For a limited time, Boris FX is offering Plug-in Post readers a free, fully-licensed plug-in from Boris Continuum Complete 6 - BCC Comet, an auto-animating filter based on Boris Continuum Complete's Particle System filter. BCC Comet can be used to create streaking comets that move in 3D space. Get the BCC Comet Filter | Learn More/Purchase Boris Continuum Complete
Video Tutorial: Using the BCC Comet Filter in Adobe After Effects
A complete FCS workflow package to get footage from a Canon 5DmkII/7D/1D into Final Cut Pro at 25fps. Custom droplets, correctly configured sequence settings and flow chart included to make getting the HD H264 files into FCP easier & quicker.
27/01/10 NEW VERSION 1.1 Includes support for FCS3 Compressor 3.5.
The freebie listed in our newsletter from LME does not come from the Amazing Text Display Vol 1 Collection but rather Headline Text Display Tricks Vol 1, the latest release.
LME Display Text Tricks Freebies for After Effects. 3 After Effects text effect compositions in HD and SD sizes. Download the Freebie!
If you're an iPhone or iPod Touch owner, check out this free app from AJA which calculates hard drive requirements for a several video formats such as DV, ProRes, DVCProHD, HDV and XDCAM and multiple resolutions: NTSC, PAL, 1080i, 1080p, 720p, 2K and 4K. Download it from iTunes here.
We have a few sales and offers ending December 31st. Also, be sure to check out our Secret Santa 2009 Freebies page to see if there were any freebies you missed this year!
Thank you for being a customer and for a great 2009. If you still would like to give us feedback and contribute to our customer survey, feel free! We'll be keeping the survey up through the end of the year and are reviewing your responses to make Toolfarm better in 2010. Take the Toolfarm New Year's Resolution Survey. Sales Ending December 31st
Sale Pricing (Note: Prices have been revised to reflect 30% discount)
Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite for AE, FCP, or Avid - $419.97 (reg. $599.95) Hosts to choose from: After Effects v2, Final Cut Pro v2, Avid Editing Systems
Tiffen Dfx Plug-in for Photoshop or Aperture - $209.97 (reg. $299.95) Hosts to choose from: Photoshop v2, Apple Aperture v2
Imagineer End of Year Sale: The team at Imagineer is happy to close out a great 2009 by extending these amazing discounts. Promotional prices for the 2009 Holiday Extravaganza are specific to node locked versions of each product and include:
As the world's leading innovator of 3D title and logo technology, Zaxwerks develops software for the digital video, broadcast, film and web markets. Save up to 50% off on all Zaxwerks plug-ins and standalone software this month!
Congratulations to Jay Spring and Shane Roby, they both won a $100 certificate to use at Pond5 for filling out our "Toolfarm New Year's Resolutions" Survey!
Rob Birnholz shows you how to create an animated logo reveal with Adobe After Effects. He uses a couple of great plug-ins, Knoll Light Factory from Red Giant and Sapphire from GenArts (both free demos available here).
Rob gives you several interesting techniques in this one tutorial. Project files available shortly.
This tutorial video is part of Day 3 of Toolfarm's Secret Santa Holiday Giveaways. Enjoy and thanks to Rob Birnholz for his fantastic contribution!
Rob Birnholz
Rob Birnholz is owner of Absolute Motion Graphics, Inc., near Orlando, FL. With more than three decades of production and post experience, he's not only older but hopefully wiser.
Rob graduated from The University of Florida with a degree in Broadcast Production, then began his career freelancing in the South Florida film industry, working on major features and commercial shoots. In the early 1980's he formed his own video production company shooting, directing and editing high-end corporate projects for clients including PepsiCo and the Knight-Ridder Newspaper chain.
After relocating to Central Florida in the late 1980's, Rob continued as a freelance Lighting-Cameraman and Editor working on projects ranging from Disney's "Mickey Mouse Club" to cutting Super Bowl highlight packages for ESPN.
With the advent of desktop editing Rob discovered After Effects (version 1!) and his life changed forever. Shooting and directing faded into the background as Rob focused on new digital postproduction solutions, and his company, Absolute Motion Graphics, was formed.
Working largely in the non-broadcast arena, Rob loves recreating high-end looks and effects without having the same big-time budgets. He is a frequent guest speaker at user groups around the country, and many of his After Effects tutorials were distributed on the Digital Production Buzz newsletter.
Recent projects have been completed for T•Mobile, Walt Disney World, Kodak, General Motors, Long John Silvers, KFC, Subway, Cricket Communications and The Palm Springs International Film Festival. Rob's website is at absolutemotiongraphics.com
Free Training and Free Trial Software for Episode Encoder and Wirecast
Freeman Compression, Inc. is conducting free encoding and streaming training featuring Episode Encoder and Wirecast in 6 U.S. cities over the next few months.
Need stock footage or background elements for your projects? Check out our Stock Footage section, including stock video, audio, templates for After Effects, and motion background elements.
The Pan and Zoom plug-ins let you create the photo animation style made popular by Ken Burns with intuitive controls and automatic motion control that achieves stunning results without a single keyframe. It works in After Effects, Final Cut Pro/Express & Motion.
Pan and Zoom is absolutely free! Simply download and enjoy: Download it here
A free sample template for After Effects from LME. You can swap out the placeholders for any video or still images you want, customize the floor plane and sky plane and completely make it your own. Download the template here. Requires After Effects 7.0 or higher.
