Renders? We Don’t Need no Stinking Renders

In this week’s fxpodcast, we take a look at Apple’s Motion 2 which brings with it a new fxPlug architecture that allows plugin developers to more easily access the GPU in order to dramatically speed up processing. We look at it from both a Motion-specific angle as well as more general in nature — such as will multi-core CPUs remove the need for GPU speedups? We also examine an offering of new sets of HD resolution Motion templates.

Apple’s preview of Motion 2.0 at NAB saw the product mature a great deal from its initial release. In addition to huge workflow improvements, the new version also included a new “fxgPlug” SDK architecture for developers. This allows developers to create creative tools and filters using GPU hardware processing in the same way Motion uses the GPUs for acceleration.

Not only is processing extremely fast, but it is done natively in a full 32-bit float processing pipeline so that very high quality results can be obtained. While some of this functionality has been available on the PC platform for a while, this is the first time it has been made easily accessible for developers on the Macintosh platform.

For the technical nitty gritty, you can visit the Apple page about the new SDK.

This week’s fxpodcast is in three segments. The first two segments will speak with developers of plugins who are utilising the new SDK to help speed up processing. In the third segment, we talk to the creator of some new HD resolution Motion design templates, provided on two sets of DVDs.

DVMatte Blast Motion Plugin

The first fxPlug released was DVMatte Blast, offered by dvGarage. This is a streamlined version of their popular DVMatte Pro plugin. We speak to the developer of the plugin, Ben Syverson.

Red Giant Software

Red Giant will be the second company to release a plugin utilizing the fxPlug architecture when their Magic Bullet Editors2 is released in the next several weeks. The film look plugin within this suite will show greatly increased processing speed compared with the CPU software-only verison. They have been developing and distributing plugins for After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, and other applications. These plugins include Magic Bullet, Film Fix, Knoll Light Factory, and Primatte.

In segment two, we speak with Sean Safreed, a partner at Red Giant Software. Safreed is especially interested in GPU processing, having spent time at sgi in the video processing division.

MotionVFX

Simon Masiak, a compositor and designer, has created two sets of HD Motion templates. Not only do these DVD’s contain final rendered QuickTime movies, but also contain the full Motion projects used to create the final movies. This allows you to not only modify the templates to suit your needs, but also provide training of sorts by letting you examine how a final result was achieved.

You can read more about this product at the MotionVFX website.