Harry Frank will get you up to speed with Trapcode Particular through this series of informative and project-focused lessons. Explore emitter types and functions in-depth with motion graphics expert, Harry J. Frank. Go beyond generating your typical particle effect and learn to use Particular in new and interesting ways.

Choose from the download version and the DVD version. The download version is available immediately at checkout and is a great pick for those of you who live outside of North America because you will not incur any shipping. The DVD version will be shipping in a week or two but is available for pre-order.

Download a free trial of Trapcode Particular

Labels: Class on Demand, Harry Frank, Particular, Training, Trapcode

The Trapcode Suite 2008.5 Upgrade for Trapcode Suite 2005 & Trapcode Suite 2007 customers is now available.

Price:
1 @ $249
2 or more @ $224.10 each
5 or more @ $211.65 each
10 or more @ $199.20 each

Upgrade Includes

• Shine 1.5 upgrade (retail $49)
• Starglow 1.5 upgrade (retail $49)
• 3D Stroke 2.5 upgrade (retail $49)
• Form 1.0 (retail $199)
• Horizon 1.0 (retail $99)

Eligibility

• Trapcode Suite 2005 (contained 7 TC plugins: old Shine 1.0, old Starglow 1.0, old 3D Stroke 1.0, Particular, Lux, EchoSpace, and Soundkeys)
• Trapcode Suite 2007 (contained 7 TC plugins: new Shine 1.5, new Starglow 1.5, new 3D Stroke 2.5, Particular, Lux, EchoSpace, and Soundkeys)

Labels: 3D Stroke, Echospace, Lux, Particular, Shine, Starglow, Trapcode, Trapcode Form, Trapcode Horizon

LME makes awesome templates for Adobe After Effects, Trapcode plug-ins and even one for Motion. Try out some free samples!

For After Effects 6.5 or higher, Mac and Win. Zipped file works with both platforms.

• AMAZING_TEXT_SAMPLE_1.zip
• FANTASTIC_AE_LIGHT_SAMPLE.zip
• AE_TRANSITION_PRESET_1.zip
• GRUNGE_SAMPLES.zip
• AMAZING_VIDEO_DISPLAYS_SAMPLE.zip
• AE_TRANSITION_PRESET_2.zip
• AMAZING_TEXT_SAMPLE_2.zip
• LME_PARTICULAR_PROJECT.zip
• LME_STARGLOW_PROJECT.zip
• LME_ECHOSPACE_PROJECT.zip

If you don't have the Trapcode plug-ins, you can download a free demo here.

Labels: After Effects, Echospace, Free, LME, Lux, Particular, Starglow, Trapcode

Here I am at Denver International waiting for my connection and there's free wifi! I thought this might be a good opportunity to tell you about my experience at NAB 2008. I have about 10 minutes until I board, and I'll have to put up the photos later. Enjoy.

Sunday, April 13 - Arriving in Las Vegas

Alicia VanHeulen (fellow Toolfarmer) and I got into Vegas around 6pm and caught a taxi in the organized chaos outside the airport. I hate cabs. Hate em. I always get a weird cab driver who wants to come to my house or has some strange hobby he wants to tell me all about. This time, we got to spend 25 minutes hearing about how to prepare Lake Superior Whitefish.

We checked in at the Sahara, which was chosen souly on the fact that you don't have to walk through a casino to get to the monorail. We had plans to go to the FMC party on Sunday evening with John Kerr from Red Giant. It was $85 to get into the rooftop party at Pure at Caesar's Palace, however, RG was a sponsor, so we told them we were guests of John Kerr and they let us in with no problem. We had to walk through about a mile of corridors and stairways to get up to the roof where they had a small buffet of carved beef, shrimp on skewers and spring rolls, which were completely gone. We did have some refreshingly tasty drinks of vodka, cranberry, sprite, and grapefruit juice. There was a woman whose body was being painted on the patio, some people carrying around gobs of hula hoops, as well a big giveaway, that we didn't enter, unfortunately. We met some really cool people from Hawaii (Hi Shanti). We did finally meet up with John Kerr, Sean Safreed and Jeremy Hill from Red Giant, as well as our good friend Seth Hancock from ICVA and his lovely wife Lisa.