CineForm has released a free package of 34 "Looks" for use with First Light. After installation, all 34 Looks are available within the Looks selector in First Light.
First Light is included at no cost will all CineForm products- except the entry-level Neo Scene.
Cartoon Bubble is designed to create basic speech bubbles to go along with ToonIt Photo or any time you need to make your photos talk! It creates simple ellipse and rectangular speech bubbles that can be any size. You can adjust colors, fonts, outline thickness, and position. It's a great way to make your ToonIt images start speaking.
You don't need to be an owner of ToonIt, anyone can download it free and use it. It works on Windows and Mac and any recent version of Photoshop. Click here to go to the download page:
JPEG compression artifacts substantially affect the quality of any digital image. They can be seen as mosquito noise, blockiness or checkerboarding, and edge artifacts.
Topaz DeJPEG is a plug-in that is specifically designed to address this problem and is much more effective than the native Photoshop JPEG artifact remover. Almost every Internet image can benefit from a reduction in JPEG compression artifact noise. Test it out for FREE here!
Wedding photographers can use DeJPEG to ensure their large batch of high-quality JPEG look as good as if they had shot in RAW.
Designers who work with web images find DeJPEG invaluable for enhancing stock photographs to a new level of quality.
Point and shoot or camera phone users can take advantage of DeJPEG to greatly improve the quality of their snapshots.
In fact, anyone who works with JPEG images can simply run a pass of DeJPEG before anything else and experience an immediate quality boost on their images. DeJPEG is one of the quickest and easiest ways to effectively improve JPEG image quality. If you use JPEG images, download a fully-functional 30-day free trial and try it for yourself!
You heard that right! Buy Digieffects FreeForm AE, get Delirium free. I know Free is your favorite price. It's mine! Offer runs Monday & Tuesday only of this week only (June 29 & 30, 2009).
Grant Friedman at the Colorburned site has been kind enough to share these awesome looking Photoshop brush textures, great for grunge looks. Check them out!
Topaz DeNoise v3 brings noise reduction to a whole new level in Photoshop with a unique algorithm that specifically focuses on eliminating noise while optimally preserving detail.
Existing Topaz DeNoise 2 customers can receive their free Topaz DeNoise 3 upgrade on our downloads page, which will provide a new installation and key.
Topaz DeNoise 3 takes a completely new approach to noise reduction that is different from any other method currently available. The underlying algorithm behind DeNoise 3 examines the entire photo when processing and can therefore eliminate noise while preserving and even enhancing important image features- unlike other software which may often blur and soften detail. Topaz DeNoise 3 also includes highly effective color noise handling.
Many photographers find Topaz DeNoise 3s superior noise reduction and detail preservation invaluable to take full advantage of their camera's potential. Focus on the photography and let Topaz DeNoise's advanced algorithms handle the noise issues.
Digieffects FreeForm AE is an intuitive and robust plugin that takes After Effects 3D compositing to the next level.
Finally, an affordable plugin for After Effects that lets you manipulate a flat object into almost any shape using a mesh in 3D space. New Free presets include: pouring liquid, planar pyramid, paper crumple, and terrain scan elements.
PhotoTools 2 Lite, a free, fully-functional version of PhotoTools 2, includes 14 effects to give digital photos the professional look
(Portland, Oregon--May 26, 2009) onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced a free, Lite version of PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition. PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition is a flexible, yet powerful, plug-in for Adobe" Photoshop" CS2, CS3 and CS4 that utilizes the power of Photoshop Actions to provide a range of imaging tools, including effects, corrections and production automation, in a full-featured interface.
Based on the exact same feature set as PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition, PhotoTools 2 Lite includes 14 of the most popular effects found in both PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition and PhotoTools 2 Professional Edition. The 14 effects available in PhotoTools 2 Lite range from reproducing classic photographic effects like Bleach Bypass and Cross Process, to reproducing film stock such as Kodachrome" and Velvia", to modern effects, including automatic skin smoothing.
"We are excited to offer this free version of PhotoTools 2 as a way for new users to experience the product's elegant workflow and effects," said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. "PhotoTools 2 Lite is a way for onOne to give back to the photographic community and allow everyone to easily add a professional look to their photographs."
Availability and Pricing PhotoTools 2 Lite is offered at no cost and is only available as an electronic download direct from onOne Software. To receive the product, users should visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/pt2lite and request a free download with a valid email address. For users who wish to access the full database of effects that come with the Standard or Professional Editions of PhotoTools 2, they will need to purchase a copy of the Standard or Professional Edition. PhotoTools 2 Professional and Standard editions are available for $259.95 and $159.95, respectively, and may be ordered immediately from onOne Software at Toolfarm's Store.
About onOne Software onOne Software, Inc., is a leading developer of time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. Our products allow photographers to spend more time behind the camera and less time behind the computer screen. They include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-in enhancements for Adobe" Photoshop", Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom", Apple Aperture, and now the iPhone. Founded in 2005, onOne Software, Inc., is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon.
Mathias Mohl created this fantastic tutorial and script that is a Mocha Import tool.
Mathias says: "In this tutorial I explain how to use my free After Effects script MochaImport which simplifies the usage of MochaAE with After Effects.
