RE:Vision Effects releases Twixtor as an OFX plugin set; Foundry's Nuke and Autodesk's Maya Composite (Toxik) are currently supported. Other OFX hosts will be added to the list of supported applications once Twixtor is verified to work properly within them.

Twixtor raises the bar in motion estimation. Nick Brooks, Academy Award and Emmy Award winner for visual effects says, "Twixtor represents a new touchstone in retiming. The difference in accuracy means that retiming artifacts are either drastically reduced or disappear on the hardest to retime footage."

Twixtor enables you to retime your image sequences with visually stunning results. In order to achieve its unparalleled image quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence... employing RE:Vision's proprietary tracking technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel. Twixtor has options to help prevent tearing and stretching of objects as they cross or go out of the frame, including a smart blending option for pans and zooms to prevent inappropriate streaking or weird artifacts at frame borders. Twixtor also has an option to automatically enhance dark imagery or imagery with poorly defined edges. With the features, many pieces of footage that could be difficult to track become well behaved.

What's in the Twixtor OFX version?

• Warping and interpolation of frames to "time warp" input footage.
• Time remap using animatable speed percentages, or exact frame numbers.
• Unclamped floating point image support.
• Contains an option to remove motion blur when slowing footage.
• Contains an option to automatically enhance dark imagery or imagery with poorly defined edges. In many cases, footage that could be difficult to track becomes much more well-behaved upon retiming.
• Support for marking material so that Twixtor does not motion-interpolate inappropriately across a cut or other transition.
• Support for up to 3 foreground mattes for up to 4 layers of individual tracking. This is useful when crossing objects in a scene make tracking problematic.
• Motion Vector Import. Give Twixtor motion vectors generated elsewhere (for example, from a 3D system) to time remap footage.
• Motion Vector Export. You can now output the motion vectors that Twixtor generates internally. This powerful feature comes with visual debugging modes to more intuitively assess and tune the quality of the motion estimation. The motion vectors can then be used elsewhere in the pipeline (including the Twixtor plugin that imports motion vectors).
  

Pricing info:

• Node-locked licenses of Twixtor, OFX version, is $665.00. Render-only nodes available for $133.00.
• Floating licenses of Twixtor, OFX version, is $997.50. Render-only nodes available for $199.50.
• Volume pricing, and multi-host floating licensing available. Contact sales@toolfarm.com.
  

Compatibility:

• Nuke 5.1 and later, Maya Composite (Toxik) 2009 SP1 and later.

Twixtor continues to be supported for Adobe After Effects, Eyeon Fusion, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Final Cut Express, Autodesk combustion, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid editing systems, Autodesk Systems (Sparks), Autodesk SoftImage, Apple Shake, Quantel genQ and others. Demo versions, sample footage and tutorials are available on the RE:Vision Effects website: http://www.revisionfx.com .

Twixtor is a trademark of RE:Vision Effects, Inc. All other trademarks, company names and products are the property of their respective holders. Features, pricing and availability are subject to change without notice.

Labels: Nuke, OFX, Re:Vision Effects, Twixtor

CHV Morphing FX for Final Cut Pro was updated to v1.5.1 and Re:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur for OFX was updated to 3.3.9.

Download demos here

Labels: CHV, Final Cut Pro, OFX, Re:Vision Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur

Here's what's on the Re:Vision Effects YouTube Channel so far:

Twixtor Overview


Twixtor Speed Ramp Tutorial


Did you know Toolfarm also has a YouTube Channel?

Labels: Re:Vision Effects, Tutorial, Twixtor

Promoting Open Standards for Visual Effects

Seven companies joined forces at NAB last month to launch The Open Effects Association. This non-profit, UK-based company aims to develop and promote open standards across the visual effects community. Founding members are Assimilate, Autodesk®, Digieffects, FilmLight, The Foundry, GenArts® and RE:Vision Effects. These companies have helped artists create ground-breaking VFX shots on just about everything that hits cinema screens.

The Association's initial focus is to improve the OFX image processing plug-in standard launched by The Foundry in 2004. The goal for the OpenFX API is to reduce the level of development and support required for plug-ins across different compositing and editing host platforms. The OpenFX API has, to date, been adopted by:

• Assimilate® SCRATCH®
  
• Autodesk® Toxik^TM software
  
• FilmLight's Baselight
  
• GenArts® Sapphire® plug-ins
  
• The Foundry's Nuke compositor and Tinder, Keylight and Furnace plug-ins
  
• RE:Vision Effects' ReelSmart^TM Motion Blur and DE:Noise plug-ins
  
• Digital Vision's FilmMaster
  
• Grass Valley's Bones
  
• Eyeon Fusion
  
• Avid DS
  
• Photron's Primatte Keyer

The Association hopes that as a new, independent organization, it will encourage increasingly open communication and collaboration between hosts and plug-in developers and establish a uniform specification to benefit everyone involved, starting with the artists.

Bruno Nicoletti, Chief Technical Officer at The Foundry and main creator of the original OpenFX API comments: "It was always The Foundry's aim to make life easier for everyone. I'm reinvigorated by the formation of this new independent body, delighted to have been appointed to the board and am looking forward to collaborating with the other members and encouraging uptake of OpenFX API as a standard."

Gary Oberbrunner, Chief Scientist, Vice President of Engineering at GenArts and newly appointed Director of the OFX Association adds, "GenArts Sapphire has a well-earned reputation for supporting a wide range of host platforms. We've been supportive of the OpenFX premise since its inception, and Sapphire runs on all major OpenFX hosts. We at GenArts are excited about the OFX Association, and we believe this new approach will enable the industry to advance our common goals more quickly."

If you are interested in learning more or joining the OFX Association, please contact Bruno Nicoletti, bruno@thefoundry.co.uk.

Labels: Autodesk, Avid, DigiEffects, Eyeon Fusion, GenArts, OFX, Re:Vision Effects, The Foundry, Toxik

So you just bought a fast new computer and dread the process of having to transfer your licenses to your new computer. It can be a hassle, but here is a guide for a few products you may own, to help things go a bit more smoothly. If you have questions, please post a comment below.

Adobe:

If you want to uninstall your product and reinstall it on a different computer, then you must first deactivate it. In the program, click Help > Deactivate, and then follow the instructions in the wizard to deactivate the program. If you have installed a suite product, you can deactivate the entire suite by deactivating any one of the point products included in that suite.

Automatic Duck:

1. After installing again on the new system, you will get a new Product ID to use for a new Activation Key. DO NOT try to activate the old Product ID on the new system.
   