After the party, we headed to Mesa, Bobby Flay's restaurant, with the Red Giant guys and had a nice dinner. By the time we left, it was 3:00am our time, so we were tired, to say the least.

Monday, April 14 - Day one of the convention

7:45am - We took the monorail to the convention center. This was our first day on the convention center floor, and Alicia's first NAB ever. I took her to the doorway and pointed her to the Digieffects booth where she was starting her day, but I couldn't get in to the show floor due to the fact that I never received my badge! I had a printout receipt that I had registered in December. It took a while at registration but somehow they lost my registration. After 45 minutes, I was badged.

I headed over to Red Giant, where I had a presentation on Magic Bullet Looks at 10am. Looks is very easy to demo and lots of fun to use, and I have to say, the presentation went pretty well. I've just learned to get through the spiel within 10 minutes because people were standing and I wasn't giving a tutorial, but an overview. The Looks Theatre sold it for a lot of people. It was really great seeing everyone at the RG booth and meeting the new RG employees. Thanks for the nuts and popcorn, Beth! Delicious.

At 1:00pm each day I demoed Boris Continuum Complete and Boris Final Effects Complete at the Boris FX booth. This booth was on the middle aisle of the show floor in a highly trafficked area. Boris FX had a theatre set up with about 25 seats. It was the Motion Key plug-in for BCC that really seemed to get a lot of attention. I'll be putting together a tutorial for Motion Key in the next few weeks, because it really is an amazingly cool plug-in. It garnered lots of ooh's and aah's as a silver car driving across a busy street scene is removed from the shot with ease. I showed off the BCC UpRez plug-in, which converts SD to HD and uses a nifty feature called Magic Sharpen. I demoed the BCC Pan & Zoom which makes the Ken Burns style effects. I showed a few other BCC plug-ins and Final Effects Complete (FEC). Did you know all FEC plug-ins contain motion trackers and a feature called Pixel Chooser, which is a built-in masking tool? If you would've known that during the presentation, you could have won a Boris hat or training Class on Demand Boris Continuum Complete Training DVD.

Digieffects and Red Giant's booths were directly behind each other in the Plug-in Pavillion, which made things very nice for us. Digieffects was demoing the new Damage, as well as the Simulate and Natural Forces plug-ins for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Combusion and Boris Red, which will be out in 4-6 weeks. We hadn't seen the new plug-ins at all yet, so it was a big difficult to answer questions. We ended up setting up little comps with examples, but then found the best way to demo was by using the little blue button. What is this little blue button? It's the randomizer. Shin Kurokawa, the engineer at Digieffects explained that he put the button in for testing purposes so he could see the range of values for each parameter without having to change all of the sliders each time, and soon realized that it's brilliant for getting ideas and seeing what variety of looks that the plug-in can produce. Tim Kolb, David Vieria and Robert Sharp were also at the booth with us all week. Robert... smart move on the couch rental. You can't go wrong with a big comfy couch, especially after you've been on the show floor all day.

Monday night was the IMUG Media Motion Ball 2008 at the Sahara Hotel, which I've attended the last 4 years. The crowd is generally IMUG and AE-List people. Brian Maffitt of Total Training was the speaker and once again and he was hilarious! Brian is a collector of crazy movie memorabilia and marketing gimmicks from William Castle fims. The presentation was about brilliant marketing campaigns for these movies. Macabre with the tagline 'So Terrifying We Insure You For $1000 against Death By Fright! (Not valid for persons with heart or nervous conditions)'. He showed us an original Tingler (filmed in "Percepto"). The best film of all, The House on Haunted Hill, filmed in "Emergo", in which an inflatable skeleton would pop out over the scene. Well, Brian had one of these inflatable skeletons with him at the dinner! We laughed, we cried, it was better than The Tingler.

Dinner at the Media Motion Ball was delicious as always. It was antipasto, salad and several Italian dishes. The highlight was definitely the dessert. Steve Kahn had arranged a surprise for everyone and that was Bananas (and strawberries) Foster over ice cream. Fabulous. I think overall I gained 5 pounds in Las Vegas, but I probably walked it off.

Alicia and I dined with Mark Spencer, author of Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3, which I highly recommend. Also at the table was Niclas Bahn of Noise Industries on crutches, Niclas' girlfriend, Peter Wiggins and a few others from Noise Industries. Straight across from me was the guy who looks like Andy Samberg from SNL (who incedently ended up winning a Boris Training DVD during my presentation).