With the script the following tasks can be done as one click operations:
create corner pin
create CC power pin
create AE trackpoints from Mocha track
stabilize footage
move layers according to track
create a precomp in which the footage is stabilized while maintaining the movement in the original composition.
Pond5 has incredibly good and affordable stock footage. This week's free clip is blue motion background d2222R9. It's free for another 4 days so just click the movie sample below to go get it.
CrumplePop Freemeo lets you create HD text elements and lower thirds in the style of a popular video-sharing service....and by that we mean Vimeo. Freemeo is a set of HD elements you can drop directly onto the FCP timeline.
CrumplePop Photo is a set of high quality HD effects that let you create Polaroid-style photos directly in the FCP timeline.
Artbeats has a massive library of footage for sale and Toolfarm sells it at a 5% discount! If you don't see a clip that you need at Toolfarm, just email us and give us the clip number and we will get it for you.
If you sign up for the Artbeats newsletter, each month you can download their free clip of the month. Artbeats has a new freebie - Ultra Water 2 HD. All you need to do is sign up and register to receive this beautiful, high quality clip! Looks refreshing, eh.
LME has another great freebie for After Effects 7.0 and higher - Text Reveals v1! Download the freebie here.
Check out the multitude of great libraries of AE presets and comps available from LME, including full sets of Light configurations and Trapcode presets. Quality, varied stuff and at a low price.
Pond5, who is one of our friends on the links at the very top of the page, has just launched their free clip of the week. Sign up for a free account at Pond5 and download it!
You can also upload your own high quality video clips to Pond5 if you'd like to sell them as stock footage. I'm sure they have some sort of approval process in place, but you'll have to read the fine print if you're interested in participating.
Also, Pond5 is letting Toolfarm use some of their clips for plug-in samples on the site, so keep your eyes peeled (always wondered where that cliche came from!) I'm going to be doing an upcoming episode of Red Giant TV and I'll be using a clip or two from Pond5 in the tutorial. Pretty cool, eh!
On March 26th & 27th, Photoshop World at Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, is open to the public. Mingle with the biggest names in the industry and see the newest in Photoshop-related technology! Sign up for a free Expo pass (valued at $20 per person) at Photoshopworld.com.
LME has another great freebie for After Effects 7.0 and higher - Lights v2! Download the freebie here. If you missed the first one, you can still download LME Lights Freebie v1.
Check out the multitude of great libraries of AE presets and comps available from LME, including full sets of Light configurations and Trapcode presets. Quality, varied stuff and at a low price.
Shorty, a free tool for saving and switching between sets of keyboard shortcuts is available for download here. Shorty was created by Bobtronic (Matthias Bober). There are shortcut sets for Mac OS X, Windows, Cinema 4D, and more. More information.
Digimation pioneered the plug-in business for 3ds Max. To date, we've released over 50 products and now we're offering a collection of twelve tried and true favorites to the 3D community for free! The suite comes with all of these products;
Atomizer Allows any 3ds Max particle system to use any object as a particle object.
Bones Pro A powerful, easy to use skeletal deformation system. With it you can quickly rig and animate detailed characters.
Chameleon Texture placement based on the location of a gizmo, instead of an objects sub-material ID. This allows the user to place materials at very specific locations in the scene, and to animate certain effects without having to paint complex animated maps.
Clay Studio Advanced metaball modeling for 3ds Max.
DigiPeople A collection of procedural, low-resolution mannequins that can be quickly inserted into your 3D scenes to help create crowds. DigiPeople will give your architectural models an understandable visual scale and otherwise populate your scenes.
Fractal Flow Allows you to warp any image, video, or 3d scene to create water ripple effects, heat distortions, and much more.
Glider Allows you to animate any object or particle system along the surface of another object.
Lightning A procedural electric arc generator. Lightning creates true 3D geometry right in your viewports.
MaxSculpt Advanced mesh sculpting with full support for pressure sensitive tablets, tessellation and optimization as you sculpt.
SandBlaster Combines flexible particles with a powerful and unique emitter and target system. Build or tear down objects in particles.
Spray Master Allows users to spray geometry, both 2D and 3D, as particles on or around other objects with an easy-to-use freehand brush or spline-based control.
Tree Factory Generate a wide variety of trees and ground foliage to add that extra touch of realism to your 3D scenes.
The Digimation Suite FREE
Single license of The Essential Textures. Electronic delivery only. Download here.
Two plugin packages to create titles with realistic 3D volumetric light effects.
CHV-electronics, software developer of plugins for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and Motion announced today the release of two new plugin packages.
CHV Svengali volumetric light engine is different from the engines of any other light spill plugin. Svengali Rays produces a realistic looking 3D volumetric light effect that attaches the light spill effect directly to the titles without the usual gap. This feature is the key to create a realistic volumetric light spill effect.
Both plugin packages are based on CHV's QC Integration FX Quartz Composer plugin platform. QC Integration FX needs to be installed to run Svengali Rays Lite and Svengali Rays Pro.
Svengali Rays Lite is a video title generator with a built in 3D volumetric light spill effect engine and works with the demo version of the QC Integration FX plugin platform without a demo watermark.
Svengali Rays Pro consists of two plugins, a video title generator and a video filter, both with a built in enhanced 3D volumetric light spill effect engine. Svengali Rays Pro shows a watermark if unlicensed. The plugin platform QC Integration FX needs to be installed, but must not be licensed to run Svengali Rays Pro.
