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!

XtraFinder for OS X

XtraFinder

I recently discovered Tran Ky Nam’s XtraFinder for OS X.

It is a program that adds extra abilities to the OS X finder. It is intended to add tabs and control tabs within the finder, but since this has been added to Mavericks, it still has many other cool features.

Some of my favorites are recoloring the Finder Sidebar Icons, which I think makes them much easier to see.

ColoredSidebar

Another really cool feature is adding back the full colored label to labels in OS X. Mavericks had changed this behavior to tags, so that there is only a tiny colored dot, but you can turn back on full colored tags which I think makes them much easier to spot.

FinderLabels

You can also add items to finder menus:

AddItemsToFinderMenus

Here is show hidden items:

ShowHiddenItems

And the ability to launch an application as root!

LaunchAsRoot

Overall a very cool finder extension, especially for the power user!

RedGiant Universe is out of Beta

Red Giant has released version 1.0 of it’s new GPU accelerated Universe Plug ins. These include 31 free GPU accelerated plugs ins and currently 19 Pro plug ins that can be had for $10 a month, $99 a year or $399 for a lifetime subscription. And they promise dozens of new tools in 2014 alone. Already these protools include a version of Knoll Light Factory, Toonit and Holomatrix.

I love Red Giant’s stuff, so this is a great thing. Not sure about all these subscriptions though. So far the small businesses I work with have been very averse to a monthly fee, but the free plug ins are great to have.

Cinemartin makes Premiere Pro Plug-ins for ProRES and H.265 HEVC for Windows

Studio Daily reported the news from NAB.

A 30 Day Trial is available for download.

They will have various versions:

•ProRES 422 including LT and HQ in 1080p 30FPS for $68 with Single Core Encoding

•ProRES 4444, UHD, 4K and H.265 (v2) at up to 60FPS for $137 with Dual Core Encoding

•H.265 SQ and HQ and up to 6 Core Encoding for $551

ProRES is so ubiquitous that this is great news.

Red Giant Releases Universe Plug In

Red_Giant_Universe

Red Giant has released a new set of GPU accelerated plug ins called Universe. Right now you can try out the Free plan which includes 32 free plug ins, and you will be able to get Premium plug ins, or create your own. They are also updating many of their old plug ins to work GPU enhanced in universe.

Supernova: Behind the Scenes of Red Giant Universe from Red Giant on Vimeo.

There is the free membership, a $10 a month Premium Plan or a $99 per year plan, or a $399 Lifetime plan that does not expire!

The Plugs include:

Universe Free Tools
Universe Blur (7 plugins)
Universe Distort (8 plugins)
Universe Generators (4 plugins)
Universe Glow (3 plugins)
Universe Transitions (9 plugins)
Universe Premium Tools
Universe Chromatic Glow
Universe Holomatrix
Universe Knoll Light Factory EZ
Universe Noise
Universe Premium Transitions
Universe Prism Displacement
Universe Retrograde
Universe Toonit

This sounds very cool, and I have already installed and am looking forward to trying them out. Not sure about the monthly pricing unless they do add as many effects as they say they will, but the Lifetime is probably the best deal here, especially seeing things like Knoll Light Factory being added with GPU support.

Also is an addition is called Red Giant Supernova, which allows you to program plug ins quickly using the Red Giant Universe Library. So it fairly easy to create your own plug ins.

Supernova: Behind the Scenes of Red Giant Universe from Red Giant on Vimeo.