Film Emulation Nodes for Blender Compositor | version 1.3.0

"A shitty render no longer that shitty"

A package of custom-made node groups made to emulate the 'film look' inside of Blender's Compositor.

Version 1.3.0 includes these nodes:

• Halation - Adds a glowing halo effect around bright light sources, simulating the characteristic halation seen in film footage.
• Vignette - Applies a vignette effect, darkening or coloring the edges of the image.
• Focus Vignette - Defocuses the outer regions of the image, simulating a shallow depth of field, with an optional overlay to visualize the falloff gradient.
• Procedural Film Grain - Adds procedurally generated film grain to the image.
• Movie Film Grain - Applies real film grain textures to the image.
• Lens Dirt - Simulates the effect of dirt, dust, or smudges on a camera lens.
• Film Frame - Adds a border around the image, replicating the look of scanned film rolls.
• White Film Speckles - Adds white specks and spots to the image, mimicking imperfections in old film footage.
• Color density - Allows you to adjust the density of specific colors or color spectrums in your image. It offers multiple options for fine-tuning and can be used in an array to modify several colors simultaneously.
• Film Tint - Applies complementary colors to the shadows and highlights of an image, with an option to add a 'bleach look' effect for a washed-out appearance.
• Shadow Desaturate - Reduces the saturation in the darkest areas of the image, creating cleaner, more neutral blacks.
• Black & White - A different style of a monochromatic image.
• Halation Legacy - An older version of the halation node
• Pixelate Legacy - Pixelates the image (useful only for versions older than 4.2).
• Round Frame - Procedural mask created for the Film Frame node.
• Render Resolution - Reads the render resolution (using drivers) to optimize texture scaling across the majority of the nodes.

Each node comes with a variety of adjustable parameters. More details on these adjustments are provided below.

If you're interested in the changes from the previous version (1.2.0), check out Release Notes section.

Film Emulation Nodes 1.3.0 preview

Demo 1 (1.3.0)

Using a node tree made from Film Emulation Nodes, for example like this:

Node tree

You can get results as such:

Demo 2 (1.2.0)

Using a node tree made from Film Emulation Nodes, for example like this:

Node tree

You can get results as such:

Demo 3 (1.2.0)

Using a node tree made from Film Emulation Nodes, for example like this:

Node tree

You can get results as such:

Release Notes 1.3.0 (compared to the version 1.2.0)

• Fixed Issues: The nodes are now fully compatible with Blender version 4.2 and should continue to work with older versions as well. However, there are remaining issues with procedural textures when using GPU compositing. Affected nodes include Procedural Film Grain, White Film Speckles, and Lens Dirt. These nodes should work correctly with CPU compositing, and a fix for GPU support is expected in upcoming Blender releases;
• New Nodes Added: Color Density, Film Tint, and Black & White;
• Mask Limits Effect: All nodes now have an option to limit their effects using a custom mask;
• Mask Output: Many nodes now support outputting the masks they generate, allowing for reuse with other nodes;
• Vignette mask: You can now input your own mask as the base for the vignette while still using all the node’s controls;
• Vignette nodes: Now include translation options and can preview their mask centers for improved precision;
• Halation node: Now features an added glow effect;
• Texture Output: Added output for generated procedural textures;
• New Shadow Desaturate Node: Hopefully the last one :).

And a few other improvements that I frankly no longer remember.

