All Plug-ins that work with FCP and Motion

February 27, 2011

Put together by the LAFCPUG

Plug-ins that work with FCP and Motion

 
• PHXY Color
  PHXY a company, which produces various color and keying plug-ins sets for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, Motion, and Adobe After Effects, has aligned itself under the Noise Industries and FX Factory engine. Therefore, in order to use the PHXY filters you must already have Noise Industries’ FX Factory installed.
• Re:Vision Effects-Twixtor Version 5
  Twixtor does for time remapping whether for slow motion or speed remapping footage what the new time remapping functions in Final Cut Studio aspires to. This is not to say the Final Cut’s speed tools were not improved in Studio 3 but, from what I can see and test, it does not perform quite as well as Re:Vision’s Twixtor.
• Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Denoiser
  Low light = video noise, there is no doubt of that. Of course there are many other factors that contribute to video noise but the entire focus is where to go from here, when you have footage that simply can’t be re-lit or shot. I have tested many ‘denoiser’ filters and have only found one or two that did a commendable job. However, as a result of their use there was definitely some softening of the image.
• PluralEyes – for Synchronization
  Singular Software has come out with PluralEyes, now in its 1.2 version, which provides automatic synchronization with or without time code enabling you to sync your multiple audio and video layers seamlessly.
• Boris Continuum Complete 7 FxPlug Review
  I have been so privileged to test-drive the new incarnation of Continuum Complete 7 FxPlug for Apple Motion. I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks with Continuum Complete 7 FxPlug, and still feel that I have only scratched the surface of what I think is an amazingly massive collection of filters, effects and generators for Motion Graphic Artists and Editors.
• Boinx FotoMagico
  Boinx has recently released its FotoMagico software application that is compatible with both Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and Adobe After Effects users which allow you to easily and quickly create your own slideshows containing text, music, transitions and other photo animations.
• Crumple Pop’s ‘Revealer’ and ‘Metal‘
  Crumplepop must have an ambitious staff as for the last couple of years they have been regularly producing interesting and useful plug ins for Final Cut Pro and Motion.
• KeyLight
  Keylight™ is a powerful plug-in from UK’s The Foundry, (maker of the high-end Nuke compositer/VFX program). Keylight is used on chromakey shots in virtually any major feature film you can think of. It comes from a product developed specifically for motion picture chromakey work, normally bluescreen production.
• CHV Electronics Updated Distortion Collection Version 4.0
  While the CHV Electronics Distortion collection has been around for some time now, Christoph Vonrhein of CHV Electronics has now completely re-written the previous version. This latest version of the venerable Distortion collection, in addition to providing a new plug-in not found in the previous version, addresses and fixes all alpha-channel issues and is now fully compatible with Final Cut 7 and Snow Leopard.
• Luca FilmFX & Light Transitions
  Luca Visual FX is a new company that has simplified the entire process by developing their own Film and Light transitions that are easily applied and may be modified to taste. The Film Transition package comes with 30 individual effects and the Light transitions collection arrives with 33. Almost all the effects are less than 2 seconds long.
• Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Mojo
  Color correcting with Final Cut Pro’s 3 way color correction and scopes is one thing, achieving certain cinema graphic looks is another. While Magic Bullet Looks provides an excellent starting off point for many of these looks, tweaking the appearance and just settling upon the great many choices within MBL can be as time consuming as when working in After Effects.
• CrumplePop Split Screen Plug-In
  CrumplePop has recently brought out a new plug in for Final Cut Pro that makes the job of creating any number of different forms of split screens as easy as one could imagine. In actuality, you get two plug-ins; one with roughly 70 different split screen appearances and the other provides customizable sets of blocks so as to make your own forms of split screens.
• Gee Three SlickFX
  When Final Cut Pro first made itself known I recall trying to buy, borrow or copy any 3rd party plug in I could find. Now I have more than I will ever need, use or want. However, for many editors who have not amassed the numbers I have, the search for a good collection of filters, generators and transitions produced by Gee Three SlickFX may provide you with another valuable choice from which to choose. Each of these sets of plug ins requires Mac OS 10.4 or higher, Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 or later or Final Cut Express 4 or later and will work on both Intel and Power PC Macs. All plug ins can be located in the library/plug-ins/FxPlug folder.
