Sapphire Plug-Ins from GenArts is one of the most popular plug-in sets for inferno, fire, and Shake. Now they’re available for Adobe After Effects as well. Along with After Effects, they are also usable in applications which can use AE plug-ins such as Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, Discreet combustion, eyeon Software Digital Fusion, Quantel generationQTM, and Media 100 844/X.
The plug-ins run on Windows and Mac OSX machines, and fully support the Adobe plugin API so they’re integrated into workflow as artists would expect. Key features of the plug-ins set include:
- Dual-processor support for faster rendering
- Free network rendering on After Effects and Combustion
- Multiple options and parameters for a creating an unlimited range of
effects - Resolution independent, anti-aliased, high quality images
- Online hyper-linked documentation for all plug-ins
- On-screen user interface widgets for visual control of parameters in After
Effects and Premiere Pro - Support for 8 bit and 16 bit image formats
“We’re thrilled to see this massive collection of high-end effects become available to After Effects users,” said Trish and Chris Meyer of CyberMotion, and authors of the popular series Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. “They have a polished retro-futuristic look which will appeal to a wide range of motion graphic designers. We particularly like their blur and warp effects, and suspect the Lighting set will soon be considered a must-have. As a bonus, all are 16-bit and multiprocessor-ready.”
“These are the most amazing plug-ins I’ve ever seen on a PC/Mac. Now compositors, editors, and broadcast designers will be able to achieve a new level of high-end finishing. With Sapphire , creating superb visual effects on the desktop has never been easier,” said Chris Byron, freelance VFX/Broadcast Compositor & Discreet Training Specialist.
The plug-ins will set users back $1699 for the full set. They’ve also been broken into “Boxes”, which are available for $599 each:
Box 1:Lighting – Glows, Lens Flares, Glints, Glares, Light Beams, DropShadow, SpotLight, and others.
Box 2:Stylize – Film Effect, Grain, Edge Effects, Emboss, Kaleidoscopes, AutoPaint, HalfTone, and more.
Box 3:Adjust, Blur, Composite, and Distort – includes Rack Defocus, MatteOps, Warps, Shake, and others.
Box 4:Render, Time, and Transitions – includes Lightning Zaps, Textures, Flicker Tools, Dissolves, and Wipes.
More information about the plug-ins as well as free trial versions can be found at the GenArts website.