All FxPlug plugin packages from CHV-electronics are GPU-accelerated, using the full power of the installed graphics adapter for direct feedback and fast rendering.
You can download a free demo of either Svengali Rays Pro or download Free Lite through our demo form.
The Throttle 1.2 Script has been updated for After Effects CS4 at aescripts.com. Get it here.
It works with the new multi-processing throttle system that was introduced with CS4 that manages how many CPU’s are to be left free for other applications. This version also adds a little known hidden preference that allows you to set the quality of the Toggle Pixel Aspect Correction button in the Comp View.
Check out these fantastic freebies from the folks at LME! These are the type of template you would get if you bought LME Amazing Video Walls & Displays vol 1 or LME Amazing Video Walls & Displays vol 2, but these are NOT included in the packages (so if you already own them, this is not a repeat). We've included the new freebies (3 and 4) and also the originals (1 and 2) which were included in a Toolfarm newsletter not long ago. The templates work in After Effects 6.5 and higher.
The Pan and Zoom plug-ins let you create the photo animation style made popular by Ken Burns with intuitive controls and automatic motion control that achieves stunning results without a single keyframe.
The Pan and Zoom generator works in all hosts currently supported by FxFactory: Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, Final Cut Express 4, Adobe After Effects CS3 and CS4.
The Pan and Zoom transition works inside Final Cut Pro 6 and Final Cut Express 4.
Brendan at fnord software has been kind enough to post a free plug-in for After Effects to adjust for switching between standard linear gamma displays and OpenEXR formats; a floating point file format developed by ILM and used by products such as Autodesk's Inferno for working with 32-bit HDR (high-dyamic-range) imagery.
For a limited time, we are offering one free, fully-licensed plug-in from Boris Continuum Complete: Glitter, an OpenGL-accelerated filter that generates glittering sparkles of pretty much any size. The filter includes controls for the brightness, scale, and color of the glitters as well as the number of rays that each glitter emits.
Glitter is available for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, and Avid editing and finishing systems. Hurry! The free Glitter filter offer expires on September 30, 2008.
Dean Velez has uploaded 18 free fully customizable and royalty free After Effects Projects at motiongraphicslab.com. The projects will be available until October 1st. The AEP's are all built using Photoshop as a catalyst and are great for adding some interesting background and spatial elements to your compositions.
LME has been gracious enough to offer free templates and a tutorial for Trapcode Form! The files will work in After Effects 7+. There are two presets included. Note: if you already downloaded them, one had some errors. There are now three presets and two are new. See the video sample below.
These samples are free downloads from LME, which are similar to the content you'd get with LME Trapcode Form Presets and Comps but is not included with the package. LME Trapcode Form Presets and Comps includes 112 Trapcode Form Projects, Comps and 99 Presets!
Toolfarm is hosting the Boris BCC Rays Cartoon Plugin! For a limited time, we're offering a free, fully-licensed plug-in from Boris Continuum Complete 5 - Rays Cartoon.
Tutorial: BCC Rays Cartoon for Adobe After Effects CS3 and FxPlug (Final Cut Pro/Motion) - Use the BCC Rays Cartoon in Adobe After Effects CS3 or Final Cut Pro and Motion to generate a volumetric lighting effect on an animated text element.
*If you download the BCC Rays Cartoon plug-in, your information will be shared with Boris FX. Normally we do not share any of this information with any of our vendors or anyone else, but in this case, we've made an exception, so we can bring this free plug-in to you. With any other download, your email will not be shared with anyone.
The free Silhouette Shape Import/Export plug-in will import Silhouette Shapes and convert them to After Effects masks as well as export and convert After Effects masks to Silhouette Shapes - all without having Silhouette installed on your system.
When importing Silhouette Shapes, the following shape parameters transfer into After Effects: opacity, shape color, shape name, locked state, transfer mode and blur settings.
Note: The Silhouette Shape Import/Export plug-in is only supported for use with Silhouette v3 and above. It ships with Silhouette but you can also download it from the following links:
Capture the fun and sun of summer with Barbeque, a free DVD menu and packaging design template set from Eye Scream Factory. The template set includes main and chapter DVD menus in HD, NTSC, PAL, and DV - along with matching disc labels, case inserts, and background images. Easily create new looks and styles by adjusting colors, changing text, and moving layers.
Want to create eye-catching, professional DVD menus and packaging in minutes? Check out Eye Scream Factory's DVD Art Professional which includes 20 themes and 340 templates for DVD menus, disc labels, and packaging designs for your Mac or PC. Easily create new looks and styles by adjusting colors, changing text, or moving layers. Volume I features templates for Children, Holidays, Vacation, Weddings, Locations, and more. Volume II is wedding-themed.
For a limited time, Boris offering a free, fully-licensed plug-in from Boris Continuum Complete 5 - Rays Cartoon, an innovative filter that creates light out of the user-defined 'cartoon edges' of an image. BCC Rays Cartoon is available for Adobe CS3, Apple Final Cut Studio 2, and Avid.
Download Rays Cartoon now! This free filter offer expires July 1, 2008.
