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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

MAX2AE Version 3.0 *



+ Boomer Labs announces the release of MAX2AE Version 3.0. Building on the tremendous popularity of their essential production tool that provides a seamless bridge from Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s 3ds max to Adobe’s After Effects, Boomer Labs has expanded MAX2AE to further improve the workflow between these two popular applications. MAX2AE already supports exporting individual camera, light and helper layer information, and Version 3.0 extends this creative freedom by supporting the export of all of these 3d objects from 3ds MAX into After Effects with a single operation. MAX2AE Version 2.0 also delivers an industry first; importing AE compositions into 3ds max. MAX2AE Version 3.0 extends this functionality further by supporting 3ds max Particle Systems and Space Warps. Also new with this release is Autoscaling which lets the user automatically match the scale of their scene between the two applications. MAX2AE Version 3.0 has an extensive increase in functionality, Including features like: #Ability to export Particles as layers, nulls or lights, # SpaceWarp support, #Automatic scene scaling, #3ds max 2009 support, #Support for 23.976 fps HD drop frame format, #Improved Windows system detection for AE scripts and many more.
>> Download MAX2AE - demo version

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Friday, March 28, 2008

After Effects Tutorial : Advanced Tracking and Replacing


+ This is a quite handy AE Tutorial by Harry J. Frank, an freelance motion graphics artist, instructor and Adobe Certified Expert. This 34 minutes long tutorial was one of the lessons taught in 2008 Chicago Motion Graphic Festival. Harry says; "Although, I've done Tracking and Replacing tutorials before, this one was a particular challenge: replacing a spinning record label with an overlapping hand. This covers tracking, rotoscoping, and various types of manual animation to match the movement in the shot. This was taken from a job I did, and therefore I cannot supply the footage or logo due to copyright issues. But, it will get you thining creatively about using After Effect as a visual effects tool."

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Monday, March 24, 2008

Digieffects™ Damage


+ Digieffects, announced that it shipped Damage, a new set of plugins for video and film post production professionals. Digieffects Damage is a collection of four effects designed for post production professionals who want to create an extensive variety of digital and/or analog defects, errors and artifacts in their footage. It supports Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Autodesk Combustion and Boris RED.
Damage includes the following effects:
Blockade: Video acquired by low fidelity devices like cellular phones and PDAs is becoming more commonplace. Blockade makes your clip look like it is highly compressed and being transmitted through a very bandwidth-limited pipe. Essential for simulating internet based micro cam display or personal video communication.
Artifact: Developed to create digital defects, Artifact simulates lost DCT blocks and frame dropping, most often seen when a digital video file suffers from corruption or a satellite feed is hampered by weather. Make sure you warn clients and your house engineer that it's only an effect...
Interference: If it's television you want, traditionally you'll need some sort of interlaced field scanning. Interference creates the look of interlaced video fields, even on progressive footage or still images, adding noise, colorization and offset separately for each field.
Skew: The never-ending quest to aim the rabbit ears so that the television show looks as good once you're in your chair as it did when your hands were attached to the antenna is fast fading into the lore of old... That valuable (if under-appreciated) look is preserved in Skew. Uniquely analog/broadcast image badness like noise, image shearing, ghosts... it's all there.
Digieffects is a developer of popular software plug-ins for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro and Autodesk Combustion. Damage has a retail price of $99 and is available immediately from Digieffects and its resellers. A free trial version is also available for download.

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Creating Glow Effects With Boris Continuum



+ A new tutorial about Creating Glow Effects With Boris Continuum Complete 5 has been posted by Borisfx team for AE Users. There are several Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) filters that were designed to produce the glow effect that is very popular for sports broadcast and commercial spots. In this tutorial, we will use BCC 5 AE in Adobe After Effects CS3 to give you an overview of the BCC Glow, BCC Colorize Glow, and BCC Glow Alpha Edges filters. These same filters are available for Avid and Apple Final Cut Pro editors with a similar workflow. In addition, the BCC Glow filters are included with RED 4.2, Boris FX 9.2, and Graffiti 5.2.
>> Continue..!