2. Reset your serial number on the registration server so that you will be permitted to activate again. Please reset your serial number at this web page.
   
3. Register using your email address that you used to activate and you'll be able to log in and reset your serial number.
   
4. Quit After Effects, trash your plug-in's key file, click here to find it. Now you'll need to go through the activation process again.

BorisFX:

Requires a license transfer. Send license transfer request to us with your new Unique Product ID to obtain a new permanent code. Follow your original install instructions to obtain your Unique ID.

Digieffects:

Just reinstall on the new machine. Your serial number will work on either Mac or Windows, and does not require uninstalling your previous system's version.

The Foundry:

To obtain a new license, first fill out the license transfer form. You cannot transfer any of The Foundry products to a different host system.

GenArts Sapphire:

1. First uninstall the plugin: On Windows: go to Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs. Find 'GenArts Sapphire Plug-ins' in the list, and press the Change/Remove button. On Mac: go to the /Applications/GenArtsSapphireAE folder and double click on Uninstall Sapphire.
2. During the uninstall, select the option to register that uninstall via the web. As long as the uninstall is successfully registered, you should then be able to install your serial number on the new machine. The license is cross-platform so you can transfer a serial number between Windows and Mac systems in this way.
   

GridIron:

Requires a license deactivation. Send your old serial number and the MAC Address of the new machine to us.

Imagineer Systems:

Requires a license transfer. Send a license transfer request to us to obtain a new license.

Noise Industries FxFactory Pro:

First uninstall from the old machine by launching the FxFactory application and choose the "Uninstall FxFactory..." command under the Actions menu: Then install as normal on the new machine.

If you uninstall FxFactory, it will uninstall everything, including all the FxPacks.

Furthermore you can also deactivate and remove individual FxPacks. This can be done by launching the FxFactory application.

1. To turn FxPacks on/off simply click the checkbox to the left of each FxPack in the FxFactory Application interface.
2. To completely remove an FxPack simply drag it out of the FxFactory application and into the trash.
   

Red Giant Software:

Just reinstall on the new machine. Your serial number will work on either Mac or Windows, and does not require uninstalling your previous system's version.

Re:Vision Effects:

Request a License Transfer. Delete plug-ins from the old machine, and send an email with serial number requesting a transfer. Note: License transfer fees may apply for certain hosts.

Tiffen Dfx:

First deactvate your license on the old computer by opening the licensing Menu and clicking "Internet Deactivate". On the new computer, select "Activate Dfx" and follow the instructions.

Trapcode:

Just reinstall on the new machine. Your serial number will work on either Mac or Windows, and does not require uninstalling your previous system's version.

Labels: Adobe, Automatic Duck, Boris FX, DigiEffects, GenArts, GridIron, Noise Industries, Re:Vision Effects, Red Giant, The Foundry, Tiffen Dfx, Trapcode

RE:Vision Effects today released Twixtor Express for Final Cut Express. Twixtor enables users to speed up, slow down image sequences with visually stunning results. In order to achieve its unparalleled image quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence... employing RE:Vision Effects’ Academy Award winning technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.

This simpler-to-use version has been engineered for Final Cut Express users and is specially priced at $169.95 ($161 Toolfarm Price).

DV Magazine calls Twixtor "amazing" and "a must-have for any toolkit." Video Systems says "it’s the best plugin method for creating speed changes, slow-motion effects, and frame-rate conversions." Nick Brooks, Academy Award and Emmy Award winner for visual effects says, "Twixtor 4.5 represents a new touchstone in retiming. The difference in accuracy means that retiming artifacts are either drastically reduced or disappear on the hardest to retime footage."

Availability and Compatibility:

• Twixtor Express is available as an FxPlug plugin for Final Cut Express 4.0.1 and up.
• Note that Twixtor Express is not available for Final Cut Pro, but the regular and Pro versions continue to support Final Cut Pro users.
• Twixtor Express for Final Cut Express
• Twixtor Standard for Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Autodesk Combustion, and Eyeon Fusion
• Twixtor Pro Version for Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Autodesk Combustion, and Eyeon Fusion
• Twixtor Standard FxPlug Version for Final Cut Pro
• Twixtor Pro FxPlug Version for Final Cut Pro

Try it out for yourself! | Download a Free Demo Today!

Labels: Final Cut Express, Re:Vision Effects, Twixtor

Noise Industries Yanobox Motype and RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur- part of our Plug-ins for $99 and Under Pages!

RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur automatically tracks every pixel in a sequence and then blurs (or deblurs) based on calculated motion!

RE:Vision Effects' tracking technology is at the heart of ReelSmart Motion Blur, so there is no handwork involved. Of course you can add as little or as much blurring as you need and even remove motion blur! Finally, you can create very interesting effects by blurring one sequence by using the motion from another.

ReelSmart Motion Blur works in After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Combustion, Commotion, Premiere Pro, and Boris Red.

Learn More about ReelSmart Motion Blur | Download a Free Demo

In case you missed it in our previous newsletter, we also recently reviewed Noise Industries Yanobox Motype.

Saving time and money has been very important to our customers lately, and Yanobox Motype is a great way to do both without sacrificing quality work.

Noise Industries Yanobox Motype effortlessly generates complex text-based effects with lightning-fast speed; effects that would normally take several layers and filters to create.

If you need to get a "wow" response from clients right away, the presets alone are stylish and impressive. You are also able to tweak many of the elements individually and reverse-engineer to tailor it to the specific needs of your project. Well worth it and will quickly pay for itself. For After Effects, Final Cut Pro/Express and Motion!

Learn More/See Examples | Download a Free Demo | Read the Full Review

Labels: 99 And Under, Noise Industries, Re:Vision Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur, reviews, Yanobox Motype

I just found out that my daughter and Vincent Van Gogh share the same birth date (and Celine Dion and Astrid Gilberto too!) I'm a big fan of Van Gogh, and I saw a tutorial just a couple of days ago from RE:Vision Effects about their Video Gogh plug-in. This plug-in was used on What Dreams May Come. I didn't like the movie, but LOVED the visual effects, and Video Gogh was used in the film.

• The tutorial uses Video Gogh, RE:Map and SmoothKit. Download a demo of all 3 RE:Vision Effects plug-ins here.
• View the tutorial: Animated Impressionism in After Effects
• Purchase Video Gogh, RE:Map or SmoothKit

Labels: RE:Map, Re:Vision Effects, SmoothKit, Tutorial, Video Gogh

Marcus Geduld gives Re:Vision FX Video Gogh 3 a 4.5.

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT A painterly effect with a ton of power features
NOT Somewhat steep learning curve

• Read the review
• Buy Video Gogh with Toolfarm's everyday 5% discount. (Upgrade)
• Video Gogh in our Plug-in Finder
• Download a free demo

Labels: Re:Vision Effects, reviews, Video Gogh

RE:Vision Effects today expanded support of its DE:Noise FxPlug plugin set for Final Cut Pro and Motion to include Final Cut Express. DE:Noise is a plugin set that removes excessive noise and artifacts in one easy-to-use tool. It handles spurious frame-to-frame defects ranging from fine digital and electronic noise to blotchy spots (e.g. dirt on the film). DE:Noise combines proprietary motion estimation (optical flow) techniques with feature-sensitive, edge-preserving spatial filtering methods to reduce the visual impact of various problems such as: noisy video (that can happen with low-light capture), excessive film grain, prefiltering noisy greenscreens before keying, CG renders affected by ray-tracing sampling artifacts, dust captured during film scan/transfer and printing, snow, drop-outs and many other defects.

Features of DE:Noise:

• Pre-processing contrast controls to help enhance the noise for easier elimination.
• Smart spatial filtering controls that allow for the spatial smoothing of noise without smoothing over important features in the image sequence.
• 8 different temporal filtering methods that uses motion estimation (via optical flow) to correlate images over time in order to reduce noise and other artifacts.
• Post-processing to help punch up the result or to undo the preprocessing contrast enhancement.
• Post sharpening option for when the denoising process makes the result softer than desired.
• 8 bits per channel (bpc) support within Final Cut Express, and support of higher bit depths (e.g., 10 bit YUV and floating point) where applicable within Final Cut Pro and Motion.

Bug Fixes and Enhancements newly available in DE:Noise FxPlug v1.1:

• Added a feature that presents an extra option when applying the plugin to interlaced footage (allowing the plugin to compare fields from the next frame instead of the adjacent field in the current frame). See the manual for details.
• Fixed some issues with non-full alpha layers with some spatial blurs; and, as a result, layers with non full alpha may take longer in some modes.
• The temporal threshhold has been changed so that desired results are easier to control. However, this also means that older projects will need some attention to the temporal threshhold value to get the exact same results. To get the same results, the solution is to take the square root of the value you had before (so that 10% should be reset to 31.62%, because .3162 is the square root of .1).

Availability and compatibility

• DE:Noise is available as an FxPlug plugin for Final Cut Express 4.0.1 and up, Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 and up, Motion 3.0.1 and up.

Pricing:

• DE:Noise FxPlug version is priced at $149.95.
• Volume discounts available. Contact sales@toolfarm.com

Labels: DE:Noise, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, FxPlug, Motion, Re:Vision Effects

Now available for Nuke, Fusion and Toxik!

RE:Vision Effects today released its acclaimed DE:Noise plugin set for Nuke, Fusion and Toxik. DE:Noise is a plugin set that removes excessive noise and artifacts in one easy-to-use tool. It handles spurious frame-to-frame defects ranging from fine digital and electronic noise to blotchy spots (e.g. dirt on the film). DE:Noise combines proprietary motion estimation (optical flow) techniques with feature-sensitive, edge-preserving spatial filtering methods to reduce the visual impact of various problems such as: noisy video (that can happen with low-light capture), excessive film grain, prefiltering noisy greenscreens before keying, CG renders affected by ray-tracing sampling artifacts, dust captured during film scan/transfer and printing, snow, drop-outs and many other defects.

Features of DE:Noise:

• Pre-processing contrast controls to help enhance the noise for easier elimination.
• Smart spatial filtering controls that allow for the spatial smoothing of noise without smoothing over important features in the image sequence.
• 8 different temporal filtering methods that uses motion estimation (via optical flow) to correlate images over time in order to reduce noise and other artifacts.
• Post-processing to help punch up the result or to undo the preprocessing contrast enhancement.
• Post sharpening option for when the denoising process makes the result softer than desired.
• Unclamped floating point support in applications that support it.
• A way to mark segments to avoid problems with flashes and other discontinuities.

Availability and compatibility for the OFX version of DE:Noise:

• DE:Noise is available for Mac OS X 10.4 and up, Windows 32 and 64 bit (XP or Vista) and Linux 32 and 64 bit.
• DE:Noise has been tested in The Foundry Nuke 5.1 and up, eyeon Fusion 5.2 and up, and Autodesk Toxik 2008 and up. Other hosts that support OFX plugins may work, but please try out the demo before purchasing.

Pricing for the OFX version of DE:Noise:

• Full version node-locked licenses are priced at $189.95. Floating licenses are priced at $284.93.
• Render-only node-locked licenses are priced at $44.95, and render-only floating licenses are priced at $67.43.
• DE:Noise OFX is now included in Effections for Fusion, version 9.

DE:Noise continues to be available for After Effects, combustion, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Motion.

DE:Noise is a trademark of RE:Vision Effects, Inc. Other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. Features, pricing and availability are subject to change without notice.

Labels: DE:Noise, OFX, Re:Vision Effects

It was updated last week.

• Download the free update here: Mac | Windows
• Learn more about RE:Flex in our Plug-in Finder
• Buy RE:Flex

Labels: After Effects, Combustion, Re:Flex, Re:Vision Effects

RE:Vision Effects today released updates for Twixtor, ReelSmart Motion Blur and FieldsKit to specifically address issues of crashing and hanging that users were experiencing within Premiere Pro. The products released today are Twixtor v. 4.5.9, ReelSmart Motion Blur v. 3.2.5 and FieldsKit v. 2.0.1, and are the After Effects-compatible verisons that work within Premiere Pro. Users who have purchased the After Effects-compatible versions of Twixtor 4, ReelSmart Motion Blur 3 and FieldsKit 2 receive the update for free.

Twixtor enables users to speed up, slow down image sequences with visually stunning results. In order to achieve its unparalleled image quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence... employing RE:Vision Effects' Academy Award winning technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.

ReelSmart Motion Blur applies more natural-looking motion blur to a video sequence by automatically tracking every pixel. RE:Vision Effects' tracking technology is at the heart of ReelSmart Motion Blur, so there is no handwork involved. Users can add as little or as much blurring as is needed, and can even remove motion blur.

