Several people have asked me about the list and wanting to republish it, so here it is. (If you want to republish the list, go for it, just please link back to Toolfarm). First, a bit about the criteria and some notes.
- The plug-in should be a single plug-in and so I tried to avoid big plug-in packages when possible. There will be notes included about the product when needed. The plug-in had to be unique, fast, powerful or something I've used a lot and it fits into my workflow. If it hit 3 of the criteria, I would consider it for the list.
- This is MY opinion, not because I was paid to say this or because the plug-ins come from a manufacturer that gives us higher margins. It's very tough to seem unbiased, but I want you to know, it is all my opinion here.
- These are in no particular order (but I do have a clear favorite).
- The list was created in January 2009 and a few new plug-ins that I really like were not included in the list. I guess they'll have to wait for 2010.
1 Red Giant Primatte Keyer
Description: A Perfect Key the First Time! The simplest, fastest green-screen tool available that even extracts keys from challenging DV and low lit sources by sampling the background color and clicking.
Why I Like It: With my book about keying (Greenscreen Made Easy) out on the market, I've been doing quite a few seminars on keying. People always ask which keyer I like the best. I've been showing Primatte quite a bit and did two presentations at NAB at the Red Giant booth. I find that Primatte is easy to show because of how it works. It's not a matter of fiddling with a bunch of numbers to get the right settings, but dragging around your mouse and clicking big buttons. It works in a very visual manner, which is perfect for artists (who aren't engineers). Also, Primatte has everything I need in one tool.
- Easy to use and very fast
- Built in DV Deartifactor, Spill Suppression, Color Matching and Light Wrap
Sample:
2 RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur
Description: ReelSmart Motion Blur Pro automatically tracks every pixel in a sequence and blurs based on calculated motion.
Why I like it: Again, with the greenscreen book, I've realized how incredible this tool really is! Have you ever tried to key footage with motion blur? Not too easy and the results aren't usually very good. You can shoot with a high shutter speed but then you lose all of that natural looking motion blur. This is where RSMB steps in and adds that natural looking footage back into your shot, without blurring the whole frame, just the movement in the video.
- Also great for compositing 3D, which I have in the example below.
- RSMB has adjustable tracking points for problematic footage
- Supports 32-bit float in AE
- Inexpensive
Cost: $149.95 (Buy | Try)
Sample:
3 Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse
Description: Telcine-style color correction within After Effects, Premiere Pro & Final Cut Pro, giving you full creative control over the color and look of your images.
Why I like it: Color Finesse gives you total control of image, much more than just curves, levels, hue/saturation. You can make adjustments in HSL, RGB, CMY, and YCbCr color spaces, and have individual control over shadows, midtones, and highlights, as well as overall correction.
- Has 32 Bit Float support... so why is this important? It allows you to have much more flexibility and allows AE to be used in higher end productions and more cinematic work. You will have more contrast between your blacks and whites. For details on working in 32-bit Float, check out Stu Maschwicz's article on 32-bit float workflow in AE on fxguide.
- It ships with After Effects so it won't cost any extra.
Cost: $595 (Buy | No demo at Toolfarm, but you probably already have it if you have AE)
Sample: Just a couple of screenshots...
4 Red Giant Knoll Light Factory
Description: Light effects from John Knoll for photo-realistic sunsets and motion graphics.
Why I like it: Maybe this is just the kid in me, but plug-ins get bonus points for being fun to play with and easy to use and KLF is both. With KLF, you get natural looking lens flares and loads of great presets that are customizable. I really like the fact that you can set up an obscuration layer so that when an object moves in front of the flare, it dims or turns off.
- Tons of variety for one type of effect (not a one trick pony)
- Use presets or the Lens Editor to build your own flares.
- Auto tracking
- As with all of the Red Giant products, one license works in multiple host applications on one machine, so you don't need to buy multiple copies.
Cost: $399 (Buy | Try)
Samples:
A nice sample I snagged from YouTube.
5 Zaxwerks ProAnimator
Description: Create 3D text and primitives without having to learn a 3D program.
Why I like it: I've attempted to learn a true 3D program and give up after about 30 minutes. I have bad depth perception (that's why I used to hit so many things with the car). ProAnimator makes it so easy to create slick looking 3D elements directly in AE and with a short learning curve. I picked up the plug-in quickly without using the manual (that is how I roll).
- Nice presets
- Track the After Effects camera and lights
- Export wireframe versions for that techie, futuristic computer environment look
- Impressive looking 3D renders
Cost: $695 (Buy | Try)
Samples: Here's a quick sample I did for a test for a client a couple of years ago. It was composited over video and 3D screens.
And a nice example that was tagged ProAnimator on Vimeo:
DIGITAL MEDIA - LOGO - Barking Abbey School from Barking Abbey School on Vimeo.
6 Trapcode Particular
Description: 3D Particle system that produces various natural effects like smoke, fire and sparks and also organic and techie-style graphical effects that are very useful for motion graphics design.
