A couple of weeks ago Noise Industries sent me their FxFactory Pro plugin bundle. I spent some time with it and I can honestly say it is a fantastic bunch of plugins that I can easily see any creative individual using on a regular basis. I was so impressed that I wrote back to Noise Industries asking if I could try out some more. The incredible guys and girls over there sent me MoType and DVLooks EasyShade, two very different, yet very easy to use and effective plug ins.
For those who don’t know, FxFactory is a free plugin management system that will allow you to store hundreds upon hundreds of plugins that integrate seamlessly into the Final Cut workflow. Noise Industries and other third party developers all use the FxFactory platform to create wonderful, easy to use plug ins for the avid film maker. We’re going to look at two exceptional plug ins now: MoType and DVShade EasyLooks.
MoType:
Final Cut’s Pro’s built in text editing effects have never been particularly eye catching, dynamic or interesting to watch. To combat this, some producers manually animate their text by using particle generators, motion blurring and keyframing every single movement frame by frame. This is time consuming and really disrupts the creative workflow when making a film. Motype is a simple yet effective solution, developed by Yanobox, for creating dynamic, eye catching text and title effects quickly, easily and effeciantly.
MoType uses a range of different visual elements to create a beautiful finished composition. These elements could be anything from particles flying around the canvas to subtle movement towards the audience. Everything is so easy and intuitive to use, also the way the plugin is set out is very simple. MoType uses a slider based interface, similar to a lot of the other Final Cut factory plugins. So beginners will easily pick up how to use the software and create wonderful titles in a matter of seconds.
MoType also has around 30 preset text effects so even if you don’t have the time (or patience) to create your own titles. You can quickly import a preset, edit the text and drag it straight onto your timeline. Rendering is also extremely fast with MoType, a ten second clip took around 15 seconds on a Mid 2010 Macbook Pro.
Overall:
Pros:
- Easy to create stunning titles in no time at all.
- Presets look great and can be easily tweaked to your own liking.
- Extremely quick render times.
Cons:
- Working with multiple lines of text is extremely difficult and at times, impossible.
Overall MoType is an incredible plugin for Final Cut which has been carefully thought through and presented exceptionally well. The interface is simple to use and it’s presets are beautiful however the lack of proper support for working with multiple lines of text is quite annoying.
I am going to give MoType a very strong 4\5.
Motype comes in at $99 and is a fantastic plug in for a creative individual who needs wonderful titles made quickly.
You can buy YanoBox’s Motype from the Noise Industries website for just $99!
DVShade EasyLooks:
The second plugin I was sent was DVShade EasyLooks; a colour correction plugin that once again, runs off the FxFactory platform.
Final Cut Pro already comes with two factory colour correction plugins. The standard color correction plugin and the three-way colour corrector. Both plugins work exceptionally well but it usually takes a lot of tweaking and fiddling with the controls to achieve a result that works for you. This is where DVShade EasyLooks comes in and performs incredibly well.
Like most of the other FxFactory plugins, EasyLooks has a set of presets that range from greyscaling, bleach bypass to warm dream sequence like effects. Each one of the effects looks great and would easily fit into high budget film. EasyLooks shares the same slider-based interface that MoType and the Final Cut factory presets utilize, once again making it easy for beginners to use.
Overall:
Pros:
- The presets are a fantastic starting point for anybody learning to colour correct.
- The slider-based interface is very easy to use and great for tweaking things to your liking.
- When EasyLooks is used correctly the results are phenomenal!
Cons:
- Some presets seem a little pointless
- If your footage is not shot correctly EasyLooks will not give off the results that you wanted.
Overall DVShade EasyLooks is a brilliant color corrector for beginners and professional’s alike. Some of the presets are extremely useful whilst some seem a little bit pointless and would seem a bit out of place in a film sequence. However the interface is great and the results that you can achieve are incredible.
I am going to award DVShade EasyLooks another strong 4\5
DVShade EasyLooks comes in at $49, which is an incredible deal which should not be missed!
You can buy EasyLooks from the Noise Industries website for just $49!!
