We get a lot of emails and tweets asking us when we’ll be having our next sale. Well here’s some good news: The next sale is whenever you want it to be.

To make your love of filmmaking, visual effects, and motion graphics a little easier on the wallet, our new on-line store offer you the ability to bundle whatever products you need and to get a nice deal (up to 20% off your order) in the process.

Red Giant has over 30 individual products, while we group them in Suites allowing customers to get a substantial discount, the grouping of products isn’t always what you want.  We have kept our Suites because the product mixes are grouped for complimentary uses, but also we’ve added the ability to Create Your Own Bundle any time you’d like.

It’s simple, combine two or more copies of an individual product, or mix and match to your heart’s desire.  The more you add the more you save – you get up to 20% off the entire purchase for any purchase of 4 or more products.  Here’s little secret, the already heavily discounted Suites are each considered a single product and will receive an additional discount when combined with a second item.

As always, our products come with our Red Pledge Guarantee of no hassles, just happiness – which includes:

• 30 day money back guarantee. Always! Even on rainy Sundays. No questions asked.
• One price for all hosts. Your purchase works in all supported host applications and operating systems.
• Free Support. Ask us anything, no charge, during business hours by phone, email or online chat.
• Two computer license. One for your workstation and one for your laptop.
• Rock solid products. We triple-check every product before shipping.
• Easy Upgrades. ALL previous versions qualify for an upgrade to the latest release.

With the big news about Knoll Light Factory 3 last week, you probably missed some other big news that was actually smaller – by half.  Five of the products in the effects suite (including the new Knoll Light Factory 3) have been reduced by 50%. Let me break it down for you:

• Knoll Light Factory 3 - Now $199 (Was $399)
• ToonIt 2.1 - Now $199 (Was $399)
• Text Anarchy 2.4 - Now $99 (Was $199)
• Planespace 1.4 – Now $99 (Was $199)
• Warp 1.1 – Now $99 (Was $199)

SAVE EVEN BIGGER: If you buy the whole Red Giant Effects Suite 11 (with all of these plug-ins and more) at $899, you’re getting even bigger savings. Even with the above price changes, each individual product in the entire suite adds up to $1,740. At $899, that’s almost 50% off each product (Actually it’s  48.333333…% – not too shabby).

Check out some great tutorials that use these products to see how they can help you:

• Getting Started with Knoll Light Factory 3 – Part 1: Overview
• Episode 75: Video to Cartoon – Getting Better Results
• Red Giant QuickTip #63: Terminal-Style Text
• Red Giant Quick Tip 64: Creating Light Arrays
• QuickTip #66: 3D Reflections

Introducing Knoll Light Factory 3!

Hollywood’s favorite light effects tool just got more color, depth and excitement with new lens flare technology. ILM VFX Supervisor John Knoll brings you new features like realistic flare elements, time-saving animated behaviors, a redesigned interface, and over 100 beautifully designed presets. Get the sexiness of lens flares while creating believable, accurate results. Get Knoll Light Factory 3 HERE.

• Easy visual interface. Designing flares is a breeze with newly organized controls, and a Lens Designer preview that’s been redesigned for a productive, creative experience.
• New shapes to build your flare. Create beautiful, believable flares with 28 Elements and 26 Sprites, building blocks that let you quickly build a light design.
• New automated lights. Instantly add unique animation with Behaviors that mimic real world light effects like Strobe, Pulse, Flicker and Blink.
• More realistic scenes. Use the new Edge Reaction to flare or fade light at the edge of a comp.
• Now in 3D. Full integration with After Effects 3D camera and lights lets you move the Knoll flares in 3D space and sync them with animated lights.
• New pricing! Knoll Light Factory 3 is only $199. That’s a 50% price reduction from Knoll 2.7.

Effect Suite 11 gives you creative freedom and your work a truly professional appeal. From the realistic lens flares of Knoll Light Factory 3 to a believable cartoon look with ToonIt!, these are everyday tools for distinctive visual effects. Effects Suite software has been used in recent feature films like Avatar and Super 8, and the package includes tools that have served the visual effects community for years. At only $899, this bundle of 70 plug-ins gives a ton of power at 50% savings of their individual cost. GET IT HERE.

Pricing:

• Knoll Light Factory 3: $199
• Effects Suite 11: $899
• Effects Suite 11 Upgrade: $99
• Effects Suite 11 Special Upgrade: $499 (Existing Customer Special. If you own any two products get the entire suite for only $499)
• Effects Suite 11 Academic: $499

IMPORTANT: Any customer who has ever purchased any Knoll video product (excludes Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop) is eligible for the $99 upgrade price.