It was great to see everyone again at the MMB - it's kind of like a reunion every year. I get to meet up with Keith and Alan, the Plugged-in Podcast guys, Jim Kanter, who is one of our forum experts, a lot of the plug-in developers and those wild and crazy guys from Anchorage. They had gobs of giveaways, including several donated by Toolfarm. I didn't win anything, but I got to go on stage and draw a few names. The first name I drew was Lisa Hancock, who took home Maxon Cinema 4D. Toolfarm did give away lots of prizes, including several bundles of Professional Video Templates, Harry Frank's Expressions Training and his Trapcode Form Training, and two copies of Digieffects Damage.

We cabbed over to the party with Harry Frank and left the MMB early to go to Peder Norrby's party (Peder Norrby is the man behind Trapcode). Sadly, Ko Maruyama told us that not long after we left the MMB, Harry Frank's name was drawn for the big prize of the night, but since he left, he couldn't claim it. Bummer.

Peder threw yet another swanky party! The suite was very modern and silver and on one of the top floors of the hotel. From the main room you could see in the bathroom through a window and there was even a stripper pole in the shower! Crazy stuff. I have a feeling Paris Hilton had stayed in that very room last weekend. There were lots of people from the plug-in industry in attendance and a DJ spinning some great house music. Peder has a new product coming out called Trapcode Horizon, which helps AE users work in 3D space. He presented it at the Red Giant booth, but unfortunately, I missed his presentations. He wasn't showing anything at the party, just socializing. Horizon will be out near the end of summer, so stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 15

The second day on the show floor was busier than the first. I did another presentation for both Red Giant and Boris FX and each went smoother the second time around. Alicia and I also worked at the Digieffects booth showing the new plug-ins. I caught a couple of great presentations at the Adobe Booth - one about After Effects, presented by Steve Holmes, and one about working with video in Photoshop, presented by Richard Harrington. I use these programs day in and day out and they both managed to show me new things about the software. I took notes during both presentations and both really got the wheels in my head spinning.

I walked around and got a nice demo of GridIron Flow from Jim Geduldick. The GridIron booth was freakin' huge. Andrew Kramer, Aharon Rabinowitz and Mark Coleran were also hanging around the booth, demoing the GridIron goods. They were also giving away cool GridIron yo-yo's. You know the first yo-yo's were used as weapons? I learned that one from a tv commercial.

Pete from RE:Vision Effects gave us a nice demo on DE:Noise and Shade/Shape, and we also spent a some time with Jim Tierney of Digital Anarchy, as he walked us through ToonIt and some of their other offerings.

I also sat in on an awesome presentation by Harry Frank at the Red Giant booth. He showed off some cool projects that he did using Trapcode Form and Trapcode Particular. He broke down his technique into little bit-sized pieces. It was really amazing work. Harry is just so darn talented.

Colin and Jason Sharp from Toolfarm flew in Tuesday and the Toolfarm crew went to a fabulous dinner at B&B, Mario Batali's place. I tried the most amazing octopus appetizer, and had sweet potato ravioli with sage butter, as well as squab with beet risotto. Did I mentioned I think I gained weight? :-) Afterward we met up with some friends from Boris FX/Channel Wolves and walked a bit around the Venetian.

Wednesday, April 16

Another day on the show floor and boy, are my dogs tired! More presentations for Red Giant, Digieffects and Boris FX. By this time, I'm pretty good with the presentations. Also, this is Alicia's birthday. Happy Birthday! What did Alicia do on her birthday? Presented Magic Bullet Frames at Red Giant's booth. Now how many people get to do that on their birthday!? Haha. I also met Bert Kish at the RG booth. Bert was the winner of the MyToolfarm Red Giant NAB contest. He presented his winning video and also showed what went into the project.

On Wednesday night I ended up going out with Boris and his crew. We ate at an Italian place in the Venetian. I ate some really interesting pear ravioli with a bechemel sauce and some asparagus. Yummo. I just love the guys from Boris. They are all such nice guys. The food was fantastic as well.