• Digital Anarchy’s Beauty Box
  Beauty Box is a skin retouching software, which uses Face Detection to identify skin tones at the same time as it preserves important facial features. It is, by design, easy to use and intuitive even though the downloadable manual provides a considerable amount of additional and useful information, which helps to clarify many of the manually adjusted parameters that Beauty Box incorporates.
• Neat Video Noise Reduction
  The bane of all videographers is the video noise created as a result of many factors, one of the greatest of which is the noise resultant from shooting in low light situations. There are a number of ‘reduce noise’ filters produced by several 3rd party plug in companies, certainly some are better than others and, based upon my experience, some are almost completely ineffective.
• Boris Continuum Complete 6 Review
  Just ask yourself what is it that you cannot do in Apple Motion but always wanted to be able to do. I am sure, that in most cases, creating 3d objects will come top of the list. Well, I am pleased to say, fear no more, because you will be amazed to learn that all of those things are now possible by using Boris Continuum 6.
• CoreMelt’s ‘Lock & Load’ Stabilizing Plug-in for Final Cut Pro and Motion
  While there are some similarities between Lock & Load and Final Cut Pro’s ‘Smooth Cam’ or Magic Bullet’s ‘Steady’ in that they all work on the basis of scaling up after analysis, it is the differences between these choices that really make CoreMelt’s Lock and Load stand ahead of the pack.
• Noise Industries FxFactory Pro 2.0.8
  That’s $399.00 only to those who do not already own FxFactory, for everyone else the new Noise Industries version 2.0.8 is an absolutely Free download available on the Noise Industries website. Now long established as one of the leading 3rd party plug- ins and effects companies, the latest version of FxFactory comes with two new plug ins, the Spot Light (multiple) filter and the Organic Dissolve transition.
• nVeil Visual Effects Software
  It is not often that something this different, this unique comes across my desk. So yes, I am pretty excited about it and its potential use by graphic designers and editors. nVeil is a Graphics application that appears in Motion and Final Cut Pro as a plug in filter.
• CoreMelt’s Complete V2
  Long associated with Noise Industries plug-ins and software, CoreMelt has branched off and gone on its own separate path. In doing so, the folk at CoreMelt have further developed their own collection of transitions, filters and generators and, with that development, produced some outstanding and exciting new features all designed to work in Final Cut Studio, Express, Motion, and Adobe After Effects CS3/CS4.
• The Grading Sweet 3
  There is no question that without good color correction tools, many editors would be in a heap of trouble. No matter how good the shooter, or how capable the lighting tech, achieving continuity in color is a chore often fixed in postproduction. This is where the Grading Sweet 3 set of plug-ins comes in.
• Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Steady 1.1
  The Steady filter is fairly intuitive, easy to apply and considerably quicker than Final Cut’s Smooth Cam filter. That it doesn’t create additional analysis media to fill up your hard drives is a major plus for any one whether they are using a tripod or hand holding.
• Ripple’s Designer Motion Templates
  There are few times when I come across products having value added “hidden in the details”. Ripple Training’s “Designer Motion Templates” falls squarely in this group of outstanding products. Not only is Ripple supplying a great product in and of itself, it’s supplying training which is as good as it gets.
• Loader – smart import solution for FCP
  So, here’s the problem you’re constantly facing: Staying organized.
  You import items into Final Cut Pro. Did you organize where they were on your hard drive before you imported? After? What about that mp3 you pulled from iTunes? What’s your best plan for backing up?
• DV Kitchen
  DV Kitchen is a stand-alone application that combines many different functions into one professional program. Integrated batch encoding and uploading (via FTP) for publishing high quality video, images and audio. SampleLab for testing different encoding settings. TimeFreezer for exporting stills from video clips. Bitrate Budget Calculator for estimating the right bitrate settings for your clips. Media Publishing that automatically generates your HTML code for you and makes publishing your webpage a one-click process. When you launch DV Kitchen the ‘Main Console’ window opens, at the top right are tabs used to access other functionalities of DV Kitchen.
