken filters. More functionality will be added in future releases.

8. MMX and SSE optimization is only active in 8bit projects with the registered plug-in. The third-party libraries do not support processor optimizations in 16bit mode.

9. 32bit per channel projects (After Effects 7.0 and later) can use this plug-in, but with reduced color precision.

10. This plug-in has not been tested with other applications that support After Effects plug-ins.

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Copyright © 2004-2007 ObviousFX LLC. All rights reserved.

Adobe and After Effects are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Windows and Windows XP are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. OpenGL is either a registered trademark or trademark of Silicon Graphics Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.