Just like you, Red Giant is excited about the release of OS X Lion. These are crucial platforms for your work and Apple is an important partner for Red Giant.

It is a priority for us to ensure that our customers can run Red Giant products on the latest software. We continue to work closely with Apple to make sure our products run well with theirs.

The good news is that we have been able to test our products with OS X Lion and most of our results have been great. We are happy to report that all of our products work perfectly between Lion and Adobe host applications. With FCP, there are a few issues that have come up, primarily with some of the products in our Magic Bullet Suite (read below).

If you are experiencing any technical problems with our software, and you don’t see the issue already listed below, please contact Red Giant Support. We want to get our products working perfectly in Lion, and your reports are invaluable in helping us continue to make our products high quality and bug free.

Magic Bullet Suite
We have discovered Lion issues in Magic Bullet Suite, primarily with Looks 2 and Colorista II. Apple is aware of the issues and will address them in a future update.Unfortunately, the issues are related to essential functions in OS X Lion that cause problems with saving Looks 2 and Colorista II projects in FCP. Please be assured that we are working closely with Apple to bring resolution to this issue. More details are in this blog post.

Keying Suite
In Lion and FCP, Primatte 5 does not correctly update its view once a key is made. Again, Apple is aware of the issue and will address it in a future update. All other Keying Suite products have not shown any issues with Lion so far, but we are still testing these products to guarantee their performance.

Trapcode Suite
Our testing to date and feedback from customers show that all Trapcode Suite products work in OS X Lion across all host apps.

Effects Suite
In Lion and FCP, Knoll Light Factory cannot save and update its lens flare data. Oh yes… Apple is aware of this issue and will address it in a future update. Our testing to date and feedback from customers show that all other Effects Suite products work in OS X Lion across all host apps.

Hey folks – We know you’ve been wondering what’s taking so long to update some of our plug-ins for OS X Lion. We’ve actually been hammering at it, and we wanted to give you an update:

First off, All Trapcode Products work perfectly in OSX Lion. We’ve seen no problems, nor have any users reported problems to us.

Unfortunately, On the Magic Bullet Front (specifically with Looks and Colorista II) we can’t say the same. And we’re as frustrated as you. The short explanation is this: There is a critical bug in Lion that causes Final Cut Pro to ignore custom data – data that is essential for getting Looks and Colorista II to work properly.

We’ve tried everything under the sun, but at this point, we have to give it back to Apple, and wait for them to make this fix. There is nothing more that we can do other than to strongly advise you that if you want to work with Looks or Colorista II, avoid Lion for now.

To our knowledge, all outstanding issues being cause by Lion are for FCP only. Magic Bullet products in other host applications (like After Effects and Premiere Pro) work fine.

Here’s a more technical explanation from our head of engineering:

The release of OSX 10.7 (Lion) introduced a bug into FCP7 that we have been unable to find a way to work around. We have contacted Apple and are waiting to hear when they will have a fix (either in the Operating System or with Final Cut Pro). This bug affects any plugins for FCP that make use of custom data. Essentially, Apple provides two methods for storing data related to a plugin – general sliders, for example, are a built-in method that Final Cut Pro provides for storing data related to an effect with your project. For more complex information, however, a plugin can define its own set of custom data that it will save within the project. This second method of storing data about an effect with your project is currently broken in the FCP7 / OSX 10.7 combination. It works fine when you run FCP7 on OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Unfortunately for Red Giant plug-in users, we make use of custom data in both the Looks 2.0 and Colorista II plugins. The end result of this is that, while you can use the plugins with FCP on Lion, part of the data associated with the effects once they are applied will not be saved.

We are truly sorry for the inconvenience, but we’re at Apple’s mercy, at this point. Rest assured that the moment Apple has a fix, we will implement it.

Our good friends at MotionWorks have released “Making It Look Great 9: The Complete Robot 2 for Cinema 4D” – training by 3D guru Rob Redman. If you saw Plot Device, our recent short film, You’ve seen Rob’s fantastic 3D work. In this series of tutorials, he’ll teach you animation, camera and staging techniques for Cinema 4D.

Rob also spends a little time on color correction for C4D, using Magic Bullet Looks. Here’s an example of his color correction on 3D renders.

Without color correction.

With Magic Bullet Looks

On the subject of color correction for 3D with Magic Bullet Looks, Rob has this to say:

“As a 3D artist I’m often looking for ways to remove the instant CGness from my renders and bring back some of the warmth you find in film/through a lens. Looks 2 lets me do that with flexibility and efficiency. The ability to create a look and save it as a custom preset is a godsend. A one click application to grade all the shots in a project at once saves bundles of time and it’s easy to tweak if I need to make a quick adjustment.

“As well as using Cinema 4D with After Effects (a common combination) I also use Final Cut a lot and it’s great to have access to the same tools (and presets) meaning I can stay consistent over the length of a big job.

“As for Looks 2, the interface has had a nice spruce up and some of the new tools are pretty cool. I’m particularly fond of the 3 way color correction tools but most important of all is the video preview. I loved the original looks but sometimes you needed to check the grade at various frames. Swapping in and out of looks to scan the timeline could be more work than was needed.”

Other Links

• You can get Making It Look Great 9 with Rob Redman HERE.
• You can check our Rob’s amazing 3D work and other tutorials HERE.
• You can get magic Bullet Looks HERE.

Want to be a giant of the little screen? Red Giant is helping to create a video that promotes the Original iPhone Film Festival and we are looking for on-screen talent. We need males and females, young and old, of all colors, fun and bold.