• CHV QC Integration FX V1.6
  The QC Integration FX 1.6 is comprised of 85 plug in transitions, filters and generators designed to be used as they are or work within the quartz composer to enable you to create and save your own plug ins, or even to create and sell them to others. In order to create your own FX for yourself or for sale, you must first have Quartz Composer found on your OS installation disc installed.
• Yanobox Motype 1.0
  Designed to work within the Noise Industries’ Fx Factory application for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, Motion, and Adobe After Effects, Yanoboxs’ Motype is a single text animation FX plug-in with multiple presets designed to create some very creative text applications.
• Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet Instant HD Advanced
  Back in June 2006 I reviewed Magic Bullets’ Instant HD, a program designed to help the editor incorporate Standard Definition footage into an HDV or HD sequence. It was designed for users of Final Cut Pro 4.1+ and Adobe After Effects 6.0+ and worked its magic by up scaling the source footage. It did its job well though it was not accompanied by the easiest workflow in the world.
• Noise Industries’ FXFactory Pro 2.0.2
  Motion Graphic Effects Package Update
  Noise Industries continues to refine, update, and expand its FXFactory motion effects package. The company is responsive to user feedback, and responsible in its development package. It quickly hammered out an update to FXFactory when an earlier version proved incompatible with p2 card input.
• Core Melts’ PolyChrome Transitions
  The collection of Core Melts’ PolyChrome transitions is a set of 40 transition effects, many of which are absolutely necessary within the editors’ arsenal of production tools. Compatible with both Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express, the PolyChrome collection of transitions are GPU accelerated on PPC and Intel Macs which will help cut down on your rendering time.
• Magic Bullet Suite 2007
  Don’t let that $799.00 scare you off before you read this. In the new Magic Bullet Suite you are actually getting four separate applications which can be used in Final Cut Pro, Motion 3, Adobe After Effects, or all three. Magic Bullet Looks, MB Frames, MB Colorista and Instant HD make up the entire suite.
• idustrial Revolution’s SupaWipe
  Wipes have been used as transitions for as long as I can remember. In a sequence, more often then not, they represent the passing of time or a jump to a different location. In feature films they fell out of favor until George Lucas brought them back in a major way in his Star Wars series of epic Science Fiction movies.
• Digital Anarchy’s ToonIt 1.0.2
  You have surely seen the many commercials on television and in film where the actors have been transformed to cartoon versions of themselves. It is not a hard process to create but it can be time consuming…
• Boris Continuum Complete 5 FxPlug
  BorisFX Software’s recently released BCC5 FXPlug for Motion and FCP6 is as close to a perfect art collection as you’ll find. Wide ranging, diverse, and powerful, this collection provides options for just about everyone’s palate.
• Conduit
  Conduit is a nodal-based compositor. Instead of working with layers in programs like Final Cut, Motion and After Effects, it uses a flow-chart design similar to programs like Shake and Nuke.
• Particleillusion Pro Emitters Collections 10-12
  For those who find themselves spending endless hours creating special effects in Motion utilizing the particle generators to create flowing water, lower thirds, dynamic texts, animated backgrounds and FX of all kinds, look towards particle illusion to enable you to cut your editing bay time by half or more. Actually, particleIllusion is more powerful than Motion’s particle emitters …
• Core Melt Image Flow Fx 1.0.1
  Noise Industries and Core Melt have brought to their ever growing number of plug ins an exciting new package of 12 Fx plug ins designed to make the creation of motion graphics using still images that much easier. This is not your typical slideshow presentation but is an excellent time saving set of plug-ins which allow you to select multiple styles of frames with your images, adjust animation with multiple presets or manually set animations, and control of tempo.
• CHV FxPlug Emitter Plugin
  There are a number of basic differences between a Motion stock emitter and the Particles Heaven FxPlug plugin. For starters, Particles Heaven is not an emitter, it is a generator and is found in the Generators section in the Library. Additionally, unlike a stock emitter, Particles Heaven’s particles are all independent of each other.
