After Effects compositing just got an upgrade with the VFX Suite by Red Giant.
Every once in awhile a new plug-in is launched and it rocks the industry. It just happened again with Red Giant releasing VFX Suite for After Effects.
Compositing can be a tricky work flow, just ask industry professional Stu Maschwitz. That was, until Red Giant started to work with Stu and created a whole host of new plug-ins. Thus, the VFX Suite was born, and VFX artists, film-makers and motion designers everywhere rejoiced.
Not sure why everyone is so thrilled? Don't worry, you'll be one of us shortly! Just read up below!
Want to enter for a chance to win a copy of Red Giant's VFX Suite? Stick around, and information for the giveaway will be at the bottom of the article.
What is the Red Giant VFX Suite?
Coming into motion design, it probably doesn't take people long to learn about the power-house known as Red Giant. For years they have been creating staple plug-ins that have become established industry standards in animation, compositing, and film.
Now, in an amazing new release, Red Giant has launched VFX Suite for After Effects. To put it shortly, this plug-in is absolutely amazing!
WITHIN RED GIANT'S VFX SUITE YOU WILL FIND:
- VFX Supercomp
- VFX Optical Glow
- VFX King Pin Tracker
- VFX Spot Clone Tracker
- VFX Chromatic Displacement
- VFX Knoll Light Factory
- VFX Primatte Keyer
- VFX Shadow
- VFX Reflection
Each one of these work independently and compliment each other in very unique ways. There is so much you can do with VFX Suite and we can't wait to see where plug-ins will carry our industry. For now, we are going to dig into some of my favorite features that have me really pumped!
Exciting features in Red Giant's VFX Suite
To kick it off, I'm going to talk about my favorite new feature: Supercomp. It was built as a compositing powerhouse with easy access tools, and I've never seen anything like this. This tool is going to rock the film world, and it's going to bring a whole new level of production finesse to budget film-makers everywhere. But, to be honest, I'm more excited about what it's going to do for motion designers.
Now, why would I be excited about Supercomp for motion design when this tool is for compositing? That's because Supercomp has high-level compositing techniques and is presenting them in an easy to access format. Most motion designers don't have the time, or simply don't know where to go to learn compositing.
WHAT IS SUPERCOMP?
Defining Supercomp is a little difficult, to be honest. But it's one of those things you need to see to believe. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not like anything else available. To help you get a better understanding, let's let the hilarious Stu Maschwitz tell you about what Supercomp does, and a little bit about how it works. Go ahead and tape your jaw shut so you don't drool on your keyboard.
Here are some of the key features within Supercomp:
- GPU-Accelerated
- Optical Glow
- Layer Glow
- Light Wrapping
- Reverse Light Wrapping
- Haze
- Volume Fog
- Heat Blur
- Displacement Layers
- Core Matte
I have a feeling that these will change as people spend more time tinkering with Supercomp within the VFX Suite. Motion design is going to get bonkers, and atmospheric beauty, glows, smoke and so much more are going to become more elaborate.
This is a great thing, as it's going to open up a whole new pathway for mid-level motion designers as they seek to add more polish to their artwork.
If you want to check out some more nerdy info on Supercomp you can take a look at the user-guide here.
KING PIN TRACKER
Tracking in After Effects may not be your favorite task, but avoid it no longer! This workflow just became much simpler with the introduction of Red Giant's King Pin Tracker, available in the VFX Suite. Planar tracking directly inside of After Effects sounds amazing, and the speed is also impressive. King Pin tracks so fast that the composition preview panel can't even keep up. Sound exciting?
King Pin Tracker has a lot of magic going on under the hood.
Here are some of the key features within King Pin Tracker:
- Planar Tracking and Corner Pinning
- Reposition, Scale and Rotate After Tracking
- Anti-Aliasing Algorithm
- Proprietary Motion Blur
If you haven't done a lot of tracking as a part of your workflow, then these may seem trivial. But for those that rely on After Effects as a tracking work horse, this is a big win! Especially when you see how fast this plug-in can track. It truly is impressive.
If you want to check out some more nerdy info on King Pin Tracker you can take a look at the user-guide here.
OPTICAL GLOW
The current motion design generation has been extremely blessed over the past few years when it comes to enhanced capabilities within After Effects. One feature that people have been clamoring for is a good way to create high quality glows. A few tools have come out recently that are starting to tackle this job, but Optical Glow is a heavy hitter and really could be a tipping point for you to be able to go all in with the VFX Suite.
The 80's are back right now, along with gradients, vibrant colors, neon, and sweet Tron Glows. Making this look good organically inside of After Effects can be a challenge though. Optical Glow brings a whole new level of polish and realism to glowing layers in After Effects. We have a feeling we're going to start seeing a lot more glowing objects in motion design soon!
Here are some of the key features within Optical Glow:
- GPU Accelerated
- Lot's of parameters for tweaking
- Color and tint controls
- Glow highlights only
- Highlight Rolloff
- Multiple ways to handle Alpha Channels
- HDR with 32-Bit Float
Bringing high-end glows with GPU accelerated speeds is going to open up new ways to create for motion designers everywhere! There are so many applications within motion graphics and film compositing.
If you want some more nerdy info on the Optical Glow effects you can check out the user guide here.
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