The Original iPhone festival is open to everyone in the world, so we want its promo video to represent a diverse slice of life. We welcome your unique appearance with tattoos, piercings, hair color, hair dye, facial hair and skin tone, or none of the above.

• Bonus: If you have a cool talent like juggling or skateboarding, or swallowing fire (or, hey, all 3 at once), we would love to film it.
• Compensation: All of those who take part will get a Red Giant Plug-in or Guru Pack of their choice.
• Time/Place: We will be filming the video on the morning of Thursday August 11, in lower Manhattan, NYC. Details to follow.
• How to apply: Email aharon (AT) RedGiantSoftware (DOT) com, and tell us about yourself. That’s pretty much it. Oh yeah – please use the subject “OIFF” as it will help us catch all the emails.

We’re a pretty creative lot in Oregon. And one of Red Giant’s Portland neighbors is the award-winning production company and animation studio Bent Image Lab.

Founded in 2002, Bent Image Lab is known for its animation expertise, encompassing stop-motion and strata-cut techniques as well as CG and motion graphics. Their visual artists and animators have created characters and commercials for clients such as MasterCard, Red Bull, Kellogg’s and Reebok, to name just a few.

One particular character who became a celebrity in his own right is loveable Luchadore El Tabador, who featured in a series of commercials for Canadian cell phone company Koodo. We discovered that the artists at Bent used Trapcode software to really bring this character to life.

Brian Kinkley, 2D compositor at Bent told us, “I used Trapcode Starglow to add a nice shiny effect to the car on the Koodo mobile spot. Then I used Trapcode Shine to simulate volume light and how that light interacts with the character in front of the light source. In fact, I use Trapcode Shine on pretty much all that I do. It’s an extremely useful tool!”

Yesterday, I posted this video on-line and asked people to guess what software I used to generate the imagery:

There were a lot of guesses, but virtually none were right. Either folks thought it was a 3D app or perhaps an as-of-yet unreleased plug-in from Red Giant or another company. But nope. It was Trapcode Form.

Not only is the plug-in not new, but if you are a Trapcode Suite owner, you already have it, and may have had it for YEARS.

Unlike particle systems, such as Trapcode Particular, where particles are emitted and then die/disappear, Trapcode Form, is a plug-in that creates a grid of particles that live forever. And while it may not make Form the ideal tool for generating sparks or fire, it is a fantastic tool for generating fields of objects like the above.

Anyway, I got a lot of questions on how I created the above video, and while I may turn this into a full-on tutorial at some point, I wanted to share this walk-through of the project. Everything you see (including reflections) was generated in After Effects. You’ll be surprised how simple it is, and how much trickery was used. Here it is:

Ever wonder why you can’t put After Effects 3D layers in the middle of your Trapcode Particular particle system? They both use 3D space and react to the camera, yet the layers are either behind or in front of ALL the particle. It can be really frustrating, and can make a convincing composite impossible.

BUT DO NOT LOSE HOPE! In this QuickTip from Harry frank, he’ll explain what’s going on, and show you how to put a layer in between particles. Watch it HERE.

Also, there’s a Red Giant TV tutorial called “Better Compositing with Particles” that covers tackling the same problem, but in a very different way. Depending on your situation, you can use either of them.

Finally, if you’re ready to take on this challenge with lots of 3D layers – check out sParticular – an awesome script from AEscripts.com which will give you real control over putting layers in your Trapcode Particular particle system.

When it comes to stereoscopic 3D, I know how intimidating it can be because I’m a beginner myself. I took some time to do a little research, and I wanted to share my explorations with you, in an episode of Red Giant TV. This is just a “basics” but hopefully it will help kick-start you.

Episode 59: Trapcode 3D Stereoscopic Workflow Basics

In this Episode of Red Giant TV, Aharon Rabinowitz explores the basics of 3D Stereoscopic Workflow with Trapcode 3D plug-ins.This tutorial is a great intro to Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects. If you have them, bring your 3D Glasses – it will help.

Watch the tutorial HERE.

And check out Pinkau.com to get the FREE stereoscopic tools (and tutorials) for AE, By Christoph Keller.

Hey folks – We wanted to let you know that we’re aware of and working on the fixes for issues that have come up in Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista II on OS X Lion. The good news is, that for the 2 major issues, there are temporary workarounds. Jeremy, our head of support, put together a screen capture to walk you through it, and below that, you’ll find a description of the process, in text format:

Magic Bullet Looks 2:

• Description: On OS X Lion 10.7 with Final Cut Pro 7, Magic Bullet Looks LooksBuilder doesn’t open properly after clicking the Edit button.
• Temporary Solution: After clicking the Edit button, move the playhead in the Timeline and this will open the LooksBuider.

Magic Bullet Colorista II:

• Description: On OS X Lion 10.7 with Final Cut Pro 7, Magic Bullet Colorista II doesn’t update preview when the parameters of the color wheel are changed.
• Temporary Solution: After adjusting the parameters in Colorista II, move the playhead in the Timeline and this will force the preview to update.
  

Again, we know this isn’t ideal, but we are quickly working towards a solution. Stay tuned.

Episode 58: Creating a Motion Graphics Billboard Animation

In this episode, Harry Frank walks you through creating an awesome motion Graphics billboard project. You’ll learn about 2 kinds of particle systems, color correction, lighting, reflections, and just generally making stuff that looks really cool.

Watch it HERE.