VFXER reviews Zaxwerks ProAnimator 8

VFXER has a great new review of the new Zaxwerks ProAnimator 8. It is a good review and does the comparisons with Element 3D and Cinema 4D.

Here is the first video from Zaxwerks on new features. And it seems that the newest feature is speed, as they say fast many many many times in the video! And it does look fast even with Ray Tracing turned on, which Element 3D cannot do.

And the Shadows sounds great, as you don’t get shadows from Element 3D, and it includes Lens Flares and Lighting Rigs within the plug in (or stand alone app) which you need Optical Flares to do this with Element 3D.

Honestly I had written off 3D Invigorator Pro as soon as I tried out Element 3D, as it was just so much easier to use and more powerful and quick. And I like how Element 3D integrates the 3D so well into After Effects 3D world (which it looks like it still does better), but this version is the first to impress me in a while. The biggest issue for me is price. $399 is more than basic Element 3D and Optical Flares from VideoCopilot. And even the $149 upgrade price seems a bit steep. And I don’t know that I need it now that I have element 3D and can use Cinema 4D within after effects. Still looks like the upgrade they should have done long ago!

Red Giant has updated it’s Shooter Suite to version 12.5

Red Giant has updated their Shooter suite to Version 12.5.

It is $399 for full and $99 for upgrades from version 12.

It has a new version of BulletProof 1.2, Plural Eyes 3.5, it now includes Denoiser II, LUT Buddy, and now Instant 4K for uprezzing.

A great suite for on set work, and Plural Eyes is essential for all shoots with separate audio!

Red Giant has Updated Universe to 1.1 with 3 new Free and 6 Premium Effects!

Red Giant has updated Universe to 1.1 with 3 new Free and 6 New Premium Effects. And 3 updated Effects.


What's New in Red Giant Universe 1.1 from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Very cool. Lets hope they keep pouring out updates this quickly. The great thing about the subscription model is if they keep getting in money they can keep updating.

After Effects CC 2014 New Features

Adobe has update After Effects in the Creative cloud subscription to version CC 2014.

Built in keying has been enhanced with a Key Cleaner to fix compression artifacts in a key. And Advanced Spill Supressor does an impressive job of removing spill. Won’t touch Red Giant’s keying suite, but will improve Keylight in certain situations.

You can now link individual masks to effects on a single layer, and dissolve effects to lessen effect. This will clean things up by letting you so different masked effects on a single layer and track each mask individually. And you can get those masks from layer masks in Premiere Pro.

You can create Live Text Templates to leave individual text editable in premiere, especially great for lower thirds.

I/O has now been replaced by the Mercury Transmit engine from Premiere Pro, which should be faster.

Like the rest of creative cloud, there is Type Kit desktop font integration.

The iOS Kuler is now integrated into an After effects Panel.

Curves have been improved.

Mocha has been updated to version 3.2.1.

Not as big of an update as Premier Pro, but impressive nonetheless.

Adobe needs to do something about 3rd party Plug Ins to make it easier to upgrade

With the release of Adobe Creative Cloud 2014, we have yet another set of programs installed in our computers, which is nice, as the last version will keep working for old jobs (and when plug ins have not been rewritten yet), but it makes for a pain in the ass in getting plug ins working again.

After Effects has so many places plug ins can be installed. In your Library folder and in the Plug ins folder in it’s application. So you have to painstakingly either re-install all your plugs in or go through and copy plug ins over between versions.

Photoshop used to do this well, with a 3rd Party plug-ins folder. So when you installed a new version you could just point Photoshop to this folder, and all your 3rd Party Plug-Ins would be there. Of course in true idiotic fashion they removed this feature.

And sure, some old plug ins will not work, but they could do a browser style plug in checker, which checks if your version works, and you could have a way to force them to work (or at least try to work) if it doesn’t know (as is possible in browsers like Mozilla Firefox).

This would just make everything so much easier and smoother with every upgrade! And since all CC users are in Creative Cloud, they will getting all the new updates, and likely implementing them!

Please Adobe do something about Plug-In Management and do it soon!

VideoCopilot with Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2014, Element 3D not working yet

Update on VideoCopilot Software and Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2014. Looking over at the Forums, it seems that everything except Element 3D is working with Creative Cloud 2014. And according to Andrew Kramer’s Twitter Feed, they are working on it.

With Red Giant working, and everything but Element 3D working, most of my plug ins are good. Now time to check on Re:Vision plug ins!

StudioDaily has a first look at the new Adobe Creative Cloud Video Suite Features

StudioDaily has a great first look at the new features being released with the latest Creative Cloud release.

Effects Masking and Tracking within Premiere Pro sounds like an awesome addition, as are Master Clip effects, which will make color correction a breeze.

As for SpeedGrade the direct link to Premiere Pro feature where you actually open your timeline in SpeedGrade would seem to answer about half of my issues with SpeedGrade. Now they just need to get some curves going in there.

The ability to apply filters per mask in a layer will greatly speed up effects, and simplify timelines. And the Live templates features is very very cool. Where you can set text lines in After Effects to be editable by an editor within Premiere to quickly make lower thirds and the like based on a graphical template.

All in all it sounds great, and I hope the download is available soon!