v2.1.0 Current release July 20, 2026

Easier license entry and a signed Windows installer

Version 2.1 fixes the license problems that could block ordinary customers. It also introduces a Microsoft-verified Sputnik Digital LLC publisher signature.

Fixed and improved

  • Wrapped license keys now work. Spaces and line breaks added by email clients no longer cause a valid key to be rejected.
  • License keys can be replaced in the app. Help > Activate License lets you enter a renewal or upgrade without reinstalling.
  • Expiring licenses are clearer. The status bar shows the remaining days, and an expired license still allows previews while blocking export with useful next steps.
  • Buy links go to the correct page. License prompts now open the VanityFilter purchase page.
  • Windows publisher verification. The application and installer are signed as Sputnik Digital LLC and timestamped through Microsoft Artifact Signing.
v2.0.0 July 2026

An all-new interface, new skin controls, and faster processing

This started as 1.4 and grew into a full 2.0: a redesigned interface, three new skin controls, and a documented pass over the speed work.

Added

  • An all-new interface. The whole app got a redesign. Your footage now fills the window, the controls sit in floating panels you can slide out of the way, and a slim icon rail runs down the side with view and zoom chips right over the image. On a laptop the preview is about 2.5 times taller than the old layout, so you see far more of your video as you work. Cleaner chrome throughout, with the gradient Start button as the one strong accent.
  • Amount slider (master wet/dry). A new dial at the top of the Smoothing column. Set your look with the detail sliders, then ease the whole effect (smoothing, texture repair, shine, redness, and brighten together) back toward the untouched original with one move. No re-tuning.
  • Shine removal. A new slider that tames the specular hot spots from oily skin or hard lighting. Each bright spot gets rebuilt from the surrounding skin tone, color included, so corrected areas keep natural skin color instead of going gray. Normal highlights on the nose and cheekbones, and the catchlights in the eyes, stay exactly where they should.
  • Reduce redness. A new slider that evens out red blotches, rosacea, and flush by easing them toward your own baseline skin tone, not a flat cold shift, so your overall warmth stays exactly as shot. It works on color only, so skin texture and lightness stay untouched, and your lips keep their color.
  • In-app update notifications. VanityFilter checks for new versions on launch and shows a banner when one is ready, with a one-click link to download and a Skip this version option. A Check for Updates item sits in the Help menu, and you can switch automatic checks off any time. No account, no telemetry, fully offline-safe.
  • Remembers your window. VanityFilter reopens at the size and position you left it, so your layout is right where you want it every time.

Under the hood

  • Downscaled face detection. Faces are found on a smaller copy of each frame and mapped back with no loss, so detection stays quick even on 4K footage.
  • Half-rate cached segmentation. The heaviest step, separating skin from everything else, runs at reduced resolution and reuses its result on alternate frames during export. The temporal blend hides the difference and roughly halves that step's cost.
  • Smarter smoothing. The smoothing filter works only on the area around each face and scales down when that area is large, so 4K exports stay fast.
  • GPU export. With an NVIDIA card, H.264 export runs on the GPU, freeing your CPU cores for the processing itself. It falls back to CPU automatically.
v1.3.0 July 2026

Brighten and saved looks

Added

  • Brighten control. A LAB lightness lift that gives skin a healthy glow with no color shift and no blown highlights. It runs independently of smoothing, so you can warm up a face without softening a single pore.
  • Savable user presets. Dial in a look and save it to User 1 or User 2. Your presets survive restarts and load from the command line, so a whole batch of clips gets the same treatment with one flag.

Fixed and improved

  • Switching presets now updates the live preview instantly.
  • Glow stays natural even on already-bright footage, because the gamma curve lifts midtones without clipping.
v1.2.0

Multiple faces, multiple previews

Added

  • Multi-person support. Detects and masks up to five faces per frame, each with its own mask, including heads turned to profile.
  • Multi-frame preview. Generate a set of sample frames across the timeline (1 to 15), or add a specific timecode, and step through them with Prev and Next before you commit to a render.
  • Four preview modes. Processed, Mask overlay, Original, and Side by side, so you can confirm exactly where the mask lands.
  • Missed-face indicator. A per-frame "Detected faces" count that turns red when a face is missed.
  • Region controls. Forehead coverage, neck coverage, and face expansion sliders, plus texture repair for blotches and compression noise.

Fixed and improved

  • Temporal mask stabilization smooths the mask across frames, so it no longer flickers between cuts.
  • Masks now fade out gracefully on frames where a face is too small or covered, instead of popping in and out.
v1.1.0

Built for the edit

Added

  • ProRes 422 HQ export alongside H.264, with the original audio preserved.
  • Grayscale mask matte export. A luma track matte you can drop straight into Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.
  • JSON settings sidecar written next to every export, recording the exact settings of the render.
  • Batch processing. Point the app or the included command-line tool at a whole folder and walk away.

Fixed and improved

  • GPU-accelerated H.264 encoding on NVIDIA cards for roughly double the export speed.
  • Cleaner cancel and error handling, so a stopped or failed render never leaves half-written files behind.
v1.0.0 First release

The first cut

Added

  • Natural skin smoothing for video with precise per-person masks that keep eyes, lips, hair, hats, glasses, and clothing exactly as shot.
  • Five presets (Light touch, Standard, Heavy, Low-light repair, Face only) plus fine-tuning sliders for strength, skin tolerance, feathering, detail, and mask stability.
  • Live preview at up to 400 percent zoom with mask overlays.
  • H.264 MP4 export and a command-line tool.
  • Fully offline, one-time license, no account required.