continual plug in problems

[Kevin Camp]

[ben federman] “”Well, PPC plug-ins don’t run on intel. Since CS4 is intel-only, you may have to update all your plug-ins.” “

this is true, if you have older plugins or maybe plugins that aren’t supported anymore, then they may be for a powerpc (ppc) mac… so any g5, g4 or g3, or any earlier powermac or powerbook.

however, you mentioned that you have cs3, so if you had used these effects with cs3, then you probably have intel-native (or universal binary) versions of the effects…

since cs3 is a universal binary (has code for both ppc and intel-macs), you can test if your effects are intel friendly. just put the plugins in to the cs3 plugins folder, select the cs3 version of after effects and choose file>get info. at the bottom of the ‘general’ prperties there is a check box for ‘open using rosetta’. make sure that is unchecked and open cs3.

if the effects show up, then you have intel friendly versions. if they don’t, quit ae, selec the application again and choose get info. this time check the option to open using rosetta. open cs3 and see if the effects show up.

if they do, then you do in fact have ppc only effects. you will want to go to the manufacturer’s site and see if you can download universal binary versions of the plugins. some offer the ub versions as free updates, some will offer a paid upgrade, and some just aren’t available.

if they don’t then there is some other problem… which effects are you having problems with? maybe some body will have an answer for you about specific plugin issues.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Ben Federman]

thanks for the help thus far, but im still hitting a lot of road blocks.
i followed your instructions but when i went to the “open with rosetta” part, the box was unchecked, but the whole option was not usable (i could not select or deselect it).

would this be a factor in my problem?

also a friend was helping me with the issue and he went to “browse presets” but when he clicked it nothing happened. is this related in anyway?

also is there an alternate way of getting plug ins into AE?

thanks again.

[Kevin Camp]

[ben federman] “i went to the “open with rosetta” part, the box was unchecked, but the whole option was not usable”

it may be that later osx versions don’t include rosetta…i’d have to look into that. i have osx 10.4.11 and it is available for cs3 (it wouldn’t be available for cs4, since it has only intel code). you could try another application like quicktime, if you can’t select open using rosetta for that, then i assume rosetta is not available.

just to double check, you didn’t try any of the tricks to strip out the ppc code from installed applications…? i know it’s a way to free up drive space, but it can have some negative effects on applications…

do all the standard plugins/effects show up in cs4…? and the plugins you are trying to install have the tag of .plugin? also, if you do a get info on them, next to kind it says after effects plugin (i just noticed that it should also say ‘universal’ meaning it is ppc and intel friendly)?

it might help to know more about your setup, specifics about your macbook, ram, os version…

you might try some disk maintenance tasks, open the disk utility (applications>utilities), select the system drive and run repair permissions (it’s good practice to run this after any install) and then the verify disk (if verify disk turns up any problems you will need to boot from the osx install disk, run disk utility from their and repair it).

since it sounded like things were fine in cs3, you may be looking at a reinstall for cs4 (do an uninstall first from utilities>adobe installers)… you really should be able to move any .plugin file into the plugin folder and it should show up in the effects list.

[ben federman] “also is there an alternate way of getting plug ins into AE?”

you can try putting effects in library>application support>adobe>common>plugins>cs4>mediacore. it’s designed for effects that are common to other adobe applications, but it should be fine for any effects.

lastly, to make sure that there is not something really wrong with your user account, create a new user (apple>system prefs, click accounts and click the + to create a new user) then login as that user, open cs4 and see if you can see any of the third-party effects.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Ben Federman]

thanks again for your help.

i feel like an idiot but after reading your post i checked the plugs that wont work and they DO NOT have a “.plugin” tag or extension.

is there a way of fixing this?

ben

[Kevin Camp]

if you do a get info on the plugins, do they say ‘after effects plugin’ as the kind of file?

if not, are you sure they are fairly recent ae plugins? (like within the last 2-3 years… older plugins will most likely not work).

if they were downloaded, they may have been compressed to a single file… normally a compressed file would have a tag like .zip or .sit, but if they didn’t have a tag, the os may not know what to do with them.

you may be able to just add a .plugin tag if they are in fact ae plugins, or add .zip if they are a zip archive and expand them… but it’s really hard to say what they are.

where did the plugins come from?

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Ben Federman]

all the plugs have been unarchived and they say “after effects plugin” but now extension.

i tried just trying in “.plugin” but got nothing.

[Kevin Camp]

i’m starting to think they are old plugins. back in the pre osx days, mac files rarely ever had an file extension, or tag, after the file name. so it may be possible that they are 9+ years old, and i can guarantee that if they are, they will not run in cs4 on an intel mac.

if it didn’t come with any installer, or any instructions for installing, i’m starting to run out of ideas…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW