Monsters GT for AE Mac

GenArts just announced Monsters GT for the Mac, with over 50 effects including a variety of stylize, distort effects, fluid, trail, and particle effects. A Windows version is also available for CS5 & CS4.

PVC has a nice review of this filter set by Kevin P McAuliffe. [update: see also his Review - Genarts Sapphire v5 for Adobe’s After Effects]

Monsters GT has floating point support, and the fluid simulation filters especially will benefit from GPU optimization, supported at the maximum in NVidia GeForce 200 or 400 series or Quadro 5800. Many of these are unique filters from the Flame and Smoke world, though some are similar to other AE filters. Monsters GT was acquired in the purchase of SpeedSix, adding to GenArts stable of AE filter sets that include Sapphire, Tinder, and particleIllusion. Monsters GT features these tools:

• Stylize effects such as CCTV, NightVision and Brush
• Warps and distort effects such as HeatHaze, Puddle and Ripple
• Particle effects such as Rain, Smoke and Snow
• Fluidz, a set of plug-ins that use the power of 2d fluid dynamics to create Fire and fluid flow simulations (was in Raptors)
  
• Trailz, a set of plug-ins that create a variety of smooth, particulate and stop-motion trails (was in Raptors).

Here's an overview, plus a demo of the Aurora (Autodesk version), which generates images similar to Trapcode Form: