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

Back in January I presented the "Top 10 Must-Have Plug-ins for Adobe After Effects" at MGFest in Chicago. The presentation was only 22 minutes so that really didn't give me much of a chance to show off the capabilities of the plug-ins and I wanted to do a feature on this for Toolfarm with lots of movie samples.

Several people have asked me about the list and wanting to republish it, so here it is. (If you want to republish the list, go for it, just please link back to Toolfarm). First, a bit about the criteria and some notes.

1. The plug-in should be a single plug-in and so I tried to avoid big plug-in packages when possible. There will be notes included about the product when needed. The plug-in had to be unique, fast, powerful or something I've used a lot and it fits into my workflow. If it hit 3 of the criteria, I would consider it for the list.
2. This is MY opinion, not because I was paid to say this or because the plug-ins come from a manufacturer that gives us higher margins. It's very tough to seem unbiased, but I want you to know, it is all my opinion here.
3. These are in no particular order (but I do have a clear favorite).
4. The list was created in January 2009 and a few new plug-ins that I really like were not included in the list. I guess they'll have to wait for 2010.

Without further ado.....

1 Red Giant Primatte Keyer

Description: A Perfect Key the First Time! The simplest, fastest green-screen tool available that even extracts keys from challenging DV and low lit sources by sampling the background color and clicking.

Why I Like It: With my book about keying (Greenscreen Made Easy) out on the market, I've been doing quite a few seminars on keying. People always ask which keyer I like the best. I've been showing Primatte quite a bit and did two presentations at NAB at the Red Giant booth. I find that Primatte is easy to show because of how it works. It's not a matter of fiddling with a bunch of numbers to get the right settings, but dragging around your mouse and clicking big buttons. It works in a very visual manner, which is perfect for artists (who aren't engineers). Also, Primatte has everything I need in one tool.

• Easy to use and very fast
• Built in DV Deartifactor, Spill Suppression, Color Matching and Light Wrap

Cost: $499 (Buy | Try)

Sample:

2 RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur

Description: ReelSmart Motion Blur Pro automatically tracks every pixel in a sequence and blurs based on calculated motion.

Why I like it: Again, with the greenscreen book, I've realized how incredible this tool really is! Have you ever tried to key footage with motion blur? Not too easy and the results aren't usually very good. You can shoot with a high shutter speed but then you lose all of that natural looking motion blur. This is where RSMB steps in and adds that natural looking footage back into your shot, without blurring the whole frame, just the movement in the video.

• Also great for compositing 3D, which I have in the example below.
• RSMB has adjustable tracking points for problematic footage
• Supports 32-bit float in AE
• Inexpensive

Cost: $149.95 (Buy | Try)

Sample:

3 Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse

Description: Telcine-style color correction within After Effects, Premiere Pro & Final Cut Pro, giving you full creative control over the color and look of your images.

Why I like it: Color Finesse gives you total control of image, much more than just curves, levels, hue/saturation. You can make adjustments in HSL, RGB, CMY, and YCbCr color spaces, and have individual control over shadows, midtones, and highlights, as well as overall correction.

• Has 32 Bit Float support... so why is this important? It allows you to have much more flexibility and allows AE to be used in higher end productions and more cinematic work. You will have more contrast between your blacks and whites. For details on working in 32-bit Float, check out Stu Maschwicz's article on 32-bit float workflow in AE on fxguide.
• It ships with After Effects so it won't cost any extra.

Cost: $595 (Buy | No demo at Toolfarm, but you probably already have it if you have AE)

Sample: Just a couple of screenshots...

4 Red Giant Knoll Light Factory

Description: Light effects from John Knoll for photo-realistic sunsets and motion graphics.

Why I like it: Maybe this is just the kid in me, but plug-ins get bonus points for being fun to play with and easy to use and KLF is both. With KLF, you get natural looking lens flares and loads of great presets that are customizable. I really like the fact that you can set up an obscuration layer so that when an object moves in front of the flare, it dims or turns off.

