“Stop being a wallflower – your neighborhood wants to dance.” is the spirited tagline to a 2-minute film by CA-based Micah Moss. And what started off as a muse about streaming vs. DVDs and the physical act of walking to a mailbox to drop off a DVD, has turned into beautifully simple mini-masterpiece.

‘The Latter’ was shot entirely using an iPad 2 in Highland Park, CA. and edited with Movie Looks HD. With one or two other options available on the App Store we asked Micah why he chose Red Giant’s Movie Looks HD for this engaging short.

Micah told us “”When shopping around for a coloring app, I settled on Movie Looks HD for several reasons. First of all, Red Giant (the developer) is just that – a GIANT in the world of post-production; they’ve been developing sophisticated editing / coloring tools for years for the biggest of Hollywood productions, so I knew their touch would come from years of expertise – that was a no-brainer. After testing the app, I found it to be easy and intuitive, with a couple nice little unique features to boot. You can trim the length of the clip before processing with easy-touch sliders, and (my personal favorite) you can specify what keyframe you want to use when sampling effects. Very handy (especially if you were still calibrating your exposure for the first several frames of each clip).

Micah continued “The filters are beautiful and complex, and aren’t so “one-note” as many other coloring apps; if you’re looking for a distinct visual tone above the “anything-but-subtle-current-mobile-8-MM-fad”, then Movie Looks HD will allow you to deliver on your vision. Cold tones, warm, bleached, cross-processed, diffusion – they’re all there and more, and they’re just a starting point. Once you’ve found a kindred “look” you like, you can adjust the “strength” and “brightness” of the process (again with easy-touch sliders – everything was made with the touch-screen in mind), and even select “full or half” resolution in case you want to do a smaller, quicker test on the footage. All in all, Movie Looks HD is incredibly powerful, sports a clean, minimalist interface perfect for the iPad, and is a total steal for a couple bucks.”

iPad Creative Magazine called ‘The Latter’ superb and we’d add it’s utterly charming and clever and certainly not to be missed.

Check out more of Micah’s work HERE.

‘The Latter’ has also been entered into the Original iPhone Film Festival, so we wish Micah all the best with that. If you’d like to enter your own film do check out the site, there’s about 6 weeks left for entries.

Hey folks – in case you missed the news from IBC, we’re bringing Magic Bullet Looks back to Sony Vegas Pro. You can read the press release HERE, but let me boil it down and give you a little more info:

1. We’re showing it right now at IBC.
2. Magic Bullet Looks 2 integrates seamlessly with Vegas Pro, offering the same rich toolset in the Looks interface as in every other version.
3. It will be available soon. Yes. You heard me. Soon.

So why are we adding support back into Vegas Pro, after we dropped it just a few months back? In short, because we love you. No really. That’s why. The Sony Vegas users were extremely passionate about our stance on Looks 2, and we love passion. It’s what drives the creativity in our industry, and it’s what drives us to make better tools. And once we saw your commitment to getting the most out of your editor, we started working directly with the team at Sony to get you what you need to make that happen.

Hey – A little bit of passion goes a long way.

So… to sum it up, Vegas users… See you soon.

Love,

Red Giant

Episode 60: Creating Light Effects with Trapcode 3D Stroke

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Owain Street shows you how he created the beautiful and evocative light effects from a series of commercials for Demonfort University using Trapcode 3D Stroke. Keep your eyes open for great shortcuts and techniques.

Watch it HERE.

Congratulations to Tom Howe, winner of the Senser Video Competition.

Back in March UK band Senser, who have been described as Rap Rock, Industrial hip hop and even Rapcore, announced a competition to produce a video for their new single ‘2 3 Clear’.

The band made green-screen and live footage available for the track and gave the general public full creative license to do with it as they wish. After much debate and deliberation, Tom clinched the first prize with his minimal but clearly defined use of effects, amazing sense of space and depth and brilliant dynamics. And Tom was pretty excited to win.

“Magic Bullet Looks is effing ace. Since installing it, I’ve discovered a whole realm of different ways my footage could look in the time that it would normally take to find one half-decent look using a bunch of standard FCP effects crammed on top of each other — and the results are a hundred times better! Now I can create shots that look fresh out of Hollywood! Well, almost… Can’t wait to get my mittens on more Magic Bullet products!”

Red Giant is truly an international company. Our visual effects software for motion design, photography and color correction is used for everything from major motion pictures to worldwide television programming and web production.

Our VFX software has been reviewed in many of the top International broadcast and creative magazines and we were excited to see a recent review of Magic Bullet Mojo on Italian web site, MacforDummies.

