The 'Swiss Army Knife' of Video Effects Collections

Video, Multimedia and Technology Editors

LA JOLLA, CA (September 22, 2008)— NewBlue, Inc. announces NewBlue Video Essentials, a comprehensive collection of NewBlueFX video plugins designed to enhance, optimize, and accelerate productivity and workflow. Featuring an indispensable toolbox of 10 distinct video effects plugins, NewBlue Video Essentials aids video professionals and enthusiasts in repairing, refining and improving their video.

NewBlue Video Essentials joins the company's highly-regarded product line of 14 exclusive video effects plugins, video transitions and audio filters. The product is available for all major video editing software platforms, including Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Premiere Elements, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Final Cut Express, Avid Media Composer, Avid NewsCutter, Avid Symphony, Avid Xpress, Avid Liquid, Corel (formerly Ulead) VideoStudio, Pinnacle Studio, Sony Vegas, Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Thomson Grass Valley EDIUS. The collection is value-priced at $79.95.

"NewBlue Video Essentials is an incredible value, but don’t be fooled by its aggressive pricing," explains Paul Devermann, VP of Business Development. "This suite of video effects plugins offers critical tools to get the job done. Nowhere else will you find such a powerful set of truly useful tools for less than $100, much less $79.95."

Included in NewBlue Video Essentials are:

• Color Fixer Plus, which provides a quick and easy way to fix color balance. It can also adjust the saturation, brightness, and film gamma.
• Crop Borders, which quickly and easily eliminates unnecessary video borders.
• Detail Enhancer, which strengthens the lines and edges in the video image, bringing out detail in a dull or foggy scene and resulting in a clearer picture.
• Flash Remover, which automatically senses camera flashes and removes them from the video.
• Pixelator, which replaces an oval area on the screen with large colored blocks, obscuring the underlying image. This can be used to obscure a face to maintain anonymity.
• Sharpen, which refines the video image, enhancing the definition.
• Soft Focus, which gently blurs the video image.
• Tint, which changes the coloring and light behavior of the video image. It provides control over the tinting, color saturation, brightness, and has the option of adding the lighting depth of film.
• Touch Up, which smoothes the image, removing subtle blemishes from the video, while maintaining strong details. Touch Up is a great way to clean up an image to make it more appealing.
• Video Tuneup, which combines four very useful image adjustment filters for quick and easy fine (or not so fine) tuning of the image.

• Purchase NewBlue Video Essentials
• Download A Free Demo

About NewBlue, Inc.:

NewBlue, Inc. develops innovative audio, video and multimedia technologies for leading companies throughout the world. Founded in early 2002, NewBlue creates and licenses a range of proprietary technologies- including a series of NewBlueFX video technologies, the NewBlue Audio Engine and Audiomatrix technology platform- that meet the varied multimedia needs of mid-and large-sized companies. Experienced developers, musicians, artists, and software professionals with a unique and commanding set of skills, experience and talent comprise the NewBlue team.

The company unveiled its NewBlueFX product line in 2006 to meet the needs of digital video editing enthusiasts. The NewBlueFX collection of software plug-ins includes special audio and video effects, such as audio filters, noise reduction, equalization, compression and dozens of sophisticated graphic filters and transitions. To date, the NewBlueFX line includes 5 audio-oriented plug-in collections and 8 video-oriented effects and transitions collections for the Adobe Premiere, Avid Liquid, Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress Pro, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas desktop video product lines, as well as AVCHD UpShift, an AVCHD conversion utility created in conjunction with VASST.

Labels: NewBlueFX, plug-ins, Video Essentials

Six New Motion Graphics Packages Expand Product Line

San Francisco, CA, August 4, 2008 - Red Giant Software, with popular products Magic Bullet, Knoll Light Factory, and Trapcode, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the video plug-in portfolio of Digital Anarchy, a San Francisco-based plug-in developer. Digital Anarchy is known for its high-quality creative software for broadcast designers and 2D animators. The acquisition will add six new products to Red Giant Software's roster, which will be repackaged under Red Giant Software's own product names.

These new products make Red Giant Software a one-stop shop for plug-ins, with over 30 plug-in packages for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Avid. Users can now turn to Red Giant to create a wide variety of effects, including particles, keying, color correction, lighting, cartoon effects, look creation, animated titles, and ultra-realistic water. Several of Digital Anarchy's former products will distributed free of charge, including PlasmaFX, Color Theory, and Microcosm Codec. These free products will be introduced later in 2008.

