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22 May 2004 (see news editions 08 April 2004 and 29 January 2004) |
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Note: AE 6+ is OS X only. This is time sensitive information; Windows users don't have the same problems, but will enjoy the news as well. Dik is gracious in keeping us up-to-date, but please contact the developer for the final word -- and feel free to keep us informed.
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OS-X PLUG-IN NEWS:
It’s a really big, bumper edition this time! So much so that I feel that a summary of headings is needed first, for people who are interested in specific developers. Here it is:
(1A) AE 6.5 – new plug-ins
(1B) AE 6.5 – plug-ins converted to 16-bit
(1C) AE 6.5 – GridIron Xfactor distributive rendering
(2) Synthetic-Ap Color Finesse 1.5 and 2.0
(3) GrangerFX’s TrinityFX
(4) Profound Effects CameraPOV and more
(5) RE:Vision Effects and Trapcode Bundles
(6) Boris FX Continuum Complete 3.
(7) Digital Anarchy 3D Layer and more
(8) The Foundry “Furnacebox”
(9) The Orphanage/Red Giant Magic Bullet for Editors & Misfire
(10) Trapcode Particular
(11) Wondertouch ParticleIllusion for AE
(12) Fandev Bikini Dots
(13) GridIron Xfactor additional licenses
(14) The Orphanage/Red Giant eLin
(15) 4th. Party Effects for Useful Things
(16) Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro 4.0
(17) Panopticum AreaFX
(18) Darkling Simulations’ Darkling Interactive Noise
(19) DigiEffects Fantazm
(20) Pluginz Top 10 Downloads trivia
(1A) AE 6.5 – new plug-ins
The biggest news is, of course, that After Effects 6.5 is shipping (as of 23rd. May in the USA.) Adobe said that language versions (French, Japanese, German) would be shipping at the same time and that markets like Asia would not have to wait long afterwards, so we’ll soon see how true that is.
This announcement gives rise to obvious questions like “has it fixed the Abnormal Condition errors.” Adobe attributed this recurrent problem mainly to 3rd. Party plugs, but there seems to have been a deeper problem in AE 6.0, which sometimes has affected Adobe’s own plugs.Another obvious question is “has it broken any more 3rd. Party plugs.” No information on this so far.
AE 6.5 offers much more interest to plug-in aficionados than version 6.0 because - in addition to at least 6 new Adobe plug-ins - this dot version will bundle Visual Infinity Grain Surgery (3 plugs), Synthetic-Ap Color Finesse and 60 plug-ins from Cycore, which seem to equate to those in the Metacreations version of Final Effects Complete.
In fact, there are over 70 plugs which are new to AE 6.5 Pro.
--- New Adobe originals (16-bit):
. Auto Color
. Auto Contrast
. Auto Levels
. Box Blur
. Photo Filter
. Shadow//Highlight
--- Visual Infinity Grain Surgery (AE Pro -16-bit) - acquired
. Add Grain
. Match Grain
. Remove Grain
--- Synthetic-Ap (externally 16-bit) - bundled
. Color Finesse 1.5
--- GridIron Xfactor distributive rendering (AE Pro) license
. GridIron Xfactor Basic license (3 CPUs)
--- 61 Cycore plugs (probably 8-bit) – bundled
(More on these below.)
I think you can view this from various angles. In the short term, how happy you are will depend on whether you already paid for FEC, Grain Surgery and Color Finesse ;-). If you already bought FEC (the Media 100 version) and CF, you might still be happy, since they still seem to be on sale on the Media-100 and Synthetic-Ap sites, so you can still use them in non-AE hosts.
The situation with Grain Surgery is less clear. This is stated by Adobe to be an “acquisition” and the product seems no longer available from the Visual Infinity store. But at the time of writing (about 2 weeks after the AE 6.5 announcement,) the Film and DV tab and links to Demo downloads for Grain Surgery AE still exist on the Visual Infinity site. There is also no Press Release or user information about the acquisition on the VisInf site (unlike Atomic Power, for example, when Adobe’s acquisition of Evolution was announced very promptly.) Some clear statements would be welcome here, for Visual Infinity customers.
In terms of availability to non-AE hosts, the acquisition of Grain Surgery will have little effect, since it was only ever qualified for AE.. But it will be interesting to see whether Visual Infinty will continue as an AE plug-in provider, since their only remaining products seem to be GS for Photoshop and Genuine Fractals for Photoshop.
Another questionmark hovers over the copyright and licensing of the Cycore set. Since ICE reputedly paid US$1,000,000 to Metacreations for the rights on FEC, and since Media-100 is still selling FEC for other hosts - including earlier versions of AE - the picture here is also far from clear and can only impact on Media-100’s plug-in sales until someone clarifies it.
For instance, if Cycore has either repurchased some rights from Media-100 or has in some way retained rights on the FEC plug-in code or has somehow recoded the plugs so that they behave much the same (but in a way that doesn’t infringe Media-100’s rights,) then how far do these rights extend?
Currently Adobe say that “The plug-ins we licensed from Cycore are exclusive to Adobe”, but this still leaves some possible grey areas of interpretation. E.g. Cycore could maybe use the basic code and upgrade for other hosts as different plug-ins. In fact, I would estimate this as highly unlikely and expect that “Cycore Effects” will not be available for other hosts in the future.
Whether Media 100 finds it economical to keep updating and supporting their version for other hosts remains a matter of conjecture at this point. If they don’t, and FEC ceases to be viable for other hosts, then this will be extremely disappointing. Adobe can be expected to lose market-share in the Compositing and Desktop NLE market, so any plug-ins tied to it exclusively will lose market-share as well.
It does seem that the plug-in matchnames (IDs) for the bundled Cycore-Effects have been changed and that they will not be backwards-compatible with earlier versions. This is bad news for people who have projects with Metacreations or ICE FE plugs in them, and who didn’t want to upgrade to FEC for OS-X because of the Media-100 Pace locking system – although Profound Effects is rumoured to be trying to help fill this gap with a Useful Assistant which will transfer settings from missing FEC plugs to CC plugs. The process may not be as simple as it seems, since the news is that some parameter names and many parameter lores (the range of numerals in the setting) have changed from FEC to CC..
The positive side is that in abandoning backwards-compatibility, Cycore is opening up the chance for the plug-ins to be considerably upgraded from previous versions.
But how much work has in fact been done on these plugs, for their “re-issue” in AE 6.5? Well, we don’t really know yet. Stephen Schleicher (presumably working from a press kit and having seen the product at NAB) says: “Adobe has totally reworked the Cycore Effects.”
Adobe, of course, hasn’t done anything. Since they are bundled plugs from Cycore, Cycore will be doing the work. But there does seem to have been a lot of recoding “under the hood” - although most of this reworking seems to be in the actual performance and stability of the code rather than in the extension of the plug-ins’ capabilities. A number of people at NAB have commented that the Cycore plugs seem a lot snappier than the previous FEC versions, which is good news. And of course many of the Media-100 set are still somewhat flakey in AE 6.0, which will need to be improved for a bundled set. But in terms of features, NAB attendees have also indicated that most of the filters are familiar in form and that they main additions are things like the addition of access to AE’s Comp Camera to plug-ins which operate in 3D space (e.g. Particle World and Cylinder.) These are improvements similar to those made to the Atomic Power plug-ins when they were acquired by Adobe.
This lack of any radical feature departure from the previous FEC plug-ins can only be construed as a lost opportunity – since the best time to add or change controls is when you change matchname. We can only hope that this is due to deadline time factors (viz. AE 6.5 was a 6-month Development cycle) and that we can somehow expect feature improvements in the future. This may possibly be the case. For example, Synthetic-Ap has said that the bundled version of Color Finesse will “keep pace” with After Effects in the future (see below,) so Cycore might be working on a similar model. Again some clear statements would be welcome, to clarify this.
An update to the FEC plug-ins is overdue. A lot of the FE plug-in designs date from the early 1990s, and although many are still fresh and have no equivalent in other sets, many others are definitely from a different era. The rationale of many people who have been campaigning to get the FEC plugs wrested from Media-100, was that they could then become “living breathing entities” which are upgraded and improved again, rather than having a feature set which is frozen in time. If the set bundled with AE 6.5 stops supporting other hosts and is still largely frozen in time, will we be much better off?
