Recently, we asked you to send us your favorite videos that use Magic Bullet Looks, and if we loved it, we would give you and the creator any single plug-in of your choice. You sent a ton of great ones, but we had to boil it down to 3, and here they are:

Color Grading Demo by Crooked Path Films
(Submitted by Crooked Path Films):

Dave Sills: Life without Love – by Kevin Otterness
(Submitted by Brenton House):

Adrift – by Paul Joy and Peter Naylor
(Submitted by Brenton House):

Thanks to all for the great submissions!

We’re looking for the best videos that use Magic Bullet Looks. Show us your favorite one, and if we love it too, we’ll give you AND the creator any single Red Giant Plug-in. Just post the links here and we’ll check them out. You can absolutely submit your own work, but you won’t get two plug-ins – only one. So… Share the love, and share quality stuff, and everyone wins!

Post you’re favorite videos in the comments here. We’ll look at every one, and pick a bunch of winners. I’ll even start. This is one of my favorites:

Jack Tunnicliffe is the owner-operator of two successful companies in Western Canada that serve broadcast clients along both coasts. His post-production facility Java Post Production provides editing and visual effects for broadcast TV, commercials and ad agency productions. Caffeine Commercial Productions is an award-winning production company that works alongside Java Post with their commercial and corporate clients. Sounds like Jack also serves up a mean cup of dark roasted brew.

At Java Post, Jack works as the chief colorist and a lead motion graphics artist. He began his career as a camera operator, then moved into producing/directing a range of media from commercials and documentaries to sports broadcasts including Olympic broadcasts for Canada and world host feeds. In 1995, Jack started Java Post with a business partner, one Media 100 workstation, and self-taught knowledge of After Effects and compositing. His talents and company exploded along with the visual effects industry.

I caught up with Jack to hear about a new Canadian TV series, InSecurity, that Java Post produces the color correction and visual effects for. The show went to air in January 2011 as a comedy about a bumbling group of Canadian intelligence agents. Jack walked me through the effects-heavy opening sequence of InSecurity and also previewed an intriguing scene that involves a composited ‘finger screen’. Both segments use a lot of heavy-hitting Red Giant products, and the ones I will showcase are Magic Bullet Colorista II and Red Giant Warp.

InSecurity-Intro from Java Post Production

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I was in Portland a few weeks ago, completely out of touch, but when I checked in with Twitter, I found this great video posted by our good friend Nick Campbell:

Nick Campbell and Benny Monson are old band buddies, and though it’s been a while, both wanted to write and play more music together. So, adopting the same philosophy of creating a deadline to be creative that Nick uses for his 5-Second Projects, they decided to write, perform, record and release one song per month in 2011.

They say they’re not quite sure how it will work out – but by anyone’s account, so far so good.

Aside from really enjoying the music, I loved the vintage look and feel of the video – kind of a signature style for the man who brought you ShakeItPhoto and CrossProcess. Obviously I had to ask what he did to get that look. But it turns out it’s no big secret: Nick used the “Basic Fade” preset from his Red Giant Guru Preset Pack, Nick Campbell’s Vintage Film for Looks – an add-on for Magic Bullet Looks.

All around, great stuff. Can’t wait to see and hear what’s next. Though, we do hope you guys can manage to scrape together some cash to rent a garage so that you aren’t stuck playing out in snow much longer (That dog looked mean!).

Hey folks – just wanted to let you know about a maintenance release of Magic Bullet Looks for Windows and Mac users. Here are some of the Features/bug-fixes in Looks 1.4.3:

• Adds a CPU render fallback so users who do not have a graphics card can still use Looks (such as users with Windows computers and GMA integrated cards).
• Sony Vegas support dropped (UPDATE: Read Below)
• Misfire plug-ins have been rebuilt to fix serialization issues customers encountered, especially Final Cut users.
• This update does not affect Avid users on Windows.

You can find the update for both Windows and Mac HERE.

UPDATE FOR SONY VEGAS USERS: Magic Bullet Looks 2 is compatible with Sony Vegas. Read more HERE.

Red Giant has been a fan of the elegant, evocative video art by Jean-Sébastien Monzani since learning about his use of our Magic Bullet products. His portfolio site Simplemoment.com is a constantly evolving showpiece for his video pieces along with his photography, illustrations and graphic design work. Five of his videos have aired on the French cable channel Souvenirs From Earth and he recently authored a book of his artwork.

I recently caught up with Jean-Sébastien to find out about his work, inspiration, and how Red Giant products fit in.

The movie Blindspot uses Colorista II.

Jean-Sébastien introduces himself as a “freelance photographer, graphic-designer, illustrator and video-artist” and uses the term ‘experimental movie’ to describe his video art. He came to storytelling with a background in music and theater and a PHD in computer science but no formal training in visual art. A decade ago, Jean-Sébastien began directing, acting and writing in local theater, while also taking photos of the young amateur actresses he worked with. Many of his movies are shot outdoors using available light as he walks around with the model.

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Red Giant Quciktip #28: Using the Auto Shoulder Tool in Magic Bullet Looks

In this QuickTip, Apple Certified Master Trainer, Simon Walker, shares a tip for keeping your bright highlights legal in Final Cut when using Magic Bullet Looks. This is also a very useful tip for those working with Looks in any editing or compositing application, like Adobe After Effects or Premiere.

Get Magic Bullet Looks HERE.

Stu Maschwitz’s Rebel Epic for Looks
Give Your DV Rebel-Style footage an Epic Film Look

Using Magic Bullet Looks and his serious color correction chops, Director Stu Maschwitz brings you a set of Looks Presets designed to you give your footage the look of a true Hollywood Epic film. This Guru Preset Pack comes with 25 Looks presets for simulating big-budget film styles, as well as several utility-based Looks presets for creating popular Hollywood film effects.

Get it HERE for just $69.

Harry Frank’s Cinematic Flares for Knoll Light Factory
100 Breathtaking Flare Presets for Motion Graphics and Visual Effects

This collection of 100 Knoll flare presets makes it easy for you to add amazing cutting-edge visuals to film, still-imagery, music videos, motion graphics, and visual effects. If you’re looking to create fresh and exciting lighting effects that will stun your clients and audience alike, this essential addition to your Knoll Custom Lens Library is a must-have.

Get it HERE for just $69.

In this episode, I’ll show you how to create the look of a holographic interface, using Red Giant Software’s Holomatrix. I’ll also use Magic Bullet Looks for color grading, and footage from Digital Juice’s Motion Designer’s Toolkit.

Watch the tutorial here.

In the grand scheme of things, this definitely isn’t a groundbreaking tutorial – It’s more of a short demonstration of how fast and simple it is to set up a cool effect with some very basic AE animation chops and the right set of tools. I hope you enjoy.

Hi folks -

This week we have Michele Yamazaki sharing a ton of tips from her new book, Greenscreen Made Easy. If you’re looking to learn more about keying and compositing, don’t miss it!

Watch the episode here.

In this episode, Michele uses Primate Keyer Pro, Key Correct Pro, and Magic Bullet Looks. And just for watching, you can get a discount on one, two, or all three. get the discount here.