• SUGARfx for Final Cut Pro
  Video Wall Pro
  Cinefest Plug-in Package
  Video Wall Pro, and the other plug-ins mentioned here provide excellent tools for creating a variety of motion effects in Final Cut Pro and Motion. If you are a novice, you can start with a stock preset and augment it to meet your particular needs. Or you can mix and match various parameters in 2D and 3D space to create a custom look. Because these are FxPlug-based filters and generators, speed in rendering is directly related to the power of the GPU.
• Lyric Media Final Cut Plug-ins
  Lyric Media has been in business for sometime now having collections of tracking and drawing plug-ins for Final Cut Pro as well as others. This new collection comes to you as a collection of over 50 different video effect filters, many of which provide several of the image correction, photographic and stylized effects found in Photoshop only now applied to video as well. The Lyric Media Final Cut Plug-ins have been separated into Special Effects, Masked Effects and Mattes folders once installed on your system.
• CHV-Electronics Shining FXPlug Plugins
  Plain and simple, Christoph Vonrhein and CHV-Electronics has done it again. With an ever updated collection of excellent plug-ins behind him, he must never be satisfied with his accomplishments for here we have now a new bundle of filters he has entitled Shining FX.
• wondertouch Pro Emitters for particleIlusion
  For those of you who have not discovered the wonders of wondertouch’s particleIllusion, I can only ask ‘Why not?’
• Nattress’ Big Box of Tricks
  Graeme Nattress’s latest contribution of plug-ins, which includes eight separate sets of filters, one set of transitions and one of generators. Each group of filters contains several usable and some eclectic plug-ins.
• Digital Anarchy’s Plasma FX 1.0
  With Plasma FX, a set of 26 filters, there is almost no learning curve. Application of any of these filters is simple and greatly intuitive whether you use them in Final Cut Pro, Motion or After Effects. Plasma FX 1.0 is built to run in Adobe After Effects 7.0 and higher, Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 and Motion 2.1.2 and only in Macintosh OS 10.4 or higher.
• FxFactory 1.0.1 Final Cut Studio/Motion
  Noise Industries has released FxFactory for Final Cut Studio, a collection of real time visual effects packages available for Final Cut Pro and Motion. More than thirty transitions, generations, and filters are available as a compositing package for Motion and an editing package for Final Cut Pro.
• Volumetrix Light Plug-ins
  I just spent a good part of my weekend putting off writing this review so I could have a ton of fun just playing with the Volumetrix plug-ins for Apple’s Motion and Final Cut Pro Studio. It wasn’t time wasted as there really is so much you can do with these two plug ins…
• CHV-Electronics FXPlug Plug Ins
  Now we are again treated to Christoph’s latest contributions to the Final Cut Pro community with two small collections of plug-ins, the Magic 3D FX and the Morphing FX sets. Both bundles utilize the newest FX plug-in architecture from Apple, which allows for higher render speeds and better system compatibility. Having been introduced with Apple’s Motion 2, it is now also available for Final Cut Pro 5.1.2.
• DVFilm Maker
  DVFilm Maker is a unique product designed to provide the Film Look that so many are seeking when shooting with their DV cams.
• Instant HD
  When I heard that Red Giant software, already well known for the Magic Bullet Suite, had come out with a conversion plug-in for After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro that would enable the editor to up-convert standard DV video into a variety of HD formats, I just had to take a look.
• Digital Film Tools 55mm Plug-ins For FCP
  For those looking for a set of Final Cut Pro Plug-ins featuring wowy, zowy transitions and filters full of exciting shard breakaways, 2 & 3D animated turns and flyaways, morphs and motion trackers….well, time to look elsewhere. They exist, but just not here. This is a very specialized set of plug ins, subtle in their effects but immeasurably more useful to the artist editor who is not just satisfied with the look and feel of standard video.
• Sapphire Plug-ins for FCP 5
  Sapphire plugs, previously available to the Adobe AfterEffects and Avid community is now here for the Final Cut Pro user as well. The entire package comes with over 175 plug-ins separated into 4 ‘boxes’ which can be purchased separately or bought as a full bundle. They don’t come cheap but there is real quality in this package and you get all that you hope to.