FielsdKit is the acclaimed set of plug-ins providing smarter deinterlacing and better workflow options for interlacing and pulldown. FieldsKit 2 includes the powerful motion estimation found in Twixtor and ReelSmart Motion Blur.

Labels: FieldsKit, Premiere Pro, Re:Vision Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur, Twixtor

Video Gogh turns your videos into moving paintings, using RE:Vision Effects optical flow technology to move brush strokes without stuttering artifacts. Video Gogh 3 opens up other possibilities in motion graphic design by introducing the option for users to define their own brushes, which may be animated. Version 3 adds a substantial amount of new visual effects opportunities that many have requested over the years.

Some of the features include:

• Three default brush styles included: Oily, Watercolor and Chalk.
• Custom Brush Set (up to 10): now included is support for animated and custom brush sets. Users can supply custom brush images and for each select different render styles (including render directly as sprite).
• A new "Non-Additive Blending" mode allows you to make properly semi-transparent layers.
• Video Gogh 3 provides an option to paint over the original sequence to avoid holes in result.
• The ability to clip to edges found in the original image is now an option allowing you to paint "tight" or "loose".
• Users can now control separately the growth and death of brush strokes when they become too distant apart or too clustered.
• A better technique has been introduced that performs much better when objects come into frame as a result of panning or other camera (or object) motion.
• In previous versions the initial distribution of brush strokes was not properly randomized, causing brush strokes to appear located on a grid upon initialization. This is been corrected in version 3.
• Users can now control the variability in brush stroke width (including choosing to have no randomness).
• Motion can be calculated using an alternate clip. This is useful if the original clip has low contrast or is difficult to track. This feature is also useful to facilitate layering small regions of the image with the plugin.
• External motion vectors (e.g., from Twixtor or your 3D system) are also supported.
• Brush stroke orientation can now be specified using alternate images. In addition, direction maps (e.g., from a 3D system) may be used to control directions the brush strokes orientation.
• 16 bpc channel image support for applications that support 16bpc for After Effects-compatible plugins.

Compatibility

Video Gogh 3 works in Combustion 3.0.4 and over, After Effects 5.0 and up on Windows, After Effects 7.0 and up on Mac, Final Cut Pro 5.1 and up, and Premiere Pro 1.0 and up on Windows and Premiere Pro CS3 and up on Mac. Fusion 5 32b is also now officially supported. It is planned that Video Gogh 3 will be available in our bundle for Quantel eQ systems available from Video Design Software. Video Gogh may also work in other After Effects-compatible applications; please test the demo before purchase.

Pricing

Video Gogh 3 is $119.95 and the upgrade from previous versions is $39.95. As of today, our Effections bundles for After Effects, Combustion, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Fusion include Video Gogh 3. (Effections Plus Bundle for After Effects

Demo material, examples and software are available at http://www.revisionfx.com or visit us in person at IBC, in the plug-in pavilion booth 7-K21.

Labels: After Effects, Combustion, Eyeon Fusion, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, Re:Vision Effects, Video Gogh

That's right, free pizza, sponsored by your good friends at Toolfarm!

This Wednesday, June 18th 6:30pm at Adobe in San Francisco. Pre-register here. It's free but you need a badge to get into Adobe.

Adobe
601 Townsend Street
San Francisco, CA 94103 (map)
415.832.2000
Entrance on Townsend Street. Reception is on the 1st floor.

FEATURED GUESTS

Brian Diecks
A 16 year veteran of branding, strategic marketing + creative for the entertainment, lifestyle and the sports industries, Brian Diecks is an award-winning broadcast designer and creative director of television branding, motion graphics, promotion campaigns, main title design, show packaging, print collateral, packaging and interactive projects.
www.diecksgroup.com

Patrick Siemer
Former Directing Animator at the esteemed H-Gun Labs, and long time Pixar AE Animator Patrick Siemer walks us through his After Effects process in the creation of the Pixar short "Your Friend the Rat"
www.tapeandglue.com

RE:Vision Effects
Plug-ins of the month

Some photos from the last meeting

Matt Silverman leads the meeting.


Colin Sharp of Toolfarm holds the box for the first version of After Effects.


The space at Adobe.

Labels: Event, Re:Vision Effects, SFMograph, Toolfarm, User Group

RE:Vision Effects is now shipping Twixtor 4.5 for Apple Final Cut Pro (FCP) in an FxPlug version, which is Final Cut Pro's native effects plugin architecture.

Twixtor enables users to speed up, slow down image sequences with visually stunning results. In order to achieve its unparalleled image quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence... employing RE:Vision Effects' Academy Award winning technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.

DV Magazine calls Twixtor "amazing" and "a must-have for any toolkit." Video Systems says "it's the best plugin method for creating speed changes, slow-motion effects, and frame-rate conversions." Nick Brooks, Academy Award and Emmy Award winner for visual effects says, "Twixtor 4.5 represents a new touchstone in retiming. The difference in accuracy means that retiming artifacts are either drastically reduced or disappear on the hardest to retime footage."

The After Effects-compatible version continues to work within Final Cut Pro. What are the differences? The FxPlug version can process images in 10 bit YUV (and greater bit depths, when supported). The After Effects-compatible version only works in 8 bits per channel within FCP, but can also run in After Effects, combustion and Premiere Pro. Note that 8 bit processing within the FxPlug version is significantly faster than the After Effects-compatible version, but 10 bit or full precision YUV processing takes longer than the 8 bit processing in order to take full advantage of the extra bit depth. The FxPlug version runs within FCP 6.0.3 and up, while the After Effects-compatible version will run in any version of FCP from version 4.0 and up.

The FxPlug version is the better alternative when using Twixtor within FCP because it is Apple's native effects plugin format. Apple is continuing to add new features for FxPlug plugins, and as such there are greater future opportunities for Twixtor within FCP in the FxPlug version. Additionally, it is hoped to include Twixtor support for Motion and Final Cut Express in a future release of the FxPlug version.

Many customers use Twixtor within both Final Cut Pro and After Effects, so there is a reduced price for the second version for customers that want to use the FxPlug version within FCP and the After Effects-compatible version within After Effects on the same machine. See pricing information below.

Pricing info:

• FxPlug or After Effects-compatible Plugin, Regular version $329.99.
  
• FxPlug or After Effects-compatible Plugin, Pro version $595.00. See the RE:Vision Effects website for what features the Pro version adds to the regular version.
  