The six new tools include PlaneSpace (formerly 3D Assistant Lite/Pro), a 3D layer animation tool; Datamator (formerly Data Animator), which creates and animates charts and graphs in 3D space; Psunami (formerly Psunami Water), a photorealistic water and wave generator; ToonIt (formerly Toon It!), which creates cartoon-style art from video footage; and Knoll Light Factory Spark, a version of the popular lens flare generation tool especially for advanced Autodesk platforms.

Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy, said, "As I looked to exit the video plug-in business to fully concentrate on our photography/Photoshop products, I approached Red Giant Software to help ease the transition for our users. Red Giant Software is recognized in the industry for taking care of its customers with a solid record for support and marketing. It was important to find Digital Anarchy's film/video users a good new home - Red Giant Software fits that bill."

Sean Safreed, owner of Red Giant Software, said, "This is an exciting milestone for our company. We entered the plug-in market nearly six years ago, and we are now are one of the largest providers of tools to production professionals. We are dedicated to providing innovative tools for broadcasters, film designers, and independent filmmakers, and Digital Anarchy's video toolset expands our palette. We look forward to providing Digital Anarchy film/video users and future customers with the best support and on-going updates to these new tools, and we're already working on updates and compatibility enhancements."

Digital Anarchy will continue to publish plug-ins and filters for Adobe Photoshop. For more information, visit www.digitalanarchy.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

For more product information, visit: http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/featured-news/da-faq/

Pricing and Availability

• Red Giant PlaneSpace (formerly 3D Assistant Lite/Pro) is available for $199 USD
• Red Giant Datamator (formerly Data Animator) is available for $99 USD
• Red Giant Psunami (formerly Psunami Water) is available for $199 USD
• Red Giant Text Anarchy (formerly Text Anarchy, now includes Geomancy and Anarchy Toolbox) is available for $199 USD
• Red Giant Toon It (formerly ToonIt!) is available for $399 USD

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.

About Digital Anarchy
Digital Anarchy is a privately owned company in San Francisco that creates high-quality creative software for professional photographers, Photoshop artists and graphic designers. Since 2001, our tools have solved a wide range of design issues, from masking out bluescreens for commercial still photography to generating custom lighting effects. Digital Anarchy products work in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, PS Elements, and related design applications. For more information, please see the company's website at www.digitalanarchy.com or call 415-586-8434.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Labels: Digital Anarchy, plug-ins, Press Release, Red Giant

There are tons of free plug-ins out there for you to download for After Effects, Final Cut Pro and other hosts! But where do you get them?

If you develop plug-ins and your goodies are not on the list, give me a shout and I'll add them. I know we're missing a few.

Labels: After Effects, Final Cut Studio, Free, Plug-in Finder, plug-ins

Red Giant Software, publisher of Knoll Light Factory and Trapcode, today added a new motion graphics tool to its growing line of professional digital video products. Red Giant Radium Glow is used to add optical glows and glitter to projects easily.

Unlike most glow filters that just blur the source video, Radium Glow
provides pinpoint control over the glow, with editable shapes that can
generate precise outlines or create glimmering points. The advanced edge
controls, built-in masking, and output controls in Radium Glow let you
mimic real light behavior. The three plug-ins can be used to add
neon-shaped glows to text, or be combined with Trapcode Particular or
other plug-ins to create dazzling sparkle and shimmer effects. Radium
Glow supports numerous host applications for the low price of $99 USD.

Highlights:

Radium's intelligent area selection system makes the image glow where
the source is the brightest. Bright parts of the subject glow larger,
much like the result of widening a real camera's iris. This yields
natural-looking halos and sparkle that cannot be replicated with other
glow effects.

Radium Glow offers three different glow plug-ins. The set includes
advanced masking and intensity controls, Glow Lite for simple controls
to apply a glow quickly, and Glow Edge for applying glows only around
the edges of objects. Four quality levels and full 32-bit floating-point
rendering let users find the right tradeoff between speed and detail.

Unlike other glow plug-ins, Radium Glow uses shapes to generate a glow.
Simple circles and star shapes are included, along with a library of 10
other shapes to enable sophisticated glow effects. Glow can even use any
source image as a shape, giving users powerful creative control.

