Note: This product was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer available for purchase. The information below reflects its original capabilities.
What It Does
Composite Brush Unreal brought the click-and-drag keying workflow from After Effects into Unreal Engine’s Composure system. Instead of building complex shader networks, you could brush over colors to remove them (like green screens) and alt-brush to preserve them (like an actor’s wardrobe). The plugin worked in real time during virtual production shoots.
Unlike traditional chroma keyers, this tool wasn’t locked to green or blue. You could key any color, making it useful for unusual set conditions or creative effects. The interface let you layer multiple color selections and refine them by adding more brush strokes.
Key Features
Composite Brush Compositing Element. Plugged directly into Unreal’s Composure system, letting you connect live footage and backgrounds without entering shader graphs. Included slots for keying assets plus controls for alpha choke and blur.
Brush-based color selection. Double-click the asset to open a GUI where you drag across the image to select colors. Build up selections in layers, much like painting a mask but for color-based keying.
Transform passes for Composure. Separate passes for keying, spill suppression, color modification, alpha choke, and alpha blur. You could stack these to build a complete comp inside Composure.
Any-color keying. Not limited to green or blue screens. The keyer analyzed actual color values rather than relying on chrominance bias, which made it more flexible for virtual production scenarios where lighting conditions varied.
The plugin required Unreal 4.24 (later versions for 4.22 and 4.23 were released). Installation involved dropping the plugin folder into Unreal’s plugins directory and activating it with a license code.
Who It’s For
Was designed for virtual production teams shooting with LED walls or green screens in Unreal Engine. Most useful when you needed to iterate quickly on set rather than waiting for post-production cleanup. The real-time feedback made it practical for adjusting keys between takes.
Pricing
Discontinued. The plugin launched at $20 (later reduced to $16), but was pulled from sale in early 2020 when the pandemic disrupted virtual production schedules. All existing customers received refunds. The developer noted it was released as a pre-release product with limited field testing.
The After Effects version of Composite Brush remains available separately for $99.99.