Node Parameters

Halation

General

• Intensity
• Spread
• Sensitivity - how contrasty the edge must be for the halation effect to occur

Secondary Glow

• Intensity
• Spread

Lens Dirt

• Texture

General

• Intensity - brightness of the dirt overlay
• Scale - the scale of the dirt overlay
• Seed - changing the texture pattern

Bloom

• Intensity
• Spread 
• Threshold - how bright the object must be for the bloom to occur

Realism

• Anamorphic - changes the shape of the bokeh
• Aberration - simulates the light diffraction in the lens

Film Frame

General

• Frame Color
• Padding - how wide is the frame; measured in pixels
• Corner Radius - measured in pixels

Deterioration

• Intensity - the intensity of the frame displacement by the texture
• Scale - the scale of the displacement texture
• Seed - changing the texture pattern

Blurring

• Primary - blurs the edges before the displacement is applied
• Secondary - blurs the edges after the displacement is applied

Animation

• X Magnitude - the intensity of the ‘random’ movement of the film stripe along the X axes
• Y Magnitude - the intensity of the ‘random’ movement of the film stripe along the Y axes
• Edges - changes the texture of the displacement with every frame of the animation (binary - value of 1 for turning it on)

Mask Output

• Frame Matte

Vignette

General

• Softness - how soft is the mask
• X Scale - higher value shrinks the mask (value of 0 for the mask being wide as the render)
• Y Scale - higher value shrinks the mask (value of 0 for the mask being high as the render)
• X Translate
• Y Translate
• Preview - preview the center  (value of 0 for turning it off; by default)

Shape - binary; socket with the value of 1 applies its shape; ‘Oval’ by default

• Vignette Mask - allows for inputting a custom vignette mask, which can be adjusted using all the same controls as the default mask.
• Oval
• Rectangular

Outer

• Color
• Intensity - the intensity of the overlay

Inner

• Color
• Intensity - the intensity of the overlay

Mask Output

• Inner Mask
• Outer Mask

Focus Vignette

General

• Intensity - the intensity of the bokeh blur
• X Scale - higher value shrinks the mask (value of 0 for the mask being wide as the render)
• Y Scale - higher value shrinks the mask (value of 0 for the mask being high as the render)
• X Translate
• Y Translate

Falloff

• Range - how wide is the falloff region
• Preview - previews the falloff region and the mask center (value of 0 for turning it off; by default)

Shape

• Vignette mask - allows for inputting a custom vignette mask, which can be adjusted using all the same controls as the default mask.
• Invert Mask - inverts the custom mask (ON by default)

Realism

• Anamorphic -  changes the shape of the bokeh

Mask Output

• Effect Matte
• Falloff Range Matte

Procedural Film Grain

• Texture

General

• Intensity
• Scale - the scale of the grain texture

Image Adjustments

• Exposure
• Gamma

Style

• Aggression - intensity of the grain in the darker parts of the image

Movie Film Grain

• Texture

General

• Intensity
• Scale - the scale of the grain texture

Image Adjustments

• Exposure
• Gamma

Grain Types - binary; socket with the value of 1 applies its texture; ‘16mm’ by default

• 16mm
• 16mm Light
• 35mm
• 35mm Heavy

White Film Speckles

• Texture

General

• Intensity
• Scale - the scale of the texture

Shadow Desaturate

Mask Adjustments

• Offset - changes the region that will be affected

Mask Output

• Shadow Matte

Color Density

General

• Color - use the eye drop tool to select a specific color in your image
• Density
• Hue Shif - hue shift of the selection
• Preview - previews the selection

HSV - selection adjustments; range that is affected

• Hue - hue range
• Sat - saturation range
• Val - value range

Mask Adjustments

• Blur - blurs the selection
• Prefilter - pre-blurs the value selection (ON by default)

Edge Limits Selection - limits the selection by the most harsh edges present in the image (OFF by default)

• Limit - the value of 1 turns the effect ON
• Contras Ratio - how harsh the edge must be
• Smooth - smooths the edges of the selection

Mask Output

• Selection Matte

Film Tint

General

• Color - option for selecting the color that will be added to the highlights
• Intensity

Bleach

• Intensity
• Offset - effect threshold

Adjustments

• High - how much color is added to the highlights
• Low - how much color is added to the shadows

Black & White

General

• Exposure
• Gamma
• High Clip - clips the highlights
• Low Clip - clips the shadows

RGB

• Color
• Red
• Blue
• Green

*Included film grain textures are from a third-party free source (I don't take any credit for those)