Product Review: Page (1) of 2 - 02/12/08

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I've worked in After Effects for about 10 years now, and these days we are very spoiled. I remember days when plug-in packages were few and far between, and we were relying on ICE FX for hardware accelerated renders, as that's what it took to create complex animations, because back then we would jokingly call After Effects "After Dinner," as you would start your render going first thing in the morning, and you could come back after dinner to see IF it was done. Back in those days, there was what I always referred to as the "Holy Grail" of effects packages, and that package was Final Effects from Media 100. Needless to say, with the downswing of Media 100, Final Effects fell into obscurity, until Boris FX jumped in, purchased it from Media 100 and began offering it to the masses once again. The great effects package has been available from Boris for a while now, but Blue, Red and Continuum Complete (BCC) have been the products that Boris has focused on.....until now. Final Effects is back in a big way, and brings a wider set of effects to Boris' already fantastic arsenal.

Installation
Much like all of Boris' other plug-in packages, Final Effects for After Effects is quick and easy to install, and comes with a two week trial version for you to download and give a try before you buy. After download, you will be up and running with FEC5 in about five minutes. Installation: 10 (out of 10)

What you get and How it Works
I have always loved Final Effects, as it brought a very diverse set of effects to After Effects that most other packages don't have. Right off the bat, these effects will jump out at you:

• Mr. Mercury
• Ball Action
• Hair
• Bubbles
• Flo Motion
• Rain
• Snow
• Sparkle Edges

Sparkle Edges

FEC5 also comes with the standard "go to" effects that everyone needs in an effects package as well:

• 15 types of Blurs
• Brightness/Contrast
• Toner
• Light Blast
• Light Burst
• Light Sweep
• Glow
• Page Turn (don't laugh, I can't count how many times a producer has asked me for this!)

Overall, you are looking at 108 effects to add to your tool belt. These effects are the cake, now here's the icing. The team at Boris has taken Final Effects and completely overhauled every effect so that Final Effects is no longer BCC's little brother. Now, when you apply a FEC effect to your clip, and call up your effects window, you will immediately notice that the effect layout is exactly the same as it would be with BCC. This universal look makes working across different Boris FX plug-in packages very easy. They have also added presets to every one of the effects, so you can quickly get an idea if the effect is going to do what you need it to do, and you can now also save and load your own quickly and easily from the top of the effect interface. Boris has also integrated its excellent help menu into every effect, so if you need info on the effect or its parameters, it's just a click away.

FEC5 now also supports 16-bit color processing, and Pixel Chooser has been added to almost every effect. Boris has also added a Motion Tracker to every effect that supports "Point Picker" position controls. What does that mean?  Well, any effect where you can click to select the "Point Picker," and then pick your effects location by clicking somewhere in your comp, has motion tracking capabilities.

All of FEC5's effects support multi-processors, meaning faster previews and renders. Needless to say, I created a five effect composite using Toner, Light Whirl, Light Rays, Light Sweep and Burn Edges, animated some of the effects as well as slowing the shot down 300%, and putting five supers on it, and the shot took just over a minute to render. Very impressive.

Everything I have mentioned so far is excellent, but there's more. Every effect has been looked at and improved in some way, whether it's a simple addition of the Pixel Chooser and a "Mix with Original" slider like in most of the Blur Effects all the way up to effects like "Hair", having thirteen additional enhancements like "Hair Rotation" and "Gravity Direction." Boris has taken alot of time to make sure that version 5.0 of Final Effects is up to the high standards of its other effects package.

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