Just bought Effects Suite 10? No worries! As a part of our Red Pledge Guarantee, customers who bought Effects Suite 10 since NAB 2012, get a free upgrade. A coupon code will be emailed to you shortly.

Check out our new film “Order Up” which features Knoll Light Factory 3 in action.

Hey folks – With a new feature packed OS from Apple, comes new opportunities for software developers. Sometimes there are a few hurdles as well. Fortunately, Apple has been communicating with us on an issue you may see with Red Giant and other installations in Mountain Lion.

The issue: The new OS from Apple (OS X 10.8) has a new “Gatekeeper” Security setting that is by default turned on.  You will find that Gatekeeper currently only opens installers that Apple has “signed” (learn more here). Our current installer packages are not signed in this way so you may encounter that they aren’t opening up after you’ve upgraded to OS 10.8.

But fear not! You know team RG is always here for you. We’re currently testing the newly released OSX 10.8 with our signed installer packages and we’re hoping to have it available to you within the next few business days once we make 100% sure it’s compatible. Customers looking to install Singular Software Products may go to their downloads page this afternoon to get their 10.8 compatible installers.  All products, including the public Beta of PluralEyes 3 will be ready by the end of day today.

In the meantime, to install all the Red Giant goodness you’ve come to know and love, you can consult our fully illustrated and detailed Support FAQ or you may follow our quick steps listed below:

How to turn off Gatekeeper to Install Red Giant Products on Mountain Lion 10.8:

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your screen.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Security & Privacy
4. Click the Lock icon at the bottom-left corner to enter your administrator’s name and password to make changes if it does not appear unlocked.
5. Under “Allow applications downloaded from:” choose the “Anywhere” option
6. When the Dialog box pops up, click “Allow from Anywhere” to confirm.
7. You may now open and run the Red Giant installer.
8. After installation finishes, you may change the Security Download Setting back to its previous and/or default option.

Learn more about Gatekeeper, HERE on the Apple website. As always, if you have any trouble, you can always reach out to our awesome tech support team, right HERE.

Have more questions? Check out these links:

• FAQ: How to Turn off Gatekeeper to Install Red Giant Products on Mountain Lion OS X 10.8
• FAQ: Mountain Lion 10.8 Gate Keeper and Red Giant’s Installer

You probably caught the news that Red Giant acquired the Audio Syncing technology (such as PluralEyes) from Singular Software. We’re pretty jazzed but, we know you probably have questions about what this means for the future of Singular technology, not to mention simple things like upgrade policies now that that the software has changed hands – or has it?

In this interview, I sit down with Bruce Sharpe, CEO of Singular Software to talk about what all this acquisition stuff means for the future, and how it will effect existing and new customers.

I am very excited to announce that Red Giant has acquired Singular Software’s audio synchronization products and technology.

Andrew Little and I started Red Giant in 2002. Over the last 10 years we have grown from a small team with a couple of great plug-ins, to a fast-growing company with dozens of plug-ins, artist-driven presets, stand-alone apps like Magic Bullet Looks and Grinder, and even iOS apps that tens of thousands of users rely upon every day.

When talking with Singular Software, we realized that we share a similar culture and vision. Our companies are both spread out geographically, with many team members working remotely but efficiently using Google Docs, Skype and other tools to refine ideas and build products. Bruce Sharpe and his full product team are partnering with Red Giant, and will continue their laser-like focus on PluralEyes®, the best tool for synchronizing video.

With PluralEyes 3.0, we see a fantastic product that makes media preparation faster and easier for users. It also makes production simpler. PluralEyes fits naturally alongside our Magic Bullet Looks to make video productions come together faster. Version 3.0 is coming soon and will continue to support a variety of video editors on Mac and Windows.

Beyond PluralEyes 3.0, our companies have a shared vision for media production. We think that too many tedious tasks get in the way of real editing, and we want to help our users focus on the creative parts. We’re excited to include Singular Software’s technology in future Red Giant products.

Sean Safreed
Co-founder

I’m going to keep this short and sweet – Red Giant is hiring. We are looking for a Software Engineer to join our Magic Bullet product team. If that’s all the info you need, you can grab the job description here.