Tutorial: Generate a Volumetric Light Effect
In this tutorial, we will use BCC Rays Cartoon to generate a volumetric lighting effect on an animated text element; BCC Rays Carton will also give the text the appearance of being made of neon lights. Then, we will use BCC Light Sweep to add a light sweep across the face of the text. Finally, to complete the effect, we will use BCC Colorize Glow to provide a soft glowing look.
I thought I'd put up a few free After Effects Projects for download to help celebrate July 4th ( I'm a sucker for good fireworks ). They're only up until July 4th.
You'll find them on my website under the Ani Elements section labeled Ani Elements Batch 1. There are 20 assorted AEPs ranging from Flames, Bubbles, Water, Blood, Glows and a whole lot more.
As usually they are fully customizable and royalty free.
CoreMelt has just released version 1.5 of their popular free Veeyou Plug-in Pack which creates EQ and VU animations from the audio in your project. Version 1.5 has two new free plug-ins. The plug-ins now run on After Effects in addition to FCP and Motion.
Bring the popular look of Cover Flow (in iTunes) to your projects with the latest FxFactory freebie by idustrial revolution. CoverFlux is available immediately for Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3 and Final Cut Express 4. It's FxPlug.
The iTunes style scrolling still image generator plug-in for Final Cut Pro, Motion and Final Cut Express.
This completely free plugin is available for download and use immediately from this website. (FxFactory & Leopard need to be installed).
Eye Scream Factory is currently offering a cool Free Download of the Month. Add the hope and renewal of spring to your DVD production with Yellow Orchid, this month's free DVD menu and packaging design template set. The template set includes main and chapter DVD menus in HD, NTSC, PAL, and DV - along with matching disc labels, case inserts, and background images.
The free download includes:
Main and Chapter DVD menu templates
HD (1920 and 1280), NTSC, PAL, and DV DVD menu templates
Matching 300 dpi DVD disc label and case insert templates
Matching HD, NTSC, PAL, and DV background images
All of the DVD Menu Templates are layered Adobe Photoshop files, so they should work great in Adobe After Effects in addition to Adobe Encore.
Free Video Effects Plug-in and Transforms Video into Animation for Free: NewBlueFX's Free Cartoon-Look Plug-in Available for Immediate Download
La Jolla, CA (April 14, 2008) - High-end cartoon effects for video are no longer the exclusive domain of Hollywood big boys thanks to video special effects creator NewBlue, Inc. Now anyone using leading desktop video software can take advantage of this free plugin download to "toon up" live-action video with NewBlue Cartoonr, the company's fast, easy and free way to give scenes a cartoon look. Users seeking free Adobe Premiere effects, free Apple Final Cut Pro effects, free Avid Liquid effects, free Adobe After Effects plugins, free Avid Media Composer effects, free Avid Xpress Pro effects, free Canopus Edius effects, free Pinnacle Studio effects and free Ulead VideoStudio effects can download this free video effects plugin at http://www.newbluefx.com/cartoonr.
Inspired by those stylized television ads for a major brokerage firm, NewBlue chief technology officer Todor Fay led his team in designing a lightweight, flexible free video plugin that instantly applies a hand-drawn, cartoon-like effect to live video. Explains Fay, "With NewBlue Cartoonr, users can combine intriguing artistic effects with the power of live action. This free cartoon effects plugin rivals products costing hundreds of dollars."
Although valued at $250, NewBlue is offering NewBlue Cartoonr free of charge to users of all leading desktop video editing platforms. Designed as a video effects plugin, NewBlue Cartoonr integrates directly into the Adobe Premiere Elements, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Liquid, Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress Pro, Canopus Edius, Pinnacle Studio, and Ulead VideoStudio product lines.
When asked why the company would make NewBlue Cartoonr available at no cost to users, Fay replied, "What better way to show the video editing community the power of NewBlueFX? We're quite convinced that once users try NewBlue Cartoonr, they'll come back for more. And with over 100 more effects, filters and transitions in our NewBlueFX collection of video effects plugins, we've got plenty more to offer them."
Part of the NewBlueFX line of audio and video effects plugins, NewBlue Cartoonr offers a rich palette of preset cartoon styles and provides powerful control over drawing and painting techniques. Its elegant user-interface, a NewBlueFX trademark, allows fine tuning of both drawing and painting techniques, resulting in a rotoscoping effect. In addition, NewBlue Cartoonr features controls for blending in the original image to create artistic effects with ease.
NewBlue, Inc. develops innovative audio, video and multimedia technologies for leading companies throughout the world. Founded in early 2002, NewBlue creates and licenses a range of proprietary technologies-- including a series of NewBlueFX video technologies, the NewBlue Audio Engine and Audiomatrix technology platform-- that meet the varied multimedia needs of mid-and large-sized companies. Experienced developers, musicians, artists, and software professionals with a unique and commanding set of skills, experience and talent comprise the NewBlue team.
The company unveiled its NewBlueFX product line in 2006 to meet the needs of digital video editing enthusiasts. The NewBlueFX collection of software plug-ins includes special audio and video effects, such as audio filters, noise reduction, equalization, compression and dozens of sophisticated graphic filters and transitions. To date, the NewBlueFX line includes 5 audio-oriented plug-in collections and 7 video-oriented effects and transitions collections for the Adobe Premiere, Avid Liquid, Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress Pro, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas desktop video product lines.
The codecs are included free with the Media 100 Producer 14-day Trial Version.
