One of my favorite effects in Plot Device is where Ben Shots an alien and he explodes into blue goo. Apparently you guys liked it too, since so many of you have asked how you can do that too…
Red Giant TV Episode 64: Plot Device – The Exploding Man
In this Episode of Red Giant TV, Plot Device director Seth Worley shows you how to blow someone up. It’s going to be messy, so bring a poncho.
Effects Suite 10.0.1 Goes Live!
Over the last year, we’ve been working on streamlining the entire “purchase to publishing” process at Red Giant – one of the largest behind the scenes activities has been re-releasing all of our suites so you only need to deal with a single installer and a single serial number. It makes installing all of your Red Giant products and getting to use them in your actual day to day work a much easier experience. We’ve finally done it – the remaining product suite now has it’s own single suite installer – say hello to Effects Suite 10.0.1.
While getting this together, we also put together maintenance releases to take care of a number of issues in the products included in the suite. Take a look at all the major updates (there were numerous tweaks made under the hood to clean up all the plugins; I’ll just list the highlights here):
Effects Suite 10.0.1:
Knoll Light Factory 2.7.2:
You can get all of our latest installers on our Product Downloads page here.
A “PS” from the Maintenance Release blog post guy:
As this is probably about my 10th blog post, I thought it might be time to say a brief hello and not hide behind the somewhat-weird looking “acheyne” moniker that my posts show up here as. In the real world, I’m Andrew Cheyne, Red Giant’s Engineering Manager. I oversee everything at Red Giant that has to do with getting our products built and released to the customer – design, implementation, builds, installers, bug fixes, and Quality Assurance. I have a great team that gets the real work done in making these products come together, but it’s generally my responsibility to ensure we’re getting you the products you need and want and making sure they work.
Oh, and sorry for the accent; I know Canada-ese can be tough to understand some days. 
Note from the Editor: I fixed it so that Andrew Cheyne’s blog identity now shows up as his name instead of acheyene. You know, Andrew, you could’ve just asked. You didn’t need to release a single suite installer to get me to do that…
When Avril Lavigne launched her first perfume – ‘Black Star’ – it was praised as a sultry mix of dark fruits and dark chocolate. It was even nominated for The FiFi Awards, an annual event hosted by The Fragrance Foundation to recognize achievements in the scent industry.
From that auspicious start, the challenge for the promotions company was to create a commercial that would capture the visual essence of this unique fragrance.
Working for NY Visual Effects and Design Boutique SUSPECT, Jesse Newman created a captivating vision, using Trapcode Particular to add the final and literal sparkle. Jesse took some time out to tell us about his work and use of Trapcode.
“I’ve been fortunate to have worked on several creatively challenging and award-winning projects, including feature films (Armageddon), commercials (M&Ms, Verizon, HP), broadcast designs (Disney, SciFi, HBO) and short films (Shapeshifter, One Rat Short).
As far as workflow, the Trapcode plug-ins are regulars in my bag of tricks. They are incredibly intuitive and powerful. I used Form to create the interactive world of sparkling stars in the Avril Lavigne “Black Star” commercial and Particular to create elements ranging from the streaks in the Verizon FIOS logo to the bubbles following the fish in Shapeshifter.”
Jesse also told us “My true passion has always been my personal art, which gravitates toward hyper-real fantasy art. I am currently on a year-long sabbatical to focus on an epic personal project for my daughter, depicting her as Gaea, Goddess of Earth.”
We wish him all the best with his personal work and look forward to seeing his new projects develop.
Harry Frank and Aharon Rabinowitz are joined by Plot Device Director Seth Worley to discuss Visual Effects for Indie Film. Harry follows it up with a tutorial on using Trapcode Particular to create gun muzzle flashes.
Watch it HERE.
IMPORTANT UPDATE (1/31/12): Looks for FCPX is now available. Learn more HERE.
We’ve been getting a lot of questions about Magic Bullet Looks for FCPX, and what’s taking so long. So I put together this video to show it in action, and to give an update on it;s development:
As I say in the video, by far, we aren’t the only ones being effected. Apple is taking this issue very seriously, and they’ve been very responsive. We know their team of developers is dedicated to giving you the best possible user experience in FCP, so we expect a resolution soon.
Thanks for hanging in there.
IMPORTANT UPDATE (1/31/12): Looks for FCPX is now available. Learn more HERE.
Red Giant QuickTip #53: Layer Sampling – Generate Particles Where and When You Want Them
In this Quicktip, Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to control the way particles are emitted from a picture or text, when using a layer emitter. He’ll be exploring a feature called Layer Sampling.
Layer Sampling is a feature that controls whether or not particles are revealed by a layer’s alpha channel, or, depending on the setting, if they are emitted at all. If you have ever wanted to blow up text, this tutorial will help.This is also a great technique for creating underwater simulations (Ex.: bubbles created from a layer’s motion).
Watch it HERE.
We had some trouble recording Episode #4 of RGTV Live, but Harry and I felt the content was too good not to re-record it.
Red Giant TV Live – Episode 4: Motion Graphics for Product Spots
In this Episode of RGTV Live, Harry and Aharon are joined by David Torno of Ghost Town Media to discuss motion graphics for product spots. Also, Harry walks you through a Product spot he recently completed which involved mograph and color correction. Watch it HERE.
Check out David Torno’s work at GhostTownMedia.com.
In this episode of Red Giant TV, director Seth Worley takes you through the process of creating the explosion and shockwave effect from the end of the sci-fi scene in Plot Device.
Watch it HERE.
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