Thursday, April 17

It's the last day of the show, so we got up nice and early and met Kevin Bourke who handles PR for the likes of Automatic Duck and Imagineer Systems for breakfast at the EGO Cafe, right outside the convention center. He told me about Imagineer mogul so as soon as I got into the show I went in to check it out. It was a private screening room and the presentation was given by CE and Alan Jaenicke of Imagineer. I am not entirely sure what information they'd like to be shared about this product, but I can tell you it's a subscription based product that includes software and hardware and is something that is in dire need. This product is going to be massive. Huge.

I also stopped by to see the GenArts booth and talked with Anish and Laurie. Lastly, we sat in on a private demo of Nuke at The Foundry's booth. It's awesome. I want it. We did get some free training DVDs on Nuke and we can download the demo. Too bad I am not doing any work that requires such a splendid piece of software. I didn't have much time to see anything else because we had to get to the airport.

What I learned at NAB 2008

I've learned a few tricks over the past few years at NAB that I think are worth sharing.

1. Avoid cabs if at all possible, unless you're looking for Lake Superior whitefish recipes and restaurant recommendations for Beverly Hills. Trust me. So, you ask, if you're avoiding cabs, how do you get around? There is a shuttle that goes between the convention center and the aiport that is free. That will save you $25 right there.
2. There is also a monorail. We bought monorail passes before the show and had them mailed to us. It was cheaper to buy 3 single day passes than it was to buy a three day pass. Weird. Now here's a great from Alicia. If you have single day passes, they are good for 24 hours. To maximize your usage, get to the station a few minutes earlier each day. If you use your card for the first time at 8:26am on Monday, you can use it at 8:23am the next day. You can start your next single day pass on the way back.
3. When registering for your NAB pass, it doesn't hurt to register twice! NAB will hate me for saying so, but I would have saved myself 45 minutes at registration on Monday morning if I would have registered again when I didn't receive my badge by mail.
4. Wear comfortable shoes and bring bandaids. Sunglasses are also mandatory, as well as a little bottle of vitamin E to rub on chapped hands and lips. The desert is incredibly dry and flying doesn't help matters.
5. Keep a pen with you to make notes on the back of people's business cards. This will help you keep them straight when you get back.
6. Free wifi is a bit hard to come by in Las Vegas. If they can make money off of something in Vegas, they will. One place you can get free wifi, or even check your email at one of their computers, is the Sprint Center at the monorail station at the convention center. Las Vegas' McCarran Airport (and Denver Airport which we flew through) also has free wifi. I love free wifi, but I'm Dutch, so I like anything free. :-)

Time to recover. A massage sounds really good right now.

Labels: Boris, Continuum Complete, Damage, DE:Noise, DigiEffects, Imagineer mogul, Imagineer Systems, NAB, Particular, Red Giant, Total Training, Trapcode, Trapcode Form, Trapcode Horizon

During the week of NAB, save 30% on all Red Giant Software and Trapcode products, including all full versions and bundles of full versions. It doesn't include upgrades, crossgrades or academic. The sale runs from Monday, April 14 thorough Sunday, April 20 and expires at midnight PST.

Use the code NAB2008 in the checkout and save all week!

Labels: NAB, Red Giant, Sale, Trapcode

San Francisco, CA, April 10, 2008 - Red Giant Software, publisher of a line of professional desktop tools including the award-winning Magic Bullet™ technology will show five new products at the upcoming NAB Convention in Las Vegas, NV (April 14-17, 2008). Visit the Red Giant Software booth- SL2128A to see demos of Trapcode Horizon, Instant HD Pro, Radium Glow, Magic Bullet Steady, and Primatte Keyer Pro 4.

Trapcode Horizon is a plug-in designed specifically for After Effects users doing 3D work. Are you tired of figuring out how to get your camera to match your virtual background? Well, we have a simple solution for you. With the help of Trapcode Horizon, you can generate motion in 3D in a true 3D space. Now that's beautiful! Priced at $99 this product will ship in Q2 2008.

Instant HD Pro is designed to deliver the highest possible quality conversion for SD to HD. Its advanced tool set offers sharp, motion-compensated de-interlacing and de-noising; advanced pan and scan; and a super-resolution algorithm for providing actual resolution enhancement in an editing application. All these features are combined into one plug-in with an easy-to-use preset menu for choosing the right HD and 2K output formats. Priced at $399 this product will ship in Q2 2008.

