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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) offers a vast range of visual effects plug-ins, with over 30 packages designed for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Avid. The product line features industry-leading effects for designing realistic fire, rain, and water; adding popular looks; and creating perfect keys. Red Giant effects have enhanced feature films such as Angels & Demons, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Mummy 3, and added sparkle to cable and broadcast content from NBC Universal, Food Network, ESPN, Disney, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, and TNT.

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