The AE policy of bundling plug-ins like Cycore’s to add value to the host is, of course, nothing new. Combustion has versions of particleIllusion and RE:flex. Commotion had CW and IL. Apple Motion has Primatte RT (maybe a competitor Adobe made for itself by bundling Keylight with AE?)
But AE has certainly become the “bundling champion.” AE 6.5 now includes Evolution, Grain Surgery and CultFX (acquisitions,) plus bundled versions of Color Finesse, Keylight, Final Effects, and (for new purchases) Invig Classic! In fact, AE seems now to include plug-in sets worth way in excess of it's own retail value.
Again you can see this in different lights. On one side, many users will think this is fantastic value. On another side you can definitely see it as an attempt by Adobe to make sure that many good plug-in sets are unavailable to up-and-coming competitors. You can also see it as "papering over the cracks" - trying to compete with opposing hosts which have features unavailable in AE, without committing effort from their own team into original plug-in development. Of all the "native" AE plugs introduced since 4.1, a small percent have actually been designed by Adobe. So actually AE has no high-performance keyer of its own, no grain management of its own, no high-performance particle system of its own, and - most seriously – no all-in-one colour correction of its own.
It’s factors like these that give an impression of AE (presumably still the market leader in its price-bracket) reacting defensively in the face of younger and more dynamic compositors like Combustion and Apple Livetype/Motion rather than innovating at a root level. And this is not good news.
That’s not to say that AE 6.5 doesn’t look like a very desirable upgrade – it does, especially due to the inclusion of disk-caching (allelujah! – how long have I had that on my wish-list) and improvements in the text layers – like character-by-character blend modes and text scripting. But there’s a difference between merely adding more features to a product, and fundamentally rethinking it.
The available information doesn't mention the word “realtime” very much, for example – and I don't think it will until AE is ripped apart and rebuilt from the ground up. Speed differential – both of base compositing and effects processing – is a very real threat to AE from newly designed software which has a tight hardware relationship. IMHO AE needs more realtime and the ability to at least be able to playback footage, in order to compete.
Of course my main focus here is effects, rather than timeline issues (although of course the two work hand in hand.) Whether or not the reliance on bundled plug-ins is a problem in the longer term really depends on where AE – and/or it’s co-developers - take the “AE 6.5” plug-ins from here.
CultFX was probably most attractive to Adobe because of Cult Paint (now Vector Paint) which acted as a stop-gap in the face of Discreet, since it gave AE a pro-tem paint system. Since then, Vector Paint has largely - though not entirely - been superceded by AE's own Paint "plug-in", which appears to have been improved again in 6.5. Ignoring the wastage of development budgets involved here, if the same thing happens and the plug-ins are improved into integrated tools in AE 7.0 then AE can only benefit. As it is, neither Color Finesse nor Particle World – in their current form – can be seen as being long-term solutions for colour correction and competitive particle generation in AE.
That's not to say both aren't good tools, but assuming that the bundled version is not a major departure from the version currently available from Synthetic-Ap, Color Finesse is handicapped by the fact it has to keep booting (fairly quickly after the first time) its own external UI to circumvent the constraints of the AE Effects API. And Particle World looks not have learned the lesson from Wondertouch Particle Illusion (several years old already) that the best emitters are already animating via OpenGL or the lesson from The Foundry that better particles can spawn child particles.
There is still room for native Adobe plug-in solutions to “plug the gaps” here. For example, a Combustion or FCP style colour corrector should still be available to users in the ECW or as an ECW/palette hybrid (like AE Paint) for quick fixes which do not merit the full power of the Color Finesse UI.
But a longer term solution is for Adobe to work with companies like Synthetic-Ap and Cycore so that the effects plug-in API is itself improved and plug-ins can be more tightly integrated. E.g. to allow Effects plug-ins to create and use their own palettes and timeline “effect instances” like AEGP plugs and AE Paint/Text layers can do (respectively,) and so plugs which can use AE's Comp Camera can truly intersect in AE’s 3D space via the a more Advanced Renderer. This will be of benefit both to native and 3rd. Party plug-ins. There does seem to have been a gradual movement creating greater uniformity between the FX and AEGP APIs in recent years and hopefully this process will continue. It is also possible for 3rd. Parties to create and plug-in their own 3D Renderers (confusingly called “artisans”) in After Effects already. But given how tightly integrated this needs to be with the access given to 3rd. Party plugs to achieve true intersection, I would guess that we really need to look to Adobe to take the lead here.
From information so far, changes to the FX API since 6.0 do not appear to be radical. Some comments on the Listservs seem to indicate that there is now greater script-access to plug-ins in the ECW, although there’s no detail about what this means. The Orphanage’s eLin, which is a package of plug-ins and scripts (see below,) might be using these new features, but since it will only be released when AE 6.5 is, this doesn’t help with current information-flow ;-)
It’s probably also true that there are many features in the newer FX and AEGP APIs which are still not being used by Developers, so the full responsibility may not be Adobe’s. Developers’ greatest concerns at present are about the lack of adequate messaging in the FX API, so hopefully this is another area which will be addressed in AE 7.0 and Developers will thus be encouraged to take full advantage of what AE offers them.
Anyway, returning from aethereal conceptualising to plug-in specifics: according to information kindly provided by AE Product Manager Steve Kilisky, the new Cycore plug-ins are as follows:
CC Ball Action
CC Bend It
CC Bender
CC Blobbylize
CC Bubbles
CC Burn Film
CC Color Offset
CC Composite
CC Cylinder
CC Drizzle
CC Flo Motion
CC Force Motion Blur
CC Glass
CC Glass Wipe
CC Glue Gun
CC Griddler
CC Grid Wipe
CC Hair
CC Image Wipe
CC Jaws
CC Kaleida
CC Lens
CC Light Burst 2.5
CC Light Rays
CC Light Sweep
CC Light Wipe
CC Mr. Mercury
CC Mr. Smoothie
CC Page Turn
CC PS Classic (Particle Systems)
CC Particle Systems II
CC PS LE Classic (Particle Systems LE)
CC Particle World
CC Pixel Polly
CC Power Pin
CC Radial Blur
CC Radial Fast Blur
CC Radial ScaleWipe
CC Rain
CC RepeTile
CC Ripple Pulse
CC Scale Wipe
CC Scatterize
CC Simple Wire Removal
CC Slant
CC Smear
CC Snow
CC Sphere
CC Split
CC Split 2
CC Spotlight
CC Star Burst
CC Threshold
CC Threshold RGB
CC Tiler
CC Time Blend
CC Time Blend FX
CC Toner
CC Twister
CC Vector Blur
CC Wide Time
The 2 effects missing in AE 6.5, compared to the original Metacreations-released set are:
Advanced 3D
Alpha Map
This is no great loss. Advanced 3D isn't really necessary in AE now that it has a 3D environment and Alpha Map isn't necessary since you can remap alpha using AE Curves - which is already 16-bit (although the Curves interface isn't as pretty as Alpha Map's custom UI ;-)
Slant Matte looks like it’s missing, but it’s actually still there as an option in CC Slant. There’s also one new plug-in: CC Radial Fast Blur.
Advanced 3D and Alpha Map are still in the Media-100 version, but there are 5 plugs missing from Media-100 FEC for OS-X which are now included with AE 6.5:
FE Force Motion Blur
FE Particle Systems
FE Particle Systems LE
FE Radial Blur
FE Wide Time
It's especially good to see Force Motion Blur and especially especially good to see Wide Time available for OS-X again (!) albeit in a single host.