• Upgrade from regular FxPlug to Pro, FxPlug version: $265.00
  
• Upgrade from regular AE-compatible Mac version to Pro AE-compatible Mac version: $265.00
  
• Add regular FxPlug license to a previously purchased regular or Pro AE-compatible Mac license on the same machine: $99.95
  
• Add Pro FxPlug license to a previously purchased Pro AE-compatible Mac license on the same machine: $179.95 (requires previously purchased Pro AE-compatible version)
  
• Add regular AE-compatible Mac license to a previously purchased regular or Pro FxPlug license on the same machine: $99.95
  
• Add Pro AE-compatible Mac license to a previously purchased Pro FxPlug license on the same machine: $179.95

Effections is our bundle of plugins for a particular host. Effection for FCP suite is $889.95 and includes FXPlug versions of Twixtor Pro and DE:Noise as well as 7 other products. Customers who purchased Effections or Effections Plus After Effects-compatible plugin set for Macintosh, as well as Twixtor After Effects-compatible version for Mac since April 1, 2008 receive the Twixtor FXPlug version for free.

Volume pricing available. Contact sales@revisionfx.com

Twixtor continues to be supported for other After Effects-compatible programs (After Effects, combustion, Premiere Pro) as well as Avid editing systems, Autodesk Systems (Sparks), Avid's SoftImage|XSI, Apple's Shake, Quantel generationQ, eyeon's Fusion and Vision and others. Demo versions, sample footage and tutorials are available on the RE:Vision Effects website: http://www.revisionfx.com.

Labels: After Effects, Final Cut Pro, FxPlug, Re:Vision Effects, Twixtor

De-noise and de-artifact

This is an excerpt from a book I'm working on called Greensreening & Keying for Low-Budget Indie Filmmakers that will be out next spring. This has not been through the editor yet, so consider it a super early sneak peek! I had actually started this article a couple of months ago for Toolfarm and thought it would be great to put in the book. The book is about keying, obviously, so the article below is geared toward that glorious task. Reducing grain is something that can be used with any footage though, even if you're not keying. I know you knew that already.

------

You will get much cleaner keys if you first reduce artifacting, noise and grain in your footage. This step may not be necessary if you have awesome footage, but if you're shooting DV, a quick clean up will help your key and your video look immeasurably cleaner.

Noise can come from bad lighting, JPEG and other compression induced artifacting, film grain, and half-tone patterns. In DV footage, blue will almost always be the noisiest channel and green is the cleanest channel.



There are several methods of reducing noise. A median filter set to a very low value will often do the trick. After Effects ships with a very nice Remove Grain filter, which I highly recommend using. It will soften your footage if you use it to high but in small doses, it can do wonders.

Angie Mistretta, visual effects artist and Apple Shake user, has this advice, which applies to pretty much any host application. "Be sure to degrain your footage via each channel." Sometimes a soft blur on the blue channel will do the trick, but do so very carefully. Most of the time, that won't be enough.

Angie adds, "If you need to Shift Channels, degrain each one and then reunite the channels then that is what you would do. Shake has a node that will allow you to tune for each individual channel."

In After Effects, to degrain per channel, try the Remove Grain plug-in, which ships with After Effects. Apply Effect > Noise & Grain > Remove Grain. Remove Grain does a great job of figuring out the algorithm behind the noise and getting rid of it.

Remove Grain and several third party plug-ins have a Preview Region, which is a white box that shows you a preview of the plug-in. Inside the box, you'll see the effect working and outside the box is just the regular footage. This helps speed up render and screen redraw time. By clicking and dragging the center point of the preview region, you can drag it to the area that you want to use as reference.

Under the Noise Reduction Settings > Mode, you can specify whether you want to reduce noise in all channels (multichannel) or in one channel at a time (single channel). Because noise in video is mainly in the blue channel, the noise reduction can be set higher than the other channels.

When reducing noise is useful to see both the combined RGB and a single channel, so you don't have to switch back and forth between channels. This feature is useful for a number of other purposes too.



To open a second comp viewer:

1. At the top of your comp viewer, click on the title of your composition. A pulldown menu will appear. Select 'New Comp Viewer'.
2. Drag the new composition tab to the right side of the comp viewer window, until it highlights purple and let go.
3. To change the channel being viewed for the new comp viewer, use Show Channel at the bottom of the comp window.

Remove Grain doesn't work well with dirt or dust on video, because it works with the full frame of video. You can adjust the Sampling points under the sampling menu. The sample points should be placed in an area of mid-tonal ranges and with no natural texture, such as over trees, water or a stucco wall. It will calculate the noise based on the texture and will not help your cause. Mark Christiansen's book, After Effects CS3 Professional Studio Techniques, talks about the Remove Grain plug-in used to give an aging actress a tighter face, so occasionally using this plug-in for a digital Botox on a skin texture can be very useful! By default, the sampling points are taken from the first frame. You can adjust and keyframe the source frame also.

You will also want to adjust the Noise Reduction Settings and the Fine Tuning in Remove Grain. Be careful not to be too heavy handed with the effect because it will flatten your textures. Before rendering, switch the Viewing Mode to Final Output.



When you're removing noise specifically for keying, many keyers have built-in noise suppression. The Foundry Keylight has a Screen Pre-blur and Screen Softness Options.

Sometimes Remove Grain just isn't enough and you need a third party solution for reducing noise. Check out Reduce Noise, Grain and Artifacting in our Plug-in Finder for a long list of plug-ins for several host applications. There really are a lot of great choices. Here are a couple that I use.

• RE:Vision Effects DE:Noise - Peter Litwinowicz, Co-Founder of RE:Vision Effects said, "Noise in the green screen areas can hamper your ability to pull a great key. DE:Noise is a great plug-in to help pull a better key, because it helps eliminates noise while keeping sharp the details and edges of your objects of interest." De:Noise works with After Effects, Premiere Pro, Boris Red, Combustion, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Fusion.
Digital Film Tools Composite Suite - Deartifact is handy for cleaning up artifacts caused by DV and HD video footage. In fact, it is useful for cleaning up images that have aliased or jaggy edges.
• Boris FX, Inc. Continuum Complete has two noise removal filters, BCC DeGrain Filter and DeNoise Filter. BCC DeGrain removes grain-sized noise from an image by analyzing a sample of the grain, then filtering out image noise that has similar frequency (spectrum) and amplitude. The BCC DeNoise filter removes unwanted pixel noise from an image. DeNoise is especially useful when working with archival materials, as it lets you correct dark areas that show artifacts from film emulsion or video compression. You may also want to use the BCC DeNoise filter when resizing 4:3 images to 16:9 aspect ratio. BCC is available for pretty much every host app you might use.


