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Animation and creative compositing software used by a wide variety of motion graphics and visual effects artists.
Nuke provides cutting-edge toolkit for node-based compositing, editorial, and review. The Nuke family consists of Nuke, NukeX and Nuke Studio and provides flexibility and collaborative workflows help
Motion features a familiar interface that lets you easily create titles, transitions, and effects for Final Cut Pro.
Wave.video is an all-in-one video platform that combines five must-have products for successful video marketing: live streaming studio, video recording app, video editor, thumbnail maker, and video ho
Blender is an open source 3D creation suite that supports the 3D pipeline, modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, and motion tracking, video editing, and game creation.
Visual effects and audio plugins for Final Cut Pro
mmhmm is a presentation app that takes your webcam feed and layers it on top of presentation slides. You control the look and feel of the screen. When you give a presentation on a live video call, mmh
Advanced Visual Effects Compositing
3D design, engineering, and entertainment software and services.
Red Giant Effects Suite is a set of 9 tools that have served the visual effects community for years, delivering the creative freedom to produce professional effects.
3D design, engineering, and entertainment software and services.
Use ManyCam to add awesome webcam effects and graphics to your photos and videos!
mocha Pro gives editors and artists advanced tools to save time on complex visual effects tasks.
The industry-standard package for motion graphics in After Effects.
Corel MotionStudio 3D is packed with easy-to-use tools for 3D graphics, animated text, particle effects, motion blur and more.
Video effects platforms transform raw or edited film footage into an entirely different viewing experience. From transitions to video filters and beyond, modern visual effects lend themselves to "movie magic" in Hollywood and can do the same for your professional business or production company.
Each image in a video clip is rife with possibilities for artful editing or complementary motion graphics. Thanks to this advanced technology, an original image in filmed footage is now a canvas for creativity and imagination should the video editors or others involved desire more out of it.
As more and more businesses adopt video content as a legitimate means of communication—with partners, customers, and among the staff—these solutions grow increasingly viable for widespread use. Video editing and manipulation is a hireable skill just like software development or sales expertise. Whether you actively create videos in your current strategy, the time may come before long, and with it the inherent benefits of a video effects app.
Video effects tools can make your personal or professional videos more entertaining, cohesive, or simply impressive through any number of additions or alterations. Basic features, such as secondary color correction, are able to remove imperfections and maximize viewer engagement. On the other hand, high-level features such as computer-generated imagery (CGI) or object creation can completely change the action in a clip, bringing scenes to life with a combination of the real and the synthetic.
As you grow more comfortable with a video effects product, you can alter each project in countless ways for your desired outcome. Even if you’re not a video editor by trade, you can have fun exploring the potential of this technology for self-produced movies, tutorials, vlogs, and so on. You and your team, regardless of industry, might realize the benefits in your branded content and marketing materials, among other things. Finally, if you work in entertainment, a video production company, or are a freelance videographer of any kind, these solutions should be trusted tools in your daily routine that elevate your long list of projects.
In the early years of video special effects, the concept may have appealed to mostly music video directors and effects coordinators on motion pictures, TV shows, and commercials. The rules have changed in the digital age, with our relationship with videos extending into every aspect of life. Today, over a billion hours of videos are watched each day on YouTube alone, running the gamut from news coverage to walkthroughs of video games. The technology continues to evolve, with immersive video and 3D films that jump off the screen, not to mention our ability to stream live video on social networks and watch full-length movies or live content on our mobile devices. As the trend pushes forward, these tools become relevant to a growing selection of teams and individuals.
Marketing Teams – If you’ve ever seen an impressive small business ad on your social timeline, there’s a good chance it involved a special effects software tool. As these platforms have become more affordable and accessible in the mainstream, marketing teams worldwide have adopted them to help broadcast and legitimize their brands. If your company decides to make digital ads in-house rather than reaching out to an advertising agency, a creative cloud that includes a video effects solution can help you make fully realized advertisements to be shared with your network and the public. Experience with these types of products is fast becoming a basic qualification for hiring marketing professionals, and their impact on in-house marketing campaigns will only become more apparent in the near future.
Content Teams – Content teams will often work in tandem with marketing to establish the "voice" of a company and the various ways to use that voice for building awareness and generating business. This can include everything from short website clips to viral videos to engaging product walkthroughs or learning materials available for purchase or download. Proper use of video effects can help blur the lines between entertainment and information, allowing creative departments to communicate vital talking points to a wide audience or simply improve the brand reputation and customer prospects through unique, effects-laden content across multiple channels.
Film & TV Teams – Perhaps the most obvious customer for these offerings is the professional filmographer within a multimedia production company. If you work in television or motion pictures, particularly with digital equipment, an effects tool and more general video editing app provide endless value. Industry experts may refer to video effects solutions as "vfx software," and know their way around these tools like a painter does their brushes. From finding the right tonal range for a scene to dropping in the perfect sound effects, these platforms empower video editors and effects specialists to transform footage however they see fit. And because effects can be easily applied, modified, and removed before the final draft is approved, each scene enables experimentation and risk-taking with the many features included in these products. In this way, special effects supervisors are artists in their own right, and can sometimes be the most valuable players on a given project with their signature touches and contributions.
The technology behind video effects is constantly evolving; for evidence of this, compare the visuals in a movie today against one from previous generations. Not only are the standard features in these solutions both powerful and diverse, but thanks to video effects plugins, some solutions are customizable with new features from the vendor or third-party developers. If you integrate a video effects tool into your operation, you should keep your eyes out for effects plugins as they become available. With that said, you can expect to see these reliable features included in many of the products featured in this category.
Transitions – Transition effects are a simple but extremely effective method of blending scenes to create a flowing and seamless video. They can be subtle or flashy, depending on your desired end product or reaction from the viewer. Using something called "keyframes," the user can map out the beginning and ending of each transition. Then, you can select and tweak the exact transition effect based on what your chosen solution has to offer. Common examples includes wipes, dissolves, fades, and basic cuts. The variety of available video transitions depends on the effects tool you choose—you may even be able to create or customize transition options.
Objects – Adding a person, object, or piece of scenery to a shot gives users a great deal of freedom in their video editing process. A number of video effects platforms offer ways to paste images or cropped portions of other video files into a given scene. A popular process known as “image compositing" involves the picking and choosing of different elements to produce a patchwork scene that appears as a single, unified collection of images. In some cases, the production team will intentionally film objects separately to be merged together. One term for this is "chroma key." This may benefit from shooting certain subjects in front of a green screen or blue screen, which simplifies the process of isolating the images within a video effects platform or inserting external scenes or objects into the shot during the effects stage.
Filters & Colors – There are hundreds of different ways you could alter a video clip with the filters and layering tools available in certain video effects programs. With the push of a button, you can transform the entire color range in a particular scene, add or remove shadows, adjust the hue saturation of specific objects, and much more. Video editors will commonly leverage filter tools to bring objects in and out of focus, in addition to complete blurring; this is common when any sort of censoring is necessary. Color correction and lighting effects allow you to give the appearance of a certain time of day or certain environmental surroundings—you can also remove or add the illusion of "midtones," or indirect sources of light that illuminate an object in the video frame. Some other effects can include distortion, lens flare, reflections, and transforming objects or entire scenes to appear like paintings or cartoons.
No two products in this category offer the exact same toolset, and some may be more suited for your team’s particular needs or personal creative ambitions. Before deciding on a solution to buy, you are encouraged to visit the product website to learn more about its exact range of features. If you’re wondering about certain capabilities or possible lack thereof, you should reach out to the vendor with your questions.