PetaPixel has info on new SmartDeblur technology, which can literally take out of focus images and sharpen them. Now it isn’t print quality, but the sharpening is amazing. Look at the image of the out of focus text. That is unbelievable!
There is a free tech preview for windows. Pretty impressive.
CoreMelt has released the free ActiveText plug in for creating text with pre-animated templates, no keyframes.
I am not too much of a fan of templated effects, but you really can’t argue with free.
Pond 5 has released a new plug in to search for stock footage from within Premiere Pro. You can browse their library, and automatically import free watermarked clips into your project, and if you purchase the clips, you can automatically conform to replace the clips with full versions! A very cool idea!
onOne software has announced it’s new Perfect Photo Suite 7. A revamp of their already awesome photoshop and lightroom plug-ins, with new versions of Perfect B&W, Perfect Protrait 2, Perfect Layers 3, Perfect Effects 4 and Perfect Resize 7.5 Pro and older version of Perfect Mask 5 and Focal Point 2. This is an awesome company too. They gave all their 64 bit upgrades free for their users, so that has created some serious loyalty at least with me. It ships in Late October.
Some more really cool looking scripts from AEScripts and the Pro Video Coalition.
Layer Repeater to easily offset layers in space and time suggested $19.99 but name your own price.
Masks and Shapes gives you more control over creating shapes and masks and can save them out as a text file, suggested $9.99 but name your own price.
Projection, makes it easy to camera map onto 3D planes in After Effects with 3D Camera Tracker, Syntheyes, Boujou or PF Track. $24.99 down from $49.99.
Illumination adds a new dimension of lighting control, and adds the softbox. $19.99 down from $39.99
Pixel Cloud, a compositing tool to relight a 3D generated image or displace the pixels in 3D space, $89.99 down from $129.99.
Paste Multiple Keyframes, lets you copy and paste keyframes from multiple layers at the same time, suggest $9.99, but name your own price.
Auto Lip-Sync, create a mouth that automatically animates according to your voice recording. $39.99
Null Swapper swaps null layers for light layers for Trapcode Particular and Plexus, and this one is free.
Trapcode Suite 12 from Red Giant on Vimeo.
Check it out at Red Giant, where it is $899 or between $99-$499 for an upgrade.
The new upgrade includes Trapcode Mir a brand new motion design tool.
Trapcode Mir from Red Giant on Vimeo.
It now includes 105 Particular/Shine Guru Presets from MoGraph artist David Vinson.
And maintenance updates for Lux, Echospace, Particular and Form.
The Guru presets help, but this doesn’t seem like much of an overall suite upgrade for the price, especially if you already have the guru presets! I mean a new app, that you may or may not use, and no update to the rest of the suite, and the upgrade costs the same as buying the app. Red Giant obviously included the Guru presets to make this seem more worthwhile, but at $99, it seems a bit much when all you get is a maintenance release for all the apps you know and love.
Check out these videos, the tutorial is great, and it is really impressive what this plug-in can do in After Effects.
I already have ideas bouncing in my head for Direct Response uses for something like this, once the product is rendered out in 3D at least.
Zaxwerks has finally upgraded 3D Invigorator Pro to Version 6. And it had better be a whopper of an upgrade now that After Effects CS6 has Ray Traced Extruded Text and Shapes.
New features for Invigorator Pro include:
▪ Ray-Trace Reflectivity & Shadows! (NEW)
▪ Ultra Realistic Shadows with Ambient Occulusion (NEW)
▪ Create Glass or Water with Refraction (NEW)
▪ Super Easy Grid Creator (NEW)
▪ Increased Number of Sets and Layer Maps (NEW)
Here is what they have to say:
Our new Ray Trace renderer produces ultra-cool pictures, with reflections of objects in other objects, smooth realistic shadows, and glass refractions. Mmmmm. Sweet, sweet pictures.
New workflow features include the ability to trace pictures then map the picture back onto the object with one click; the ability to turn whole folders of images into 3D objects; and the ability to collect all project related files if you have to move the project from one computer to another. If you’re not a 3D-techie this means it’s now easier than ever to turn client artwork into flying 3D objects.
Best of all in version 6 are the new Object Fragmentation features. This set of features lets you slice, chop or crack your 3D objects into little fragments. Big deal, most 3D programs can do this, right? Not even close. What ProAnimator does is to turn fragmentation into a design tool where you can change your mind as the design evolves. Slice your logos into planks, strips, cubes, chips, chunks or shards. No pre-planning required. Change the fragmentation, change the text getting fragmented, change the bevels, change the color, change anything at anytime for the greatest flexibility imaginable.
ProAnimator 6 has also added more animation controls especially designed to take advantage of the thousands of pieces generated by the fragmentation features. So now you can take your thousands of fragments and spin, tumble, whip and cascade them in cooler, fresher and more eye-catching ways than before. Spill the fragments into the screen and watch them assemble into your logo. Drop the fragments and watch one word turn into another. This can be done with any text, logo or imported 3D object.
Stop for a moment and realize that now you can design on the fly with fragments as easily as full objects. It’s like a particle system that’s easy and fun to control and completely real-time and interactive. It’s all waiting at your fingertips to give your work an exciting edge over your competition.
It is $399 or $99 for an upgrade from 5.0.
VideoCopilot has finally released it’s long teased Element 3D plug in for After Effects for $149.95. or $195.50 with Pro Shaders, $249.50 with Motion Design Pack and Pro Shaders or $495 including all 6 3D packs and over 500 in 3D models to use with it.
Looks pretty damn cool actually and I would love to give it a try! Been watching videos for some time, and it looks really damn powerful without having to have extensive 3D skills.
Looks like you can do particle effects with real 3D elements, very very cool. I have some ideas just from looking at the footage.