It’s tough to keep this short and sweet, though, because I really feel like this is a special opportunity. I love working at Red Giant; it’s really an amazing place to work. Ask any of us. Actually, if you know any of us personally, you’re probably really tired of hearing about what a great place it is. So, when it comes time to recruit someone to the team, I feel a bit like I have a golden ticket to hand out!

I’m not just talking about working on amazing products (though that helps!). I’ve personally worked at a number of different companies that have developed some pretty amazing products. Red Giant approaches the work/life relationship differently than any other workplace I’ve been part of. If you want to hear more and think you have the skills we’re after, just grab the job description here and drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you!

I know most of you who read this blog are our customers and not necessarily software developers yourself. Feel free to pass this along to your software developer friends – let them know about a unique opportunity to join a great company.

Thanks,

Andrew Cheyne – Red Giant’s Engineering Manager

BETTER LIVING WITH RED GIANT
Hassle-free shopping. More account control.

Our new Customer Account system takes our world-class support to the next level. We are excited to introduce three big changes to our website:

1. A completely new Customer Account management system.
2. A better shopping cart experience.
3. A more accessible Support ticket system.

To deliver all of these benefits, we need your help with an easy task. You will need to reset the password for your current Red Giant Customer Account. Click HERE to get started. That link will take you to a web page that asks you to log in with your Red Giant account ID, and we will detect if it’s time to reset your account password. Then we’ll send you an automatic email with a simple, easy step to reset.

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That’s the long and short of it, but if you want the specifics, read below.

How will these changes benefit me?

The question is really: How won’t they benefit you? Our new Customer Account controls let you:

• View your order history
• Edit account information
• Manage Support tickets.

The new Support ticket system makes communicating with our Support team even easier than before, so your technical issues are resolved more quickly. And the new shopping cart adds an extra layer of security, while making your checkout process simple, secure and streamlined.

For your profile settings, you can now:

• Change your Red Giant ID (email address) and password
• Update your account and billing information

For your order history, you can now:

• View and print past orders
• View serial numbers that you own

For Support tickets, you can now:

• View and reply to open Support tickets
• Submit new Support tickets
• View closed Support tickets

REMINDER: To deliver all of these benefits, we need your help with an easy task. You will need to reset the password for your current Red Giant Customer Account.

Let’s reset your password together…

Are you ready? This is incredibly easy to do. Just click this THIS LINK. That link will take you to a web page that asks you to log in with your Red Giant account ID, and we will detect if it’s time to reset your account password. Then we’ll send you an automatic email with a simple, easy step to reset.

• Click here to reset your account password
• Read more information about these changes here
• Need help? Contact our Support Team

Well… it happened. Plot Device won the Webby for best editing.

I’ll keep this short, because we are all, honestly, stunned. Not that we didn’t think that director Seth Worley’s fantastic cutting/storytelling wasn’t worthy of an award, but when you go up against the kind of competition we had, you kind of just say “It’s nice to be nominated” so you can sleep at night.

The team at Red Giant is ridiculously proud of Seth and his crew (a crew I consider myself lucky to have been a part of). But, frankly, even without the award, we were already proud. We know Seth is an amazing storyteller, and he works with some of the best and reliable people you’ll find anywhere. This morning he sent an email to the team, and I thought I’d share a few of his words:

“This project was fortunate to have some of the most talented, hard working, and gracious people I know working on it. Those kinds of projects are special, and don’t come along every time. Thank you for your work.  know you’re going to roll your eyes at this, but I don’t care: congratulations on this cool award. We made a really cool thing together and we’re blessed to get to see the outside world appreciate it and derive joy from it.”

I could not have said it better myself. One thing is for sure – we are not resting on our laurels. We’re near completion on a new film, and in fact, the night of the Webby’s, Seth, Neil and I will actually be away filming something new in Portland.

Thank you all for your support. Stay tuned.

Hey folks – yesterday Adobe announced CS6, and committed to a release within 30 days. So now you’re thinking, “I’d love to get on board, but what about my plug-ins? I can’t MoGraph without Trapcode! I can’t cut without Magic Bullet!”

Well, if you’re ready to jump on CS6, I’ve got good news. 3 pieces of good news, actually:

1. Red Giant Products will be CS6 compatible on the day of the CS6 launch.
2. All current CS5 & CS5.5 compatible products will be updated to CS6.
3. All CS6 updates will be FREE for existing users (so if you already own the product, or want to buy it now, you’re covered).

Yeah, we got your back.

Learn more about how we’re here for you by checking out our unmatched Red Pledge.