Red Giant Releases "Universe," A Plugin Platform With Free (And Paid) Options

Red Giant, the plugin supergroup that is responsible for filter packs like Magic Bullet Looks, Trapcode, and PluralEyes, has recently announced a new plugin model, Universe, where new and updated filters will be provided to members at low to no cost. If you're a motion graphics designer, or love sweetening your video edits with funky filters, check out the video and see if Universe is for you.

The other part to this release which I find to be interesting, is the option of a paid subscription. In the past, you would just outright purchase a plugin pack, and that would be it. Now, with a $10/month premium membership you get access to other more notable plugins like Knoll Light Factory EZ and Toonit. Kind of cool if you need a particular effect for a one-time project but don't want to spend $500 on an entire suite of products. Even if you don't want to spend money, you can join for free and access some filters right away.

Plugins will be available for Mac OSX (10.8.5 and up) as well as Windows 7 x64 Home or Professional and Windows 8. You can use them in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Final Cut X 10.0.9, After Effects CS5.5, and Motion 5.0.4. You will need a GPU to render these effects, but Red Giant mentions specifically that, "we have invested a lot of time in making sure that even older or integrated graphics will render Universe effects."

Red Giant goes on to mention that plugins will be created and updated frequently based on user feedback in the Universe community, as the video below demonstrates how the backend of plugin creation is very easy for their developers.

https://vimeo.com/88253005

For more information, check out Red Giant's website for Universe.

[via Prolost]

Mike Wilkinson's picture

Mike Wilkinson is an award-winning video director with his company Wilkinson Visual, currently based out of Lexington, Kentucky. Mike has been working in production for over 10 years as a shooter, editor, and producer. His passion lies in outdoor adventures, documentary filmmaking, photography, and locally-sourced food and beer.

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11 Comments

I like free stuff, but I just want to own what I buy,,,

I wonder if there's any gotchas with the "free" stuff, like if you do a project with them and your project blows up, are they gonna come back in for a cut?

Autodesk doesn't come after companies that make popular products using AutoCAD, there's no reason or ability for them to.

AutoCAD isn't free.

It was just an example. The only way Red Giant would be able to restrict your output would be to automatically watermark it on export. There's no way of proving that a finished video (or picture or physical object) was created with a specific product unless the full project file was released.

Oh I'm not saying restrict anything, I was just wondering if there's a clause that would allow them a cut on your work if you did something with their "free" software and it happened to become high-profile commercially successful for whatever reason. This is common in a lot of so-called "royalty-free"images. If you use some of those and you have high-profile commercial success with it, they can come back for a cut. So it's essentially "royalty-free" until you make a lot of money with it.

This looks like it might be useful, more for motion work than still tho.

This sounds very interesting. High quality free plugins are more than welcome, and if the need calls for a premium plugin a central hub to buy exactly what you need comes in handy. I guess every business wants their own online store/platform these days :)

The fisrt part of this title had the very little knowledge I have of astrophysics all angry... then I figured it was an app...

(Red Giants don't create universes....)

after I installed it it tells me mountain lion isn't supported. :/
looks nice though.

i could give it a try on my Alien Headshot Project http://aliens.name/race Project