Plug-ins for $99 and under for After Effects/Premiere Pro & Final Cut Pro/Motion
I’m sure most of you are starting to feel the economic crunch, so we’ve put together a section for plug-ins that are $99 and under. These are useful plug-ins by well known plug-in developers like Red Giant, Trapcode, Digieffects, Noise Industries, Nattress and others.
If you’d like to take the plug-in for a test drive before you buy it, most of the plug-ins are available for download on our demos/trial page: http://www.toolfarm.com/demo/demo.php
Petition to stimulate adoption of Blu-ray Disc publishing
My friend Matt of WMAEUG.net sent me this. I don’t think he’s talking about pirating, but about being able to get Blu-Ray support in Pro Apps and other software.
I would like to recommend anyone interested in being able to author ‘replicatable’ Blu-Ray titles to sign this petition that hopes to simplify the licensing and especially reduce the cost of AACS copy protection implementation. It’s the only way we’ll ever see Blu-Ray support ‘officially’ in Apple’s Pro Apps, or in Adobe Encore DVD.
I’m behind disk authoring because I’m a movie lover who eats up the hours of extras on special edition releases – the same documentaries that are glaringly missing from digital downloads.
Apple opens registration for 2008 Insomnia Film Festival
Apple will post the list of required elements for entries in the 2008 Insomnia Film Festival. Then you and your team will have the next 24 hours to make and upload your 3-minute movie. That’s the easy part.
Register by November 13 to participate. The Festival begins November 15.
News and Sports Editing Seminar
Apple is holding a free News and Sports Editing Seminar, so if you want to edit out those cutaways of Michael Phelps mother, this should help 
I kid, I kid!
Hosted by industry pioneer Joe Torelli, this two-part seminar series will show you the steps to quickly mastering Final Cut Pro in the fast-paced news and sports editing environment.
Register here for the seminar.
Free Rays Cartoon Plug-in for Adobe, Apple and Avid!
Toolfarm is hosting the Boris BCC Rays Cartoon Plugin! For a limited time, we’re offering a free, fully-licensed plug-in from Boris Continuum Complete 5 – Rays Cartoon.
Download BCC Rays Cartoon (trial download form)*
Tutorial: BCC Rays Cartoon for Adobe After Effects CS3 and FxPlug (Final Cut Pro/Motion) – Use the BCC Rays Cartoon in Adobe After Effects CS3 or Final Cut Pro or Motion to generate a volumetric lighting effect on an animated text element.
*If you download the BCC Rays Cartoon plug-in, your information will be shared with Boris FX. Normally we do not share any of this information with any of our vendors or anyone else, but in this case, we’ve made an exception, so we can bring this free plug-in to you. With any other download, your email will not be shared with anyone.
Apple Plugin Manager 1.7.3
This update to Plugin Manager improves reliability for Apple’s professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and related SDKs.
Digital Rebellion Tools
I recommend checking out Digital Rebellion Tools. They have a Video Footage Calculator that will tell you how much space you need to compress a certain amount of footage at a certain frame rate and codec. They have a Film Rate Calculator, an Aspect Ration Calculator and a Depth of Field Calculator.
They also have a Final Cut Studio remover app for older versions of FCS. Cool stuff.
More on Chicago Motion Graphics Festival
Harry and I are both teaching at the festival, so come out and see us!
Chicago Motion Graphics Festival 2008
I hope you can all make it to the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival 2008 in mid-January. Harry and I are both teaching classes. We’re tag-teaming on an AE class, Harry will be teaching a second full day class and I’m teaching a full day class for Apple Motion. Register online now!
The festival is loads of fun and if you’re from the south, chances are you’ll get to experience a real Chicago winter. Yeah, enticing. 
It’s a really well organized festival and so worth the trip. If you’re already in Chicago, I hope to see you there.