• Red Giant Software Key Correct Pro is made specifically for keying and quickly clean up noisy images and mattes. Use the simple Denoiser and Alpha Cleaner tools to fix low-light noise problems in poorly lit footage

Labels: DE:Noise, Keylight, Plug-in Finder, Re:Vision Effects, The Foundry

RE:Vision Effects announces the immediate availability of ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB) v.3.3, OpenFX (OFX) version. ReelSmart Motion Blur applies more natural-looking motion blur to a video sequence by automatically tracking every pixel. RE:Vision Effects' tracking technology is at the heart of ReelSmart Motion Blur, so there is no handwork involved. Users can add as little or as much blurring as is needed, and can even remove motion blur.

What's new in version 3.3?

• This version adds support The Foundry's Nuke and Toxik 2008. The OFX version of RSMB continues to support Assimilate Scratch. Other OFX hosts will be added to the list of supported applications once they are verified to work properly.
• With this release, the OFX version of RSMB now runs on Mac OS X, both 32 and 64 bit Linux, and continues to support for 32-bit Windows apps running on either 32-bit or 64-bit Win XP and Vista.
• Floating licensing is also new to this version of RSMB for OFX. This is the first RE:Vision Effects product to offer a true floating licensing option. Cheaper node-locked licenses are still available.

RSMB as an OFX plugin product comes with 2 plugins:

1. a plugin that automatically tracks every pixel in a sequence and blurs based on calculated motion. Some motion blur can also be removed. There is support for foreground and background separation using a specified matte for better tracking, when needed.
2. a plugin that adds or removes motion blur using existing motion vectors sequences (such as those coming from a 3D renderer).

Both plugins take full advantage of multiprocessors, and support unclamped floating point image processing when supported by the host application.

RE:Vision Effects' motion vector format is supported by 3DStudio Max (as the Velocity Render Element), Cinema 4D, Iluminate Labs's Turtle, SiTex's Air via a renderman shader, XSI and Maya via a Mental Ray shader, RE:Vision Effects' Twixtor Motion Vector Create tool, and others. The various methods of retrieving motion vectors are documented on the FAQ section of our website.

Pricing

• The OFX version of RSMB is $189.95 for a full (GUI) node-locked license. Full (GUI) floating licenses are priced at $284.93.
• Render-only licenses for applications that support background (non GUI) rendering are available. Node-locked render-only licenses are $44.95, and floating render-only licenses are 67.43. Render-only licenses only renders projects saved with a full license, so your site must have at least one full (GUI) license for a render-only license to be useful.
• Volume discounts are available with a minimum purchase of 5 licenses.

RSMB continues to be supported in Adobe After Effects and Premiere, Apple Shake, Final Cut Pro, Motion (ppc only), BorisFX Red, Autodesk Combustion and Autodesk systems that support Sparks (Flame, Inferno, Smoke,...), Avid editing systems (Media Composer, Symphony,...), Softimage XSI, Quantel genQ, Eyeon Fusion and others.

Come by and get a demo in person at NAB, booth SL2128J, or download demo versions, example projects and movies, from the RE:Vision Effects website, http://www.revisionfx.com

ReelSmart Motion Blur is a trademark of RE:Vision Effects, Inc. Other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. Features, pricing and availability are subject to change without notice.

Labels: Nuke, OFX, Re:Vision Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur, Toxik

RE:Vision Effects has released SmoothKit version 2, the ultimate plugin set to smooth imagery that combines user-directed controls and feature-sensitive methods.

SmoothKit is a set of 9 special purpose filters that complements the basic blurs provided by host applications. SmoothKit's emphasis is precise control on the filtering process, with no compromise on image quality. SmoothKit allows you to blur without blurring over edges, sharpen with much less ringing, intelligently reduce small image defects, reduce jaggies, blur with per-pixel direction control, and z-blur using greyscale depth images. Many plugins have per-pixel controls, allowing you to vary the amount of blur or the direction of the blur, and many other controls, at each pixel.

What's new in version 2?

• A new Z-Blur filter for depth of field effects using depth maps from 3D systems
• Floating point support within After Effects 7.0 or later
  
• Optimization to take advantage of After Effects's region-of-interest and other smart rectangle processing (AE 7.0 and up)
• More aggressive multiprocessing support
• Ability to use splines to control the direction of the blur at each pixel (After Effects and combustion only)
• New sharpen feature, with a mode that reduces ringing and other artifacts
• New compositing alpha handling modes are introduced including &quto;grow alpha&quto; which allows you to blur without creating inner transparency on large blur kernels.
• A new blur filter mode option, &quto;Bloom&quto;, that better preserves highlights

Other SmoothKit features

• Selectively filter the luminance, or the chrominance, or each of the RGB channels independently
• Blur areas while preserving sharp edges.
  
• Scale filters on a pixel-by-pixel basis by specifying optional greyscale images
• Reduce or eliminate staircasing by using the jaggie-reducing filter (especially useful in frames that have been reconstructed from fields)
• Intelligently reduce block artifacts (for example, DV or MPEG compressed footage)
• Soften areas without blurring important features
• Directionally filter images with per-pixel direction and strength controls
• blend sequences using the multi-frame (temporal) filter with several processing modes

Availability and compatibility

• Macintosh: Adobe After Effects 7.0 and up, Autodesk combustion 4.0.5 and up, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and up, Apple Final Cut Pro 5.1 and up, Boris Red 4.0 and up. Includes native Intel and Leopard support.
• Windows: Adobe After Effects 5.0 and up, Autodesk combustion 3.0.4 and up, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 and up, Boris Red 4.0 and up, eyeon Fusion 4.04e and up. Quantel generationQ support via Video Design Software.

Pricing

• Full versions are priced at $119.95.
  
• Render-only licenses are priced at $23.99. Render only licenses are for use with After Effects', combustion's and Fusion's render-only programs (aerender, backburner, and Render-Slave respectively) and the render-only version of Fusion. Note that the render-only licenses only work on projects written with a full license (so you must have at least one full license for the render-only licenses to be valid).
• Upgrades from SmoothKit version 1 are priced at $39.95
• Our Effections bundles for After Effects, Combustion, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Fusion will now include SmoothKit version 2. Effections "regular" for After Effects, Premiere Pro, combustion, Final Cut Pro is priced at $889.95. Effections Plus for After Effects and Fusion are priced at $1199.95 and $1399.95, respectively.
• Customers who purchased SmoothKit version 1, Effections or Effections Plus for Combustion, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or After Effects after December 1, 2007 will be upgraded to SmoothKit version 2 for free.
• Volume discounts available. Contact sales@revisionfx.com.