It should be noted that the FEC-equivalent plugs bundled with AE 6.5 should not be confused with the complete Media FEC for OS-X set. That set did indeed include all the Metacreations FEC plug-ins (except the ones mentioned above,) but it also includes the 47 plugs from the ICE Base and ICE’d Edges sets, some of which are very good plugs (and which also work in other hosts, of course.) M100 FEC plugs that won’t be found in the AE 6.5 bundled set are:
FE 3D Relief
FE Brightness & Contrast
FE Blur
FE Bulge
FE Channel Blur
FE Chroma/Luma Blur
FE Channel Noise
FE Color Balance [HLS]
FE Color Balance [RGB]
FE Directional Blur
FE Emboss
FE EZ Ripples
FE Fractal
FE Gamma/Pedastal/Gain
FE Glow
FE Invert
FE EZ LazyWaves
FE LensStar
FE Levels
FE LightBlast
FE LightTornado
FE LightWhirl
FE Median
FE Min/Max
FE Noise
FE Replace Color
FE Sharpen
FE Simple Shadow
FE Soften
FE Spin Blur
FE Spiral Blur
FE Spherize
FE Tint
FE Twirl
FE Unsharpen Mask
FE VideoFragment
FE WaterWaves
FE Zoom Blur
FE Burn Edges
FE Gradient Blur
FE Power Ramp
FE Sparkle Edges
FE Spot Blur
FE Spot Feather
FE Spot Frame
FE Spot Tatter
FE Spot Turbulence
FE Wiggle Edges
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(1B) AE 6.5 – plug-ins converted to 16-bit
In addition to the new 16-bit plugs in AE 6.5, 22 existing ones are stated have been upgraded to 16-bit:
> . Bevel Alpha
> . Blend
> . Block Dissolve
> . Change Color
> . Change to Color
> . Colorama
> . Color Emboss
> . Color Key
> . Emboss
> . Glow
> . Iris Wipe
> . Linear Wipe
> . Luma Key
> . Minimax
> . Polar Coordinates
> . Radial Blur
> . Radial Wipe
> . Scatter
> . Set Matte
> . Turbulent Displace
> . Unsharp Mask
> . Venetian Blinds
This leaves over 60 which are still 8-bit (in addition to the 60 Cycore plugs.) 40% of these are from the Evolution and CultFX sets (of which only 3 plugs were converted to 16-bit this time.): This emphasizes the defects of acquiring large numbers of plug-ins from other Developers. The remaining 8-bit plugs (based on current information) are:
3D Glasses
Arithmetic
Audio Spectrum
Audio Waveform
Basic 3D
Basic Text
Beam
Bevel Edges
Broadcast Colors
Brush Strokes
Card Dance
Card Wipe
Caustics
Cell Pattern
Channel Combiner
Checkerboard
Circle
Color Link
Compound Arithmetic
Ellipse
Equalize
Eyedropper Fill
Fill
Find Edges
Foam
Gamma/Pedestal/Gain
Grid
Leave Color
Lens Flare
Lightning
Magnify
Motion Blur
Motion Tile
Noise Alpha
Noise HLS
Noise HLS Auto
Numbers
Paint Bucket
Path Text
PS Abitrary Map
Radial Shadow
Radio Waves
Reduce Interlace Flicker
Roughen Edges
Scribble
Shatter
Spherize
Strobe Light
Stroke
Texturize
Time Difference
Timecode
Twirl
Vegas
Wave World
(Write-On)
3D Channel Extract
Advanced Lightning
Color Range Key
Depth Matte
Depth-Of-Field
Fog 3D
High-Low Pass
ID Matte
Particle Playground
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(1C) AE 6.5 – GridIron Xfactor distributive rendering
Although it is covered surprisingly little in the Adobe “new features” PDF, the addition of the GridIron Xfactor distributive rendering system to AE (actually announced some time ago) is a major new feature. This is covered in depth in the http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/indepth.html part of the Adobe site, which has a downloadable FAQ on GridIron.
The FAQ tells us that AE Professional comes with the “Basic” edition of X-Factor, which is actually a license for distributive rendering for 3 x CPUs. The meaning of CPU here seems to be the processing chip rather than the grey box, which means that the GridIron blurb about allowing you to use “two additional” computers free of charge is only true if you are not using a dual-processor and treating each processor as a render node.
The FAQ leaves some other grey areas too:
X-Factor seems to be the name of the GridIron plug-in, which allows a full edition of AE to communicate with the GridIron XLR8 (nothing to do with Cannon plugs - “accelerate” – get it – eh?) peer to peer software, which in turn links it to AE Render Engines running on other CPUs. Unlike previous AE network rendering, this process is not just restricted to the render Q, but will also accelerate such things as RAM previewing. The XLR8 software should be on the AE 6.5 release disk, while the X-factor plug-ins need to be downloaded from the gridironxfactor.com site, after AE 6.5 is released.
In this light, the cheerful statement that…
<<All you need to do to use X-Factor is install the X-Factor plug-in on your Adobe After Effects Professional 6.5 workstation, and on each computer that will assist with processing along with After Effects Render Engine.>>
…isn’t true. It looks like you have to install the XLR8 software on each computer, the X-Factor plugs in each edition of AE on the network (full or Render Engine) and any plug-ins which need to be used for the render on each computer too.
This immediately seems to take us into the region of plug-in licensing:
<<Do my After Effects plug-ins work with X-Factor?
Yes. In fact, you will see a significant performance improvement with most plug-ins. There are, however, a few computationally intensive plug-ins that cannot be sped up using X-Factor. While these will not run faster, they will continue to work normally.>>
The few plug-ins in question that can’t take much advantage of Xfactor seem those like AE Echo which need to access and sample the timeline at many points in order to operate. Obviously you get maximum speed out of these if they can work in sequence and cache calculations from other frames. On a network render all computers will still need to calculate all frames. Maybe the solution will be some form of network caching, but that’s a ways off, I think/
<<It is important to ensure that all the plug-ins and fonts required for your project are installed on the computers that will assist with processing in accordance with the terms of your plug-in license(s). The X-Factor Plus and Unlimited editions have an Audit feature that determines if all the necessary plug-ins and fonts required for the processing of your composition are installed on each of the compute nodes with a single click.>>
Two things there. One is that your plug-ins need to have granted you a network-rendering license, which - explicitly at least - I don't think many do (what happens with dongled plugs, for example?) I’ll return to this at the end of this section. The other thing is that the Basic 3 CPU license which comes free with AE 6.5 does not include the Audit feature and it's not expressed in the FAQ what happens if any of the plugs refuse to work in the manner or if a font is missing. Maybe the node in question just stops working without warning you (?) At any rate, it looks like serious distributive rendering will require at least one additional license ($99) to gain the audit and file management features, so this will probably need to be budgeted for.
The FAQ also says:
<<Does X-Factor work with a mixture of Mac® and Windows® PCs?
Yes. Whether you are using a Mac or a Windows PC as your After Effects workstation, you can use computers equipped with either or both operating systems to assist with processing. With X-Factor, you have complete flexibility to combine any computers in your mixed environment to fully maximize the performance of After Effects. The use of Quicktime is recommended when using X-Factor in mixed environments.>>
But presumably, if the render includes any plug-ins or fonts, then you will also need to have exactly the same plugs and fonts on the Windows and Mac systems for it to work (double your plug and font costs) and also you will need to have copies of AE for Mac and Windows (double your AE costs?) so that you have the Network rendering version for the other platform....
Personally I would love to be able to run Mac and Win on the same network, GridIron'd together, even without plugs, but I wouldn't mind betting there's no Windows Render Engine on the AE 6.5 Mac disk.....
On multiprocessor computing the FAQ says:
<<Can I use X-Factor on a dual- or multiprocessor computer?
Yes. X-Factor can use each CPU on a dual- or multiprocessor computer as an individual render node. If you use a dual processor computer as your After Effects workstation, you can use the second CPU as a render node.>>
This sounds exciting even for someone with just one dual-CPU computer, since it sounds that you should be able to get a full performance from both of your CPUs, which you certainly won't with AE's not very good multi-threading.
However, this opens up several more grey areas which the PDF doesn’t cover (not frequently asked enough I guess .... ;)
For instance, do you need to run a full version of AE and a Render Engine on the same computer to be able to do this. And what happens with plug-ins which are switched to use multiple CPUs – will this cause conflicts?
The main can of worms which distributive rendering will open, though, is definitely the question of plug-in network licenses. Small operators, who have always taken software licenses to mean “one user” rather than “one workstation” are going to want to use this distributive rendering feature with their next-to-last and next-next-to-last computers, but they aren’t going to want to get a network rendering licenses from plug-ins to do this (even if the developer even has one.)
On the other hand, Developers are going to want some assurance that if they liberalize the use of plugs by removing dongles or single-CPU locking, that larger companies who have the unlimited version of Xfactor or several disconnected workstations running AE are not going to abuse this.
It seems to be that there needs to be a new licensing concept, and this will inevitably involve Adobe and GridIron.
