Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026 - a free Resolume Plugin
Updated: 6 days ago
Short overview in 3 minuts
Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026
A free Plugin for Resolume Arena or Avenue
Before we begin, I explicitly draw your attention to my disclaimer, which is included in the license agreement for this plugin. Therefore, you are solely responsible in every respect for any consequences during and after the installation and from the use of this effect plugin! This plugin is available for free and can also be used at commercial events under the terms of the "freeVJing License 1.7 Tight" agreement.
Minimum Requirements:
Resolume Arena or Avenue Version 7.28.1 (the plugin may also be compatible down to 7.23.2, but this has not been tested)
A modern GPU with a minimum of 8GB VRAM
A modern CPU (not older than 5 years)
Minimum 16GB RAM
Recommended Requirements:
Resolume Arena or Avenue Version 7.28.1
A state-of-the-art GPU with a minimum of 12GB VRAM for use in 1080p (Full HD) compositions, or a minimum of 24GB VRAM for use in 4K compositions
32 or 64 GB RAM
The use of mobile devices is discouraged; it is recommended to use only desktop computers or professional rackmount workstations and GPUs if you like to use the integratet subeffect "Glowing up to Neon"
A strong and flawlessly functioning cooling system
No hardware manipulation or overclocking of the GPU on consumer systems
Overclocking the GPU with standard consumer-market components is strictly discouraged for safety reasons
How to get the PLUGIN FOR FREE
It's really easy and won't cost you a single dollar; I'm essentially giving it to you as a present. Send me a nice greeting to code.kills.videoloops@gmail.com and don't forget to mention that you've read and accepted the terms of service and license. If I like your greeting, I'll send you an email reply with the necessary download link.
Plugin-License:
The Resolomue Arena/Avenue plugin it self is licensed under the
Objective and Origin:
Sometimes I miss a "Border" tool in Resolume—a helper tool commonly known in video editing programs for creating flexible borders. When I saw a Wire tutorial for an „Outline Effect“, I told myself that this comes quite close to the missing border function and used this Wire patch shown there as a development base. Although the patch in the tutorial was somewhat usable in its functionality and outlined a potential implementation path, but it was far from technically perfected and in no way designed for intuitive, advanced artistic work. In other words, I had to rethink the pre-sketched approach considerably and flesh it out with many clever solutions.
To achieve this, I first deployed the decisive central node—an edge detector—fourfold in my Wire patch instead of using just a single node. This ensured that, at the very base level, I obtained a uniform border symmetric on all sides of the object edges. With some tinkering regarding the X-Y displacements of the four detectors, I was able to develop a perfectly coherent placement and sizing adjustment for the border as a solid project foundation.
Furthermore, building upon this base node, I also incorporated luminance detection rather than relying solely on the extraction of the alpha channel as in the sketch version. I made these two different detection methods available to the end user as a choice, which massively expands functionality, as we will see later in the application tutorials.
Next, I asked myself what else might make sense here, either technically or as a creative alternative functionality. I quickly saw a playful and technically creative possibility in a feedback effect. In video art—and especially in VJing—it's mostly about movement or the animation of color and shape, meaning objects and things within the frame. Based on the premise that these borders ("outlines") will be located on or nearly withhin moving elements, it could be an interesting gimmick to repeat these edge elements with a time delay and let them fade out. Since a basic feedback loop in Wire is also very easy to achieve, I added such a feedback option first and, of course, refined it later with small but valuable tweaks and extra-fetures by some clevernes.
Following that, I added a way to make the borders ("outlines") glow, from a soft glow which can be used all the way up to a neon glow or effect. However, this can also push the GPU to its limits, which is why making the "Bypass" option available to the user was very important to me here.
Additional, more general functionalities added include the ability to influence the coloring of the borders ("outlines"). To do this, I first set free the standard function of a single color picker and immediately supplemented it with a Hue function to make an animated color flow as easy as possible for the end user, while also decoupling color saturation as an animatable function added directly to the user interface. I tried to further expand the artistic potential of playing with color by means of a 2-color gradient that can operate in the 3 fundamental modes "vertical, horizontal, and radial", and behind that, I additionally inserted a mirror to expand this with the possibility of symmetrizing the color gradients—or something like it.
"Something tlike it"—one must understand that, depending on object size and aspect ratio, the aforementioned symmetrization of the color gradients themselves, as well as the upcoming point of "scaling" the entire borders ("outlines"), only work to a very limited extent. This is because scaling, much like the color gradients themselves, is always based on the entire layer where the object is located. For example, if you display a rectangle in a 16:9 image, the outer edge of the rectangle can be cleanly identified and created with my plugin, but the color gradient begins at the edge of the screen rather than starting precisely at the edge/border of the rectangle. Similarly, scaling brings about comparable pitfalls and functions only restrictedly—meaning not perfectly. Nevertheless, I added the scaling function, and in minimal to moderate use, scaling is quite usefully implementable, such as when you want to offset the border minimally away from the object. Regarding this latter application example, it must also be noted that the border is always created centered on the edge of the original object waer the Outline is buildet from. This means that if you set the width of the border to 8, it is built up symmetrically both inwards and outwards; half of the border thus always touches the original object itself. With centrally symmetric objects, but the scaling function can then be used to push the border very precisely to the actual outer edge of the original object, achieved by means of a minimal enlargement.
& The aforementioned overlap condition can also be used creatively, for instance, to design the border as quasi two-tone by reducing the opacity of the border to approx. 70% using the provided mixer function, so that the underlying original object colors the border halfway. Such tricks, other gimmicks, and some datails more of the options are demonstrated in the application tutorials, so it is well worth taking the time to watch them.
Generating the Effect-GUI and integrat the Options at it:
For the design of the plugin user interface in Arena/Avenue, I used several tricks as well as the newer feature for creating option groups in Wire for Arewna/Avenue. Thus, the options are divided into groups, and you can collapse or expand these groups. It is recommended to always keep the Main Group and the Mixer Group expanded. This grouping serves ideal usability—meaning improved clarity of the many options, which can thus be made visible only when necessary.
The PDF Documentation, Including all individual Options and many details to them:
& Now I just wish you lots of fun and great success using this effect plugin for Resolume Arena/Avenue, yours bennoH.
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Tutorials on how to use the plugin
Part 1 of the tutorial for "Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026" Dur:10“
Part 2 of the tutorial for "Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026" Dur:10“
Part 3 of the tutorial for "Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026" Dur:10“
Part 4 of the tutorial for "Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026" Dur:10“
Part 5 of the tutorial on "Outline Effect of bennoH. 2026" Dur:10“
English translation & proofread/optimized with Google Gemini from the German original Doku
WARRANTY DISCLAIMER
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
Installation and use of the software are the sole responsibility of the user.
Haftungsausschluss:Die Software wird ausdrückliche ohne jegliche Gewährleistung bereitgestellt.Dies schliesst insbesondere die Gewährleistung der Marktgängigkeit, der Eignung für einen bestimmten Zweck und der Nichtverletzung von Rechten Dritter ein.Die Autoren oder Urheberrechtsinhaber haften in keinem Fall für Schäden (materieler oder imaterieler Art), die durch die Software entstehen.
Installation und Nutzung der Software unterliegen der alleinigen Verantwortung des Nutzers.
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