NewBlue FX Video Essentials I, II & III

[Anton Kor]

I’m intresting this question too. For first look, SV (8,9) has same instruments, but using NB allow time reducing in production process, so it’s a choice – to pay or not…
PS sorry for my English )

[John Rofrano]

> Are these 3 packages worth the money?

Every penny! This is a really nice collection of time-saving tools. The guys at NewBlue are video editors and understand what video editors struggle with every day. I’m really impressed with the quality and usefulness of of their plug-ins.

> Do they duplicate anything VP9 already can do?

A lot of what they do is new. Sometimes they duplicate what Vegas can do in 3 steps by doing it in one step. Sometimes they simply do something better (e.g., chroma key). That’s why I say they are worth every penny.

> With these 3, would I really need MagicBullet tools?

Magic Bullet is a different animal although I see some overlap. I have Magic Bullet too. You can duplicate some things with NewBlue Essentials (film look, vignette, etc.). If I had to choose one I’d choose NewBlue just because it is a more practical set of tools.

> Is one better than the other in color effects?

Magic Bullet hangs it’s hat on being able to color grade. If you are really looking for a color grading tool then I’d go with Magic Bullet. They have an awesome user interface where you interact with the various camera parts (filters, etc) in post. Well done.

> And what would I need to do “pixel tracking”? (Mapping video image to moving billboard as an example).

Boris FX, Boris RED, or After Effects. Also Imagineer Systems Mocha does an outstanding job of only this. It’s a planar tracker and can track objects that point trackers simply can’t. It looks at the whole shape that you want to track instead of just the corners and it does an outstanding job. It also handles the skew of rotation. I tracked a new sign on the front of a school bus that was passing by and the sign turned perfectly with the angle of the bus. Very convincing and hard to do with point trackers that don’t understand where the 3D planes are in an image.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Jason Warfe]

I purchased all three and I was very impressed with it. Totally worth what I paid for.

[John Rofrano]

> For first look, SV (8,9) has same instruments, but using NB allow time reducing in production process, so it’s a choice – to pay or not…

Well… it’s not that simple. Take a second look… There are tools in those collections that Vegas flat out doesn’t have. No Noise Reduction, Lens Correction, Rolling Shutter, etc. There are tools that are simply better. The Chroma Keyer is far superior to what Vegas has, Vegas doesn’t have a matte choker, or spill suppression at all. The Diffusion, Detail Enhance, Soft Focus are different than what you can get in Vegas.

Then there is the knowledge of how to recreate some of these in Vegas. Look at Color Fixer Plus. Do you know how to properly white balance in Vegas? People have been requesting a one step white balance for years and NewBlueFX finally delivers it in Color Fixer Plus. One click and you’re done. Or how about knowing how to recreate the Rack Focus or Diffusion FX? If you don’t know, it doesn’t matter that Vegas has the tools if you don’t have the knowledge to stack the plug-ins in the proper way to get that effect and the time it takes to fine tune it.

First looks are deceiving. Download the trials and test them out for yourself. I think you’ll be surprised that it’s not as easy to create some of these in Vegas as you might think.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Reuben Zuazua]

You have to look at what you are producing. If its Corporate, Wedding, Family vids then I say no.
If your producing Indie stuff and your looking for that cool loo, then MB will be the way to go.
If you want funny wacky and the strange but true, then NBlu is for you.
We can all sit here and say get this or get that, but it might not be best for your production needs…
They all have trials…. do it

Reuben Zuazua
After Hours Production
graFX Artist
indie@afterhoursproduction.com