Favorite plugin

Just out of curiosity, what plugin is your favorite of all in FCPX?

After 30 people have viewed this without a response, I'm prompted to examine the question deeper. Granted, lots of visiors are lookie-loos, but even the chatty types might have difficulty answering you. But why?

If you ask a carpenter which is his favorite tool, he'll respond "Depends on what I'm doing." Sometimes it's the hammer, others the saw or chisel.

An artist uses many colors & brushes & may even go thru periods when his work is more blue or orange, but if the palette isn't varied the work deteriorates into banality.

Similarly here with video, we've recently separated our plugs into categories, so when needing a transition, I might have a current favorite, or maybe I'm freshly excited about a new offering from Alex4D, Deyson, Fourdee, Mikey, StupidRaisins or another of our wonderful contributors, same with Generators, Titles, etc. They all serve their purpose & make up the arsenal we have to choose from.

However, like the writer that overuses a certain phrase, word or plot device, all these tools must be regularly rotated to avoid staleness, spoilage, familiarity & predictability. Filmmakers are generally a very media savvy group, what may be currently en vogue, hot or all the rage, is soon played out, overused & cliche. Perhaps TiltShift has run its course. But that's a beautiful aspect of this art form, it spurs innovation, creativity & development. Much of it is also cyclical, I mean look at the winner of last year's Best Picture, a B&W silent movie! An effect I love today, I may have to retire tomorrow, but maybe only for a year or so...

Which one is my favorite? The one that perfectly assists me at this precise moment in the film, when I need the special magic kiss to touch the viewer.

got your point, the Q is to bulky and wide, sorry about that :dry:

actually I should have asked about support and functionality software, like Event Manager X, Pro Versioner and stuff like that

I'll bite.......

Coremelt SliceX
HyColour

And demoing/liking Tiffen's Film Stock


K

awsome, thanks

HyColor 1.5 and and SliceX

Noise industries FX Factory Pro - Plenty of transitions and filters. However if you are using 10.0.6 upgrade to 10.0.7.

FCP 7 to X - Works great for taking Ver. 7 projects and getting them into X. It's not a perfect transfer of all effects, but it get's you pretty close.

Event Manager X - Works great for keeping things nice and orderly.

SliceX for sure, especially over time.

Nattress Levels & Curves

Technicolor's "Color Assist" is coming to FCPX soon and will be amazing. Writing an article for macProVideo about it this very moment. Watch for it soon. Amazing little app/plugin combo.

Resolve LITE (I consider it a plugin, sort of...)

3D Supercharger V2, especially with the development going on with it.

As for utilities, there is one that simplifies creating DMGs, forget the name, Event Manager X, that one that moves Motion templates out of the way, Preference Manager, and something else I can't think of because it is way too early and I've not had coffee yet. What day is it? Ugh...

thats some cool aps Ben, its Wednesday today, pls get back after your coffee

Even though I didn't want to be constricted into choosing an actual favorite, as I feel variety is not only the spice of life but also film, I have a favorite for today.

Taking advantage of the generous 25% discount for FCP.co members (maybe visitors too?) . Loving the light, I leapt at the chance to pick up this gorgeous gem from Pixel Film Studios.

Watch the video & see the wondrous effects you can do with light (even adding haze & floating dust particles). A shoot I was on a couple of years ago was attempting this & required a lot of work in AE, yet now it's available as an effortless plugin! (only 25 bucks with the discount!) A real bargain at that price since unpacked it weighs in at 350 megs of content!

vimeo.com/56787103

Now I'll just have to try & apply a little temperance to my giddy passion over this plug so I don't overuse it.

Mmm... playing in the light

+1 for...

Nattress Levels and Curves
various motionvfx.com products - mTransition, mLooks, etc.
HyColor

I also like SugarFX Punchline, XEffects Tech, and I can't say enough about Alex Gollner's Smooth Move (free).

I do lots of Ken Burns type effects, but find the actual KB effect very limiting. And, key framing, in additon to taking longer, has odd results (as did FCP7) if you move and scale at the same time. Smooth Move solves all these problems - it's perhaps the only plugin of any type that I absolutely use on every single project.

Smooth Move sounds great, I'll have to try it. We all know Alex as Alex4D round these parts, because he's obviously too much to be contained in regular 3D.

Here's the LINK...

Yeah, I gotta bring this thread back (it was buried 2 pages deep), so... this isn't a double post, but rather a brand new update.

Since I shared with you guys I bought the Prolumetric light kit from Pixel Film Studios, now I'm on their mailing list & they sent me this today.
A really impressive Rain Maker plugin called ProRain. (everything is "Pro" with them) Anyway, check the video at the link, this is a gorgeous effect which adds a ton of emotional drama to virtually any scene.

Only 29 bucks, & no I don't work for PixelFilm, but... hmmm, maybe I'll tweet this link, if they get a sales spike, maybe they'll send me a copy in gratitude. Despite the weather, stay optimistic!