48 free Mac plug-ins + Cover Flow + Barcode

CoreMelt is offering 33 free plug-ins collected from CoreMelt products (leaving 180 for purchase). CoreMelt FREE! plug-ins run in After Effects, FCP, and Motion on the Mac (only), but no longer require FxFactory. [update: Yanobox is now offering another free FxFactory filter, Barcode. Idustrial Revolution has more in Freebie Pack 1 and elsewhere.]

FxFactory also offers free Mac-only plug-ins with the trial install (about 14 with tutorials on their website), including CoverFlux (like iTunes CoverFlow) and Manifesto (a title crawl generator).

By the way, if you're on Windows an easy way to do the Cover Flow effect is with an After Effect project by Paul Tuersley. You just have to animate some sliders. See also a free project from Alex "dinners" and a tutorial by Mattrunks, Effet Coverflow 3D automatique sur After Effects, which includes the project in English.

Below is a list of the CoreMelt plug-ins and tutorial movies for some of them.

• Multipop Forward, Filmstrip, Carousel, Continuous Random Pan, Image Grid
• Advanced Vignette, RGB Levels and Curves
• Dewrinkler, Old TV
• Blowout, Godrays
• 3D Shatter, Analog Glitch
• Soft Edge Wipe, Blend Mode Dissolve, Curl Apart, Exposure Flash
• Projector Malfunction, Random Crop, Video screens 2way
• 8 Band EQ, 16 Band EQ, 127 Band EQ, EQ Line Segments, EQ Simple 3D, EQ Pixelstix 3D, EQ Tower Cities, VU Analog, VU Digital, VU Rolling Gauge, VU Audio Radar, WV Oscilloscope, WV Voiceprint, WV Waveforms 3D

Technicolor + UVPass shaders for After Effects

via @pixelbender, François Tarlier has released a few Pixel Bender filters, ft-2-strip technicolor & ft-3-strip technicolor shader and UVPass shader for After Effects.

Those film looks were used famously by Martin Scorsese in The Aviator, and described in detail at Two Strip and Three Strip Technicolor processes at Aviator VFX and at the Wide Screen Museum's Technicolor pages. As noted in 2007, similar Mac-only filters are available free from Patrick Sheffield at Free Plugins for Final Cut Pro.

Also, Francois has a tutorial for the UVPass shader:

Note: Francois has other Pixel Bender filters too -- see Cubic Lens Distortion filter for After Effects + Chromatic Aberration (a port of the SynthEyes Lens Distortion Algorithm for matchmoving).

Stereo3D Toolbox: Mac filter for AE & FCS [updated]

Stereo3D Toolbox from Tim Dashwood is a new FxPlug filter designed to work with After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Final Cut Express. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and a supported graphics card.

Built upon technology from FxFactory, Stereo3D Toolbox lets you output "media to a wide range of Stereoscopic 3D formats (side by side, over/under, checkerboard, interlace, anaglyph) as well as manage the demuxing of side by side, interlace and over/under formatting. Comprehensive compositing features and capabilities include keyframeable x, y, z axis convergence, individual left/right eye scale, color correction, selective flip/flop, reframing and 'auto scale' compensation."

They have several tutorials up already; this one that demonstrates how Cineform Neo3D works and how to add Stereo3D Toolbox to Neo3D muxed clips:



Update: Fxguide.TV (#64) talks with Enrique Criado on the different aspects, both technical and narrative, of stereoscopic production.

Compressor’s BluRay Disc Open XML template format + free Swish Pan FCP transition [updated]

Andy Mees noted that Compressor’s BluRay Disc Open XML template format revealed... by Apple in a PDF guide to Compressor 3.5 in the Final Cut Studio 2009 bundle. For background see Jan Ozer on Blu-ray Creation with the New Apple Final Cut Studio at Millimeter, and Burn Blu-ray playable standard DVD-R discs on a Mac SuperDrive by Ken Stone.

Andy also has a free Swish Pan transition as well as other filters and resources for Final Cut.

Update: via lafcpug, Apple has released free add-ons for the new Final Cut Studio, Compressor Droplets, Color Looks (90 of them!), and 700 MB of Alpha Transitions.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II in the real world

If you're interested in the idea of a shooting video with a DSLR camera but follow the developments sporadically, Oliver Peters has a meaty illustrated overview of one camera in Canon EOS 5D Mark II in the real world.

His other recent posts have provided good coverage of FCP plug-ins and more.

Noise Industries and Coremelt at NAB

MacBreak has video interviews by Mark Spencer with Niclas Bahn, head of Noise Industries, and with Coremelt about their Mac OS-based visual effects extensions for After Effects and Motion. These interviews are nicely shot and have good audio but the segment with Noise Industrties had no demo or graphic examples.

Motype text filter for Mac video

Motype is a new text animation plug-in by Yanobox, the latest company to deliver plug-ins for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Final Cut Express and After Effects based on FxFactory and Apple FxPlug.

It doesn't seem too different from what can can do starting with After Effects presets, but it does work in the other apps. Check the video for a quick look. You'd need to latest version of Final Cut Studio and OS X, and must have certain graphics cards. The Macbook, MacBook Air and Mac Mini are not supported.

FxPlug effects run inside After Effects

Development was reported earlier via Trish & Chris Meyer, now this from FCPWorld:

"Noise Industries has retooled FXFactory to tap into Adobe After Effects CS3. This is great news that we can get the outstanding plug-ins from Noise Industries (and to others like CoreMelt) into this advanced compositing tool."

Requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Veeyou: 8 free plug-ins + more

Veeyou 1.5 is a set of 8 free FxPlug plug-ins for After Effects from CoreMelt. Veeyou creates EQ and VU animations from audio, and this version has two new free plug-ins. The plug-ins now run in After Effects, FCP, and Motion; Mac OS X 10.4.9 (or later) is required. (via)

Update: CoreMelt is seeking feedback with a user survey to help develop better products. Complete the poll to win one of two 'CoreMelt Complete' packages or one of ten CoreMelt plug-in sets.

New AE filters: FxFactory & DA FLUIDZ

Excerpts from Chris & Trish Meyer's report from NAB:

"...porting FxFactory to Adobe After Effects. They are working on a shell which will allow FxPlug effects to run inside After Effects, which they expect to be ready in about two months. We’re very curious to try this out for ourselves, both to check out their effects and also to see what sort of performance penalty there will be running them inside of After Effects - hopefully not much. We talked to at least one other FxPlug effect manufacturer who indicated that if they worked, they would use it to port their own effects over to After Effects."

"Digital Anarchy has licensed technology from SpeedSix Software Limited and announced a new FLUIDZ effect set for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. FLUIDZ uses 2D fluid dynamic simulations to create fire, water, smoke, and vapor-based effects."

Go to Creating Motion Graphics for the full story.

Free FEC 3D Relief plug-in for FCP and After Effects

Via Flippant News and Creative Cow’s newsletter... a free FEC 3D Relief plug-in for FCP and After Effects. The previous temp offer for a Free Snow FxPlug filter is still in play for now.

More Free FxPlugs

Brought to you by Peter Wiggins, author of the Volumetrix plug-ins for Final Cut Pro and Motion, idustrial revolution Freebie Pack 1 includes 4 free plug-ins that provide two-input 3D space with plane intersection, rack focus, live input on your timeline, and two-input parameter linking.

You'll need to install FxFactory by Noise Industries, which has other freebie filters for Apple and Avid.