What It Does
Fast Camera Lens Blur creates realistic bokeh effects and camera lens blur in After Effects and Premiere Pro. Built by developer TumoiYorozu, it renders the same optical-quality results as After Effects’ native Camera Lens Blur effect but at significantly higher speeds. The plugin also handles glow effects that typically require stacking multiple blur layers.
Key Features
Speed advantage. The plugin outpaces After Effects’ built-in Camera Lens Blur, often by a wide margin. In Premiere Pro, where the native Lens Blur relies on a basic box blur algorithm, Fast Camera Lens Blur delivers comparable speed but with photorealistic results instead of blocky approximations.
Four blur shapes. Choose between hexagonal (6-sided), octagonal (8-sided), 12-gon, and 16-gon blur apertures. These geometric shapes mimic the iris blades in real camera lenses, producing authentic bokeh patterns in out-of-focus highlights.
Rendering precision controls. Select from Auto, 32-bit float, 32-bit integer, or 64-bit double precision. The Auto mode adapts to your blur radius, fixing an earlier issue where small radius values didn’t respond well to gain adjustments. Legacy precision mode maintains compatibility with older projects.
Native Apple Silicon support. Version 5.2.0 added M1/M2 Mac optimization, and the plugin supports After Effects’ Multi-Frame Rendering for faster preview and export on modern hardware.
Glow rendering. Beyond standard blur, the effect generates layered glow directly, eliminating the need to stack multiple blur instances for light bloom effects.
Who It’s For
Useful for compositors who need quick depth-of-field effects without pre-rendering, editors working in Premiere Pro timelines who want lens blur without round-tripping to After Effects, and motion designers building bokeh transitions or light leak effects. The speed gain matters most on complex comps or high-resolution footage where native blur effects bottleneck render times.
Pricing
$69.99 for a single-user license. Floating server licenses and render-only licenses available at different price points. A free trial lets you test performance before purchasing. Existing users who log in may see upgrade pricing if they own an earlier version.