If you haven’t watched our newest getting started tutorials (like the ones for Grinder, Photolooks, and many of our FCP intro tutorials) you may not be familiar with our British team member, Simon Walker,  but he’s kind of a Renaissance man. Aside from working on animation and visual effects, he’s a talented musician, photographer, father, and vigilante crime fighter (though he denies that last one vehemently).

Simon just uploaded  these 5 free Looks for Magic Bullet Looks and Photolooks, which you can find at Red Giant People, our community site for sharing presets and templates. Here are 2 images of those presets in use.

You ever look everywhere for your glasses when they’re just sitting on your head (or maybe they’re actually in place, on your face, where they should be)? Well that’s th kind of day I was having yesterday. I’ve been trying to create an old film look with no stock footage, but was finding it a bit of a challenge. But then I remembered something Stu Maschwitz said at our company meeting – “Misfire” – a term I was confused about, but which I promptly filed away under “I’ll worry about that later.”

I wish I hadn’t. It turns out I had the tools for old film looks all along. It’s not mentioned anywhere on the Red Giant site, but Magic Bullet Looks comes with a great set of tools called Magic Bullet MisFire. These tools allow you to add old film effects like dust and scratches, flicker, film noise… etc., to create an old film look.

And to save me a lot of time and trouble, I added Nick Campbell’s  Vintage film for Looks for a nice vintage coloration.You don’t need it, or course. Magic Bullet Looks gives you complete control of your looks, but this is something Nick is really good at, and there’s no reason not to at least start with his vintage look settings.

Of course, no old-school footage is complete without light leaks. I used Trapcode Particular to create those, and when all was said and done it looked pretty good.

If you want to do this, I made a tutorial that walks you through this process, and you can find that here.

Just a note on 3 awesome tutorials we posted today:

RGTV Episode 47: Tiny Inventions

Red Giant Quick Tip#16: Creating a Flare Preset Slider for Knoll Light Factory EZ

Buckle up baby! Color correction just got awesome!

Magic Bullet Colorista II is here, and it’s taking names. It’s seriously supped up and ready to unleash color in your timeline. You can learn more about it here. Or just give in the inevitable… and buy it here.

Here’s a first look at what’s new in Colorista II, from the DV Rebel himself, Stu Maschwitz.

iPod/iPad friendly version on Vimeo.

Introducing Red Giant Software’s Plastic Bullet: A Photo App with infinite possibilities.

Plastic Bullet puts the fun, spontaneity, and unpredictability of plastic-fantastic toy cameras right into your pocket. Just tap to turn your photos into gloriously unpredictable works of art, then tap again to change the look.

Get it on your iPhone now, for just $1.99 at the Apple App Store: itunes.apple.com/us/app/plastic-bullet/id372405516?mt=8

New Episode Folks!

Episode 28: Building an Airport Scene – Part 2: Compositing
By: Mathias Möhl

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Mathias Möhl continues his airport project, and shows you how to motion track with Mocha For After Effects, and then to use that data along with MochaImport (His own Script) to easily create a solid composite.

Watch the episode here.

And get a discount on Magic Bullet Looks and Red Giant Warp here.

Well… I’m on the sandy beaches of Florida… so this week we got some help for RGTV…

Click on image to see example video.

Episode 27: Building an Airport Scene – Part 1: Backplate
By Mathias Möhl

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Mathias Möhl shows you how to take footage of a parking lot, and turn it into the backplate for an Airport Scene.

Watch the episode here.

And get a discount on Magic Bullet Colorista here.

Folks – get ready for a truly awesome episode with a truly awesome guest…

Episode 22: Creating a summer blockbuster film look

Hosted by Stu Maschwitz

In this week’s action packed episode of Red Giant TV, Sin City’s Visual Effects Supervisor – and our new Creative Director – Stu Maschwitz, shows you how to get the Summer Blockbuster look seen in Transformers 2, Terminator: Salvation, and The Taking of Pelham 123. Stu shares valuable techniques for enhancing your footage with Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista – the technologies he invented for his own use on feature films.

Watch it here.

There’s also a sale associated with the episode. Here’s the info on that:

Save 25% on Magic Bullet Colorista and Magic Bullet Looks until June 26, 2009

Get that Summer Blockbuster Film Look. Save 25% on any new order of Magic Bullet Colorista and Magic Bullet Look, from now through June 26, 2009. Enter Coupon Code NL0609 to redeem your discount.

Our checkout includes two initial pages. To redeem your discount, enter Coupon Code NL0609 on the second page, titled Review and Submit Your Order, in the coupon code field. (Note: The coupon code field appears after you have entered your credit card information and hit Continue. The Gift Certificate field on the first check out page cannot accept the Coupon Code.)

Episode 19: Creating a Transporter Effect
Hosted by Eran Stern

In this episode, Chief Engineer Eran Stern works furiously to get his Starship’s transporters back on-line to rescue a fellow crew member trapped on a hostile planet. But time is running out. Will Eran be able to build the transporter in After Effects before it’s too late?

You can watch the episode here.

And, as usual, you can get a discount on Trapcode Particular, Knoll Light Factory, Key Correct Pro, and Magic Bullet Looks, but going here.

In honor of Star Trek (of which I am a huge fan), I’m also offering a discount on my own product, Crowd Control: Pre-Keyed Alpha Stock Footage. Use the code “startrek” for the next seven days, and get 50% off the cost of Crowd Control credits.

Hi folks-

This week’s episode of Red Giant TV is a bit different than usual. While it’s not a tutorial per se, it is, IMHO, one of the best episodes we’ve had so far…

This week on Red Giant TV, Sundance acclaimed filmmaker/director Eric Escobar discusses the production process – scouting locations, casting, lighting, filming, and how one needs to plan for post production during these earlier steps. This episode is full of great advice for the filmmaker and post production artist alike. It also covers great techniques for users of the Magic Bullet product line.

You can watch the episode here.

Don’t miss it, or I may have to send the guy in the above image after you.

Also, don’t forget, just for watching the tutorial, you can get a discount on Magic Bullet Everything (no that’s not an actual product name -  I just mean any Magic Bullet product). You can get that discount here.