With these free codecs, editors and graphics professionals can playback and render modern and legacy Media 100 media files in any QuickTime-based application. The codecs include Universal Binary versions of the Media 100 i and Media 100 HD codecs as well as the PowerPC Instant Media 844/X codec.
LME is also giving away a free Filigree animation. The LME 289 Filigree Originals is a set of filigree patterns in Adobe Illustrator 7 vector format, not found in any other collection. They can be used in After Effects, Photoshop, Apple Motion - pretty much any host app you might own. The freebie consists of an AE project using a filigree.
Digieffects is currently creating a Demo Reel for NAB 2008 and would like YOU to participate! Submit your best work using Digieffects plugins and get a FREE Digieffects product! Don't own any Digieffects plugins? Get a free demo here.
Boris Continuum Complete's FREE (registration required) Snow filter is an auto-animated snow generator. The filter offers extensive options and allows you to create drifts or make flakes pile up along the edges of an alpha channel. The free BCC Snow filter offer expires on March 1, 2008. You must install the free filter before this date.
Don't have Boris Continuum Complete? Download a free demo or purchase from our store. Don't forget that for a limited time, if you purchase Boris Continuum 5 AE you get Boris Title Toolkit for FREE!
Tutorial: Make it Snow with the Boris Snow Filter
What good is a snow effect if the snow does not stick to the horizontal surfaces in the shot? The Boris Continuum Complete Snow filter can make snow do just that, creating a realistic look for your wintry scenes. The BCC Snow generator is featured in just about every Boris product, including Boris Continuum Complete, Graffiti, RED, and Boris FX. It works especially well with text captions, creating snow that accumulates on top of the letters for a natural look. Best of all, BCC allows you to create this effect right in your NLE! Apple Final Cut Pro Tutorial and Adobe Premiere Pro Tutorial.
Download a free ArtBeats clip each month when you sign up for their newsletter. This month is a lovely field of some sort of yellow and orange flowers that is timelapse. Get your ArtBeats footage at Toolfarm and save!.
John Dickinson just sent me the link to a video he just finished for Red Giant Software: Getting Started with Magic Bullet Looks. It's coming out soon. I can't say exactly when, but doesn't this get you excited about it! The interface and ease of use are unparalleled. It will be a lot of fun just to get in there and experiment.
And.... get this... the Standalone LooksBuilder will be given away for free! The free standalone works will still images like Tiffs and Jpegs and presets can be saved. The plug-in works with video.
Download Conoa SuperPak 3 which includes Conoa EasyFX, Conoa EasyShapes, Conoa 3D, Conoa 3D Layer and Conoa FreeStreak. FreeStreak is totally free so try out SuperPak 3 and FreeStreak is yours to keep. Yeah, I sound a bit like Ron Popiel, I know.
This free update to FxFactory brings you 15 new plug-ins for all FxFactory Pro users, and major performance improvements to all plug-ins when rendering in Final Cut Pro.
The total number of FxFactory Pro plug-ins has now reached 150, thanks to the following new filters: Clone, Chromatic Aberration, Channel Geometry, Free Distort, Mask With Geometry, Color Crush, Zoom Blur Chroma, Zoom Blur Luminance, Add Noise, Sharpen Chroma, Sharpen Luminance, Sharpen RGB, and transitions: Paint Wipe, Twirl Wipe and Waves Wipe.
VeeYou is the first set of freebie plugins for Final Cut Studio by CoreMelt. Generate Volume Unit level and EQ animations based on the audio in your project. Sample projects are included!
The latest SUGARfx theme comes with 9 elements that let you animate through any media you supply. Portfolio lets you elegantly showcase your work, and even comes with a matching theme for DVD Studio Pro. More info on SUGARfx Portfolio
Jeff Almasol has created some After Effects CS3 Scripts. They look SUPER useful.
This download contains scripts for editing keyboard shortcuts (KeyEd Up), launching scripts (Launch Pad), create project folder hierarchies (Folder Setup), converting Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) files (Swatch You Want, kuler Shapes), and modifying a comp's motion blur settings interactively (Active Shutter) in Adobe After Effects CS3. To use, unzip the archive and place the contents in the Scripts folder located within the Adobe After Effects CS3 folder (Mac OS) or its enclosed Support Files folder (Windows). Active Shutter, Folder Setup, Launch Pad, and Swatch You Want can also be used as dockable panels by placing the scripts (and associated .png files) in a ScriptUI Panels subfolder of the Scripts folder, and then choosing them from the application's Window menu.
The ArtBeats newsletter if chock full of good stuff. Chris and Trish Meyer's of CyberMotion training have a column in the ArtBeats newsletter, too. Here's an excerpt:
We recommend to folks in the market for stock footage that if they can get the hi-definition (HD) version now, they should - even if their jobs are currently all in standard definition (SD). For one, HD is certainly the future, so buying HD clips now helps prevent your investment from becoming obsolete. Secondly, the extra pixels available in an HD clip open up many additional possibilities when working in SD: You can re-frame the shot, perform pan and zoom moves on it, and also perform creative tricks such as simulating the popular "Kid Stays in the Picture" look.
Kai Pederson and Studio Daily "look at the new features Enhanced Open GL in version 10 of Cinema4D and its capabilities for accurate viewing and creation of color, shading, lighting and textures, as well as the new interactive rendering region."