Pricing and Availability:

Red Giant Radium Glow is available now for $99 USD and supports After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Avid AVX systems.

About Red Giant Software

Red Giant Software LLC (http://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, Avid, Final Cut Pro, Motion, plug-ins, Premiere Pro, Radium Glow, Red Giant

A new form.Z DXF/DWG (beta 1) translator is available. This updated plug-in adds support for the DWG 2007/2008 format and includes export of DWG materials. There are also a number of improvements in the handling of text elements. This plug-in is compatible with any version of form.Z 6.5. It is available to all registered form.Z and form.Z RenderZone Plus v6.5 users. Follow this link for download information

Labels: Beta Test, formz, plug-ins

ProDAD Mercalli is a plug-in that lets you stabilize shaky footage during post processing. Mercalli detects and distinguishes between intended movements, such as panning or zoom shots, and unintended shocks and shakes. Simple and easy to use, and comes in two versions: Pro and Light. Both versions also include "Video-Shaker", which adds shake to a shot, and is ideal for scenes that previously appeared too sterile or for adding extra movement. Available for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro and Elements, Avid Liquid and Sony Vegas.

Labels: After Effects, Avid, Mercalli, plug-ins, Premiere Elements, Premiere Pro, proDad, Sony Vegas

Boris Continuum Complete's FREE (registration required) Snow filter is an auto-animated snow generator. The filter offers extensive options and allows you to create drifts or make flakes pile up along the edges of an alpha channel. The free BCC Snow filter offer expires on March 1, 2008. You must install the free filter before this date.

Download the Free Snow Filter for Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion

Download the Free Snow Filter for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects


Don't have Boris Continuum Complete? Download a free demo or purchase from our store. Don't forget that for a limited time, if you purchase Boris Continuum 5 AE you get Boris Title Toolkit for FREE!

Tutorial: Make it Snow with the Boris Snow Filter

What good is a snow effect if the snow does not stick to the horizontal surfaces in the shot? The Boris Continuum Complete Snow filter can make snow do just that, creating a realistic look for your wintry scenes. The BCC Snow generator is featured in just about every Boris product, including Boris Continuum Complete, Graffiti, RED, and Boris FX. It works especially well with text captions, creating snow that accumulates on top of the letters for a natural look. Best of all, BCC allows you to create this effect right in your NLE! Apple Final Cut Pro Tutorial
and Adobe Premiere Pro Tutorial.

Labels: Boris, Continuum Complete, Free, plug-ins

A Toolfarm Exclusive! The CHV X-MAX bundle includes The Entire-Bundle for Final Cut Pro, the FxPlug Bundle and QC Integration FX- modify and create any Quartz Composer composition as a video effect plug-in for FCP and Motion. Get all of this at a 50% discount until December 31st! Many of the plug-ins also work in Final Cut Express and Motion.

Don't miss out on this incredible deal. You know you need to spend a little more before the end of the year anyway ;-)

Labels: CHV, Final Cut Pro, FxPlug, FxScript, Motion, plug-ins, QC Integration FX, Sale

This new product works exclusively with Photoshop (older version, Elements and the new CS3). The FaceShop Photoshop plug-in can be used to alter angles of people's faces in photographs. It is easy to use and does not require a steep learning curve. This application may appeal to both graphic artists and amateurs who need to alter photographic images. FaceShop lets you rotate any face in Photoshop in real 3D!

Just check out the examples. It's really amazing software.

Labels: Abalone, Photoshop, plug-ins

Noise Industries Noise Industries FxFactory Pro has been updated to version 2.0, with plenty of new features including support for Apple Final Cut Express 4 as well as Apple Final Cut Studio and Apple Motion, 50 new plug-ins that are new to this release, a new plugin management interface, and much more.

Unlimited expandability: download more plug-ins at the FxMarket; Zero-coding plug-in development: create your own FxPlug effects without writing any code.

New demo now available! Download the FxFactory Pro 2.0 Demo Now!