• Tons of variety for one type of effect (not a one trick pony)
• Use presets or the Lens Editor to build your own flares.
• Auto tracking
• As with all of the Red Giant products, one license works in multiple host applications on one machine, so you don't need to buy multiple copies.

Cost: $399 (Buy | Try)

Samples:


A nice sample I snagged from YouTube.

5 Zaxwerks ProAnimator

Description: Create 3D text and primitives without having to learn a 3D program.

Why I like it: I've attempted to learn a true 3D program and give up after about 30 minutes. I have bad depth perception (that's why I used to hit so many things with the car). ProAnimator makes it so easy to create slick looking 3D elements directly in AE and with a short learning curve. I picked up the plug-in quickly without using the manual (that is how I roll).

• Nice presets
• Track the After Effects camera and lights
• Export wireframe versions for that techie, futuristic computer environment look
• Impressive looking 3D renders

Cost: $695 (Buy | Try)

Samples: Here's a quick sample I did for a test for a client a couple of years ago. It was composited over video and 3D screens.


And a nice example that was tagged ProAnimator on Vimeo:

DIGITAL MEDIA - LOGO - Barking Abbey School from Barking Abbey School on Vimeo.

6 Trapcode Particular

Description: 3D Particle system that produces various natural effects like smoke, fire and sparks and also organic and techie-style graphical effects that are very useful for motion graphics design.

Why I like it: I love how it looks and all of the presets. I'm a sucker for presets. I don't read manuals so presets help me get going. I just modify them until I get something I like. Particular has loads of fantastic presets, plus you can preview them and what you've created realtime in the Effect Controls window.

• Particular is tightly integration with AE's Camera & lights - oh, wait until you see version 2!
• Particular has a complex physics engine, allowing you to fully control your particles, again, new improvements in v2.
• Inexpensive, especially considering all it can do. Particular is one of those tools you can use on a multitude of jobs and it will never get old.

Cost: $299 (Buy | Try)

Samples: A couple of nice samples on Vimeo:

awesome rain from versa on Vimeo.


Velvære Circle from Mario Brauer on Vimeo.

7 Digieffects Damage

Description:
Damage creates an extensive variety of digital and/or analog defects/errors in your footage.

Why I like it: It's another plug-in that is fun to play with! I've used the plugin for many creative purposes - interference with a hologram popping on, a luma matte for a gradient wipe, and grungy moving backgrounds and grungy text. My favorite part is the little blue button that randomizes the effects. The effects do have a TON of sliders so it's not always clear on what needs to be adjusted to get the effect needed, and that little blue button is just what I need to get started. The plug-in is very fast for previews and renders and is CHEAP at just $99. Also, one license works in multiple hosts on a single computer (AE, FCP, PPRO, Combustion).

Cost: $99 (Buy | Try)

Samples:

8 Boris Continuum Motion Key

Description: Remove an object from your shot quickly without much work.

Why I like it: I showed Motion Key as part of BCC5 at NAB08 and found that this plug-in absolutely blew people away. If you've ever had to rotoscope something out of a clip of video, you know how tedious and un-fun it can be. Motion Key takes all the work out of it by using Optical Flow technology. It's now sold by it self as a single unit and is also included with Boris Continuum Complete 6.

Cost: (Buy | Try)

Sample:

9 The Foundry Keylight

Description: Academy Award winning keyer. It is simple to use and is particularly good at tackling reflections, semi-transparent areas and hair.

Why I like it: I know, two keyers on the list! What gives? You know I recently worked on a book, right? I have used a lot of keying tools in the past 2 years! Keylight is a very powerful keyer and when others can't do the job, Keylight can usually handle it. It is easy to use, fast and has built-in spill suppression. Keylight gives several ways to view the matte/key, and it's included with After Effects, so most of you already own Keylight. Also, Toolfarm also put out some great training for Keylight called Professional Keying with Keylight, that I highly recommend picking up.

