Digital Film Tools’ volumetric lighting effect plug-in
Rays, formerly only available for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, now works with the major nonlinear editing applications from Adobe, Avid and Apple, including Final Cut Pro X. Other popular volumetric effects plug-ins, like
Red Giant’s Trapcode Lux 1.2, work only in After Effects. This update, however, is welcome news for the majority of editors and motion graphic artists who run more than one program on a single workstation. If you regularly work with After Effects, Premiere Pro and Final Cut on one machine, for example, a single Rays film/video plug-in license lets you use it across those applications. A separate Rays photo license, however, is required to use the original version of the plug-in with Photoshop.
The new Rays Video/Film plug-in, as you might expect, is slightly more expensive than the original $50 Rays Photo plug-in. But for $99, you get some nice control over the color, direction, length and brightness of your rays, plus a number of on-screen displays that include sliders for selecting precise values. You can also control Threshold (to pin-point where you want the rays to be visible) or mix up your effect with a randomize option.
Digital Film Tools founder Marco Paolini says he’s eager to get feedback from users of this new version of Ray, which he says was a "clear decision for us." The download, in fact, encourages users to make use the 15-day free trial before purchasing. A standalone version of Rays is also available in the Mac App store.
For more information: www.digitalfilmtools.com/rays
