While video-based applications like Avid, After Effects and Final Cut Pro have always had their standard built-in effects, there’s always been a need to literally go outside the box to extend an app’s creative functionality. Editors and motion graphics artists are always looking for more creative options that can give them an edge (or just make their clients happy). That’s where third-party plug-ins come in.

Plug-ins usually do one of three main jobs. They are used as filters, generators or transitions. While not always referred to by these categories in each application, you most often use a plug-in to change the look of something, generate something (such as backgrounds, objects or text), or transition from one thing to another.

There is also a fourth category of plug-ins that is starting to appear more frequently. These plug-ins are essentially mini apps that run inside your host application and have their own separate user interfaces. A couple of these on the market are Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet Looks and dvGarage’s Conduit Suite.

If you want to get a glimpse of just how large the plug-ins market is getting, just hop on over to toolfarm.com and check out all the stuff. As a reseller that focuses on this market, you’ll see just how many companies and plug-ins there are (many have free trials). What’s exciting is that some of these companies are developing plug-ins that work in more than one host application. As we find ourselves using more and more apps in our post workflow, this is a good thing.

One company at the forefront of plug-in development is Noise Industries. Their flagship product, FxFactory, is an ever-expanding visual effects package that is unique to the market. What Noise Industries has done is create a free plug-in host application that not only supports its own FxFactory Pro product (which includes over 140 filters, generators and transitions), but also acts as the host for other GPU-accelerated plug-ins designed by outside developers.

This has led to a growing number of “fourth-party” developers that are creating exciting solutions for the post-production market without having to distribute their products alone. Noise Industries not only supplies the tools that the partners use to create plug-ins, but also offers a distribution platform that manages the installation, user interface, licensing and help system so that developers can focus on creating new plug-ins without having to deal with all the other aspects of software development and distribution.