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Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Boris FX Ships Final Effects Complete 5.0 for AE


+ Boris FX the leading developer of integrated effects technology for video and film, announced that Final Effects Complete 5.0 for AE (FEC 5.0 for AE) is now shipping. Version 5.0 marks the expansion of the highly popular FEC product into three distinct flavors; Final Effects Complete for After Effects (Adobe), Final Effects Complete for FxPlug (Apple) and Final Effects Complete for AVX (Avid). The first in the series; FEC 5.0 for AE adds support for the Adobe Creative Suite 3.0 After Effects application running on the latest operating systems from Apple (OS X Leopard) and Windows (Vista). The two forthcoming FEC packages; Final Effects Complete 5.0 for AVX (FEC 5.0 for AVX) and Final Effects Complete 5.0 for FxPlug (FEC 5.0 for FxPlug) will be released later in Q1, 2008.
"This is the first significant upgrade for the FEC package since it was acquired by Boris FX three years ago. Long-time FEC users will be thrilled with the additions we made. Features such as BCC's Pixel Chooser and the integrated Motion Tracking add an immense amount of creative flexibility while the new preset save and load functions allow effects to be shared across workstations, platforms and editing systems. A phenomenal extension of the effect options which are further enhanced with comprehensive online help and factory installed standard presets... and this is just a taste of what the release offers," comments Boris Yamnitsky, founder and president, Boris FX.
The new FEC release offers a modernized workspace for optimal effects creation. Contextual tools and onscreen widgets streamline effects workflow while the multi-processor acceleration increases the FEC package performance by up to 30%. Rounding off the FEC 5 for AE package are the 800 plus preset effects which can be used to quickly create professional quality transitions and composites or modified to create a more unique look. The presets can be shared with other Boris users, working with different Boris packages on different hosts and platforms. For more information and trial download, please visit www.borisfx.com

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Monday, January 21, 2008

FXhome Launched PowerPlug and MuzzlePlug For Adobe After Effects



+ FXhome has launched PowerPlug and MuzzlePlug, visual effects plugins for Adobe After Effects. PowerPlug, a plugin for Adobe After Effects designed for lightning and electricity visual effects. Based on extensive research into electrical behaviour, PowerPlug can create both realistic weather and sci-fi and fantasy effects. PowerPlug comes complete with a selection of presets to quickly generate stormy weather, magical effects and sci-fi weapons. Extensive customization allows for an infinite variety of lightning designs, ensuring that the results are always unique and high impact.
MuzzlePlug, a plugin for Adobe After Effects that creates photo-realistic gunfire visual effects. Designed for action movies that are shooting in sensitive locations or on tight budgets, MuzzlePlug provides a safe, versatile alternative to expensive and dangerous blank firing weapons. Slotting neatly into After Effects, MuzzlePlug comes complete with a selection of presets to quickly recreate convincing gunfire for a wide range of weaponry, from small pistols to machine guns, shotguns and sci-fi blasters. Extensive customization allows for an infinite variety of muzzle flashes to be generated, ensuring that action sequences are always fresh, exciting and realistic.
>> Visit Fxhome

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Trapcode - Particular V1.5 For AE


+ Particular is a powerful 3D particle system that can produce a wide range of effects from natural smoke and explosions to geometric or organic abstract motion graphics design elements.The real-time interactive preview allows browsing through the numerous presets and playing with them interactively to get a feeling of the dynamics. Tight integration with Adobe After Effects provides bouncing particles on 3D layers, emitting particles from layers and lights and using a layer as custom particle. Comp-camera aware and 16bit of course! New features in Particular V 1.5 include:
Depth of Field:
depths of an image. This new version of Trapcode Particular mimics the look of a real camera by adding a Depth of Field simulation. Depth of Field is useful to generally increase realism or to match footage shot with a real camera where Depth of Field is apparent.
Motion Path:
This new feature gives the possibility to control the path particles travel efter beeing born.Motion Path is useful when precise control of the particle path is needed.
Particle count:
The current number of particles in the simulation are displayed in the Info window during render. Two numbers are displayed: Total is the total number of particles at the current frame. Visible is the number of particles actually visible in the frame, others may be behind the camera or on the sides. Normally the Visible count is less than the Total count, but in one case it can be the other way; when Motion Blur is enabled in-between particles are created that do not contribute to the Total count, but they do contribute to the Visible count. The particle count is useful when trying to optimize a render, always try to keep both numbers as low a possible!
>> Trapcode - Particular for AE

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Sapphire Plugins Version 2 for After Effects