What I’m seeing is that just as there are Full and Render Engine versions of AE, there need to be full and render engine versions of plug-ins (or possibly the same plug with some kind of switch inside, depending on which type of host it’s working with.) This could follow the Xfactor system: a basic set consisting of one Full version and two free network rendering versions, with single or packs of additional network rendering licenses available at a cost.
The mechanics of this could be quite complicated, but AE is already helping by providing calls for plug-ins, so that they know which type of host they are serving, and can behave accordingly. What is missing at the moment are calls which enable plug-ins to communicate with each other, so Developers can check when other instances of their plugs are in use on the network and check whether they are correctly licensed.
RE:vision Effects has done some pioneering work here and their ReelSmart Motion Blur plug-in is available with network rendering licenses. But to do this they’ve needed to develop code to do their own network checking. Clearly, tough, if every plug-in Developer needs to do this, then there is considerable wastage of development time – which could be avoided with centralized calls via AE.
This has been recognized, I think, and I’m optimistic that the next version of AE will allow for this, and pave the way for realistic network rendering license fees from Developers. Unfortunately the next version of AE is probably 18 months away…
(2) Synthetic-Ap Color Finesse 1.5 and 2.0
As mentioned in section (1A), a full version of Color Finesse will be bundled with AE 6.5, which is a tremendously valuable freebie for AE users – whether they are using the Standard or Pro versions. Color Finesse gives AE users considerably more power to perform (and monitor!) colour correction than ever before.
In fact, the bundled version (version 1.5) is newer than the latest one currently available from the Sythetic-Ap site (version 1.1.1.) Despite the numbering, this does not seem to be very substantial upgrade. Bob Currier describes it as containing “a few minor tweaks related to AE 6.5 and Premiere Pro 1.5”. But he said it will be generally available as a free upgrade to existing Synthetic-Ap customers by the time the Adobe apps. are shipping.,
Bob also gave a “sneak peak” of yet another new version of Color Finesse at NAB: CF Version 2.0. Not due for release until Q3, there is currently only a limited amount of information available on this. The Synthetic-Ap site says: “New features … include a hardware control surface featuring the familiar colorist's trackballs, a standalone color correction mode, and the ability to read XML project files generated by Final Cut Pro.” This is expanded slightly in the Synthetic-Ap newsletter: :”new in Color Finesse 2 is a standalone version, which joins the plug-ins for After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro. This standalone version handles QuickTime movies, still images, and Cineon/DPX image sequences, as well as Final Cut Pro XML project files, and offers a workflow alternative to the current host application/plug-in approach.”
An NAB attendee posting to the FCP list said CF2 uses XML (like the link between FCP and Apple Motion) so that timelines can be read from FCP by the self-standing version of the Color Finesse UI and colour corrected more efficiently than when it’s being used as a plug-in (since it has the ability to tab through clips, etc.) The result is exported back to FCP, where the CF plug-in is applied to clips, ready for playback or render. He didn’t mention what happens if you want to adjust the colour correction a second time (viz. does the export from CF update existing clips,) but did state that CF2 will be compatible with JL Cooper hardware control panels. It’s not clear at this point whether CF 2.0 will be bundled with hardware, or whether this needs to be bought separately.
The benefits of Color Finesse 2.0 for FCP users are therefore pretty clear, although I’ve seen no mention of what new features will be in CF 2.0 for AE users.
Whatever they are, though, it seems that it will be also made available to AE 6.5 users as a free upgrade. In a post on the After Effects listserv, Bob Currier said: <<We'll be keeping Adobe current with future revisions of the Color Finesse plug-in. Of course, what they do with updates is up to Adobe and will undoubtedly depend on how their release schedules and our release schedules relate. In the case of minor updates … we'll make sure they are quickly and easily available to AE 6.5 bundle users.>>
(3) GrangerFX’s TrinityFX
Electric Image co-founder Mark Granger has established a new company, GrangerFX, whose first AE plug-in, GrangerFX has already been released for Windows. It’s been said that the Mac OS version was has been in Beta from mid-March.
GrangerFX is actually a host for canned effects and transitions, which can be built in EI Universe. A bunch of already canned transitions and effects, TrinityFX is bundled with GrangerFX (GrangerFX is the plug-in which goes into the AE plug-in folder — the other effect files are called by the plug-in from inside AE, and the two seem not to be available separately.)
TrinityFX's swathe (500+) of effects smack of the defunct (for OS-X anyway) Pinnacle Hollywood-FX. The resolution of the effects seems to be fixed - so 384 of them work at NTSC res (rectangular pixels?) and less than half that number work at PAL res. This seems like a severe limitation, and presumably makes the plug useless for people using non-standard formats or HD. The TrinityFX effects are derived from those used on Trinity Play and the developer claims that they render in near realtime, including ray-traced-look effects. The TrinityFX bundle is $499. There is a downloadable demo for Windows too. More details at grangerfx.com.
(4) Profound Effects CameraPOV and more
Profound Effects was showing their recently released CameraPOV set at NAB. This has 8 plugs for simulating looking through the viewfinder of various types of camera, and 4 more general plugs. There are versions for AE/FCP and for AVID AVX. Combustion 3.0 support currently Win only. In AE the plugs are 8 or 16-bit.
Plugs include: Digital Camera, Generic Camcorder, High-end Camcorder, High-end SLR, Night Vision Camera, Old SLR, Security Camera, SLR, Bloom, LCD Grid Look, Scanlines and Video Noise. The plugs have a wide range of parameters to customize the viewfinder simulations or localized effect "looks" (e.g. the Video Noise plug can create an interesting range of noise types, that I haven't seen before.) There is a demo. Retail version is $149.
Profound also say that for AE 6.5 compatibility, they will be releasing an updated Reveal plug-in (v1.2), and are planning to release updates for Useful Things (v1.6) and Useful Assistants (v1.5) around the time AE 6.5 ships. Users who have both UT and UA will need to update both, since they have shared files.
When the new versions are released, details will be posted on the profound compatibility page:
http://www.profoundeffects.com/products/compatibility.php .
(5) RE:Vision Effects and Trapcode Bundles
RE:Vision Effects has introduced updated versions of ReelSmart Motion Blur (to 3.0) and Fieldskit (to 1.4), as well as a more economical way of buying their plugs in Effections and Effections plus bundles. Trapcode (more about Trapcode below) also has new bundles: 3SPack and LightPack DeLux (sic) as well as LightPack and Suite DeLux (all plug-ins.) I'm in two minds about bundles like these, as they are often configured in ways that tempt new users, but do not offer much assistance to existing single-plug-in customers. For example, all of Trapcode’s packs include Shine and Starglow and I would guess 90% percent of existing Trapcode customers would have one of these, which means the bundles will be of no use to them. So, great for new customers, no use to Trapcode loyal. I'd much rather see a scheme for single plug sales where the more you have already bought, the more discount you get on new plugs. This would be much harder to run as a web-sales 'bot, of course, but it would be fairer.
(6) Boris FX Continuum Complete 3
Boris FX has announced that <<Continuum Complete 3 for Adobe® After Effects, Adobe® Premiere Pro, Apple® Final Cut Pro, Discreet Combustion, Digital Fusion, and Boris Red is expected to ship Q2 2004 .>> The AVID AVX version is already shipping and contains over 40 new filters in the set.
A PDF preview of BCC for AE/FCP/PPro can be found at:
http://www.borisfx.com/products/CONTINUUM_COMPLETE/bcc/whatsnewae.php
Some of the new features mentioned here are
- Integrated Motion Tracking in many filters - allows position parameters to follow the movement of something in the video image. In filters that include the PixelChooser, you can use the PixelChooser Shape menu to track the filter within the specified area. For example, use the Motion Tracker to position a light on a moving object.
- Precision PixelChooser Masking - a new PixelChooser Region option allows After Effects users to integrate a custom mask with the existing PixelChooser options.