Maxon Cinema 4D is an incredible tool for motion graphic artists who mainly use After Effects and would like to start using 3D software. C4D and AE play well together and the learning curve isn't nearly as steep as it would be for something like Maya. Anywhoo, if you don't believe me, try a free demo of Cinema 4D.
The Panalog plug-in is an extension to Adobe After Effects that implements some of the panalog conversion functions. It's been around a while but I seem to have missed it. It's free. I know, that's the only word I need to say.
Harry Frank has added a cool preset at his site Gray Machine that gives your content a bad TV look.
Here is a preset for AE CS3 that simulates a fuzzy TV picture, from back in the day when you had to get up and adjust the antennae to watch Real People. This file was kind of an experiment on my part, not really for any project. So, if there are any suggestions, feel free to post ideas for improvements.
Did you know Harry has an incredible training bundle for After Effects Expressions? He has built the training for designers, not programmers, and you'll be up and at Expressions like a pro in no time. Seriously, it's pure minted.
The plug-in for connecting Adobe After Effects CS3 to Maxon CINEMA 4D connection from MAXON is free. It lets you seamlessly work between the two programs. It's available for Mac and Windows.
LME is giving away another freebie, comp samples like you would find in LME's Amazing Text Display's Vol. 1, to give you a little taste of what the product is all about. You do not need any third-party plug-ins.... well you need lots of third-party plug-ins, but not for this ;-)
Buy LME Amazing Text Displays - Only $132 (Save 5%!). 100 comps are included. The possibilities are only limited to your imagination. Works with After Effects 6.5 or higher for Mac and Win.
Star Titler is the newest freebie for FxFactory, a title generator that lets you instantly reproduce the look of the Star Wars opening titles straight on the Final Cut Pro or Motion timeline. Download it here and while you're there, get idustrial revolution Freebie Pack 1 and SUGARfx Mondrianesque, also free.
Noise Industries FxFactory 1.0.6 just came out. Let me tell you, these are some tight plug-ins. They're so fast and great quality, and they're not too expensive either. They're Universal and FxPlug, so they run in Motion and Final Cut Pro, and run incredibly in Final Cut Studio 2. I'm not just saying this to sell them... I speaka ze truth.
Mike Curtis at HD for Indies has posted a link to FCP Rescue for FCP 6, a utility for backing up, restoring and trashing preference files in FCP and a utility all Final Cut Pro users should have. It's a freebie!
I'm a big fan of the Adobe Exchange and they've launched the new beta of the site today. At the Adobe Exchange, you can "download hundreds of easy-to-install extensions, time-saving functions, code and more". It's a great place for free stuff!
All the comps in the LME Collection series can be resized to accommodate all the HD sizes and ones they haven't invented yet. Learn how with this HD Conversion tutorial. This tutorial may also be useful for other project files, too.
LME makes really cool presets for Trapcode plug-ins, LME Amazing Video Walls & Displays, LME Fantastic After Effects Light Configurations and the newest is LME Amazing Text Displays Vol. 1. All LME products are available in our store.
LME also provided us with Toolfarm exclusive presets that you can download for free to get a good idea of their products. I have a review coming out soon. I know I keep saying that. It's on my shortlist, so stay tuned. It's going to be a good one!
Ko Maruyama has posted a blog entry at Ninja Crayon about the training that is available for After Effects and happens to mention three of our Forum Experts, Harry J. Frank, John Dickinson and Dean Velez.
Harry's training is available just this week and to say it's selling well would be an understatement! After Effects Expressions hits a niche where there is really not a lot of training and Harry's training is fun to watch and easy to absorb. It's downloadable immediately and is affordable at just $29 for 60 minutes of Expressions training. It is designed for the designer, not the programmer, and it will take your Expressiophobia away.
John Dickinson's Creative Background Design Series has also been very popular. John currently has six modules in his series and he uses some innovative techniques and explains several shortcuts that will help your workflow. John's training is just $5 a pop and great for the beginner or seasoned veteran.
Dean Velez puts out training through his company, The Anvel. His training, The Anvel Industry Training for AE is incredible. I showed my class some of the training last semester and they were completely into it. People actually stuck around until the end of class instead of bagging class after an hour ;-)
Just yesterday, Dean posted the following to our Expert Forum:
The Projects all deal with Text and adding effects to text. They cover the letters A-Z ( Aura, Balls, Cosmic, Destroy, Electric, Extrude, Fire, Glimmer, Hose, Ice, Join, Killer, Laser, Magnify, Nature, Odor, Paint, Quartz, Road, Strange, Tear, Universe, Vile, Web, Wind, X-Ray, Yank, Zoom )
Some are render intensive...so prerender when you can.
Hope you enjoy them! and drop me a line to let me know which one is your favorite...mine is Killer.
Dean is always posting awesome free stuff every month or two, so you'd be doing yourself a big service to go to our forum and hang out. Ask some questions while you're there and guys like Harry and John will answer your questions.
Ko also mentions Aharon Rabinowitz's quality training. Aharon runs After Effects NY user group, which met last night and Toolfarm gave away Harry's new training at the meeting. I hear the meeting was great, with Curious Pictures showing their Disney Channel program, Little Einsteins ("Come on! Wave your arms to make our ship fly faster!" and so you can hear some Vivaldi... oh, I'm sure you've seen it!)