+ GenArts, Inc., a leading provider of visual effects plugins for the film, broadcast and video industries, today announced the immediate availability of Sapphire Plug-ins version 2 for After Effects and compatible products including Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Autodesk Combustion, and Eyeon Fusion. The new release features over 30 new effects, plus many new parameters and improvements to existing effects in the package.
For over a decade, GenArts Sapphire Plug-ins have set the standard for sophisticated, organic visual effects which natively integrate with leading editing and compositing systems. Version 2 contains all of the visual effects and features that have established Sapphire Plug-ins as an indispensable part of the digital artist’s toolkit – and introduces more than 30 new and innovative effects. FilmDamage, ZDefocus, Cartoon, BleachBypass, GradientMulti, SwishPan, Light3D, Deband, and TextureNeurons are a few of the new plug-ins in the collection of over 200 image processing and synthesis effects. Many new effects were designed to improve users’ workflow while others offer easy ways to create eye-catching visuals, such as FilmDamage – which simulates aged film by adding scratches, dust, stains, grain, shake and flicker. Enhancements to existing effects in the package include a revamped RackDefocus, 4 new Glares and 14 new LensFlares.
“GenArts has the highest quality plug-ins you can find. I love the new effects in Sapphire 2 such as WarpMagnify, SwishPan and DissolveGlow, and I expect to use Vignette every day,” comments Jack Tunnicliffe, Senior Effects Artist at Java Post Production. “The LensFlare additions are also fabulous.”
Sapphire 2 includes support for the latest versions of all After Effects and compatible host applications including Adobe CS3 and the “Smart FX” API which provides more efficient processing and support for 32bit image formats. All platforms running v2 will have improved rendering speed.
“We are thrilled with this new release. After Effects, Final Cut Pro and the other compatible products have become integral parts of our high-end users’ workflow as we see more and more clients working on multiple host platforms. Version 2 further extends their creative capabilities with many innovative effects and additional functionality,” says Anish Dhanda, Managing Director of GenArts.
Key New Features of Sapphire Plug-ins 2 for After Effects and Compatible Products:
- FilmDamage simulates aged film by adding scratches, dust, stains, grain, shake, flicker, etc.
- ZDefocus defocuses areas of the source clip by different amounts using depth values from a z-buffer input.
- Cartoon gives cartoon-like looks with exaggerated edges and flat areas of color.
- Light3D performs 3D relighting of a clip using an input clip describing the surface normals.
- Vignette darkens the outer edges of a clip with various shape options.
- BleachBypass generates a stylized version of the source clip by simulating a bleach bypass process.
- Other new effects include: BlurDirectional, CartoonPaint, Posterize, Deband, DogVision, TileScramble, WarpMagnify, WarpCornerPin, GradientMulti, Shape, TextureTiles, TextureNeurons, TextureLoops, TextureFlux, SwishPan, DissolveGlow, DissolveFilm, FeedbackDistort, Convolve, ConvolveComp, ZConvolve, ZGlow, TriTone, QuadTone, Invert, ShowBadColors and ChannelSwitcher. LensFlare has 14 new flare types, new parameters to adjust the look of the flares and an optional Matte input which allows selective blocking or colorizing of flares.
- LensFlareAutoTrack can track and render flares at multiple hotspots.
- RackDefocus has new shape options and improved performance.
- Glare includes 4 new glare types and improved performance.
- Adobe’s “Smart FX” API is supported for AE7 and CS3 with more efficient processing and reading of 32bit image formats.
- Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard are supported.
Sapphire Plug-ins version 2 for After Effects and compatible products can be purchased directly from GenArts or through their worldwide channel of authorized resellers. Pricing for Sapphire 2 is $1699 for the entire package or $599 for one of four individual box sets. Special upgrade pricing for existing v1 customers is offered for $599 and $199, respectively. A free trial of the software is available online at www.genarts.com.

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Monday, October 08, 2007

3D Invigorator For After Effects


+ Lets have a look at 3D Invigorator; an innovative plugin by zaxwerks for Adobe After Effects, which is available in two versions - 3D Invigorator classic and 3D Invigorator Pro. The 3D Invigorator brings power of 3d to the host application Adobe After Effects, thus enabling AE user to create stunning titles and logos in Three dimension. The 3d Invigorator gives depth to After Effect layers and can generate nice sculpted 3D models with the press of a button. The Professional version of 3d invigorator have all the features of Classic version, beside that; the PRO version gives you the incredible ability to bring 3D models right into AE.
The PRO Version also cut short your rendering time by using the power of openGL enabled Graphics cards, especially when you import 3d elements into After Effects. The plugin support import from major 3d application like 3ds Max, Maya, DXF, lightwave3D etc.,and New Version 4.0 of 3d Invigorator have its own Import/Export Format for importing and exporting 3D objects. The new Invigorator object format enables you to set up 3D logos, titles and 3D text, color them, apply the materials, maps and object settings, and then save them into files which you can reuse, thus effectivly giving user its own custom library for future Invigorator projects. Beside giving its user power to incorporate 3d into a 2d pipeline, the plugin comes with many useful features, including;
- Simple 3D Primitives and 3D-Text
- 3D Motion Blur (a must have feature for motion Graphic artists)
- Layer Map Animation
- Highlight Mapping
- Cartoon and Matte Coloring
- Useful Shadow rendering
Although, I am not an After Effects artist (tried demo couple of times:) but; its makes perfect sense to me that incorporating 3d with-in a 2d application, with such a ease would really improve productiveness of any artist working in Motion Graphics Industry. So, I recommends you guys must download its demo and better check it out,.. if you haven’t already done that!
>> 3D Invigorator For AE

