Imagineer did introduce mocha shape for Final Cut. To support the launch of mocha shape for Final Cut Imagineer has released updated versions of  mocha,  mocha for After Effects and motor. 

“For years, Final Cut editors have asked for better masking tools to perform tasks such as isolated color correction and the blurring of objects,” said Ross Shain, chief marketing officer for Imagineer Systems. “The new mocha shape FxPlug, combined with mocha shape for Final Cut offers an affordable and easy to learn solution.  Now editors, can quickly track masking shapes to objects, import the XML data and finish their shot within Final Cut rather than another finishing software.”

mocha shape for Final Cut is designed to import rotoscoping shape data exported from mocha into Final Cut, mocha shape for Final Cut enables Final Cut Pro users to easily import multi-layer shape data with variable, per point edge feathering.  This new development significantly saves render time and improves the workflow between Imagineer’s mocha family of desktop VFX products and Final Cut Pro.

Imagineer’s mocha shape FxPlug for Final Cut is supported currently by mocha v1.5, motor v1.5, mocha for Final Cut v2.

mocha shape for Final Cut features:

• import XML roto shape data from Imagineer’s products to Final Cut Pro
• variable per point edge width feathering
• mocha layer names translate to Final Cut
• high quality rendering
• works with Final Cut Pro and Express

If you want to learn more about mocha shape for Final Cut you jump over to the tutorial that is available on imagineers systems web site where Ben Heusner from Curious Turtle covers mocha for Final Cut and the mocha shape FxPlug to track shapes and import them into Final Cut.

Imagineer published also maintenance releases for some of their products which fixes several bugs and adds support for several new tracking and shape export formats.

New  mocha 1.5 features:

• After Effects Corner Pin has been changed to provide motion blur on the translation, rotation and scale components when rendered in After Effects.
• Shape data export to mocha shape for After Effects (sold separately) is included.
• Tracking data export to Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express is included.
• Shape data export to mocha shape for Final Cut (sold separately) is included.

New mocha for Final Cut v2 features:

• free point release for existing owners
• adds mocha shape for Final Cut export
• now supports all ProRes QuickTime formats

New motor v1.5 features:

• free point release for existing owners
• adds mocha shape for Final Cut export
• adds mocha shape for After Effects export
• now supports all ProRes QuickTime formats

New mocha for After Effects v2.0.3 features:

• free point release for existing owners of v2
• now supports all ProRes QuickTime formats

Imagineer recommends that Mac OS X user should save a copy of the license file before installing. When updated mocha I did run into little issues under Windows Vista 64 as well so I recommend to save a copy of the  license file before installing  on Windows and Mac OS X.

Pricing and Availability
mocha shape for Final Cut, mocha for Final Cut v2, mocha v1.5 and motor v1.5 are all available immediately and are priced as follows:

• mocha shape for Final Cut:  $99.00 US
• mocha for Final Cut v2:  $199.00 US
• mocha v1.5 (full version):  $995.00 US
• motor v1.5:  $495.00 US

For more information on these solutions or to place an order, please visit www.imagineersystems.com.

Trapcode Particular v2 will be available soon and comes with great new features to make your live easier when rendering and using particles in After Effects.

Trapcode Particular v2 comes with  interactive previews, bouncing particles, 3D camera integration, particles that emit particles, custom shapes, air resistance, gravity and turbulence controls, depth of field, and more! It’s the best way to generate your own star fields, asteroid belts, or meteor showers. With Particular 2, you no longer need your favorite 3D modeling/animation program to create virtual 3D textures or adjust lighting as text or objects tumble in 3D space. Particular 2 lets you do it all right inside After Effects.

Shaded Particles, Beautifully Lit
All particle types can be shaded from multiple lights in After Effects. Spot, Point and Ambient lights are all supported with natural light falloff available for spot and point lights. This feature is exclusive to Particular and found in no other After Effects particle plug-in.

Shadowlets, Enhanced Depth
Along with shaded particles, you also get particle volume self-shadowing. This feature creates a shadow from light sources to create a much greater sense of depth in a scene. This exclusive feature is found in no other After Effects particle plug-in.

New Particle: Streaklet
This new particle type is perfect for long exposure-style light effects as seen in the Apple iPod and Sprint commercials. This a Particular-exclusive feature found in no other After Effects particle plug-in.

Highest Quality 32-bpc Rendering
Floating point rendering (32 bits per channel) allows super-bright (luminant) particles. When motion blur is enabled, it will render with optically correct, extra bright results.