Radium Glow will be a new package of plug-ins to create glowing areas in an image, based on the brightest parts of the frame. The four plug-ins are Glow EZ, a simple plug-in with limited controls, Glow with advanced controls and masking, Glow Edge for creating glows only on the edges of an image or around text, and Glow Depth which will create the Glow based on a secondary z-depth or depth buffer layer. Priced at $99 this product will ship in Q2 2008.

Magic Bullet Steady will include two new plug-ins for Final Cut Pro 6 and After Effects CS3 (Mac and Windows). The stabilizer function removes unwanted camera movement and drift with a software-based 2D translation that is near real-time. Also, included in this set is a tool to reduce visible noise and grain in DV sequences produced by digital video cameras, camcorders, TV-tuners, digitizers of film or analog video. Priced at $199 this product will ship in Summer 2008.

Primatte Keyer Pro 4 is a professional green screen tool that extracts keys from any color background quickly and easily. Version 4 brings new levels of power and speed to After Effects and Avid, and for the first time, Final Cut Pro. New features include easy-to-use Auto setup, which creates an almost-perfect key with one click. Powerful features allow Primatte Keyer Pro to overcome keying challenges such as uneven lighting, compression artifacts, subtle shadows, and edge light contamination. Best of all, Primatte Keyer Pro works right on the timeline. Available now for $499 new or $199 as an upgrade.

About Red Giant Software:
Red Giant Software LLC is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.

Labels: After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Instant HD Pro, Magic Bullet Steady, NAB, Press Release, Primatte Keyer, Radium Glow, Red Giant, Trapcode, Trapcode Horizon

LME is giving away 5 more Trapcode Shine presets for After Effects. They're version AE 6.5.

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.

Labels: After Effects, Free, LME, Preset, Shine, Trapcode

These five free LME Shine comps are extra bonus files from LME. They work in After Effects 6.5 and higher and you need Trapcode Shine to use them. If you don't have Shine, you can download a free demo.

• Download the Free Trapcode Shine Comps (AE 6.5.1 and up)
• Check out all of the previous LME Freebies

Labels: After Effects, LME, Shine, Trapcode

LME has come out with another amazing package, LME Particular Vol. 2 Light Show. This collection of 107 projects and 44 original particle graphics (not presets) is an array of flamboyant light displays.

Labels: After Effects, LME, Particular, Trapcode

We have a special gift for you. View your card and download some free presets for After Effects and Motion!

Thank you, and have a wonderful holiday.

Labels: 3D Stroke, Conoa, Cycore FX, DigiEffects, LME, Mylenium, Trapcode, Trapcode Form

The demo link for the Trapcode plug-ins has changed. They are no longer hosted at Trapcode.com. If you'd like to try the new Trapcode Suite 2008 which now includes Trapcode Form, you can download it for free here.

Trapcode Suite 2008 includes 3D Stroke, Lux, Particular, Form, Starglow, Shine, Sound Keys and Echospace. Form was added to the bundle but the price did not increase. Gotta love that!

The Red Giant Suite has also been updated to include all of the Trapcode plug-ins and all of the Red Giant plug-ins including the recently released Magic Bullet Looks and the upcoming Magic Bullet Frames.

Labels: Demo, Trapcode, Trapcode Form

broadcastGEMS TransitionFX template is transition that includes swirls and particle blasts, complete with smoke emissions. HD1080, 720 and SD D1 NTSC and PAL resolutions are included in the AEP which requires AE Pro version 7.0 or later. Particle Playground is used to generate the particles and smoke. Trapcode 3D Stroke is used to create the swirls and Trapcode Shine to create the glows.

If you do not have the Trapcode plugins, then don't fret, we've rendered these layers out as QuickTime movies for you. Alternately, you can download free demos of the Trapcode plug-ins at Toolfarm. You can still work with the particles and the text effect that appears towards the end of the transition effect. We've also provided example compositions for colorizing and creating custom particles.

This works great for revealling text and logos or as a transitional S-M-A-C-K! across two full-screen footage items. What's a S-M-A-C-K!? A S-M-A-C-K! is a transitional effect that hits the viewer quick and fast and usually contains bright glows or sparks.They're great for high-impact transitions.

