Red Giant has killed it’s shooter suite except PluralEyes as of September 8th, 2020

 So Red Giant has killed it’s Shooter suite except for PluralEyes as of September 8th. I always hate seeing tools go, and i will miss having Offload for sure for shooting. It might not have been the best tool but it worked and I already owned it. And I did use Instant 4K as well.

Lets hope they add some other good tools to Red Giant now that they have less tools to worry about.

Red Giant has updated to Universe to 3.3 with 2 new tools 4 updates

 

Red Giant has updated it’s Universe Plugs ins to version 3.3 with 2 new tools and 4 updates plugs ins.

The new Tools are:


  • Quantum: a tool that creates the illusion of an animated light trail in front of or behind a layer. Great for text and motion graphics
  • Modes: a tool that makes it easy to combine layers in entirely new ways using powerful features that go beyond the native blend modes found on your editing timeline.

 And the Updates are:

  • Glow: Now offers Inverse-square glow falloff, multi-pass chromatic aberration and the ability to glow a single color channel.
  • Glimmer: This update gives you 6 mono or bi-directional glow streaks with variable intensity and color mapping, an animatable shimmer, variable rotation control, and Color maps aligned with Trapcode’s Starglow.
  • Chromatic Aberration: This tool now includes control over the focus area, the ability to split the aberration into multiple passes, and chromatic rotation.
  • Hacker Text: The addition of customizable random characters and the ability to auto-animate the encryption and decryption.

 

 Always excited for new Universe tools as I have a lifetime on them, and they are always very fast with GPU support.

Have to play with Modes, though Modes themselves exist in Premiere, so it will be much more amazing in AVID which doesn’t have layer modes for compositing.

Does anyone else lament the loss of Red Giant’s Keying suite from the VFX suite?

 

Now it isn’t like I don’t love the Red Giant VFX suite, but I have been a Red Giant user for many years, and I miss all the tools of the Keying Suite. 
Now I am not complaining about Primatte Keyer 6 which is included in the Red Giant VFX Suite. It is very powerful and easy to use, though since Primatte 5 doesn’t really seem to work with 2020 or Beta it had better be good, but I do miss all off the ancillary plugs ins of the Keying suite, and I do know that many of the effects have been incorporated in SUPERCOMP, but I want all the controls of the individual plug-ins again.
I will admit that I am using keyers in a different method than most, as Primatte works great for a standard green screen (which I am using as well), and I find it vastly superior to the build in Keylight. The thing is I am doing puppeteering and using a green glove to puppet a teddy bear, so instead of just the green, I want to expand the green beyond the glove, instead of objects inside the green screen. And yes I can do that with rotoscoping, but that kind of negates using a green glove as I have to animate every frame.
And I have to admit I had an easier job doing that when I had the tools all in separate plug ins. I miss the key correct plugs in. I miss seperate versions of Alpha Cleaner, Light Wrap (which I know is in SUPERCOMP), Matte Feather, Smooth Screen, Spill Killer (I know this is in Primmate 6) and Wire/Rig Remover, which is more what I am trying to do. And yes I still have the old plugins, but they really don’t work in After Effects 2020.
Now I know I am using the plug ins out of their comfort zone, but using the separate plug ins I was much better able to do what I wanted to, and with Primatte 6 only having some of the plug ins integrated I am not as happy with what I can do.
And that is beyond the whole SUPERCOMP not working with Motion Blur thing which really needs to be fixed.

Red Giant Updates VFX Suite to 1.5 a paid upgrade

Red Giant has released a paid upgrade to it’s VFX Suite to version 1.5. It is a $199 upgrade unless you are subscriber to Red Giant Complete (feels like a 1.5 should have been a free upgrade).
It includes a new Lens Distortion tool to easily figure out lens distortion to help composite and even track.
And they have updated Supercomp with an automatic color matching, color space options, optical glow and layer glow tools, though I am mostly pissed that they have not figured out how to include motion blur which has been my main objection to supercomp.
Optical Glow has been updated with the ability to control radiate which gives directionality, control per channel size and size xy. This certainly makes for an impressive update over the built in glow.
And Shadow and Reflection has added the ability to show shadows only as well as distort based on the image.
I am glad for the update, though as I said I would like them to put motion blur into supercomp to really make it usefull.

Supercomp in Red Giant VFX suite seems to not work with Motion Blur

So I was playing with Red Giant Supercomp, which is pretty powerful, but it seems to be missing the ability to deal with Motion Blur.

I was hoping to use supercomp for a comp I was doing, but the comp had motion blur in it. And the motion blur doesn’t show up in supercomp. It must interact with all the other comp features.

I was actually hoping to use the features to deliver in RAW, as the background plate was RAW and the item I was comping in was not, so I wanted to deliver it all in RAW without straight eyeballing it.

So just know that Motion Blur doesn’t currently work with Supercomp.

Red Giant releases new awesome VFX Suite, but in doing so have killed the Keying Suite and the Effects Suite

So Red Giant has released the new VFX Suite for Keying, Tracking, Cleanup and Visual Effects Compositing. They have a full blog post with many YouTube videos on features and how to use the new tools.

The only bummer is that they have killed their Keying and Effects suits to do so. I say bummer, not because the new tools don’t look awesome, but because you have to owned the previous to get a special offer upgrade (it isn’t just available on the site) and you get no discount for owning both previous suits.

Supercomp looks impressive though, basically it makes compositing much easier, and allows all layers to effect your comp, so you don’t have to do a bunch of pre-composing to make your comps looks the best they can, and it is all GPU accelerated.

And Primatte has reached version 6. Many people just go with Keylight, but I have always found that Primatte is faster and easier to reach a good key, so I am excited about this.

Key Pin tracker seems to supercharge corner pin tracking (though the demo does show some features they need to add, like copying the from and to points automatically by a single button).

Spot Clone Tracker looks super easy and powerful.

Optical Glow also looks amazing, and should negate the need to every use the built in After Effects glow which never was very good.

I already have some ideas for the new Chromatic Displacement plug in.

Will have to see how the new Knoll Light Factory 3.1 is. I used to use it all the time, but have completely given up on it, because of Video Copilot’s Optical Flares plug in, which I think surpassed it years ago.

And Shadow and Refection looks cool when needed.

I created a new logo bumper for Whale of a Tale Productions in 4K

For quite some time I have been wanting a new Whale of a Tale Productions logo, and I have need for one in 4K as I have been posting some of my DJI Osmo Test Footage on YouTube.

I had recently upgraded a really old logo that had been NTSC to 4K, but wasn’t too impressed with the results, so I decided to create a new one that more closely resembled my new Business card.

So I went to trusty After Effects CC 2017 14.2, as well as Element 3D and Red Giant Tsunami and created the following logo bumper for Whale of a Tale Productions.

Someday I will tackle one in full 3D where the logo can interact with the water, but not right now. For now I am pretty happy with this one.

Red Giant Updates Universe to 1.2

UNI1.2_Banner_NL4blog

Red Giant has updated it’s new realtime effects plug in system Universe to 1.2 with 3 new free effects and 6 new Pro effects, as well as Native Style Effects. You can get Universe from Red Giant for free, or with a subscription for Premium, or a lifetime payout.

Check out the new features and plugs in in the video here.

What's new in Universe 1.2 from Red Giant on Vimeo.

I have been very impressed with Universe so far. And am looking forward to trying out the free Exposure Blur Effect as a transition in After Effects. And CrumblePop Half Light for the Pro section, which has light leak effects.

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!