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

BUMP MAPPER™ | AE


Bump Mapper for Adobe After Effects!
+ Just have come across with this Vfx plugin for Adobe® After Effects, and it seems quite promising to me. Formally speaking; Bump Mapper is visual effect plugin which can turn your image or video layer into bas-relief alighted by point light source and works with After Effects version 5.0 or higher. The Plugin parameter options offers lot of control over the desired effects and even playing with them leads to stunning visual effects. Its Developer says; “Glass or metal, plastic or stone, water or sand - you can simulate different textures and effects using Bump Mapper™ controls. You can use it to make a bronze coin or liquid gel or something unprecedented before. You can even start with simple picture. This product is a great addition to Adobe® After Effects®. This product has endless possibilities.”….We say; you better download a demo,..use your creative mind and find out yourself. One more thing plugin is not available for .MAC (Windows Only).

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

ZBornToy for After Effects | Tutorials



+ Some time back, we have mentioned about this great After Effect plugin,.. now few good Video tutorials are available for greater understanding of the plugin. ZBornToy is a Visual Effects and rendering plug-in for adobe After Effects with quite an immersive short rendering time. The ZbornToy has the ability to extract a maximum of information out of simple depth images and allows you to not only light and texture them, but to refract backgrounds, cast caustic reflection back onto the background and much more. Lighting in Zborn supports shadows and is kept within the plugin for maximum portability to other compositing packages that support after effects plugins.

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Monday, August 20, 2007

Real3D For AfterEffects


+ Avidion Media has recently released Real3D for AfterEffects and now offering both Mac & Windows version of Real3D at half price. Real3D allows users to bend, shatter, twist, and warp their layers in 3D, while interacting with their After Effects lighting and camera settings.
Real3D Features include:
- Twist, bend, and shatter your layers within your After Effects 3D space
- Unique layer driver allows users to create effects such as 3D flags and newsprint
- 4 unique object modes and two adjustable rendering modes gives the user incredible flexibility
- Fully adapts to your After Effects workspace including camera position, lighting, motion blur and DOF

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Monday, August 06, 2007

Multi-channel OpenEXR Plugins for After Effects


+ Multi-channel OpenEXR plug-ins tools provide complete access to EXR files in After Effects. OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for use in computer imaging applications.
The Multi-channel OpenEXR plugins tools for AE consist of:
- OpenEXR: file format module to replace Adobe's
- EXtractoR: plug-in for reading in any float channel in an EXR
- OrphExtract: a regular 3D Channel plug-in that works in float
- IDentifier: Object/Material ID plug-in
Multi-channel OpenEXR plug-ins toolset is available for both windows and Mac. EXR channel extraction requires After Effects CS3.

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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

GridIron Nucleo Pro 2 Now Shipping



+ GridIron® Software today announced the availability of Nucleo Pro 2, an upgrade to the productivity enhancement tool that optimizes the workflow for visual effects artists using Adobe® After Effects®. With workflow enhancements like Spec Preview, Spec Render, Commit to Disk, and Background Render, Nucleo Pro allows creative professional users to harness the full power of their multi-processor or multi-core computer.
New Features in Nucleo Pro 2
Nucleo Pro 2 expands the workflow possibilities with support for 3D rendering applications in the Background Render Queue and Pre-Composition Proxies.
Background Render Queue for 3D Applications
With Nucleo Pro 2, motion graphics artists can manage After Effects and 3D renders from one convenient spot. Simply drag projects for any of the supported applications into the Background Render Queue. Then specify the appropriate render settings and allow Nucleo Pro to initiate and manage the render in the background. Support is available for most popular 3D rendering applications, including: Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, Maxon Cinema 4D, Newtek LightWave, Softimage XSI, and Apple Shake.
Pre-Composition Proxies
After Effects allows compositions in a timeline to be represented by pre-rendered frames to improve preview performance. This is known as proxying. Nucleo Pro 2's Pre-Composition Proxy feature makes proxying extremely simple by allowing the addition of a proxy with a single keystroke. If a proxied composition is changed, Nucleo Pro 2 re-renders only the modified frames in the background, then updates the composition's proxy automatically. After Effects users now have an easy way to proxy without ever having to worry about a proxy getting out of date, or ever having to manually render and import the proxy frames. For additional product details, visit www.gridironsoftware.com

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