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High-End Plug-Ins Hit the Desktop

A Bigger Bang For Your VFX Buck

For visual effects artists, a software plug-in — a small piece of code that adds new, often spectacular, capabilities to your editing or compositing application — can be the trick that pushes a show up to a Spinal Tap 11. Not so long ago, it was only Flame and Paintbox artists who harnessed high-powered VFX plug-ins for their systems— and the cost of power plug-in effects often kept pace with the price of their host system. Yet prevailing trends have brought high-end software to the desktop, where they’re finding their way into feature films, commercials and TV series. In fact, Adobe After Effects and Discreet Combustion have both amassed a legion of software plug-ins that address everything from particle effects to high-end keying— at a fraction of the cost of the big-iron systems that held sway just a few years ago.

The downhill march of the plug-ins from the high end started decades ago, when Mac programming wunderkind and Photoshop creator John Knoll wrote a plug-in to create the photon-torpedo effects in 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The plug-in was originally created for use at Industrial Light and Magic, but Knoll turned around and made his software a commercial product with the Knoll Light Factory, which brought the same effects to the masses via After Effects.

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About Red Giant Software

Red Giant Software LLC (www.redgiantsoftware.com) is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.

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