48 new plug-ins:
Colors & Blurs
BCC Motion Blur
BCC Pyramid Blur
BCC Radial Blur
BCC Safe Colors
BCC Spiral Blur
BCC Z-Blur
Effects
BCC Colorize Glow
BCC DeGrain Filter
BCC DeNoise Filter
BCC DeInterlace
BCC Dust and Scratches
BCC Film Process
BCC Glow (new version)
BCC Glow Alpha Edges
BCC Match Grain
BCC Misalignment
BCC MultiShadow
BCC Witness Protection
Keys & Matte
BCC Glow Matte
BCC Light Wrap
BCC Matte Choker
BCC Matte Cleanup
BCC Wire Remover
Generators
BCC Caustics
BCC Rock
Lights
BCC Glare
BCC Glint
BCC Glitter
BCC Lens Flare
BCC Lens Flare Advanced
BCC Rays Cartoon
BCC Rays Puffy
BCC Rays Radiant Edges
BCC Rays Radiant Spotlight
BCC Rays Ring
BCC Rays Ripply
BCC Rays Streaky
BCC Rays Textured
BCC Rays Wedge
Time
BCC Jitter Basic
BCC Optical Flow
Wipe Transitions
BCC Criss-Cross Wipe
BCC Linear Wipe
BCC Multi Stretch Wipe
BCC Multi Stripe Wipe
BCC Radial Wipe
BCC Rectangular Wipe
BCC Textured Wipe
A number of the effects, like Lens Flare, are OpenGL accelerated. Lots of innovation here, and with a total of 160 plug-ins over a wide spectrum of use, it looks like BCC will continue to hold the crown as the set many people recommend as the set to buy first, and the set with best bang for your buck..
Exact release date is still unknown, although many plugs were previewed at NAB. Pricing has likewise not been announced. BCC 2.0 is currently $595. The AVX set for AVID DV Express (version 3) is $795.
(7) Digital Anarchy 3D Layer and more
Digital Anarchy has released their Conoa 3D-engine powered 3D Layer 1.0 plug-in. This provides a “flexible mesh object that can extrude with true Z-depth thickness. With 3D Layer, outside edges can be modelled and the layer can be bent, warped or punched through as well as texture mapped and animated to create complex 3D effects.”
Previously the only AE plug-in to perform true wireframe deformation was Forge Freeform, but this did not provide extruded depth. Like Freeform, the model is made easier to deform by using greyscale maps to distort or displace the mesh., but unlike Freeform the two main faces of the “slab” can be displaced independently.
3D layer is $179, with an introductory offer of $149 until the end of May. The press release lists the 3D Layer plug-in as offering:
- Grayscale Displacement Maps: Greyscale maps allow users to displace the mesh in 3D and create effects that have a sense of depth.
- Grayscale Modelling Maps: Greyscale maps can also be used to model or shape the layer (by this it means that if you have a white star on black, the model will be star shaped.)
- Multiple Texture Maps: Provides up to five texture maps that can be used on the 3D mesh.
- Animated Maps: Displacement, modelling and texture maps can be animated.
- AE 3D Camera Integration
- Conoa's 3D Engine - the 3D geometry is raytraced with Conoa's 3D Engine, which allows for shadows, reflections and refraction.
Besides 3D Layer, DA are said to be working on a version of their Photoshop plug-in “Texture Anarchy” for AE. No release date has been given. Texture Anarchy for PS is “a suite of three filters for creating procedural textures and borders in Photoshop” using fractal noise and bump mapping. “One filter creates seamless, infinite textures that can range from realistic to surreal. A second tiles these for 3D texture maps or and high-res, easy render compositing. The third makes textured, distressed, or ornamental borders around images and text.”
DA are also issuing an update to their 3D Assistants so that they work with AE 6.x’s Text Layers. Check out: http://www.digitalanarchy.com/section_updates.html.
(8) The Foundry “Furnacebox”
The Foundry were showing previews of their Kronos and Steadiness plug-ins for AE on their booth at NAB. The Press Release read: <<Kronos is a world class vector retimer. Steadiness uses motion vectors to automatically remove the camera shake from sequences without having to track objects in the scene.>> DNM says that these are part of the Furnace set which are currently available for higher end hosts like Shake as a set of plug-ins. This is likely to be released for AE as something like “Furnacebox” and is expected to include the ability to create masks for objects based on movement. No release schedule or price has been given.
The retimer market has gone from one to several in a few years and already includes Realviz Retimer, RE:vision Twixtor and BCC Optical Flow. The stabilization market (viz. not based on tracker technology) is more open with 2D3 Steadimove not being available for Mac yet. Given The Foundry’s track record, it’s a fair bet that their products will be strong contenders in both.
(9) The Orphanage/Red Giant Magic Bullet for Editors & Misfire
Red Giant has introduced a new flavour of Magic Bullet for Final Cut Pro, called Magic Bullet for Editors. There will be versions for Sony Vegas and Premiere Pro later in the year (for people who are interested in Windows stuff too.) The FCP version already has a demo which can be downloaded from the www.redgiantsoftware.com site. (There is also a demo of the full version of Magic Bullet 1.5)
The Red Giant site says:
<<Magic Bullet for Editors has four main components:
- Magic Bullet Looks 50 preset Looks
- Look Suite Extensive color controls to create and save your own look
- Misfire film damage Realistic film damage effects>>
For anyone else in the world that would make 3 components, and actually it's two since the preset looks are an intrinsic part of the Look Suite in MB proper ;-) The bits you don't get from MB full version are the Magic Bullet deinterlacer, Letterboxer and the Broadcast Spec plug. On the other hand you get the Misfire film damage plug. The other main difference between the two is that MB Full version is 16-bit and costs $995 instead of $299..
The Red Giant site also announced that the film damage element of Magic Bullet for FCP: Misfire, will be available as a separate plug for AE compatible products, Mac and Win. The announcement said:
<< Misfire will be available as a separate package by the end of May 2004 for $149 USD.
a.. Includes 14 easy-to-use plug-ins for adding damage characteristics.
b.. Enables users to quickly build old film looks with simple controls.
c.. Supports both 8 and 16-bit/channel footage in After Effects.
d.. Supports After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro.>>
The Orphanage has also announced a new plug-in/script package called eLin which will be distributed by Red Giant. More on this below.
(10) Trapcode Particular
Trapcode (Peder Norrby) was << showing our brand new product: Trapcode Particular>> at NAB. This is described as <<a serious 3D particle system for Adobe After Effects>> and was released on May 10th. as per the pre-NAB announcement. The price is higher than previous Trapcode plugs: $299, with an introductory offer at $199. This sounds steep, but several of AE’s most respected gurus have been unstinting in their praise of the plug-in, which incorporates just about everything you want in a particle system. The license is also cross-platform which is a nice added bonus. It’s 16-bit and Comp Camera aware.
The plug-in was developed over the course of a year in tight consultation with several well-known AE designers, and this is reflected in the comprehensive nature of the design.. The plug-in has more than the 127 controls available via the After Effects API - placing the additional ones in an options dialogue like Digital Element’s Aurora Sky. It also ships with 40 presets to make it simple to use. Full details about the plug-in are available at the Trapcode site: http://www.trapcode.com so there’s no need for detailed comments here. I would only highlight the innovative features such as Aux particles (which give a unique streaking effect) and time freeze. The refresh speed is also a very pleasant surprise for those used to plugs like Particle Playground.
The Trapcode site gives a clear overview of the depth of Particular and from the excitement this product has generated on the AE list, everybody should really check that out! The demo is already available.
While on Trapcode, I should note that Mark Coleran’s Layerlab now has a number of nice canned shapes made from Trapcode 3D Stroke available for when people are in a deadline panic. Similar offerings for Particular are expected.
(11) Wondertouch ParticleIllusion for AE
Not to be outdone, Wondertouch has announced that they will be introducing a ParticleIllusion plug-in for AE in late Q2/Early Q3. The press release says: “With this plug-in, creative professionals will be able to access particleIllusion's expansive library of ‘preset’ effects directly from within After Effects - without having to re-render effects - to effortlessly create such things as interesting and unique backgrounds, transitions and wipes, as well as a huge variety of classic particle effects such as smoke, fire, sparkles, and explosions."
Returning from NAB, Wondertouch’s Alan Lorence says “the initial release of the plug-in will not give you access to every property, setting, and option that you have in the standalone version of pIllusion. This does not mean that you will be stuck with the library emitters ("presets") though” -- customization will be possible. “The pIllusion plug-in should be released simultaneously (or nearly so) on both platforms. 95% of the code in the plug-in is cross-platform already, so there should be no big problems getting the Mac version going. We'll start beta testing in about a month. Depending on how that goes, you should see the particleIllusion AE plug-in later this summer. .