Backward Compatibility
Particular 2 can load projects made with Particular version 1.5. The new version will create nearly identical results, while giving you access to enhanced features. You can buy now with full confidence that your settings will work in the new version.

Be sure to check out Episode 19 of Red Giant TV on how to create your own Star Trek transporter effect with Trapcode Particular. Visit: Red Giant TV

Particular v2 Upgrade Details

Many users want to know the status of version 2 and the upgrade details.

• If you purchase the Particular 1.5 product today you will get the upgrade for free. You will be notified with a upgrade code when the Particular 2 ships.
• Users that purchased Particular BEFORE April 7th, 2009, will need to purchase an upgrade to version 2. The upgrade from Particular 1.0 or 1.5 costs $99.
• Red Giant Software is NOT taking pre-orders for Particular 2 at this time.
• Particular 2 is still in beta and we anticipate a July release but it may be later to deliver the speed and quality that users expect.

Some additional Particular V2 coverage

• fxguidetv #055 Watch High Bandwidth Episode | Watch Low Bandwidth Episode
• Episode 19 of Red Giant TV on how to create your own Star Trek transporter effect with Trapcode Particular

Detailed Overview about all New features Trapcode Particular v2 (patents pending)

Read the rest of this entry »

Swift 3D PS is Electric Rain new plug-in for Photoshop CS4 Extended (32bit only, no 64bit support). It accomplishes simple 3D tasks in seconds with remarkable results and places  3D text, extrusions or models back into Photoshop as 3D layers for further manipulation with their tool set and filters.

The only draw back that I can see is that it does not install and seem not to work with my PhotoShop CS4 Extended, when I installed it it did install into the plug-in folder of my (not used) PhotoShop CS4 Ext 32bit application. Linking in the 32bit plugin folder or copying the filter from the 32bit version to the 64bit version did not help.

• Create, bevel and extrude 3D text from any font in seconds
• Quickly create extrusions and 3D lathe objects with a Bézier pen tool
• Extend Photoshop’s workflow with After Effects CS4 Live 3D view
• Import, extrude and bevel existing 2D vector artwork from Illustrator or Flash
• Simplify 3D scene creation with targeted cameras & lighting

“Swift 3D is already very well known in the Flash community and we’re excited to see it introduced as a plug-in to Photoshop CS4 Extended,” commented John Nack, Principal Product Manager for Photoshop & Bridge at Adobe Systems.

Electric Rain Swift 3D PS is available  for $149.00 USD.

Synthetic Aperture did announce that Color Finesse® 2.1.10 is now available for download. This update includes the following changes:

• Corrects a problem where the Windows version of the plug-in was not properly applying color correction when footage was exported via Adobe Media Exporter.
• Corrects a problem with shift-key scaling when adjusting the hue wheels in the simplified interface.
• Corrects a problem where the Macintosh version did not work properly with AJA video cards. (Note: this support was broken by the 2.1.8 update.)
• Ensures that the hue wheels and curves are opened in the simplified interface by default.

Color Finesse 2.1.10 is available as a no-charge update for current licensees of Color Finesse 2.1.x from the Downloads section on the Synthetic Aperture web site.

For those updating from the version of Color Finesse 2 bundled with Adobe After Effects CS3 and CS4, be sure to download the “LE” installer as that is what your serial number will work with.

Andrew Kramer and the Video Copilot crew did release Pro Scores which features hundreds of sound design elements and over 50 music tracks for a wide variety of styles and music product effects. Pro Scores is a massive toolkit of professionally composed music and sound elements for creating powerful soundtracks and scores.

Pro Scores features:
Orchestral Music Tracks and Epic Musical Elements
Powerful Layered Music Tracks (Percussion, Choirs, Orchestra, etc.)
Tension Building Elements & Editorial Music FX
5 In-Depth Tutorials + 5 Layered Soundtrack Templates

Pro Scores can be bought in the Video Copilot store.

Jeffrey Friedl (lives in Kyoto, Japan) has created a beta version of a geotagging plug-in for Lightroom that adds support for Geotagging  photos from within Lightroom.The plugin reads a GPS unit/device track log and link the data to the Photos based on the time when the GPS data was recorded and the time the Photo was taken.

M dot Strange published the test result where M dot Strange compared the After Effects Plugin Frishluft Lenscare and TinderBox LensBlur with a real defocus. The winner was Frishluft Lenscare. You can ready more in his defocus comparison