Photoshop JPG Degrader Adds Image Artifacts to Renders

Hydra labs recently released another Photoshop Plugin for the rendering and compositing image pipeline- JPG Degrader. The new plugin assists in adding the visual cues of classic JPG degradation to your rendered image making it easy to match the plate photography for easy compositing in Photoshop.

seamlessly match the jpg compression, noise and chromatic aberration of a photo

Making Dirtier Renders in Photoshop

We know that CG Render is coming straight out of 3D, are clean – super clean. So much of “the sale” in compositing comes from being able to match the original photography. This would include all of its flaws as well.

Usually what you see with JPG artifacts in images are that colors will block together and depending on how much compression is introduced to the image, there may be more or less of the blocking effect.

Typically in Photoshop or even After Effects, adding compression artifacts may take more than a few steps, and some time in the workflow. Creating a script or Photoshop action for the procedure is quicker, but leave out the flexibility that a plugin would incorporate and offer.

Hydra JPG Degrader offers a few tools to get the 3D element to sit in the photograph pretty easily. The plugin does this by giving you tools for adding Chromatic Aberration, Image Quality, Noise, horizontal and vertical phase, and also has control for viewing the original image or the effect while editing the controls.

The plugin will let you see the new layer composited on top of your other layers, showing your settings in realtime. It is able to do this by making use of the new Adobe SDK features that allow for much better handling of layers in Photoshop.

Hydra Labs’ last plugin, also for Photoshop, was HDRI Pro, which is a quick and easy way to convert an ordinary 8bit panoramic image into a 32bit spherical HDRI that can be used as an IBL in a 3D application.

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