106 MacDirectory
REVIEW
RED GIANT PLUG-INS > PSUNAMI, TRAPCODE
PARTICULAR, KNOLL LIGHT FACTORY PRO
Much of the miracle of desktop video is
achieved through the addition of
commercial plug-ins in the form of filters,
transitions and special effects. One of the
top sources of these is Red Giant
Software .
Choosing between their many offerings is
a challenge, as nearly every one is a must-
have item, and you can never stop with
just one. As difficult as the choice may be,
we will select three very different
offerings: Red Giant Psunami, Knoll Light
Factory Pro, and Trapcode Particular.
Knoll Light Factory
Pro 2.5
Light Factory is used for creating,
deploying and animating lens flares –
those flashy rings, stars and shapes
created by light reflected within a camera
lens, typically when pointed at a strong
light source. This filter is nearly ubiquitous
and is seen in movies, TV shows and
commercials on a daily basis. Remember
the Star Trek "nexus" ribbon rippling
through the sky? How about a nuclear
flash and expanding shockwave? These are
but a few examples of what you can do
with KLF.
In addition to providing a wealth of
presets, easy and intuitive tools are
available for creating custom flares and
lighting effects, including the use of
custom primitives. AfterEffects users can
also import all of the elements of a flare
(such as a caustic, spikeball and
polyspread) as editable layers within a
composition for further manipulation.
Light Factory is highly conducive to
experimentation and there seems to be
few limits to this plug-in, which is available
at the appropriate features vs. cost sweet
spot of $399.
Psunami
Psunami is used for creating animated
bodies of water within Adobe AfterEffects. By
combining animated polygon meshes, ray
tracing and other 3-D capabilities, Psunami
makes it easy to create realistic water scenes
both above and below the surface.
While you can easily create ocean effects
right out of the box, this is not a point and
shoot tool. It provides controls for such
things as wind speed, haze, lights, water
refraction, swells, depth of field (which can
also be used to for layer compositing),
displacement maps (such as an animated
ship's wake) and image maps (such as the
foam created by the wake). It even
provides the camera effect of a bobbing
platform. There is a good assortment of
factory presets and users can create and
save their own.
Psunami is not intended to compete
directly with high-end dedicated 3-D suites,
but for $199 this is one handy plug-in.
Trapcode Particular 2
Particular is one sweet particle generator
and is seen just about everywhere for such
simple things as falling leaves and
accumulating snow to complex explosions,
elaborate star and nebula compositions,
simulations of high-speed traffic taillights,
and countless background compositions
for broadcast news, lower thirds and
mattes. It can also be used within
AfterEffects for generating particles that
can be used by other plug-ins such as
Knoll Light Factory.
Particles can be bounced off surfaces,
chased through 3-D space (such as a trail
of fire and smoke), be blown in the wind
like a stack of playing cards, and can use an
AfterEffects precomposition as the source
for generating streams of particles, such as
turning burning papers into cinders.
There is no question as to the power and
usefulness of this plug-in. As with Light
Factory, it is available for $399 — but if you
are a serious AfterEffects jockey, this
should be considered a must-have item for
your special effects arsenal.
Conclusions
These are three very different tools that
are among the choice plums of Red
Giant's many offerings (all of which are
choice in their own right). All are
compatible with AfterEffects, while
Psunami and Knoll work with a variety of
applications (see the Web site for
specifics). They offer a great deal of power
for the price and offer the kind of stand-
out magic that will make a big impact the
board room, on the viewing public, and on
your demo reel.
A final recommendation: Visit Red Giant's
Web site and check out all of their
amazing offerings and demo videos. If you
have the budget, you might consider
buying the whole enchilada in the form of
Red Giant's Mega Bundle. These tools are
really that good.
Products Red Giant Psunami,
Knoll Light Factory Pro,
Trapcode Particular
Made by Red Giant Software
Price Red Giant Psunami - $199
Pros Fast, easy, powerful, realistic
Cons 2-D compositing,
no spray effects
Rating
★★★★
Price Knoll Light Factory Pro - $399
Pros Versatile, powerful, accepts
Particular data
Cons None
Rating
★★★★★
Price Trapcode Particular - $399
Pros Powerful, highly controllable,
versatile
Cons Learning curve
Rating
★★★★★
WORDS BY TREY YANCY