MacforDummies wrote a great review on Magic Bullet Mojo and how particularly useful it is for fine-tuning skin tones. Magic Bullet Mojo is “absolutely priceless, it’s perfect for the amateur, but also for the professional who wants to get a good result quickly and with minimal investment.”

You can see the full review here.

Siti italiani tassi di Magic Bullet Mojo

Red Giant è davvero una società internazionale. Il nostro software di effetti visivi per la correzione del movimento del design, la fotografia ed il colore viene usato per tutto, dai film importanti di programmazione televisiva in tutto il mondo e la produzione web.

Il nostro software VFX è stato rivisto in molte delle trasmissioni di alto livello professionale e riviste internazionali creative e siamo stati entusiasti di vedere una recente revisione di Mojo Magic Bullet sul sito web italiano, MacforDummies.

MacforDummies ha scritto una grande rassegna su Mojo Magic Bullet e’ particolarmente utile per mettere a punto i toni della pelle. Mojo Magic Bullet è “assolutamente inestimabile, è perfetto per l’amatore, ma anche per il professionista che vuole ottenere un buon risultato in modo rapido e con un investimento minimo.”
Potete vedere la recensione completa qui.

MacforDummies

T. S. Eliot said “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood,” and it’s the perfect way to describe the mesmerizing collage of images, words and music blended together to create ‘Found’, a stereoscopic short film by Nice Shoes out of NY.

This sumptuous, 3min 12sec showcase is part of the “Verses” series, where the studio challenges itself to visually interpret short poems. But it didn’t just open a poetry book and pick a random page.

Brian Bowman, Creative Director at Nice Shoes, found the poem scrawled on a piece of paper that caught on his shoe as he was walking down a city street at the end of a particularly stressful day. He picked it up, read it, reflected on it and tucked it in his wallet, chalking it up as just another one of those ‘only in New York’ moments.

From this inauspicious beginning, a work of great beauty began to take shape, and we were delighted to find that Trapcode and Knoll Light Factory were some of the go-to tools for the artists that brought ‘Found’ to its visual reality.

Brian told us: “Working with Red Giant’s unique tools we were able to make environments really come alive. The tools proved robust in a stereoscopic workflow, important for those subtle depth flourishes that strengthen the audience’s visceral experience of the film in 3D.”

Here’s the 2D version of the short film, followed by a video breakdown:

Learn more about Nice Shoes HERE.

Check out Episode 59 of Red Giant TV to learn about using Trapcode Software to create Stereoscopic 3D effects.

Grab the Latest updates for both Magic Bullet Looks and Magic Bullet Colorista II Here:

• Magic Bullet Colorista II
• Magic Bullet Looks

Note: Since all of our Magic Bullet products now install through one Suite installer, you only need to download the update once – it will contain the maintenance release for both products.

So, what’s new?

Magic Bullet Colorista II 1.0.3

• The biggest fix here was to allow Colorista II to run properly again on non-English systems.
• We also fixed up our keyboard shortcut handling for Colorista II in After Effects – in previous releases, you probably noticed it didn’t work the greatest – it’s all working great now!

Magic Bullet Looks 2.0.1

• As with Colorista II, the biggest fix for a lot of users is that Looks will now run properly on non-English systems.
• We fixed an issue with Looks causing pixelation in FCP 7 when using the Upper or Lower Field Dominance Sequence Settings.
• Fixed some issues in the Looks Builder interface where the delete key wasn’t working properly and you would encounter some weird beeps.
• Addressed an issue with Looks in Premiere Pro CS5 where the preview image could end up cropped in the LooksBuilder.
• The Looks Theatre inside the Looks Builder interface would always start displaying Looks from the “Basic” category – it will now show you looks based on the category you’ve selected.

As always, you can find updates for all of our products HERE.

When Kung Fu Panda first hit cinemas in 2008 we fell in love with martial arts misfit Po the Panda and the Furious Five as they fought and defeated the evil Tai Lung. But this year the challenge for the teams at Dreamworks was how to create the second installment and build on the successes of the first film.

In Kung Fu Panda 2, not only have the characters developed, but the film itself has upped its game with more explosions, more chases and more visual excitement – all thanks to the dedicated VFX teams at Dreamworks.

Po Finds the Truth – Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

Lead After Effects animator at Dreamworks, Daniel Hashimoto and his close-knit team of AE artists have brought amazing impact to some of the film’s most memorable sequences, using Trapcode Particular and Form.