Wondertouch is the originator of the particle system found in Combustion 2 and 3, although that uses the version 2 engine, not the version 3 engine which will be found in the AE plug-in. The pIllusion system of active emitters, which make the particle turbulent even before it is moved, makes for some of the most organic particle looks around, and is OpenGL accelerated, often making it realtime.
It’s a great particle system and will be a great addition to AE, Trapcode Particular notwithstanding.
(12) Fandev Bikini Dots
Fandev (fandev.com) have released a new plug - Bikini Dots which the site says:
- "creates a matrix of circles (dots), the color value of each dot is the average sampled pixel value of that area from the source image.
- The size of every dot in the matrix can be modulated by the lightness, saturation or hue value.
- You can also use BikiniDots to render stroke effects, the strokes are generated from one or several paths. Strokes generated from BikiniDots differ from other stroke generating plug-ins were BikiniDots takes the input source image in account when creating the stroke."
It's $89 and there’s a demo for Mac and Win so you can check it for yourselves. It’s compatible with AE 5.5ff.
(13) GridIron Xfactor additional licenses
The GridIron Xfactor Basic plug-in license (see section 1C above) which is bundled with AE 6.5 is also available in two more advanced versions from the GridIronxfactor.com site.
X-Factor by GridIron - Plus allows users to add more computers to the peer-to-peer distributive rendering network at a cost of $99 per computer. It also adds extra features to manage multiple computers, such as selecting which computers to use, checking for the availability (“Auditing”) of plug-ins and fonts, and distributing or deleting source footage.
X-Factor by GridIron – Unlimited: gives no restriction to the number of processors you can use and has all the extra features provided in X-Factor Plus. It’s $1,995 US.
(14) The Orphanage/Red Giant eLin
The Orphanage has announced a new of a suite of plug-ins and scripts for AE 6.5 called eLin. Originally it was said that this would be released in sync with AE 6.5. Now the Red Giant site says it will be released “in June,” which sounds ominous. It will be free of charge for “non-commercial use” but is $499 commercially.
eLin aims to allow compositors to work in the expanded photographic color space of film: viz. to “composite film, video, and 3D elements together in a unified High Dynamic Range (HDR) color space that mimics the physical properties of light.” eLin also includes support for Cineon film scans and the new ILM EXR file format.
Orphange CTO Stu Maschwitz says eLin was needed in AE because of “its lack of floating-point color support. eLin cheats floating-point performance out of After Effects' 16 bits-per-channel mode, effectively promoting every basic After Effects function to HDR. Even third-party plug-ins gain a color performance advantage with eLin."
At the moment I’m unclear as to how this system can make a difference to other peoples’ 16-bit plugs, but the announcement does seem to show 2 things about the host:
The fact that floating point calculation seems to be a crucial factor in its marketability indicates that Adobe may have made a mistake in making the higher-than-8-bit standard in its plug-in API to be 16-bit. Sooner or later this will probably need to be rectified and AE will need to allow a floating-point mode too. How quickly this happens may or may not affect the longevity of eLin, depending on what other Value Added it offers. Some plug-ins already use floating point internally, like Color Finesse and Useful Things, although their output needs to be rounded to 16-bit in the ECW.
The fact that it’s a “plug-ins and scripts” package mean that the software only works in AE 6.5..
(15) 4th Party Effects for Useful Things
Kenneth Woodruff has launched a new name – and a new concept – in “plug-in” development: 4th. Party (www.4thparty.com)
4th Party effects are actually scripts which run under Profound Effects Useful Things (in addition to the free ones that Kenneth has already posted to the Profound eXchange – check out kw_OBJVertexLoader to see a good example of Kenneth’s originality.) Kenneth’s scripts are as powerful as many “normal” plug-ins and are additional evidence that each UT script should be treated as an “effect” in the same way as those available in the Effects Menu.
4th. Party scripts should be available for sale in a few weeks, and are individually priced at $15-$20 each. The ones currently listed on the site are:
Color Sampler
Effervescence
Filigree
Sprite Generator
Matrix Displacer
Lorentz Attractor
Generate Layers as Colors
XTone
But Kenneth has several other interesting ideas on the burner, so there should be more as the year progresses.
(16) Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro 4.0
Zaxwerks founder Zax Dow has announced Invigorator Pro 4.0 – a significant update to his popular Invigorator 3D plug-in for AE. It will be available at the end of May and will be a $195 upgrade from Invid Pro, $250 upgrade from Invig Classic, or $650 new.
The considerable list of new features include:
- The ability to type text directly in the software, rather than importing AI files. The 3D text engine can use Post Script Type 1 and True Type fonts.and has controls for character by character control over font, size, leading, scale, kerning, letter spacing, and baseline shift. Text can be changed at any phase of the production process and retain the color, modeling and animation
- 3D Primitives – long awaited ability to generate spheres, cubes, planes and cylinders with control over smoothness and size.
- New Invigorator Import/Export Format
- Motion Blur
- Tracking of AE's 3D Objects
- Layer Map Animation: by animating this new parameter the map (e,g, Reflection Maps will continue to move over static objects.
- Render Farming: is supported using the After Effects render engine. But note that no testing has currently been done with the new GridIron Xfactor distributive rendering in AE 6.5.
- New render styles: Wireframe and Hiddenline Rendering which responds to lighting and can be texture mapped, Cartoon Color Rendering, Absolute Color Rendering, mixed mode rendering (e.g. photo-realstic and cartoon on same object,) Travelling Matte rendering and Shadow Catcher Rendering. This last enables the shadows from your 3D objects to fall onto the objects in a piece of background video by building 3D objects that mimic the shape of the objects in the background footage then give those objects the Shadow Catcher material.
- Photoreal, Cartoon and Absolute Color Rendering types can also be accelerated using the OpenGL functionality of good video cards, which should give significant speed increases over Invig’s software renderer. Other render modes are best rendered in software.
(17) Panopticum AreaFX
Although they have still not ported several plug-ins available for Windows XP (AnimaText 3D, Curtains, Rulers and Water,) Panopticum have recently released a 3 plug-in set called AreaFX, which works on OS-X, Win XP and Win 2K. It’s priced at $60, it’s 16-bit, and there is a demo (which will unlock when the serial number is entered.)
Panopticum have increasingly come up with original ideas over the years, which are not found in other sets. The stability and reliability of the sets and the quality of the documentation have improved a lot too – compare AreaFX to the rather tacky Panopticum Tools set for example.
But weak sides remain. There is still no evident upgrade policy for existing users and response from customer service is often patchy.
The 3 plugs in the set are Area Transformer, Area Wipe and Area Filler. The the principle which unites them all is that they can (like AE Vegas) detect breaks in alpha between ‘objects' in frame. The plugs can then register them as separate units and process them accordingly – e.g. in the case of Area Transformer, each separate unit is processed a bit like "transform each" in Illustrator. This is useful when text or array style artwork has to be produced in Photoshop, since it means that you don't have to split to layers and then process each layer element separately in AE.
As is typical with Panopticum there are a wide range of parameters available, so the plugs have considerable flexibility.
(18) Darkling Simulations’ Darkling Interactive Noise
New to the AE market, although by no means new to plug-in Development (they’ve been developing plugs for 3D applications for a while, Darkling Simulations has introduced an OpenGL accelerated plug-in: Darkling Interactive Noise. It’s 16-bit, runs under AE 5.5ff and supports motion blur.
Like Wondertouch Particle Illusion the plug in will operate in software-render mode if a suitable OpenGL accelerating video card is not available on the system, but even more than pIllusion this can make it quite slow. You really do need a good OpenGL card with a lot of VRAM, after which the results from the plug-in are surprisingly fast. In theory the software is only qualified for Panther, although it runs “unofficially” in 10.2.8. You will need recent OpenGL drivers in both though.
Darkling Interactive Noise (DIN) is one of the more interesting plug-ins from recent times and can give grid based particle system “look” similar to the Grid module in AE’s Particle Playground. It’s said “not” to be a particle system though, and is a lot quicker and easier to use than PP, which is in no small part due to the presets it ships with. The HTML documentation, though fairly brief, is also example-based and is good, and the examples shown in the darksim.com site are also available as sample projects, which is a great way for users to get to grips with it.
What is it? Well, the gallery on the darksim.com site is the best way to see this. Darksim engineer Jane Lin says that it’s “all about noise”, but this is really half of it, since this gives the impression that it’s like a super version of AE (Cult) Fractal Noise and actually it’s a step beyond this conceptually.
