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MillimeterReview: Noise Industries FxFactory Pro
Jul 28, 2009 12:00 PM, By Franklin McMahon
Effects package provides a framework for creating new plug-ins.
In the middle of the screen when FxFactory Pro effects are run from inside Apple Final Cut Pro, you can see the wealth of parameters available for the Light Rays effect.
So how are the effects? The set included is a real workhorse group of blurs, color correction, distortion, generators, glows, halftones, sharpen, stylize, tiling, and transition effects. To be sure, there is going to be some overlap with the stock effects you already have. But with these FxFactory options, you can tweak manyparameters and then drill into the actual plug-in itself and re-engineer or reverse-engineer it to your whims. The FxFactory website has a bunch of free plug-ins that you can download, and you can explore demo videos and purchase additional commercial plug-in sets.
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The additional commercial plug-ins are some of the most amazing, with some truly dazzling effects. All have pretty reasonable prices. Once you get several different companies heading in different directions, you start to get a wider-ranging scope of effects than when they all come from the same inhouse development team from one company.
Noise Industries is getting a lot right here—not just with individual fantastic effects, but with the paradigm of how plug-ins are developed and delivered to the public. First of all, you have the tools to make the plug-ins; anyone can jump in and do it. I would not call it easy, but it is a lot simpler than coding. The development works via drag-and-drop nodes. If you've used a program that uses nodes (such as Apple Shake), you should have no problem building plug-ins.
With a central program that lets you audition and purchase new effects and syncs your effects with all your supported programs, it won't be long before FxFactory becomes the iTunes of digital effects—if it's not there already. The community of developers is already diverse and talented, and I see it growing in some cool directions.
The process is just so streamlined. How many times have you had to move third-party plug-ins manually into specific folders of certain programs, then remove them and reinstall when there's an update? Here it's all smooth sailing.
The third-party effects are more exciting than the useful ones that ship with FxFactory Pro, and it will be interesting to see how these develop. You can download FxFactory Pro and take a free spin for yourself to try all the effects for two weeks (after that, a watermark appears). That goes for the built-in effects as well as most of the third-party offerings.
bottomline
Company: Noise Industries
www.noiseindustries.com
Product: FxFactory Pro
Assets: Plug-ins are accelerated using graphics card; effects have more parameters for tweaking; provides a simple framework to create new effects; exciting third-party effects.
Caveats: Bundled effects may duplicate effects already owned.
Price: $399
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.