Some Really Cool [FREE] FCP Plugins

Aug

2011

Some Really Cool [FREE] FCP Plugins

Featured below are a collection of free plugins for Apple’s Final Cut Pro nonlinear editing software that are bound to improve/enhance your production workflow & quality. I doubt these will work on FCPX but since so many users are still on previous versions, I thought I’d share this list I compiled for friends a while back. Please feel free to post updates if you know of others you would like to recommend. These are just some of the more useful ones I have found and like. If you encounter problems, let me know what version you’re running because as things advance, I may need to take them off the list etc. Most should install into the plugins folder located on the HD>library>application support>final cut pro system support folder or the like (and as I stated above, probably won’t work in the new 64 bit version).

http://bit.ly/ekhBXe – Region Blur (if you’ve ever worked in news you’ll like this one; gives you the ability to actually blur out faces etc. when you don’t have the time to stack and matte video layers to achieve the same effect)
http://bit.ly/fQEtUx – ND Gradient Filter (great for adding a rich sky look to your work)
http://bit.ly/dVJy36 – Chalk Fx (lets you draw on the screen in FCP)
http://bit.ly/etI4U5 – Elastic Aspect (stretches the pixel data in your 4:3 content to fill a 16:9 space so video on your widescreen isn’t stretched or shown with bars etc. …pretty nifty)
http://bit.ly/Py1Vbf – Guides (great tool with an array of support for modern guide layouts ranging from items like HD with CC protection to EBU/BBC compliance overrides)
http://bit.ly/4Odjqo Closing Credits (gives you control over individual fonts and speed)
http://bit.ly/fUaKX2 Improved Text Crawl (with added options of a background, shadow, no character limit, etc)
http://bit.ly/gXRUfS Simple Crop (allows a DVE style effect like you’d find on a switcher by making it easy to crop and add a colored border around video in FCP)
http://bit.ly/fzcalS Shadow Highlight (provides functionality similar to the Highlight/Shadow function in Photoshop, revealing detail in under or overexposed footage by lifting shadows or reducing highlights)
http://bit.ly/fZBeGi Jitterbug (watch your text come alive and jump or jitter on the screen for a cool effect)
http://bit.ly/gkknfJ Day for Night (with infra-red version, too – similar to the famous Eureka! plugin set that no one can seem to find…hopefully you’re like me and grabbed it a few yrs ago because most of them still work)
http://bit.ly/1a22Wv Photo2 (cool effect that lets you place your video/still image into a Polaroid-style photograph on screen…flies in & even lets you label it if you install the matching font to make it look like you wrote the caption with a marker)
http://bit.ly/eNsiqh Aged Film (great little free effect for adding film scratches etc.)
http://bit.ly/TP8Wb Too Much Too Soon (fantastic collection; be sure to check this link out)
http://bit.ly/tNGnjv Automatic Duck Plugins (import/export tools)
http://bit.ly/PI9oWa Ugly Box (free plugin that adds imperfection to facial areas can be helpful in matching footage)
http://bit.ly/bgwTzZ Noise Industries Freebies (collection installs into FX Factory & requires that free software first: http://www.noiseindustries.com/fxfactory/ …some really good ones here, too–esp. if you like to have greater style controls over text in FCP)