It has some pretty substantial improvements for AE. First of all, there is an expanded dialog with extra compression options, letting you set things like an arbitrary bit depth.
Also, it's now AE-native and supports Auto Proxy, meaning that when you're working at half-rez, j2k is able to read in only the pixels it needs which can really speed things up. This is a unique feature of JPEG 2000 wavelet compression (similar technology is also seen in Google Earth).
These online training modules by well-known After Effects experts Chris and Trish Meyer of CyberMotion are designed to jump-start your creativity as well as quickly get you up to speed on important technical aspects of motion graphics and video. These are not just paint-by-numbers recipes; Chris and Trish make sure you have a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts so that you can easily modify the techniques to your own projects.
Each subject has been broken down into easily digestable QuickTime movies that are clearly indexed for quick access to the information you need, including chapter markers that allow you to jump straight to a particular subject or tip. Extensive text annotations help explain important concepts and spell out time-saving keyboard shortcuts. An accompanying project file and footage allows you to try out the concepts you see demonstrated.
A free plugin that will let you import, rearrange and use all the available channels in OpenEXR files into After Effects CS3 float project. Brendan Bolles has kindly provided the world with a beta version of a set of four 32 bpc-aware plugins, complete with a sample project and a 49-channel OpenEXR image.
LME has graciously provided a freebie that is an extra bonus file from each of their sets of gorgeous comp files. These are Toolfarm exclusives and we'll be posting one per week until they're gone. Here is the second in the series. This sample is not included in the Trapcode Echospace Presets and Comps.
Buy Trapcode Echospace Presets and Comps - Only $94 (Save 5%!). 101 presets and matching comps. The possibilities are only limited to your imagination. Works with After Effects 6.5 or higher for Mac and Win.
Get BCC Z-Blur for your Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, or Avid host application! Offer expires on March 23, 2007.
BCC Z-Blur emulates a rack focus effect where the focal plane moves between a near and far plane. The near and far planes in the filter define the area of the image along the Z axis that is blurred. The area between the planes remains sharp. With the BCC Z-Blur filter, you can set a channel from the image clip, and then use that channel to control the racking focus blur.
Hurry! This free filter offer expires on March 23, 2007.
The free BCC Z-Blur filter is available for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Avid Xpress Pro, Avid Media Composer, Avid NewsCutter, Avid Symphony, and Autodesk Combustion.
Freebie Pack 1 - Four Free Filters for Final Cut Pro and Motion idustrial revolution Freebies!
Brought to you by Peter Wiggins, author of the Volumetrix plug-ins for Final Cut Pro and Motion, idustrial revolution Freebie Pack 1 includes four fun, useful (and absolutely free!) plug-ins:
MultiSpace: Puts two inputs into true 3D space with global and independent XYZ translation & rotation. Planes can intersect too.
iSight Live!: Get a live input on your timeline in Motion and FCP. Very handy for picking a color off a client's brochure.
Rack Focus: Racks the blur from one input to the other with one parameter. Both blur values for each input can be set independently.
Opposites: Two-input parameter linking: move one left, the other goes right. Rotate one clockwise, the other one goes anticlock.
Adobe After Effects New York (AENY)first meeting is set for February 22. There is no fee for this event, thanks to sponsorship from Adobe and Pratt Manhattan. They are covering Maxon Cinema 4D 10 and After Effects Integration, as well as Mograph, Stephen Neary will present "Bigfoot's Eulogy" and Aharon Rabinowitz will be presenting some quick After Effects tips. I met Aharon at NAB NY.
Taronites (Frischluft) ZbornToy is a depth and compositing tool for After Effects. The ZbornToy has the ability to extract a maximum of information out of simple depth images and allows you to not only light and texture them, but to refract backgrounds, cast caustic reflection back onto the background and a whole lot more.
Also, the first free Taronite plug-in is an After Effects filter to reformat and normalize vectors as they are found in common normalmaps (RGB = XYZ). It allows a tilting and inverting of each axis or a global inversion of them all. The "traditional format" checkbox activates a conversion of floating point normal maps, which contain values from -1.0 to 1.0 into traditional normal map format 0.0 to 1.0. Some 3d packages export such "true" normals. This filter solves such issues immediately! But on top of that it can do some entertaining things to any image. It normalizes the color vector, which means it maximizes the saturation of any color. Tweaking can result it interesting effects! Get NormaliZe here: Mac | Win
Rob Birnholz is owner of Absolute Motion Graphics, Inc., near Orlando, FL. With more than three decades of production and post experience, he's not only older but hopefully wiser.
CineForm has released a free package of 34 "Looks" for use with First Light. After installation, all 34 Looks are available within the Looks selector in First Light. 
JPEG compression artifacts substantially affect the quality of any digital image. They can be seen as mosquito noise, blockiness or checkerboarding, and edge artifacts. 
Svengali Rays comes as a completely 
Brendan at fnord software has been kind enough to post a free plug-in for After Effects to adjust for switching between standard linear gamma displays and OpenEXR formats; a floating point file format developed by ILM and used by products such as Autodesk's Inferno for working with 32-bit HDR (high-dyamic-range) imagery. 
John Dickinson just sent me the link to a video he just finished for Red Giant Software: 
Jim says, "Everyone loves growing vectors, lighting and grunge textures so I made a preset/project for Motion 3"
idustrial revolution Freebies!