Cost: $420 node-locked, $630 floating (Buy Node-Locked, Buy Floating | Try)

Samples: I thought I'd just put the trailer for the Keylight training up. It will give you a good idea about what the plug-in does.

10 Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks

Description: Define the style of your video or film, regardless of on-set conditions, with powerful imaging tools.

Why I like it: This is my favorite plug-in of the lot. It is extremely easy to use, as the interface was designed for artists, not engineers. It comes with a huge library of Looks that are fully customizable and savable. It's lightning fast because of GPU acceleration. It can make video with flat lighting look amazing and it's also great for matching your foreground and background when compositing greenscreen. I use this on pretty much everything, including photos.

Cost: $399 (Buy | Try) Quick Looks now available for $99 (presets only).

Samples: Here's one from our German friend at MyToolfarm.


And here's a promo for a greenscreen contest that I used Looks on the webcam shots to spice them up.

Late Entry: Boris Continuum Complete 6.0 3D Object Filters

Description: 5 new plug-ins in BCC6 that extrude text, paths and eps/Illustrator files.

Why I like it: Easy to use and very fast (hardware accelerated). It works with the native AE camera and lights and everything except the text type window is in the native AE Effect control window. There are loads of options and loads of presets. All bevels can be customized with paths and did I mention the real-time previews? This will certainly make the 2010 top 10 list (but who will I bump?!)

Cost: $995 (Buy | Try)

Samples:Here's the finished video shown at the Boris FX Booth at NAB09.


Here's a tutorial I put out a couple of weeks ago.


And here's a tutorial I did for Boris FX. I plan to do a few more tutorials on these fan-diddly-tastic plug-ins.

Honorable Mention: Noise Industries FxFactory Pro

Description: Revolutionary VFX package with over 300 hardware accelerated plug-ins

Why I like it: I really was going for no big packages but just individual plug-ins in this list however, this one is a little different. Why is it different? With FxFactory, you can create your own FxPlug effects for Final Cut Studio without writing any code. Okay, I know this is for FCP and not AE, but, it's still an excellent package of plugins that are VERY fast and have unlimited expandability (you can download more plug-ins at the FxMarket).

Cost: (Buy | Try)

Samples: Here's the promo that just came out.

Labels: After Effects, bor, Color Finesse, Damage, DigiEffects, FxFactory, Keylight, Knoll Light Factory, Magic Bullet Looks, Noise Industries, Primatte Keyer, ReelSmart Motion Blur

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 spoke at MGFest in Chicago last Friday and my topic was Ten Must-Have Plug-ins for Adobe After Effects. The plug-ins I chose were plug-ins that I find the most useful and most unique, not necessarily the plug-ins Toolfarm sells the most of or makes the most profit on. I'll be putting the presentation on the site in the future, after I redo some of the movie samples.

One of the plug-ins on my list is RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB), available for After Effects 7, CS3/CS4, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Combustion and Boris RED.

Why do I like ReelSmart Motion Blur?
RSMB allows you to add blur on movement in your video where there is no blur, automatically tracking every pixel in a sequence and then blurs (or deblurs) based on calculated motion!

Most plug-ins for blur will apply it to the entire frame or image. RSMB somehow knows where the motion in the video is located and applies it to only that area. For example, if you're shooting green screen footage with a high shutter speed for easier keying, you can add the blur back into the shot in post with ReelSmart Motion Blur. It's also very useful for very crisp and clean 3D renders that need some natural blur added, as shown in the video example.

This plug-in will definitely improve your composites. It is easy to use, has many variables that can be controlled, is very fast and is also inexpensive, at just $89.95 for the AE version.

The Example
If you click the image at the top right of this article, you'll see a 3D DNA strand that is treated with RSMB, as well as the original shot,a very crisp, clean 3D rendering (iStockPhoto).



Screenshot of AE Effect Controls

Labels: After Effects, ReelSmart Motion Blur

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

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 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