Demo versions, example movies, and screencasts of the product in use are available on the RE:Vision Effects webpage for SmoothKit, http://www.revisionfx.com/products/smoothkit/
SmoothKit is a trademark of RE:Vision Effects, Inc.

Labels: After Effects, Re:Vision Effects, SmoothKit

Dave Basulto at Filmmaking Central reviews ReVision Effects De:Noise plug-in in his video podcast and gives it a rave review.

Labels: DE:Noise, Filmmaking Central, Re:Vision Effects, reviews

Of course there is so much more that RE:Vision Effects does than this one plug-in, DE:Noise, but this is their latest plug-in and SIGGRAPH is the latest event.

Here's Pete talking a little bit about the plug-in. It can do much more than can be seen in 3 minutes. You can see more of it at the website - and more about RE:Vision Effects here at Toolfarm!

Note: De:Noise has an introductory price of $99.95 offered through Sept 30, 2007. Learn more about DE:Noise.

Labels: DE:Noise, Ko Maruyama, Re:Vision Effects

While it's true that SIGGRAPH didn't officially see an Adobe booth this year - After Effects isn't the only host application for the software of the PLUGIN PAVILION. Autodesk was (and always is) a big draw for SIGGRAPH (now with mudbox too).

Todd kept busy showing off everything GenArts

Pierre kept people entertained with strange hand puppet shows and comedic songs.

Others strolled over specifically to say hello to Debbie

And even people without product to show found a comfortable place to sit.

Labels: Digital Anarchy, GenArts, Re:Vision Effects, Trapcode

I've added DE:Noise to our demo downloads, so you can take it out for a test drive. There are two flavors: one for After Effects compatible (including Premiere Pro, Combustion, Eyeon Digital Fusion and Boris Red) and one FxPlug for Final Cut Pro and Motion.

Download some demos!

Labels: After Effects, Combustion, DE:Noise, Demo, Final Cut Pro, FxPlug, Motion, Premiere Pro, Re:Vision Effects, RED

DE:Noise handles spurious frame-to-frame defects ranging from fine digital and electronic noise to blotchy spots (e.g. dirt on the film). DE:Noise combines proprietary motion estimation (optical flow) techniques with feature-sensitive, edge-preserving spatial filtering methods to reduce the visual impact of various problems such as: noisy video (that can happen with low-light capture), excessive film grain, CG renders affected by ray-tracing sampling artifacts, fingerprints and dust captured during film scan/transfer and printing, snow, drop-outs and many other defects.

Features of DE:Noise

• Pre-processing contrast controls to help enhance the noise for easier elimination.
• Smart spatial filtering controls that allow for the spatial smoothing of noise without smoothing over important features in the image sequence.
• 8 different temporal filtering methods that uses motion estimation (via optical flow) to correlate images over time in order to reduce noise and other artifacts.
• Post-processing to help punch up the result or to undo the preprocessing contrast enhancement.
• Post sharpening option for when the denoising process makes the result softer than desired.
• 8 bits per channel (bpc) support within Premiere Pro, up to 16bpc support in Autodesk Combustion and Eyeon Fusion, and unclamped floating point support in After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion.

Availability and compatibility
RE:Vision Effects DE:Noise is available as an After Effects-compatible plugin for Adobe After Effects 5 and up, Adobe Premiere Pro 2 and up, Autodesk Combustion 3 and up and eyeon Digital Fusion/DFX+ 4.04e and eyeon Fusion/Vision 5 and up. DE:Noise is available as an FxPlug plug-in for Final Cut Pro 6 and up, or Motion 3 and up.

Pricing

• Full versions are priced at $149.95. SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE OF $99.95 through Sept 30, 2007. After Effects and Compatible host | FxPlug version for Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion
• Render-only licenses are priced at $29.99. Render only licenses are for use with After Effects', combustion's and Fusion's render-only programs (aerender, backburner, and Render-Slave respectively) and the render-only version of Fusion. Note that the render-only licenses only work on projects written with a full license (so you must have at least one full license for the render-only licenses to be valid).

Our Effections bundle for After Effects, Combustion, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Fusion will now include DE:Noise. Effections "regular" for After Effects, Premiere Pro, combustion, Final Cut Pro is now priced at $889.95 (formerly $849.95). Effections Plus for After Effects and Fusion will remain at their current pricing of $1199.95 and $1399.95, respectively.

Customers who purchased Effections for Combustion, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or After Effects since June 1, 2007 can upgrade for $40 to the current Effections package which includes DE:Noise.

Customers who purchased Effections Plus for After Effects or Effections for Fusion since June 1, 2007 will be upgraded to the new bundles (which include DE:Noise) for free.

Volume discounts available. Contact sales@revisionfx.com.

Come see DE:Noise and the rest of RE:Vision Effects product line at SIGGRAPH, booth 321, August 7 through 9, 2007 in San Diego.

Demo material, examples and software are available at http://www.revisionfx.com .

Labels: After Effects, Boris, DE:Noise, Final Cut Pro, FxPlug, Motion, Premiere Pro, Re:Vision Effects, RED

RE:Vision Effects announces the release of Shade/Shape 3.0, the acclaimed product that automatically turns your 2D artwork into 3D rendered imagery!

New to Shade/Shape 3.0:

• Adds support for unclamped floating point processing in After Effects 7.0 and up.
• More aggressive multi-threading for faster rendering.
• Shade/Shape adds support for applying bump mapping after reflection mapping. In After Effects 7.0 and up, bump mapping can be applied using the current image with effects pre-applied over it in the same layer.
• Shade/Shape allows ambient and diffuse intensities to go below 0 for special effects (e.g.: shadow pass).
• Shade/Normals changes the behavior of -1 to 1 normals mapping in Shade From Normals for better handling of CG generated surface normals (this affects diffuse channel and reflection mapping), this combined with the light Z-direction now ranging from -1 to 1 allows a complete light rotation around the object.
• Normals adds edge detection support to produce better anti-aliasing for inner shapes boundaries.
• Combustion and FCP will encounter problems loading old projects. FCP and combustion users will need to apply new instances of Shade/Shape to get the new features.

Availability and pricing:
Shade/Shape 3.0 is priced at $89.95. Upgrades from either version 1 or 2 are priced at $29.97. Render-only upgrades are free.

