What It Does
Deep Glow generates cinematic-quality glow effects that go beyond After Effects’ native tools. It handles super-bright HDR values through tonemapping algorithms, giving you control over how glows fall off without clipping. You can independently adjust the radius of red, green, and blue channels, add lens dirt textures for realism, and apply multicolor tinting to glow cores. The plugin is GPU-accelerated and supports multiple glow modes including exponential and iris.
Key Features
The plugin includes four cinematic tonemapping algorithms: Reinhard, Reinhard 2, ACES Filmic, and Clamp. These let you ease super-bright values below 1 for smooth falloff, essential for maintaining glow detail in VFX shots with HDR sources.
RGB Radius Multipliers give independent control over each color channel’s glow radius. This is useful when you need red to spread further than blue, or when matching reference footage with specific chromatic characteristics.
Lens Dirt Texturing adds realistic imperfections to glows, simulating how light scatters on dirty lenses. Combine this with Image Based Glow for customizable coloring that responds to your source material.
The plugin supports input masking, gamma correction, and includes debug tools for troubleshooting. GPU acceleration makes previews faster than CPU-based alternatives.
Who It’s For
VFX artists working on shots with HDR sources, light emitters, or practical effects will find the tonemapping features particularly valuable. Motion designers creating title sequences, logo reveals, or broadcast graphics can use the multicolor tinting and RGB control for stylized looks.
Anyone frustrated by After Effects’ native glow clipping bright values or lacking chromatic control should consider Deep Glow. It’s especially relevant if you’re matching glows to reference footage or maintaining color accuracy in graded timelines.
Pricing
Deep Glow costs $99.95 as a one-time purchase. Existing owners of version 1 can upgrade at a discounted rate by logging into their account on aescripts.com. There is no subscription model or free tier. The plugin works with After Effects CS6 through 2026, with the latest update (v1.1.1, December 2025) including bug fixes and GPU compatibility improvements.