• Dissolve Factory by Buena Vista
  When using the standard Final Cut Pro cross dissolve the pixels from both the source and destination clips fade at equal rates, their transparency equitable on both ends. Nothing wrong with that but suppose we could make that dissolve just a bit more interesting, a touch more dynamic, a little less dull?
• Ampede LayerLink 1.1 for Motion
  Enter LayerLink for Motion 1.1, a $119.00 plug-in that imports Illustrator multilayer files (including CS) as a project in Motion with separate layers for each of the layers created in Illustrator.
• Boris Continuum Complete 3.0
  By David Saraceno. After spending three weeks working with this impressive array of FCP plug-ins, I’m convinced its name should be changed Boris Continuum “Wow.”
• 55mm Digital Optical Filters for Photoshop
  Digital Film Tools has created an amazing set of filters in the 55mm filters package which offer an enormous degree of control and flexibility, they work extremely well, the effects generated are excellent.
• Boris Continuum Complete 3.0
  By Steve Douglas. A year ago I read a review of Boris Continuum 2.0 and was highly intrigued. I knew of the Boris reputation for quality but I also knew of its reputation for having a high learning curve
• Magic Bullet for Editors
  One more opinion on MBE by David Saracino. “Magic Bullet For Editors (MBE) consists of two elements: the Look suite of filters designed to emulate film; and Misfire, which adds film-like “damage” to your video.
• Magic Bullet for Editors
  Two years ago, a friend told me about this “amazing” piece of software that would take 60i video and convert it to 24p (twenty-four progressive frames per second) making it look “just like film.” In addition, I was told that the software came with a “Look Suite” which contained customizable controls and presets that simulated different film stocks and “looks.”The software was called “Magic Bullet…”
• New on my Cluttered Desktop – The Final Installment
  Ned Soltz clears his messy desk for the final time and reviews:
  Contour Design ShuttlePRO v2, DVRig Pro, Soundtrack Additional Loops, Handwritten Volume 1 for LiveType, LiveType Central for LiveType, Screen Caffeine for LiveType, and A Luna Blue LiveType: 01. Whew!
• Drawing Tools
  Drawing Tools is a set of very interesting and useful generators for constructing geometric shapes and lines in FCP and FCE.
• ANIM Jewels NTSC and PAL – by CGM
  The Anim Jewels collection of motion graphics consists of 4 separate themes, 1) Earth Collection 2) Wedding Rings 3) Background Patterns and 4) Curtains, Album and Flags. These can be purchased as separate collections or as a package containing all.
• A Plethora of Plug-Ins and A Peck of Programs
  Ned Soltz once again clears his desk of all that messes it and takes a look at CGM Plug ins Vol 3 for FCP and FCE, Curious gFX, 55mm 3.0.1, and G Film and G Standards converter. Whew!
• CGM DVE Complete Digital Video Effects for Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express
  CGM DVE Complete are 131 filters and transistions from Vol 1, 2 and 3 of Klaus Eperlie’s CGM DVE plug-ins for FCP and FCE. Steve Dougas reviews
• Sapphire AE 1.0 for FCP
  The long-awaited release of the GenArts Sapphire filters for AE has come! And, as an added bonus, Sapphire AE 1.0 is fully compatible with FCP.
• CHV-Electronics – The Clone Collection
  “When Christoph of CHV asked me for suggestions for FCP plugins it took me exactly 2 seconds to reply. “I want a Clone tool like the one found in PhotoShop”. Now a short time later I am working with two Clone tools from CHV. The Pre Defined Clone tool with built in shapes and a Variable Shape Clone tool that lets you create an exact custom shape with up to 24 settable points to outline a shape.”
• Automatic Duck Pro Import FCP/Automatic Duck Pro Export
  In development for several months, designed to leverage the industry standard Open Media Framework architecture with FCP’s and Avid’s new XML metadata support, Automatic Duck’s Pro Import/Pro Export plugins for Final Cut Pro have arrived, and they prove to be a quackerjack duo in getting FCP’s and Avids to talk to each other.