Render-only licenses are priced at $17.99. Render only licenses are for use with After Effects' and combustion's render-only programs (aerender and backburner, respectively) and the render-only version of Fusion. Note that the render-only licenses only work on projects written with a full license (so you must have at least one full license for the render-only licenses to be valid).

Users who purchased Shade/Shape after May 1, 2007 can upgrade for free (this includes the bundles that include Shade/Shape, such as our Effections packages).

Volume discounts available. Contact sales@toolfarm.com.

Compatible with Adobe's After Effects 5.0 and later, Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0 or later, Apple's Final Cut Pro 4.0 or later, Autodesk's combustion 2.1 or later, eyeon's Fusion 4.04e or later, 5.02 or later, and Quantel's generationQ product line. See website for exact compatibility requirements.

Labels: Re:Vision Effects, Re:Vision Effects Shape/Shade

Ko Maruyama talks about the new RE:Vision Effects PV Feather rotoscoping plug-in for Adobe After Effects at DMN. Read the article here. There are some nice images and a video interview with Pierre Jasmine of RE:Vision Effects, shot at NAB 2007.

Try a free demo of RE:Vision Effects PV Feather today!

Labels: After Effects, Ko Maruyama, PV Feather, Re:Vision Effects

RE:Vision Effects announces the immediate availability of PV Feather, a per-vertex feathering control plug-in for Adobe After Effects 6.5 and up. Users have been requesting better feathering control within After Effects for quite some time, and PV Feather now fills that void. PV Feather (the "PV" stands for "per vertex") performs feathering by using an inner mask for filling, and an outer mask for feather control. The distance between the inside and outside mask controls the amount of feather. PV Feather uses AE's built-in mask splines, so there there is no new spline interface to learn!

Note: PV Feather is now included in the Re:Vision Effects Effections Plus bundle with no price change!

Features

• 8, 16 bit per channel and floating point image support
• Variable feathering controlled by inner and outer masks
• Ability to move in tandem the corresponding control points of the inner and outer masks
• AE's own mask primitives are used, so there is no new spline or keyframing interface to learn
• Automatic offsetting of masks
• Ability to offset only selected mask points
• Uses AE's motion blur shutter and angle settings
• Option to use ReelSmart Motion Blur on matte produced (instead of AE's multiple time sampling method)

Matt Silverman of Phoenix Editorial | Designs says "The built-in masking tools inside Adobe After Effects have always been one of its few shortcomings. PV Feather is a major breakthrough and allows us to do complex per-vertex feathering directly inside After Effects instead of having to jump into other compositors or dedicated rotoscoping applications. Like other RE:Vision Effects plug-ins, PV Feather is now an indispensable tool in our toolbox."

Rick Gerard of Gerard Productions says "Wow, we've needed something like this for a long time. PV Feather has made my life much easier."

Curtis Sponslor of AniMill says, "Though After Effects has a powerful and usable masking toolset, I always need to utilize multiple masks compounding upon one-another to isolate various elements. PV Feather instantly simplifies my work flow by reducing the number of masks I'm forced to apply. I can now add one master mask, easily manipulate its variable density falloff, and eliminate the usual cluster of subtraction masks I used to build. It's another Must Have from RE:Vision Effects."

Pricing

PV Feather is priced at $69.95.

Render-only licenses are $13.99. Render-only licensing is for use with After Effects' render-only mechanisms (aerender and Watch Folder). Note that the PV Feather render-only licenses only work on projects written with a full license, so you must have at least one full license for the render-only licenses to be valid.

Volume pricing available.

Compatibility

After Effects 6.5 and up, including After Effects CS3

Mac OX 10.2.8 and up. Native Intel support on Macintosh for After Effects CS3

Windows 2000, XP and up

Labels: After Effects, PV Feather, Re:Vision Effects

Pete Litwinowicz sent this little teaser to the AE-List today. RE:Vision Effects will be putting out a new plug-in for AE but he didn't divulge the name. Any guesses? I'm guessing RE:Masker.

The features:

• Variable edge feathering using a second spline that controls the feather amount (the distance between the original mask and the feather mask controls the feather amount).
• Uses AE's masks, so there is no new interface to learn
• Better motion blur: this plugin will have the ability to use the motion
  blur found in ReelSmart Motion Blur to blur the mask instead of AE's multiple-time sampling method. Note that this plugin uses the shutter angle and phase settings found in AE's advanced composition settings to perform the RSMB-style motion blur

Price: To be determined
Availability: To be determined, but the official answer is "soon". :-)
Compatibility: AE 6.5 or later

See it at booth SL3827A at NAB in Las Vegas next week.

Labels: NAB, Re:Vision Effects

RE:Vision Effects announces the immediate availability of new Effections, a specially-priced bundle collection, for Autodesk's Sparks systems: Flint, Flame, Fire, Inferno, Smoke and Burn. The bundle includes ReelSmart Motion Blur Pro, which automatically tracks every pixel in a sequence and blurs based on calculated motion; Twixtor Pro, which intelligently slows down, speeds up and frame rate converts image sequences; and RE:Flex, which allows users to create visually stunning morphs and warps with an easy-to-use interface.

Labels: Autodesk, Re:Flex, Re:Vision Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur, Twixtor

Re:Vision Effects has lowered the price by $200 each on Re:Flex 3 for Shake and Twixtor 4.5 for Shake.

Also, there is a new bundle for Re:Vision Effects Shake plug-ins which contains Twixtor, Re:Flex and ReelSmart Motion Blur. If you bought them seperately, you'd normally pay around $1,379. Get it for jut $945 at Toolfarm!

Labels: Re:Flex, Re:Vision Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur, Shake, Twixtor

Leading visual effects developer RE:Vision Effects, Inc. is delighted to announce that the company founders, Peter Litwinowicz and Pierre Jasmin, will be honored with a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences©. The formal awards ceremony and presentation will take place on February 10, 2007 in Los Angeles. The award is being given for the design and development of the RE: Vision Effects family of optical flow-based image manipulation software tools. The A.M.P.A.S. reviewing committee recognized RE:Vision Effects' products for their unique user interface and affordable cost that led to the company's success in making the technology ubiquitous.

Labels: Re:Vision Effects

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are honoring "Peter Litwinowicz and Pierre Jasmin for the design and development of the RE: Vision Effects family of software tools for optical flow-based image manipulation." This is in the Technical Achievement Awards category. They add "A unique user interface and relatively low cost have made these tools ubiquitous in the visual effects community."

Labels: Re:Vision Effects