Digital Video - July 2008 - (Page 21) VIRTUAL CORPORATION The model behind Factory Tools and FxFactory has encouraged outside designers to create new effects, which are available through the Noise Industries Web site. There you’ll even find quite a few free effects, like a plug-in to create 3-D animations of planets. These require one of the Noise Industries products to run, but are otherwise self-contained. As a result, Noise Industries fits the definition of a virtual corporation, with key contributors from all over the world, including experienced visual-effects artist Roger Bolton and noted FCP editor Peter Wiggins. Bolton’s Organoptics FX pack is included as part of Factory Tools Pro 2 and his CoreMelt effects are used in FxFactory Pro 2.0. Peter Wiggins launched iDustrial Revolution and first introduced Volumetrix, a light spill effect. This was quickly followed up with a set of four free effects: MultiSpace, iSight Live, Rack Focus and Opposites. MultiSpace acts much like an old two-channel Ampex ADO 3-D digital video effects device. Two video planes can be moved and intersected in 3-D space. In the linear editing days, ADO hardware to achieve effects like these cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now you can do it on a laptop! New from CoreMelt is Bolton’s PolyChrome package. This includes 40 transition effects including particle dissolves, film blowout wipes, page curl strips, exposure flashes and much more. The newest member of this collective is SUGARfx, which offers several effects generators targeted at TV promo-style production. These use a moving graphic theme into which you can drop your own images TAKING THE SPIN I’ve been using the various Noise Industry effects since the Avid introduction and find them to be some of the best on the market. They are clean, high-quality and easy to use, and ran quickly even on my older PowerBook G4. FxFactory effects have become a staple when I run FCP on my current MacBook Pro. If you can only www.dv.com get one package for your NLE, this is a pretty good one to have. It’s not just the quality, but new effects keep coming out that extend the value of your investment in the software. Since I had yet to try my hand at creating new ones, I felt it was time to “walk the walk” and build my own custom filters. It couldn’t have been simpler. All you have to do is launch FxFactory Pro or Factory Floor and choose the option to Create FxPack or Create plug-in Library. From the application’s top menu, select Actions/Open Quartz Composer to enter Apple’s nodal development application. In Quartz Composer, you are offered a series of building blocks to create effects. All you have to do is drag-and-drop these blocks onto the canvas, link them together and decide which parameters to publish. Publishing makes it available to the operator so that the filter setting can be adjusted during actual use. The rest is just a matter of giving it a name and saving it inside FxFactory Pro or Factory Tools. The simple effect I created combined Zoom Blur, Gamma Correction and Posterization into a single filter. The release of FxFactory Pro 2.0 added more effects packs, as well as new functionality enabled by Apple’s Leopard OS 10.5, including 16-bit and 32-bit YUV rendering inside FCP. The 2.0.3 release includes installers for the CoreMelt Motion and CoreMelt Editing effects packs. This currently brings a total of over 200 GPU-accelerated effects to FCP, Motion and even Final Cut Express users. For Avid editors, Factory Tools Pro 2 brings the total to 146 real-time effects. Noise Industries offers a strong filter package for Mac-based editors seeking a creative, organic look to their effects. And, better yet, they give you the tools to expand that universe with little effort. With a bit of ingenuity, you can create your own custom filters for FxFactory or Factory Tools and offer them for free or sale. Now that’s a unique element that no other plug-in maker can claim. DV Oliver Peters is a regular contributor to our sister publication, Videography. dv july 2008 THE NEW 325 DUAL-CHANNEL WIRELESS SYSTEM A new,compact, discrete dual-channel UHF receiver, with 188 user-selectable frequencies (566.125-589.875MHz), the 325UPR has new pivoting high-gain antennas, stereo output, digital LCD displays with multi-function readout, and separate Power On/Off switches for each channel. It comes with both dual-plug XLR and stereo mini-plug output cables, and removable shoe-mount. It operates on just 2 "AA" batteries, has a unique dual-function DC jack which allows the optional NiMH batteries to be recharged while in the receiver, or, the receiver to be powered from an external, optional, power supply. 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