• Special Effects Filters for Apple’s Final Cut Pro 3 & 4
  As FCP grows in popularity and usage we are seeing more and more third party support. There are now a number of players selling plugins for FCP. While each of these different vendors offer many similar types of plugins, it seems that each package has a few unique plugins that make the package worthwhile. Such is the case with G Filters.
• Eureka Plugins for FCP 4
  A long time ago, in a version far far way, when the Universe was rendered in RGB, there was a ‘first’ set of plugins. We knew not their origin nor creator, we knew only the name, Eureka. The forces of YUV swept in around the time of 1.5. driving the leader of Eureka, ‘Romantic Text’ from the Galaxy. Now, re-written for YUV and FCP 4.0.1, Eureka is back.
• Automatic Duck Pro Import 2.0
  Automatic Duck has now been upgraded to Automatic Duck Pro Import 2.0 with increased capabilities and merger of multiple import filters for a variety of applications into one import plug-in. The result is that a sequence exported from Final Cut Pro 3 as well as Avid systems can be brought into After Effects or into an exciting new product which will be shipping in the near future, Boris Red 3GL.
• Magic Bullet Suite + Century 16:9 Adapter
  Steven Galvano takes a very comprehensive look at the Magic Bullet Suite of plug ins as well as Century Optics’ 16:9 adapter for the GL1 Camcorder
• Boris Continuum Complete
  Ken Stone reviews the latest BCC plug in packaage. Says Ken: “After loading Boris Continuum Complete 2 into FCP, I went through the Effects Menu. I guess that it was a little bit like wandering around NAB and looking at all the new and exciting video equipment, there is almost too much good stuff.”
• The FCP Plug-In Scene:
  Product Updates and A Way-Cool New Product
  Ned Soltz looks at updates to CGM, Effects Essentials, Twixtor, and the brand new Text Anarchy from Digital Anarchy
• Virtix Plug-ins for FCP
  Virtix Effects consists of 30 Video Filters which install normally into the FCP plug-ins folder. Just merely reading the effect titles fills the user with anticipation that such a relatively inexpensive package can achieve so many effects.
• CHV-Electronics – Final Cut Pro Plugins – The Text Collection – Credits and Sub-Title
  CHV-Electronics – Final Cut Pro Plugins by Christoph Vonrhein is the new kid on the block and these plugins up the ante. Feature rich, these new plugins are Vector based and work at the sub pixel level, producing excellent motion graphics.
• The Quest For Film-Look
  A look at Dissolve Factory and 55mm, 2 sets of plug ins that achieve the quest for a “film Look.”
• Digital Anarchy’s Psunami
  Psunami is primarily an Adobe After Effects plug-in whose focus is to create realistic, almost photographic quality, water and atmospheric scenes.
• 2 New Plug in Packages for FCP
  Ned Soltz reviews Artmetic Plug-Ins For FCP and Effect Essentials 1.1.1 for FCP
• Swim 1.1
  Plug in for FCP and AE from the makers of Elastic Reality that make your Pond Ripple plug in look more like Pond Scum.
• Joe’s Filters 3
  A set of 24 plug ins for Final Cut Pro 1.25 and above.
• CGM DVE Vol.2+
  Digital Video Effects for Apple Final Cut Pro
  “CGM DVE Vol.2+” is a set of 35 filters and transitions for use in Final Cut Pro 2 and 3. In addition to the professional plug-ins the package also includes a series of Final Cut Pro workshops and 67 “soft wipes.”
• CGM Transitions and Filters Vol1 For Final Cut Pro
  56 video filters, transistions and 67 softwipes to use with FCP
• RealSmart Shade/Shape
  Plug-in to add shade, depth and luster to your titles and logos
• Twixtor
  Plug-in to speed up and slow down your clips
• Knoll Light Factory
  Series of plug-ins for FCP and After Effects
• Reelsmart Motion Blur and Video Gogh
  After Effects plug-ins that work with FCP