What It Does
Quick Chromatic Aberration simulates the color fringing found in real camera lenses by separating and distorting the red, green, and blue channels of your footage. This effect adds subtle realism to computer-generated graphics and motion graphics that can otherwise look too clean or digital.
Key Features
Per-channel controls. Translate, rotate, scale, and blur each color channel independently to create custom aberration patterns. Version 3 adds 360° hue control, letting you aberrate any color in your image, not just RGB.
Lens distortion and skew. Beyond basic RGB separation, the plugin includes lens distortion and skew controls to mimic how real optical aberrations behave at the edges of frames.
GPU acceleration. The plugin uses GPU processing for fast playback and rendering, with native support for Multi-Frame Rendering and Apple Silicon.
32-bit color depth. Works in 32bpc for high-precision compositing. The plugin uses infinite repeat edge pixels to avoid black borders when shifting channels.
Advanced transparency controls. Version 3 introduces full transparency controls, including preserve original alpha, mix with original, and luminance-based alpha options. Auto buffer expansion prevents clipping when channels shift beyond layer bounds.
Variable iterations. Adjust the number of samples to balance quality and speed. The documentation includes a quickstart guide covering the anchor point controls, which affect scale, rotation, skew, and distort operations.
Who It’s For
Motion designers adding realism to flat graphics. VFX artists matching CG elements to real camera footage. Anyone working with text animations, logo reveals, or composites where a touch of optical imperfection helps sell the shot.
Pricing
Completely free at $0.00. Developed by Plugin Everything and compatible with After Effects CS6 through 2026.