Labels: After Effects, broadcastGEMs, Trapcode

Create Organic 3D Shapes Synchronized with Audio in Adobe After Effects

San Francisco, CA, November 15, 2007 - Red Giant Software is pleased to announce the availability of Trapcode Form, an organic 3D shape generator that allows users to create a wide variety of wild animations, from text logos that blow away like sand to surfaces that move like rolling fire or billowing smoke. All the unique 3D designs in Form can also be driven by audio to create visions that move with the beat. Trapcode Form comes with 61 customizable presets, as well as the ability to tweak them to get just the right look. Full integration with After Effects' 3D environment allows users to fly cameras through and around the animated forms.

• Create mesmerizing animations like the ones in Apple's iTunes visualizer, all within After Effects
• With direct integration of After Effects 3D camera, Form offers true 3D surfaces and volumes
• More than 60 presets to quickly create audio reactors, terrain flyovers, and more.

For detailed Product Information, visit: http://toolfarm.stores.yahoo.net/trapcodeform.html

Product Highlights

Audio Reactors Form offers built-in audio reactors where the bass beat, a tambourine hit, or a lilting voice track can drive the motion, color, opacity, displacement, and other variables to generate mind-blowing visuals.

Powerful Presets Presets offer an easy starting point for novices and motion graphics professionals alike. The 61 presets are divided into five categories, including animation set to audio, flight presets that generate 3D terrain flyovers, and unique animations perfect for lower third titles.

Customize It Form also offers fantastic flexibility with ability to drive color, displacement, size, and more with images sourced from any layer in After Effects. This lets you generate everything from a logo that blows away like sand to a full 3D model of the Earth.

Pricing and Availability

• Trapcode Form is $199 USD and works with After Effects 7.0 / CS3 only on Mac OS X and Windows.
• Trapcode Form is one of the plug-ins in the Trapcode Suite 2007 collection, which sells for $711 USD. (Note: Price has been updated.)

Current Trapcode Particular customers qualify for a $50 USD discount on Trapcode Form from now through December 15, 2007. To participate, users need to complete the following online form. After completing the form, users will receive the Coupon Code.

Online Form to Apply for $50 Discount: http://redgiantemail.com/download_form.cfm?ID=72

About Trapcode

Trapcode (http://trapcode.com) is a one-man company founded in 2001 by Peder Norrby. Over the years Trapcode's software tools have become part of the industry standard in motion graphics and visual effects. Trapcode focuses on creating groundbreaking, robust technology that is easy to start using for beginners and has many complex features for advanced users.

Trapcode is a privately held Aktiebolag (AB) based in Sweden. All sales and support are managed by Red Giant Software (http://redgiantsoftware.com).

About Red Giant Software

Red Giant Software LLC (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com) is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.

Labels: After Effects, Particular, Red Giant, Trapcode, Trapcode Form, Trapcode Suite

The long awaited Trapcode Form (codenamed Flux) is now available. Trapcode Form is a grid-based 3D particle system with a twist. It can be used to create fluid, organic patterns, complex geometric structures and swirling stringy animations etc and it can be used to visualize audio. Form works in AE 7 and later.

We'll have our Plug-in Finder page dressed to the nines with awesome examples and images later on today, in the meantime, Harry Frank has put together some great stuff for you at AE Freemart. Download a demo and take Trapcode Form for a spin.

Labels: After Effects, Demo, Red Giant, Trapcode, Trapcode Form, Universal

John Dickinson shows you how to use Trapcode Starglow and Shine in Final Cut Pro. He shows you some tricks about managing presets in Final Cut Pro.

Learn more about Trapcode Starglow and Trapcode Shine in our Plug-in Finder. These are multi-installer plug-ins meaning that you get the AE, Premiere Pro, FCP, Motion and Avid installers and your serial number works in all of them. How cool is that!

Labels: Final Cut Pro, John Dickinson, Red Giant, Trapcode, Tutorial

I'm always raving about LME Presets for After Effects and Trapcode plug-ins, and I should be. The presets are terrific, well planned, and inexpensive. Now, all LME products have Adobe Bridge folders available to help make browsing easier, whether you've bought the products already or just want to take a peek at what they have to offer. More information.

