Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterReview: Noise Industries FxFactory Pro
Jul 28, 2009 12:00 PM, By Franklin McMahon
Effects package provides a framework for creating new plug-ins.
Noise Industries FxFactory Pro effects can be run in Adobe After Effects CS4 (shown), Apple Final Cut Pro, and Apple Motion on the Mac OS X platform. On the lower right of the screen is the FxFactory Pro interface, where effects can be previewed and added, then synced to After Effects.
FxFactory Pro from Noise Industries is a package of expertly designed, powerful plug-ins that generates digital effects for Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Apple Motion on the Mac OS X platform. The 145 digital effects are great, but there is much more happening here. The plug-ins use the Apple FxPlug format, and FxFactory which serves as a host for all the included plug-ins. You can download more from within the program, get a free trial of additional plug-ins or plug-in sets, and even tweak or create your own plug-ins using the software along with Apple Quartz Composer. That last capability allows creative artists to finally produce their dream plug-ins by simply using drag-and-drop methods, without learning a single line of code.
It gets better. All the effects are hardware-accelerated, meaning they exploit your Mac's GPU for lightning-fast previews and rendering. The existing plug-ins and filters you now use likely rely on a mix of GPU and CPU, but FxFactory was built from the ground up to harness the latest Apple GPU technology, such as the Core Image framework, to make sure your video card does all the heavy lifting. FxFactory effects can be applied to high-quality sources such as 10-bit YUV.
Once the program is installed, you work from the main interface to view the effects you have installed and the ones you want to try out. FxFactory Pro ships with 145 filters, generators, and transitions—50 more than the first FxFactory offered. The program includes a new masking engine so you can do your mask compositing from within the plug-ins. Many of the plug-ins, specifically the glow effects, have been revamped to offer more parameter options and faster output. Glows are a big part of a lot of the title-sequence work I do, and within the first week of having the program, I used the package on a client project that needed some extra sizzle. Thanks to the GPU rendering, I was able to tweak parameters within the program and show the client the different glow types, colors, and animation options. Why render and send comps when you can quickly snap a parameter to a different spec and create a whole different look? For my work on multiple projects, I have been moving more and more to the FxFactory effects primarily because they often render faster than the stock effects in some of the programs.
Even though you can sort through and view your plug-ins in the FxFactory standalone program, you actually use them in your editing/compositing programs. When you boot up Final Cut Pro/Express, Motion, or After Effects (Creative Suite 4 is now supported), you will see the FxFactory tools in your effects lists. Most have built-in presets, and all feature a wide array of parameters and sliders just waiting to be tweaked and finessed. Interestingly, the program has spawned a third-party market, so now many other companies are developing plug-ins that slide right into FxFactory. You can download any of them and take most of them for a free 15-day spin to decide if you like them.
If you have wondered how effects like these are created, wonder no more. You can swing into tech mode to break apart and manipulate any effect into something completely new as well as create your own effects from scratch. Not to mention market them and sell them. There's a great selection on the FxFactory website already, with packages such as CoreMelt, SupaWipe, Volumetrix, Sugarfx, and Yanobox—this is the result of actual creative media artists producing packages. Some solve a single problem, some solve many, and most are worth their reasonable prices (most add-on sets are in the $50-to-$100 range). These are not large companies looking to sell sets for a few grand to cover their ad budgets; these are artists like you and me, brewing up the effects of their dreams.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