What's new in FxFactory:

• FxFactory is now compatible with Final Cut Studio 2 running on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
  
• FxFactory is now compatible with Final Cut Express version 4.0 or later.
• FxFactory Pro now includes 122 filters, generators, and transitions which support high-precision rendering. All Pro plug-ins are fully customizable. 50 plug-ins are new to this release and may require Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to run.
• FxFactory Pro no longer bundles the Motion and Editing Packs, now available separately from CoreMelt. This change does not affect users upgrading from FxFactory 1.0, who will retain their license to the Motion and Editing Packs that they acquired when purchasing FxFactory 1.0.
• Many plug-ins in FxFactory Pro now come with masking capabilities. Built-in or user-supplied masks can be used to apply an effect only to a specific region of the source image.
• The plug-in management interface has been redesigned to provide plug-in previews, better display of status messages and the ability to search for specific plug-ins within an FxPack.
• An improved, contextual parameter interface is available when running FxFactory plug-ins in Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Express. Parameters will be disabled and/or hidden when they are not relevant to the current parameter configuration.
• FxFactory Pro sports improved, easier to use versions of the popular Perspective Reflection and Videoconference plug-ins (the older versions, which require a more advanced parameter setup, are still available for compatibility reasons).
• Many plug-ins available with FxFactory Pro 2.0 are now capable of field-based rendering, a technique that may double the rendering speed and reduce filtering artifacts. The plug-ins that sport this improvement (e.g. the Copy Machine transition) will only run on Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Express.
• An improved font selection user interface is available for all font parameters.
• FxFactory Pro 2.0 brings many new plug-in development features such as improved support for high-precision and field-based rendering, new Core Image units, and context-sensitive parameter interface.

Labels: Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, FX Plug, FxFactory, Motion, Noise Industries, plug-ins

There has been some questions and confusion about how exactly to install plug-ins for After Effects CS3 on Windows Vista. If you put the plug-ins in the right place, plug-ins can also be used with Premiere Pro CS3... that is, if the plug-ins are Premiere Pro CS3 compatible.

If you're a Vista user and have something to add to the tutorial, please email me at michele [at] toolfarm.com.

Labels: After Effects, plug-ins, Tutorial

Filter Forge Basic, Standard, and Professional plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop (Windows only). The Basic version comes with 3,796 user-created filters, the Standard allows you to modify these plus create your own filters and the Professional version does all of this plus supports bitmaps up to 65000x65000 pixels, bump and normal maps, and supports an unlimited number of CPU cores.

Labels: Filter Forge, Photoshop, plug-ins

We are always trying to improve Toolfarm and we would really like to know what motivates you to purchase software and plug-ins. This data will help us decide what our customers are most interested in. Thanks for your time!

Labels: plug-ins, Poll

Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 provides important bug fixes to resolve plugin issues. This update is recommended for all Final Cut Pro 5.1, 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 customers.

Labels: Automatic Duck, Colorista, Final Cut Pro, plug-ins

We've been busily adding 3ds plug-ins from Digimation.... 34 at last count and we're only 2/3 of the the way through them all! If you're a 3ds max user, check out these amazing plug-ins that you can't live without. There is a plug-in for just about everything you could dream of. Maybe you have gotten through your life this far without them, but you're at the point of no return now. Why prolong your fate? View the plug-ins now.

Labels: 3D Studio Max, Digimation, plug-ins

Company to showcase their latest VFX plug-ins and demo reel in newly designed booth SL2829

Cambridge, MA. February 13, 2007 -- GenArts, Inc., a leading provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industries, will be featuring its entire range of plug-ins at NAB 2007, being held April 16-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Exhibiting in a newly designed booth, GenArts will have an expanded presence at this year’s NAB. Visitors to booth SL2829 will be given demonstrations of the latest versions of Sapphire Plug-ins on a number of host platforms including: Autodesk Compositing & Editing Systems and Combustion, Avid AVX Products, Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, and Apple Final Cut Pro and Shake. The expanded booth will also include a theater where GenArts will debut a new demo reel featuring Sapphire Plug-ins and representing the most recent work from premier post production houses worldwide.

Labels: After Effects, Avid, Combustion, Final Cut Pro, GenArts, plug-ins, Premiere Pro, Shake

We've added some incredible 3ds Max plug-ins to our store.

Digimation Max Monster Pak
a collection of more than 13,000 3D models, textures, images and motion capture files packaged together for one incredibly low price. The entire collection includes more than 5,100 textured 3D models, 7,000 versatile textures and 900 motion capture files.

Digimation V-Ray
One of the fastest renderers in the field.

Digimation SpeedTree 4
A powerful plug-in for creating realistic trees in 3ds Max and Autodesk Viz.