Labels: After Effects, LME, Trapcode

Ko Maruyama has a nice tutorial movie on extruding shapes into Trapcode Particular at Digital Producer.

Labels: After Effects, Ko Maruyama, Particular, Red Giant, Trapcode, Tutorial

I wasn't at the meeting since I'm clear across the country, so I'm living vicariously through those who were lucky enough to attend. First, Dave Basulto has posted some images from last night's MGLA meeting on his site.

Second, Chris Meyer of Cybermotion had some great things to say about the meeting in a post to the AE List. Imagineer Mocha was shown. It's a planar tracker that uses the technology in the more advanced Mokey and Monet. Chris says, " It did some pretty darn amazing things, including continuing tracks successfully when large portions of the tracked object went off screen."

Marco S. from Digital Anarchy showed PlasmaFX and ToonIt! Chris says about ToonIt! " It was also an excellent example of the role frame rate plays in whether we perceive something as real or fantasy; keeping the result at normal video rate didn't look like you would expect it to."

Peder Norrby showed Trapcode Form (codename Flux). Form is the plug-in that people are really keyed up for the release, which will hopefully still happen this summer. It's similar to Particular but does lots of other cool things. Chris says "The couple of examples Peder showed using displacement maps and alpha mattes were particularly impressive".

Sean Safreed showedMagic Bullet 3 at the meeting. Chris says "...the new UI... it makes things soooo much easier for quick, broad strokes to get the look you're after without having to come to terms with a bunch of sliders (however useful they are)."

MGLA | Join MGLA's Mailing List

Labels: CyberMotion, Digital Anarchy, Flux, Imagineer Systems, Magic Bullet, MGLA, mocha, mokey, monet, PlasmaFX, Red Giant, ToonIt, Trapcode, Trapcode Form

Claudia Crask of SF Cutters sent me some info about the next SF Cutters next meeting is Tues August 28th at dvGarage, 785 Market $5 at the door. Doors open at 6:30 pm, concluding about 9:45 pm.

Sean Safreed of Red Giant is making a limited stop national tour to show off the new Magic Bullet Looks, Trapcode plug-ins which have recently been updated to Final Cut Pro/Motion and Primatte Keyer with Mac and Windows versions.

As part of Magic Bullet Looks you get Magic Bullet LooksBuilder, a stand-alone application that lets you pre-visualize looks on set or anywhere, using a JPEG or TIFF image. Look presets are portable and load into any of the editing hosts, so the same Looks you create on set are the same looks you finish with in the editorial suite. It's no longer necessary to have a complicated finishing system.

Magic Bullet Looks provides hundreds of options with one click. You can get some insight into this new release by reading creator Stu Maschwitz's blog.

Door Prizes! - Red Giant will be giving away 3 licenses of Magic Bullet Colorista and 3 licenses of Trapcode 3S Pack.

Labels: Colorista, Event, Final Cut Pro, Magic Bullet, Primatte Keyer, Red Giant, SF Cutters, Trapcode

From Ko's Ninja Crayon Blog:

After you decompress from SIGGRAPH, remember that the next MGLA meeting is Tuesday, August 21, at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. It is Plug-In Night 2, with a stellar line-up:

• Imagineer Mocha motion tracker (okay - it's a standalone rather than a plug-in, but it's a heckuva tool)
• Digital Anarchy ToonIt! and PlasmaFX (Jim Tierney will be down to demo)
• Trapcode codename Flux (Peder Norbby is over from Sweden and will demonstrate in person)
• Magic Bullet 3 (the upcoming version of this much-loved film look suite)

$36,000 IN DOOR PRIZES!

Details are online at the MGLA site. They will be posting prizes and sending out a full email in the next week. This will be one of those don't-miss meetings. (And by the way - it's MGLA's 10th anniversary that night as well!)

Labels: Digital Anarchy, Event, Imagineer Systems, Magic Bullet, MGLA, mocha, PlasmaFX, Red Giant, ToonIt, Trapcode

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

Hopefully this will clear some of the confusion up about upgrades. I'll have an FAQ posted shortly.

