Two new plugins at the start of this week. Tritone Overlays from Tangent FX and Luminaire from SUGARfx. Both are under $30 and both apply lighting effects over video.
Even though it is the traditionally quiet time in the industry over summer, plugin companies are still releasing new FCPX effects every week. We have two new packs of plugins from different developers, both are under $30. Could this be the new 'sweet spot' when it comes to plugin pricing?
The first plugin pack is from Tangent FX. Priced at $24, Tritone Overlays adds colour overlays to video. The plugin can give a subtle graduated grade, or be adjusted to give a light leak effect.
'Three simple colored areas blend into different areas of your image. Each area has independent color control, brightness/color flicker, and position randomness. Vary the overall blend mode and effect intensity to achieve effects that range anywhere from light leaks, retro color treatments, tinted lenses, glows and more. It’s such a simple concept that goes amazingly far.'
Luminaire is a $29 set of six plugins from SUGARfx. Each filter effect adds a light effect to video. The effects can be adjusted by on screen controls and there is a comparison bar for a before and after check.
- Dazzle Rays : Is a shine effect that uses a processed version of the image as a matte, as well as a Circular or Square shape Matte to control how the effect is applied back onto the footage.
- Glow Matte : Provides a creative way to add glows to your footage depending on the luminance Matte processed from the footage.
- Highlights : Is a glint generator that uses a matte extracted from the lighter sections of the footage. The highlights can be manipulated using the OSC controls and other parameters.
- Light Sweep : A sweep of light that animates automatically in the direction that you can select and customize.
- Matte Sweep : A manual sweep of light that can optionally use a luminance Matte extracted from the footage as a method of application.
- Twinkle : An animated glint that behaves like intermittent source of lights coming from the brightest parts of the image, thanks to a generated Noise Matte that can be easily manipulated.
Luminaire is available as part of FxFactory, the plugin management system from Noise Industries. There is a watermarked trial available and they have also produced a tutorial video.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