Digimation Fractal Flow
The latest version of Digimation's fractal image distortion plug-in. Fractal Flow provides 3 different kinds of effects: Distortions, ripples, and waves.

Check out other 3ds Max plug-ins at Toolfarm.

Labels: 3D Studio Max, Digimation, plug-ins

Adobe After Effects New York (AENY) first meeting is set for February 22. There is no fee for this event, thanks to sponsorship from Adobe and Pratt Manhattan. They are covering Maxon Cinema 4D 10 and After Effects Integration, as well as Mograph, Stephen Neary will present "Bigfoot's Eulogy" and Aharon Rabinowitz will be presenting some quick After Effects tips. I met Aharon at NAB NY.

They're giving away LOADS of door prizes including Red Giant Software: Magic Bullet Suite, MB Colorista and Trapcode Suite (all Trapcode Plug-ins), three Wondertouch particleIllusion licenses, GridIron Nucleo and Nucleo Pro, Cinema 4D and Mograph, Sorenson Squeeze Power Pack, Automatic Duck, Digital Anarchy PlasmaFX, Cycore FX and more. Wow.... good stuff, indeed.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Automatic Duck, Colorista, Digital Anarchy, Free, GridIron, Magic Bullet, Maxon Cinema 4D, PlasmaFX, plug-ins, Red Giant, Trapcode, User Group

Alien Skin Snap Art is natural media plug-in for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro. Isn't it gorgeous!

Labels: Alien Skin, Photoshop, plug-ins

Zaxwerks ProAnimator 4.1.0 has just been released, and incorporates many changes and bug fixes that affect both the Mac and the PC user. ProAnimator is now a Universal application, so for those of you running Intel based Macs, you can now run ProAnimator natively on those Macs.

The 4.1 version is a FREE update to anyone who already owns version 4.0 of ProAnimator.

Labels: After Effects, Motion, plug-ins, Universal, Zaxwerks

Tinderbox 4 has won The DingBat Magazine: "The Monthly Review of Cool Tools Editors' Choice Award" and there is a cracking review! (If you're not from England, cracking is slang for really brilliant.) Congratulations to The Foundry!

Tinderbox 4 is available at Toolfarm. Betcha already knew that, though.

Labels: After Effects, plug-ins, reviews, The Foundry, Tinderbox

Combustion importer now Universal, adds HD ability

Automatic Duck's Pro Import Cmb 1.05 is now available, bringing Universalness as well as compatibility with Combustion 4.04 on the Mac. The new version of Pro Import Cmb can now also handle Avid DNxHD media!

If you're using Combustion on the Mac, you should definitely be using the latest 4.04 release. Not only is it native on Intel Macs, it is even much faster on PPC-based systems. On the Mac side, this new release of Pro Import Cmb is compatible with Combustion 4.04, but only 4.04, not earlier versions. On the Windows side, Pro Import Cmb works with Combustion 3.02 and later.

Pro Import Cmb 1.05 is a free update for users of Pro Import Cmb. Installers for the updated plug-ins can be found on the Automatic Duck web site. Users of Combustion 4.03 or earlier on Mac should not update.

Updates to FCP plug-ins correct P2 incompatibility

Automatic Duck recently learned of a problem where the FCP P2 import module would crash FCP if either of their Pro Import FCP or Pro Export FCP plug-ins were installed. This update corrects that defect.

Users of Pro Export FCP 3.0 can update to 3.05 at no cost. Users of Pro Import FCP 2.0 can update to 2.02 at no cost. Installers for the updated plug-ins can be found at the Automatic Duck web site. Users of older versions of these plug-ins can upgrade for $195.

Check our Plug-in Finder for more Automatic Duck information.

Labels: Automatic Duck, Avid, Combustion, Final Cut Pro, plug-ins

Studio Monthly has a terrific and long list of plug-ins for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Shake, Sony Vegas and loads of other hosts. The list shows each plug-in with a summary, URL to purchase, host application, platform and notes where necessary. It's a very nice guide and we're happy to be mentioned in the list.

If you're looking for more indepth information about plug-ins, all in one place, look no further than Toolfarm's Plug-in Finder. The Plug-in Finder is updated and modified just about every day, so the information is as up-to-the-minute as you'll find anywhere.

Labels: Plug-in Finder, plug-ins