Trapcode Upgrades	Free CS3 updates
Trapcode Shine 1.5 - Adds support for After Effects, Final Cut Pro/Motion, Premiere Pro and Avid on Windows and Mac (PPC/Intel) systems. Full version | Upgrade	Trapcode Particular 1.5.1 CS3 update Windows [Download] Mac [Download]
Trapcode Starglow 1.5 - Adds support for After Effects, Final Cut Pro/Motion, Premiere Pro and Avid on Windows and Mac (PPC/Intel) systems. Full version | Upgrade	Trapcode Lux 1.0.2 CS3 update Windows [Download] Mac [Download]
Trapcode 3D Stroke 2.5 - Adds support for After Effects, Final Cut Pro/Motion, Premiere Pro and Avid on Windows and Mac (PPC/Intel) systems. Full version | Upgrade	Trapcode Sound Keys 1.1.3 CS3 update Windows [Download] Mac [Download]
Trapcode 3S Pack Upgrade Contains Starglow 1.5, Shine 1.5 and 3D Stroke 2.5 Full Version | Upgrade	Trapcode Echospace 1.0.2 CS3 update Windows [Download] Mac [Download]

Labels: 3D Stroke, Echospace, Lux, Particular, Red Giant, Shine, Sound Keys, Starglow, Trapcode

The Toolfarm Expert Forum is the official home of the Red Giant Software/Trapcode Tech Support forum and two of Red Giant's fine support crew are fielding the questions. John and Jeremy would be happy to help you with any questions you have.

Labels: Forum, Red Giant, Trapcode

Shine, Starglow, and 3D Stroke Now Support Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid AVX

San Francisco, CA, July 23, 2007 – Red Giant Software, publisher of a line of professional digital video tools, including Magic Bullet and Knoll Light Factory, today released new versions of the popular Trapcode motion graphics products, Shine, Starglow, and 3D Stroke. In 2006, Red Giant Software and Trapcode formed a partnership, where Red Giant Software assumed exclusive publishing rights to all seven Trapcode products worldwide.

Trapcode Shine version 1.5 is a handy plug-in for simulating a bright spotlight behind text or logos. Shine is used frequently for movie titling effects. Users can also create sun rays from clouds or other objects, which are great for animating backgrounds for DVD projects.

Trapcode Starglow version 1.5 brings text and titles to life with glows and glints. The filters are based on a star shape that consists of eight directions, and each direction can be assigned an individual color map and streak length. Many users like to use Shine and Starglow together.

Trapcode 3D Stroke version 2.5 lets users dynamically write on a logo in 3D space; plus create organic and fluid lines. This effect is used commonly on TV, for example with the Food Network and ABC IDs.

What’s New?

• Shine, Starglow, and 3D Stroke now work for the first time in Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Avid AVX.
• Support has been added for full 32-bit floating-point rendering for generating light rays, glows, and animated lines with the highest quality output.
• 3D Stroke now features a series of 40 preset shapes for generating outlines or swirling strokes to captivate your audience.

Pricing and Availability

• Trapcode Shine, Starglow, and 3D Stroke are now available for $99 USD each. Each product order includes support for Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Avid AVX.
• Current Trapcode After Effects users can upgrade for $49 USD per product or $99 for all three. All upgrades include support for all platforms – Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Avid AVX.

About Trapcode
Trapcode makes software for visual effects and motion graphics. The focus is on creating robust, user friendly, affordable, and versatile products. Trapcode has seven products: Shine, 3D Stroke, Sound Keys, Starglow, Lux, Particular, and Echospace. All plug-ins support After Effects.

Trapcode is a privately held Aktiebolag (AB) based in Sweden. Founded and operated by Peder Norrby.

About Red Giant Software
Red Giant Software LLC (www.redgiantsoftware.com) is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.

Labels: 3D Stroke, After Effects, Avid, Echospace, Final Cut Pro, Lux, Motion, Particular, Premiere Pro, Red Giant, Shine, Starglow, Trapcode

Red Giant Software has the Universal Binary (MacTel/CS3) updates for Lux, Particular, Sound Keys and Echospace.

Download the updates here

Also, get get the Trapcode upgrades for Shine, Starglow and 3D Stroke here!. If you haven't heard, they can be used in AE CS3, Premiere Pro CS3, Final Cut Pro/Motion (it's FxPlug!), and Avid. It's all Universal too. Yahoooo!

I'll have demo versions of the new Trapcode products up very soon.

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