We have featured ReelPath's plugins here before on FCP.co, but only came across Star Wizard whilst researching for another story. ReelPath has released a custom $25 Final Cut Pro X particle generator to give you stars, sparkles, trails and more.
A third set of plugins from ReelPath, this time a set of 25 particle generators called Star Wizard that offer editors a range of effects from the enormity of an exploding galaxy to simple trails to animate text on with. The author, Tom Langmacher was part of the team who were responsible for the content supplied with Motion and when Apple bought his company, they re-branded one of his products into LiveType.
It seems that Tom has done the hard work of harnessing the Motion particle generator into a plugin and still managed to keep a lot of customisation available. Although experienced editors with Motion knowledge will probably prefer to roll their own, this set brings particles into FCPX with a few clicks.
Unfortunatley, the video embedding skills of our editor hadn't been up to getting the demo or gallery video from the website into the article, so it was very kind of Tom to upload both videos to Vimeo for us.
Stars
Pulse type - for constant or timed durations
Star type - choose from 7 particle types
Direction - aim stars at camera, up, down, left, right, angled down left or right.
Size - control the star size
Random Size - randomize individual star sizes
Scale Rate - grow or shrink stars over time
Lifetime - set how long a star lives
Density - set how many stars in your galaxy
Speed - star travel speed from origin
Random Speed - star travel speed randomize
Blinking - stars blink over time
Brightness - star brightness
Color dominance - set color dominance over life
Star Color - set between birth and death colors
Galaxy
X/Y Position - keyframe for particle trails
Size - set galaxy size
Big Bang Strength - set star attraction to origin
Dispersion Range - set star travel direction range
X,Y & Z Rotation - spin the galaxy in 3 dimensions
Twinkle
Spin - set a spin speed for twinkling
Spike Count - choose between 1,4,6 & 10 spikes
Size - set the twinkle spike size
Brightness - set the twinkle brightness
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
