Mettle ships SkyBox Studio V2

Mettle has released SkyBox Studio V2, the latest version of its suite of tools for creating and editing 360-degree virtual reality video content within After Effects.

The update adds a new view-based editing system, enabling users to perform operations like object removal on an undistorted version of the image; and a new module for adding 2D text to 360-degree footage.

A set of native After Effects tools for editing 360-degree video
First released in 2015, SkyBox provides a set of scripts and plugins for editing 360-degree video within After Effects, including toolsets for tracking and stabilising footage.

It works within After Effects’ 3D space, and is compatible with most other key AE plugins, including Red Giant’s Trapcode Particular and Form and Video Copilot’s Element 3D.

New view-based editing system and text tools
To that, version 2 adds three new modules, including SkyBox Composer, a new view-based editing system.

The script is intended to enable artists to perform operations like cloning and painting on an undistorted version of 360-degree footage. You can see the workflow in more detail in this demo video.

New plugins include SkyBox Project 2D, intended for adding text, logos and other graphic elements to 360-degree footage; and SkyBox Rotate Sphere, for rotating footage on any world axis.

In addition, the SkyBox Converter plugin for converting VR footage between common image formats now supports a wider range of formats, including fisheye and the native cube map formats of Facebook, the Gear VR headset and image-stitching software Pano2VR.

Pricing and Availability
SkyBox Studio V2 is available now for After Effects CS5 and above, running on Windows and Mac OS X. A new licence costs $229.

Read a full list of new features in SkyBox Studio V2 on Mettle’s website
(Includes demo videos of the new functionality)