Why I like it: I love how it looks and all of the presets. I'm a sucker for presets. I don't read manuals so presets help me get going. I just modify them until I get something I like. Particular has loads of fantastic presets, plus you can preview them and what you've created realtime in the Effect Controls window.
- Particular is tightly integration with AE's Camera & lights - oh, wait until you see version 2!
- Particular has a complex physics engine, allowing you to fully control your particles, again, new improvements in v2.
- Inexpensive, especially considering all it can do. Particular is one of those tools you can use on a multitude of jobs and it will never get old.
Cost: $299 (Buy | Try)
Samples: A couple of nice samples on Vimeo:
awesome rain from versa on Vimeo.
Velvære Circle from Mario Brauer on Vimeo.
7 Digieffects Damage
Description:
Damage creates an extensive variety of digital and/or analog defects/errors in your footage.
Why I like it: It's another plug-in that is fun to play with! I've used the plugin for many creative purposes - interference with a hologram popping on, a luma matte for a gradient wipe, and grungy moving backgrounds and grungy text. My favorite part is the little blue button that randomizes the effects. The effects do have a TON of sliders so it's not always clear on what needs to be adjusted to get the effect needed, and that little blue button is just what I need to get started. The plug-in is very fast for previews and renders and is CHEAP at just $99. Also, one license works in multiple hosts on a single computer (AE, FCP, PPRO, Combustion).
Cost: $99 (Buy | Try)
Samples:
8 Boris Continuum Motion Key
Description: Remove an object from your shot quickly without much work.
Why I like it: I showed Motion Key as part of BCC5 at NAB08 and found that this plug-in absolutely blew people away. If you've ever had to rotoscope something out of a clip of video, you know how tedious and un-fun it can be. Motion Key takes all the work out of it by using Optical Flow technology. It's now sold by it self as a single unit and is also included with Boris Continuum Complete 6.
Cost: (Buy | Try)
Sample:
9 The Foundry Keylight
Description: Academy Award winning keyer. It is simple to use and is particularly good at tackling reflections, semi-transparent areas and hair.
Why I like it: I know, two keyers on the list! What gives? You know I recently worked on a book, right? I have used a lot of keying tools in the past 2 years! Keylight is a very powerful keyer and when others can't do the job, Keylight can usually handle it. It is easy to use, fast and has built-in spill suppression. Keylight gives several ways to view the matte/key, and it's included with After Effects, so most of you already own Keylight. Also, Toolfarm also put out some great training for Keylight called Professional Keying with Keylight, that I highly recommend picking up.
Cost: $420 node-locked, $630 floating (Buy Node-Locked, Buy Floating | Try)
Samples: I thought I'd just put the trailer for the Keylight training up. It will give you a good idea about what the plug-in does.
10 Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks
Description: Define the style of your video or film, regardless of on-set conditions, with powerful imaging tools.
Why I like it: This is my favorite plug-in of the lot. It is extremely easy to use, as the interface was designed for artists, not engineers. It comes with a huge library of Looks that are fully customizable and savable. It's lightning fast because of GPU acceleration. It can make video with flat lighting look amazing and it's also great for matching your foreground and background when compositing greenscreen. I use this on pretty much everything, including photos.
Cost: $399 (Buy | Try) Quick Looks now available for $99 (presets only).
Samples: Here's one from our German friend at MyToolfarm.
And here's a promo for a greenscreen contest that I used Looks on the webcam shots to spice them up.
Late Entry: Boris Continuum Complete 6.0 3D Object Filters
Description: 5 new plug-ins in BCC6 that extrude text, paths and eps/Illustrator files.Why I like it: Easy to use and very fast (hardware accelerated). It works with the native AE camera and lights and everything except the text type window is in the native AE Effect control window. There are loads of options and loads of presets. All bevels can be customized with paths and did I mention the real-time previews? This will certainly make the 2010 top 10 list (but who will I bump?!)
Cost: $995 (Buy | Try)
Samples:Here's the finished video shown at the Boris FX Booth at NAB09.
Here's a tutorial I put out a couple of weeks ago.
And here's a tutorial I did for Boris FX. I plan to do a few more tutorials on these fan-diddly-tastic plug-ins.
Honorable Mention: Noise Industries FxFactory Pro
Description: Revolutionary VFX package with over 300 hardware accelerated plug-ins
Why I like it: I really was going for no big packages but just individual plug-ins in this list however, this one is a little different. Why is it different? With FxFactory, you can create your own FxPlug effects for Final Cut Studio without writing any code. Okay, I know this is for FCP and not AE, but, it's still an excellent package of plugins that are VERY fast and have unlimited expandability (you can download more plug-ins at the FxMarket).
Cost: (Buy | Try)
Samples: Here's the promo that just came out.
Labels: After Effects, bor, Color Finesse, Damage, DigiEffects, FxFactory, Keylight, Knoll Light Factory, Magic Bullet Looks, Noise Industries, Primatte Keyer, ReelSmart Motion Blur
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