Po Finds the Truth (2) – Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

Daniel told us: “One of the film’s most dramatic sequences – “Po Finds the Truth” – pulled out all the stops. In this sequence, which involves a village on fire near the snowy woods, Form and Particular were used to create snow, embers, smoke clouds, and a highly-stylized flame effect. The customization and versatility of Particular made it a very powerful tool to have at our disposal. Our Visual Development Artists painted the stylized effects which we wanted to bring to life in the 2D sequences, but not just in 2D, but also in stereoscopic 3D.** And since Particular, Form, and Horizon all work within a 3D environment, they were ideal for the look we wanted to achieve.

Flame example Kung Fu Panda 2 courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

** Check out Episode 59 of Red Giant TV to learn about using Trapcode Software to create Steroscopic 3D effects.

Trapcode Suite 11 is the industry standard package for high quality broadcast design and 3D motion graphics. Its full-featured tools create beautiful realistic effects — with an emphasis on flexible 3D content — for text titles, animated backgrounds, logo treatments and VFX design.

Our freshly released Form 2 is the new rockstar of Trapcode Suite, with a base particle system that can take any shape imaginable, including OBJ files, 3D animated models and organic forms (read more below). Your favorite celebrity, Particular 2, continues to wow its fans as the most powerful particle system for After Effects. And in a star-studded light extravaganza, Lux has been updated to support 32-bpc for more robust color definition.

Other Trapcode tools create 3D styled elements like volumetric light effects, realistic light sources and volumetric lines, all built for the After Effects 3D environment. Get nine addictive plug-ins for a comprehensive addition to your studio workflow, all at a crowd-pleasing price. 

Save $512 when buying the Suite; costs $1,411 for individual plug-ins.

Learn about Trapcode Suite 11
Buy now for $899
Upgrade now for $99

NEW! TRAPCODE FORM 2

Unlimited 3D possibilities & original organic shapes

Words dissolve into sand, a logo catches on fire, and now 3D sequences explode into particles. Trapcode Form 2 keeps the beautiful organic shapes that you love, while adding amazing 3D object support and powerful Particular 2 controls.

Give your base form endless 3D possibilities by importing OBJ models, OBJ sequences or starting with our professionally designed presets. Supercharge the form with popular Particular features like Textured Polygon particles and Shading for AE lights. With its reorganized interface and better integration into After Effects, Form 2 has grown alongside your creative needs.

Powerful new features of Form 2 include:

• Bring OBJ’s into After Effects with Form’s support for 3D models and 3D sequences
• Includes the Particular 2 features you love, like Textured Polygons, Streaklets and particle illumination with Shading controls
• Expanded Layer Map and Spherical Field features include rotating the layer map and distorting a sphere into any elliptical shape
• Get your projects started quickly with sophisticated Form presets designed by Guru animator Harry Frank
• Oh yes! Full backward compatibility with Form 1 projects

Learn about Trapcode Form 2
Buy now for $199
Upgrade now for $99

GET THE TRAPCODE PARTY STARTED

FREE Training for Form 2, Particular 2 & more

Trapcode Suite 11 helps you get that beautiful animation done faster. Learn how to master the Trapcode plug-ins with over 50 hours of FREE Red Giant training.

The video tutorials and quick tips on Red Giant TV give you a solid introduction to every Trapcode product, from the new 3D tools in Form 2 to the Physics controls in Particular 2, and all the cool stuff in between. Learn from Red Giant industry leaders like Harry Frank and Aharon Rabinowitz, and take control of those particles!

Watch the Getting Started with Form 2 video
Watch the What’s New in Form 2 video

Add modern Hollywood color effects in seconds!

Just released! Magic Bullet Mojo is our first product released for FCP X. We continue to fully support Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, and now you can also use Mojo in Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5.

Our Engineering and QA teams are working hard on FCP X compatibility for our products. We have made great progress in a short time, and promise that products will be released as they become available. Read more HERE.

Now about gettin’ some of that great Mojo…

With Magic Bullet Mojo, you have one of Hollywood’s best tricks up your own sleeve. Modern blockbusters often use a subtle coloring effect to warm up actors’ skin tones while backgrounds and shadows get a cool blue treatment –– but the trick is to do it while keeping your talent in focus. Magic Bullet Mojo gives you the look of a modern Hollywood blockbuster in seconds, with easy customizable controls to suit any footage.

Buy now with our week sale! From August 18–25, get Mojo for only $49, regularly $99. Use Coupon Code MOJOFCPX.

Free update for current Mojo users. To download the FREE update to Mojo 1.2.2, go to the Updates page for Mojo.

NOTE: This installation will require your original Mojo or Magic Bullet Suite serial number.