Although not a particle system, the final result does seem to be given by particles in a kind of 3D grid-based space, which are perturbed (jittered) by the plug-ins internal noise generator. The noise generator in turn has it’s input controlled or modulated by a greyscale input, analogous to the way displacement mapping uses a greyscale source to control how much pixels are shifted, but rather more sophisticated, of course. The particles themselves can be taken from DIN’s internal types or from yet another input layer. E.g. you could use instances of AE Fractal Noise for the greyscale map and as the particle type if you wanted.
All together this gives DIN great power and flexibility, and enables it to create a wide range of different procedural-noise based effects. Certainly worth a look.
(19) DigiEffects Fantazm
The DigiEffects site says they have released a new 36 plug-in set: DE Fantazm, although at the time of writing (May 21st), I seem to have caught them in the middle of their site rebuild, so it’s probably more accurate to say that the plugs are “in the process of being released.” ;-)
DE have said that the demo downloads of the set should be available in the week of the 23rd. May and that the downloadable version of the release set should be available via resellers such as Toolfarm soon. In fact, you can find a page on pluginz.com which is partially set up, although you can’t find it via their own search engine and there’s no “Get it” button yet. Looks like I’ve caught them in mid-build too! The price is said to be $395 SRP. The plugs are 8-bit. They have online help. The boxed set should be available in June.
DigiEffects is, of course, one of the longest established plug-in Development houses and it’s founder Chris Athanas can be credited with the role of picking up the ball which was set rolling by the Swedish creators of Final Effects and playing a strong role in making AE 3rd. Party plug-in development the force it is today. Chris formed DigiEffects after his success in creating Photoshop plugs like Terrazzo, Typecaster and Paint Alchemy for Xaos tools – but from the start the Digieffects sets (like Final Effects) stretched across a whole gamut of effect types from distortion to complex image-based particle systems, which were a long way ahead of their time.
Since their Delirium set the output from DE has largely fallen dormant, so it’s good to see some dynamism coming from the company again. Although much of the information on the site still needs updating, the new look to the Digieffects website is a welcome sign and the disclaimer at the top of the FAQ (“this FAQ is undergoing an overhaul - check back soon for the latest answers.”) makes it look like this dynamism will continue.
The site does not as yet give much information about the Fantazm set:
<< Simulated print graphics are easily achieved with ColorByNumbers and BluePrint. Distortion effects are automated with Raindrops, Ripples, BrownianMotion and PixxyKrustabi and Taffy. Transitional tools include FlyThrough, Disintegrate, Blown and Simonize.
Fantazm features the easy-to-use Pixxy 3D tools for making animated geometric primitives that can be textured with stills or footage. Source audio can also be used to control parameters for beat-matched video or distortions.
There are tons of presets, and randomizing is possible on many effects for limitless visual effects! >>
There are, however, stills and movie examples of many of the plugs on the site at:
http://www.digieffects.com/screenshots.shtml?PROD=5&JPG=44
Beware – some of the examples are currently between 29Mb and 66Mb! But DE says that these will be made smaller as their site makeover progresses. The list of effects hasn’t yet been put on their site but is believed to be:
DE BadCodec
DE Blown
DE Blueprint
DE Brownian Motion
DE ColorByNumbers
DE ColorGrabber
DE Disintegrate
DE Droplets
DE FlyThru
DE Raindrops
DE Ripples
DE Shredder
DE Simonize
DE Stream
DE Taffy
PixxyAudio
PixxyBallz
PixxyBoxes
PixxyCarousel
PixxyColors
PixxyCube
PixxyCyclone
PixxyCylz
PixxyExotic
PixxyFacets
PixxyKrustabi
PixxyMToob
PixxyPatterns
PixxyPlane
PixxyReel
PixxySwitch
PixxyToob
PixxyTopo
PixxyUnstripe
PixxyVortex
PixxyWaves
PixxyWheel
A few of these are quite simple, while others are definitely broaching new ground and are well worth a look at the demo. Three very definite themes of the set are the use of 3D space, 3D objects and the use of audio.
Several of the DE-prefix plugs bear a resemblance to AP Card Dance, although they are easier to set up, since they use internal variation rather than greyscale layers to provide z-variation, tile rotation, etc. E.g. DE Stream has the ability to make tiles flowing “past the viewer” like in the Panasonic commercial end tag. And of course, unlike Card Dance, these plugs will not be limited to AE (although I’m not sure what other hosts they work in yet.)
The Pixxy prefix plugs take the 3D theme and expand it, so you can have cubes, arrays of cubes, arrays of planes in a carousel pattern (possible in AE with the DA 3D Assistants, but here in a single layer with its own camera), tubes and plane extrusions. PixxyTopo does an extrusion based on layer channel values which isn’t as clean as you’ll probably get from dedicated plugs like DA 3D layer, but the extruded columns in PixxyBoxes are very clean and you can quickly get a look like manhattan rotating in space!
The set also incorporates technology to allow audio to be coded into a raster then picked up by other plugs in the set and used to drive the rhythm and amplitude of the parameter perturbation settings. This is an interesting addition to the audio styles used by Trapcode and Profound Useful Things.
(20) Pluginz Top 10 Downloads trivia
To end with a bit of trivia from the pluginz.com top 10 non-application downloads (not just for AE) segment:
#4 Microcosm (1471 downloads )
#5 DA Text Anarchy (1361 downloads)
#7 Trapcode Shine (1309 downloads)
#8 Boris Effects (1233 downloads)
#9 Frischluft flair (1129 downloads)
#10 Stagetools Moving Picture (1090 downloads)
Whew! What a marathon. AE Plug-in development is alive and well!!
Dik
OS-X Compliant Plug-ins available now!!
2d3 Boujou Import
Abneil Software Andrew's (Video) Plugins 1.1
Abneil Software Blend1 (freeware)
Alien Skin Software Eye Candy for AE
Automatic Duck Automatic Duck Pro Import 2.0
Belle Nuit Montage Mimikri
BigFX FilmFX 2.5 for Mac
Boris Continuum Basics
Boris Continuum Complete 2.0
Boris Boris FX 6.1 (FCP, but not AE)
Boris Boris Graffiti 2 (FCP, but not AE)
Boris Boris RED 2.5 (FCP, but not AE)
Boris Title Toolkit (AE, but not FCP)
Bresnev Shu _Expression Effects
Bresnev Shu KoalaLumpor _JavaScript for AE
Bresnev Shu Path Palette
Buena Software Inc. Dissolve Factory (FCP/AE)
Buena Software Inc. Effect Essentials (FCP/AE)
Conoa Conoa 3D
Conoa Conoa Easy Shapes
Conoa Conoa EasyTinter
Conoa Conoa Sphere
Darkling Simulations Darkling Interactive Noise
Diaquest Diaquest DDR After Effects Plug-in
DigiEffects DE Aurorix
DigiEffects DE Berserk
DigiEffects DE Cinelook Broadcast
DigiEffects DE Cinelook Film Res
DigiEffects DE Cinemotion
DigiEffects DE Delirium
DigiEffects DE Fantazm
Digital Anarchy 3D Assistants
Digital Anarchy 3D Assistants EZ
Digital Anarchy 3D Layer
Digital Anarchy Anarchy Toolbox
Digital Anarchy ColorTheory
Digital Anarchy Geomancy
Digital Anarchy Gradient!
