Here at No Film School, we love Red Giant. Their lineup of filmmaking tools, from PluralEyes to the Color Suite to BulletProof, has made the lives of countless filmmakers so much easier and more efficient. So imagine our excitement when Red Giant started to hint at a major announcement, one that would surely see the launch of new tools that would be equally, if not more helpful than their prior products. Well No Film Schoolers, today Red Giant unveiled Universe, an innovative online post production platform/community that not only includes over 50 brand-spankin' new effects and transitions, but the resources necessary for the platform to grow infinitely. In fact, Universe might just revolutionize the way plugins are created and distributed. Read on for the full story.
So what exactly is Red Giant Universe? Well, simply put, it's a community that provides its members access to a host of different post production and motion graphics plugins for the major editing platforms. Think of it like a Creative Cloud membership, but for Red Giant plugins instead of Adobe software. The plugins that are included in Universe have all been built from the ground up specifically for this platform, and they're all super-speedy due to their inherent GPU acceleration. Because Universe is also an online community, members can actively participate in the creation of new plugins by voting for which ones get made next and beta testing new plugins before they're released to the masses. And the best part, membership in Universe is free (well, mostly).
Here's the product launch video from Red Giant:
And here are a few brief excerpts from the press release that shed more light on this unique tool:
In addition to the expanding library of free plug-ins, Universe also offers Premium membership, which gives users access to even more tools - including new effects and transitions, as well as existing Red Giant favorites ported over to the new Universe platform (such as Knoll Light Factory EZ, Holomatrix, Retrograde, and ToonIt). Premium membership is available through monthly and yearly subscription, as well as a one-time lifetime membership fee.
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What truly makes Universe unique, however, is its community aspects. Through Universe Labs, members get to help choose what effects and transitions Red Giant builds next - while premium members are eligible for invitations to early betas of new products, allowing users to give early feedback and actively help shape Universe’s expansion over time.
So what all do you get when you sign up for Universe?
31 Free Tools
- 22 Effects
- 9 Transitions
19 Premium Tools
- 12 Effects
- 7 Transitions
Host App Compatibility:
- Adobe After Effects CS5.5, CS6, CC
- Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, CC
- Apple FCPX
- Apple Motion 5
Other Features
- Regularly updated (using our dev tool, Supernova)
- Porting of some existing Red Giant products to Universe (Premium)
- Voting on new tools to decide what gets made next
- Invitations to private betas for new tools (Premium)
Now let's talk a little bit about price. You'd probably assume that a premium account will cost you an arm and a leg, but that is far from the truth. Red Giant has a very simple pricing plan for Universe, and it looks a little something like this:
- Basic Membership: Free
- Premium Monthly: $10
- Premium Yearly: $99
- Premium Lifetime: $399
The most unique thing about Universe is that it's infinitely and quickly updatable because of the unique way in which its plugins are created. It's a method that cuts the coding time for plugin creation down to almost nothing. You're probably asking yourself how exactly Red Giant can pull this off? Well, they have developed a unique and interactive plugin-building tool called Supernova that looks to be mind-blowingly powerful. Here's just a quick demo:
While Supernova is only available to the Red Giant engineers at this point, the potential for independent plugin creation (should this tool become democratized) is absolutely staggering. Just imagine being in need of a specific plugin for your post workflow. If that plugin doesn't exist yet, you'd have the ability to create it yourself without needing to become a software engineer. Even if Supernova is never released to the public, the Red Giant engineers should be able to crank out professional plugins at a rate never before witnessed in this industry, and that's certainly something to look forward to.
Universe entered its public beta today, so be sure to head on over to the Red Giant website and sign up to give it a go (it is free, after all).
What do you guys think of Red Giant Universe? Will this new community revolutionize the way post production plugins are created and distributed? Will we see more of the industry trending towards these cloud-based solutions and communities? Let us know down in the comments!
Link: Universe - Red Giant
