Around NAB CoreMelt announced new plugin packages for FCP and After Effects Mac; ImageFlow Fx 1.12 and CoreMelt transitions. ImageFlow Fx is a set of plugins that deal specifically with still images. You can quickly created complex-looking animations and image manipulations without tedious keyframing. It comes with two free non-expiring plugins called “Continuous Random Pan” and “Filmstrip.” PolyChrome transitions is a 40-plugin package of 10-bit transitions with fine-grained control over parameters. The free trial also includes 4 freebies.

Since CoreMelt plugins are 10-bit, naturally they have written a few white papers on how to leverage these plugins and effects to complete 10-bit finishing workflows in Final Cut Pro. Here’s a writeup on how to finish Red Digital Cinema footage within FCP, retaining maximum color information. For more details on 10-bit codec and effects pitfalls, read this article.

Splice Here has a handy tutorial on how to use the Stabilize effect in Media Composer to take the shake and jitters out of footage. Unlike FCP’s SmoothCam filter, the Media Composer stabilization analysis happens in realtime and is very similar in function to the tracker in After Effects. You have a tracker target that you manually select a track location with, and the search area is configurable if you run into issues with the shot’s movement. Great tutorial!

Snapper is a unique application for Mac users that allows you to do a number of useful things with audio files on the fly. By simply selecting audio files in Finder, you can quickly pull out snippets of audio, export files to various formats, split stereo channels, drop a selection into Pro Tools, and much more. It’ll convert files on the fly to AIFF, WAV, BWF, mp3, or m4a (hello, Wedding and Event iRiver users!). The best way to understand is to watch Snapper in action, check out the 100-second demonstration video.

(Via MultimediaShooter)

Adobe’s John Nack has posted a gaggle of After Effects scripting resources and examples. Handy if you are into that sort of thing.

Ripple Training has a great video tutorial up on creating non-standard codecs and format presets in Apple Compressor (direct MOV link). So you could purchase a Flip4Mac WMV export license, and then use Compressor to do the heavy lifting. It’s worth noting that a cheaper WMV export option exists, but it does require a Windows PC and some duct-tape.

Sometimes you have to knock a photo montage out quickly, but you want to create something a little more intensive than simple still images with cross dissolves. Enter CoreMelt ImageFlow, a set of plugins for Final Cut Pro and Motion. Roger Bolton has written a detailed tutorial over at The Cow on how to use the plugins, and includes free download links for two of the filters demonstrated. I’ve often wished for a simple “Ken Burns Effect” checkbox in FCP, and am not ashamed to say that I’ve used iPhoto to quickly generate montages on occasion. The ImageFlow “Continuous Random Pan” looks like the FCP equivalent of that, but now I can really control the parameters and apply it where I need it. This is an informative tutorial that will demonstrate a “quick and dirty” way to knock out simple montages, without hours of keyframing and tweaking. Thanks Roger!

Here’s a neat little free FxFactory plugin for Apple Motion users, it uses Motion 3’s Audio Behaviors capability to generate a dynamic and unique audio meter. Very cool. You can use it in previous versions of Motion, but you’ll have to manually adjust the effect. Get it here. Thanks to The Editblog for pointing this one out.

Final Cut Pro 6 and Motion 3 have a new 16-bit architecture for plugins called FXPlug, and the latest version of Boris Continuum Complete now supports that framework. As always, Boris has a number of very interesting and useful plugins in the set. One new addition that caught my eye is UpRez, a filter to facilitate using SD material in a HD sequence without the weak uprezzing capabilites of the host application. There is a 14-day trial available, as well as a tutorial on the UpRez filter.

The lovely and talented Wendy Gribble (Graeme’s better half) has shared an informative tutorial on Apple Color over at Ken Stone’s site. The article talks walks you through creating node trees and dealing with interlaced sources. She also shares a quick example of the G Smart Denoise plugin, part of the Nattress Advanced Plugins for Color package. And while you are over at the Nattress site, snag the free G Blend blending mode plugin for Color.

FCS 2 has a new feature called SmoothCam. It’s a filter in Final Cut that will smooth out those shaky shots. Not only does it work on clips in your timeline like any other filter, you can also drop the filter on clips in your project/browser window and it will analyze the clip in the background. That’s right…you can keep working on the timeline as it processes behind the scenes. That is killer.

So last week Create Digital Motion posted the first SmoothCam test/tutorial I’ve seen online. They realized very quickly that HDV footage requires horrendous processing times with that filter unless you first export the clip into some other codec, they are suggesting ProRes 422. Some video examples shared as well.

Scott Simmons followed suit soon thereafter with his extensive SmoothCam test, complete with examples. And then updated the test with a head to head comparison vs competing NLE’s. Thanks for the hard work, Scott!

Graeme Nattress has released the latest plugin package for FCP users, this one called the “Big Box of Tricks“. The title says it all. Steve Douglas has a rundown of what plugins and features the Big Box of Tricks package will net you for a paltry $100. And owners of the discontinued Nattress Set 1 and Set 2 are eligible for a special upgrade rate. Rejoice! Why? Because Nattress plugins rock the casbah.

Patrick Sheffield has shared a variety of free plugins for Final Cut Pro that emulate different film color strip processing techniques. Hotness.