Digital Anarchy Psunami ($25 upgrade)
Digital Anarchy Text Anarchy 2.0
Digital Element Aurora, Sky
Digital Element Aurora, Water
Digital Film Tools DFT Bundle (Bundle)
Digital Film Tools DFT Filter Bundle (Bundle)
Digital Film Tools DFT 55MM
Digital Film Tools DFT Composite Suite
Digital Film Tools DFT Digital Film Lab
Digital Film Tools DFT Fast Blur
Digital Film Tools DFT zMatte
dvGarage dvMatte Pro 1.0
FAN AFX2QTL
FAN AFX2VPB
FAN Bikini Dots
FAN Grader
FAN Supressor
FAN XMult (Free)
Flam3.com AE Flame
Fnord Software J2K (Freeware)
Fnord Software Power Picker
Fnord Software SuperPNG (Freeware)
Fnord Software Übercolor
Forge Freeform AE ($99 upgrade)
Frischluft fLAIR
Frischluft LensCare
Frischluft Freeware
GenArts Sapphire Complete (Bundle)
GenArts Sapphire 1 - Lighting Effects
GenArts Sapphire 2 - Stylize Effects
GenArts Sapphire 3 - Adj/Blur/Comp/Distort
GenArts Sapphire 4 - Render/Time/Transitions
Harald Heim/Panopticum Plugin Galaxy AE
KaZuhiro FuRuhata HeboHebo (6 out of 7 work in OS-X)
Maxon Cinema 4D Importer
Media 100 Inc. Final Effects Complete (upgrade fee++)
Media 100 Inc. Media-100 Project Importer
META/DMA ScopoGigio
Panopticum Anima Text 2.0
Panopticum AreaFX 1.0
Panopticum Array 1.6
Panopticum Engraver
Panopticum Figure
Panopticum Fire 3
Panopticum Grid
Panopticum Lens Pro 3.5 Bundle
Panopticum Rich Typing
Panopticum Tools
Pete Warden's Plugins Freeware
Phillip-Spoeth Sinedot/Sinedot II/Retrodots/Shear
Profound Effects CameraPOV
Profound Effects Crop
Profound Effects DNM Bullnose Mask
Profound Effects Swim
Profound Effects Reveal
Profound Effects Useful Assistants
Profound Effects Useful Things
RE:Vision Effects Effections (Bundle)
RE:Vision Effects Effections Plus (Bundle)
RE:Vision Effects FieldsKit
RE:Vision Effects RE:Fill
RE:Vision Effects RE:Flex
RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur Pro
RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur
RE:Vision Effects Shade/Shape
RE:Vision Effects Twixtor Pro
RE:Vision Effects Twixtor
RE:Vision Effects SmoothKit
RE:Vision Effects Video Gogh
Realviz Retimer SD
Realviz Retimer HD
Red Giant Software Commotion Roto Import
Red Giant Software Composite Wizard ($30 upgrade)
Red Giant Software Image Lounge ($30 upgrade)
Red Giant Software Knoll Light Factory
Red Giant Software Orphanage Magic Bullet for Editors
Red Giant Software Orphanage Magic Bullet SD
Red Giant Software Orphanage Magic Bullet HD
Red Giant Software Primatte ($149 upgrade)
Sakurai Optical Lab Final Focus
Sakurai Optical Lab Iris Filter
Sebastian Mecklenburg Freeware
Stagetools Moving Picture
Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 1.0.3 (not FCP)
Synthetic Aperture Echo Fire
Synthetic Aperture Test Gear
The Foundry Tinderbox 1 //
The Foundry Tinderbox 2 //
The Foundry Tinderbox 3 //
Trapcode 3D Stroke
Trapcode 3S Pack (Bundle)
Trapcode LightPack (Bundle)
Trapcode LightPack DeLux (Bundle)
Trapcode Lux
Trapcode Particular
Trapcode Shine
Trapcode Sound Keys
Trapcode Suite DeLux (Bundle)
Trapcode Starglow
Ultimatte AdvantEdge ($495 upgrade, inc. USB dongle)
Virtix Effects for AE and FCP
Visual Infinity Grain Surgery 2.0
Walker Effects Walker Effects 2.0 Basic
Walker Effects Walker Effects 2.0 Designer
Walker Effects Walker Effects 2.0 Professional
Zaxwerks Invigorator 3.0 Classic
Zaxwerks Invigorator 3.0 Pro
(**Lost the following plugs from BAE/BC: Boris 3D Text [already superceded by improved BC 3D Text,] BC 3D Text, Boris Clouds [already superceded by improved BC Clouds,] Boris Basic 3D, Boris Flat 3D Text)
(// look at The Foundry.co.uk website for updates. Some of the updates are backwards compatible and some are not.)
(++$249 if you own ICE or FE products from ICE/Media-100, or $395 if you own a Metacreations set. Does not include soft versions of the ICE'd DE or Ultimatte plugs.)
OS-X Compliant Plug-ins which should be available Q2. 2004
4thParty Color Sampler
4thParty Effervescence
4thParty Filigree
4thParty Sprite Generator
4thParty Matrix Displacer
4thParty Lorentz Attractor
4thParty Generate Layers as Colors
4thParty X-Tone
BorisFX Boris Continuum Complete 3.0
GrangerFX GrangerFX
GrangerFX TrinityFX
GridIron Xfactor Xfactor Plus
GridIron Xfactor Xfactor Unlimited
Red Giant Software Orphanage eLin
Red Giant Software Orphanage Misfire
Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 1.5
Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro 4.0
OS-X Compliant Plug-ins which should be available Q3. 2004
Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 2.0
The Foundry Furnacebox
Wondertouch Particle Illusion for AE
OS-X Compliant Plug-ins in development
2d3 SteadyMove Pro
DigiEffects DE Cinelook 2
ElectricFX eFX Extract3D
Non-OS-X Compliant Sets Superceded by New OS-X Branding
Boris Boris AE ++
Boris Boris Continuum ++
Ultimatte Ultimatte Classic **
Media 100 FE Complete ^^
Media 100 ICE Soft F/X ^^
Media 100 ICE Soft Edges ^^
(++ Superceded by Boris Continuum Complete/Calligraphy. The following plugs reached end of life: Boris 3D Text, BC 3D Text, Boris Clouds, Boris Basic 3D, Boris Flat 3D Text)
(** Superceded by Ultimatte AdvantEdge)
(^^ All incorporated in Media-100 Final Effects Complete except for the following: ICE Geometrics, ICE Motion, ICE Super Shadow, FE Particle Systems, FE Particle Systems LE, FE Radial Blur, FE Wide Time, ICE DE Chaotic Noise, ICE DE Chaotic Rainbow, ICE DE Fog Alpha, ICE DE FogBank, ICEDE Starfield, ICE DE VideoLook, ICE'd Ultimatte)
No Public Announcement regarding OS-X Compatibility
Diaquest DQSoft.PIC
Electric Fish Color Pal
Electric Fish QTVRMatte
ElectricFX eFX Pyro
ElectricFX eFX Pyro3D
Forged Images Make Film Look Comp
Koji (Japan) Koji's Plugins
Media 100 Inc. ICEfx Base (accelerated)
Media 100 Inc. ICE'd Cinelook (accelerated)
Media 100 Inc. ICE'd Edges (accelerated)
Media 100 Inc. ICE'D Final Effects Complete
(accelerated)
Panopticum AnimaText 3D
Panopticum Curtains
Panopticum Rulers
Panopticum Water
OS-X plug-ins which are not currently supported for AE
Boris Boris FX 6.1 (when used in AE)
Boris Boris Graffiti 2 (when used in AE)
Boris Boris RED 3.0 (when used in AE)
Plug-Ins which will probably never run under OS-X
Adobe AE PS+ Extrude/Pinch/Ripple/Spherize
Adobe AE PS+ Tiles/Twirl/Wave/Zigzag
Adobe AE (ex-CultFX) CE Color Solid (redundant)
Adobe AE (ex-CultFX) CE FireUp (redundant)
Alias|Wavefront Paint Effects
Atomic Power Radio Wave
Atomic Power Radio Shape
Atomic Power Radio Star
Atomic Power Multiplane
Atomic Power Turbulator
Atomic Power Evolution Set (AE3.1 compatible version)
Boris Boris 3D Text
Boris BC 3D Text
Boris Boris Clouds
Boris Boris Basic 3D
Boris Boris Flat 3D Text
Boris Boris Rhythm
Boris Boris Z-Order
Cycore Cult Effects Vol. 1 (Adobe IDs different)
Cycore CE Set Channel (redundant)
Cycore CE View Channel (superceded)
DigiEffects DE Cyclonist
DigiEffects TILT Plug-ins (x7) [DE Delirium]
Kaleidafex Matte Pack
Media 100 FE Force Motion Blur
Media 100 FE Particle Systems
Media 100 FE Particle Systems LE
Media 100 FE Radial Blur
Media 100 FE Wide Time
Media 100 ICE Geometrics
Media 100 ICE Motion
Media 100 ICE Super Shadow
Pinnacle Systems Hollywood FX
Pixelan SpiceMaster
Zbig Zbig Chroma Keyer
comments or suggestions welcome at aefilter@yahoo.com
Many thanks to the SFSU Multimedia Studies Program for hosting this site.