Happy new year folks, and welcome back to work! Alright… now that you’re settled in with your cup of coffee let’s get productive.

So the other day, Stu Maschwitz, our Creative Director for Magic Bullet, asked me if I thought that the ability to animate a Look in Magic Bullet Looks was an under-publicized and under-utilized feature. Since I had no idea what he was talking about, we figured it probably was, and thus a Red Giant QuickTip was born:

Red Giant Quicktip #57: Animating a Look

In this QuickTip, Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to animate the tools in Magic Bullet Looks.

Watch it HERE.

What do Zombies, Brides, Skin Tones and Looks have in Common? Find out TONIGHT in SF, NY & PDX!

Ever wonder how certain people always know things before you do? That’s ’cause they go where the buzz, big shots and booze are.

Stop by and mingle and meet Red Giant folks like Stu Maschwitz and other ‘Guru’ industry leaders at our Red Giant Tweet-Up.

Let us treat you to refreshing Cosmos, yummy finger food, and then whet your appetite with something surprising and truly delicious. Get more details throughout the week on Facebook or Twitter! If you can’t make Monday’s event, stay tuned to Facebook and Twitter all of this week for hints and updates about our surprise.

Red Giant Tweet-Up meetup*

When: TODAY
Time: 5:00pm PST & 8:00pm EST

Where: New York City
Who: Chat with our Director of Communities, Aharon Rabinowitz, and in-house
Guru Harry Frank
Go to: Cafe Del Mar, 89 MacDougal St, NY, NY 10079, www.yelp.com

Where: San Francisco
Who: Hang out with Red Giant Co-founder Sean Safreed and Creative Director Stu Maschwitz
Go to: 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna Street, SF, CA, www.111minnagallery.com

Where: Portland
Who: Get to know Red Giant’s dedicated Portland Quality & Support teams and local Industry Gurus
Go to: Saucebox Annex, 214 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97205, www.saucebox.com

*Please note this a 21+ event.

07 – Color Correcting Food with Magic Bullet Colorista II

Recently, Stu Maschwitz sat down with a friend who wanted to learn about color and why his 7D stills look so much nicer than his video.  He had some 7D stills and video from a food prep shoot.

Stu helped him match the video to the stills and used almost every feature of CII.

Here is the Original footage, followed by the final result:

Get Colorista II HERE.

Can’t get the holiday cheer out of your head so you can concentrate on work? We have the perfect headache cure! For the next 5 days, Red Giant is offering a 25% discount on all Guru Preset Packs. This is a perfect time to explore our helpful tools for giving your design an energy boost and your budget a break. Oh, and helping you over that post-New Year’s hump. Read about them below.

5 Day Sale: This 25% OFF sale runs through Monday, January 17, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST (California). To find out when the sale ends in your time zone, visit the World Clock site.

How To Buy: Go to our store. Enter Coupon Code GURU25 during checkout to redeem your discount on the page titled Review and Submit Your Order. (Note: The coupon code field appears after you have entered your credit card information and hit Continue.)

Guru presets for motion design Get Guru Preset Packs for designing easy and incredible motion graphics using Trapcode Suite. * Learn about Harry Frank’s Looping Backgrounds for Trapcode Suite 2010. Get an interesting variety of corporate and broadcast styles in four color schemes. * Learn about Cassidy Bisher’s Text Effects Vol 2 for Trapcode Suite 2010. Turn your text or logo into an engaging particle animation. * Try out Trapcode Suite, the industry standard tools for broadcast & 3D design.		Guru presets for color treatment Get Guru Preset Packs for interesting and fast film color treatments using Magic Bullet Looks. * Learn about Stu Maschwitz’s Rebel Epic for Looks. Simulate the feel of popular and big budget Hollywood film styles. * Learn about Nick Campbell’s Vintage Film for Looks. Turn your projects into contemporary-styled vintage works of art. * Learn about Simon Walker’s Weddings & Events for Looks. Give your clients a beautiful record of their special occasion. * Try out Magic Bullet Looks, a color treatment tool that sets the mood in any timeline.

We were watching Twitter and saw a post by our good friend Philip Bloom about a new, end-of-year contest he’s running on his site – Reflecting on 2010. We liked the idea so much we decided to throw a bunch of prizes into the mix:

Here’s the short version directly from Philips mouth/blog:

…You have until December the 31s to get this in…The film should reflect what this year has meant to you, find a way to sum it up. It doesn’t have to be you talking to camera or voiceover. There are many ways to tell a story without the traditional methods. You just need to think a bit harder. It could be one key thing that has affected your life, one key person. It’s totally up to you…

Among other prizes, winners can receive:

• On of 3 copies of Nick Cambpell’s Vintage Film for Looks
• On of 3 copies of Stu Maschwitz’s Rebel Epic for Looks

Get the full info on how to enter the “Reflect your 2010″ contest 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.

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

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

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.)