magic bullet looks
 

I have been trying to download the trial for MBL, and I cant get one to work. I thought the latest version was compatible with vegas? even when I download quick looks, it installs, but there is nothing in vegas but the title "magic bullet quick looks", when I add that to a shot, it wont let me do anything, it just has a blank screen, and a red x across the footage.

any ideas?

also, I am late to the game when it comes to MBL, I had vegas 7, now have 8, I probably dont qualify for the "upgrade" price, or do I?

thanks.

Ian, I would think that the fact that it is showing up in Vegas at all suggests you are installing the correct version.

Just to understand what's happening, you are able to select Looks from the FX choices and add it to an event or track, right? But you then can't access Looks itself? Does it show up in your effects chain? If so, can you see it in the Video Event FX or Video Track FX Tabs (you should be seeing a dark panel with the words Options. . ., Edit. . . and Assume Linear Gamma - nothing else appears until you hit edit and select a preset Look, or build your own).

If you're not getting this far, I'm wondering whether you have a video card that isn't supported by Looks. It should be the case that if you don't have the required specs you can't even install Looks but this should be the first thing you check.

Here's a link to the system requirements for Looks: Red Giant Software: Magic Bullet Looks 1.2 - Plugin Compatibility

After that, the only thing I can think of is that your timeline cursor is not over an event when you are selecting Looks so it can't generate a frame to work from. That would only be the case if you were applying Looks at track level, though, and you should be getting a message to that effect. I'm guessing that you aren't getting any messages otherwise you'd have mentioned them.

Re the upgrade, if you have Vegas 7 with Looks then you are entitled to the upgrade price (according to this Red Giant Software: Store - Buyers Guide -). You'll probably have to quote your Vegas 7 serial number.

you need to check your video card, MB only works with certain cards, MB works off the ram on your card, the more the better, I have 500 mb I don't think its enough, I am using a Radeon 3850 with 500 mb ram, I don't like it.

ok, then it must be something I am not seeing. it installs, and adds to the FX chain, there is a dark banner across the top of the FX window with the words register, apply look and assume linear gamma, but no edit, or options. I dont see how I could be doing it wrong (im sure its me though).

as for my video card I have the asus eah4850 1gb, so I THINK I am allright as far as that goes, but I will check the compatibility list.

To start with, I suspect you are looking at QuickLooks, in which case you can't edit the Looks, just apply a preset.

That ASUS card is based on a ATI Radeon, right? This is what Red Giant has to say:

>>>For ATI cards, we require a 9600 XT or greater, or an X series card starting with the X700 series. Cards with greater model numbers and at least 128 MB of RAM can run the Looks engine.<<<

Whether your card is one of those I have NO idea! Maybe check with Red Giant? Sounds like you have sufficient RAM! I have 768Mb and it works fine.

man, I hope its not the card!

I just tried MBL on vegas 7 with my laptop, and it worked fine (and its a CRAPPY laptop), so its something on this end. I am gonna call red giant today and see whats what.

thanks for the help.

Good luck, Ian. Hope you get it sorted. If you get a chance, maybe you could report back?

I am off to a shoot now, but as soon as I figure it out, I will let you know.

I dont think its the card, its at the top of the list on asus' website, and it cost me enough...but who knows.....

Ian, I think you are not clicking on something you need to click on.

hahaha, yeah, I am sure thats the case, I just dont see what I am not clicking on (obviously)....I am determined to get it sorted out, i will not let this defeat me!

cant get a hold of red giant, and still cant get MBL to open on my computer. everytime it starts to install it gives me this error warning:

"magic bullet looks vegas.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close"

I am 99% sure its no the video card, its brand new, and above the requirements as far as I can tell. I am running a quad core system and 4gbs of ram, I should be good to go. seeing as I cant get a hold of red giant, anyone else have some ideas for me?

nevermind

just got a hold of red giant, he said they are having issues right now, so its not me!! sweet!

Ian, as I am prone to do, I did not read your post carefully and didn't realize you hadn't even downloaded a good copy. Contact me via e-mail and I'll send you the demo version, which I kept a copy of. It's only 3.33MB. It should work fine.

man, this sure seems like a hassle! I finally got through to red giant, the said something was wrong on their end, so tech support sent me a file to download. but it would appear that they sent me magic bullet movie looks, instead of magic bullet looks. then the confusion started between tech support and myself, he is referencing things that dont exsist, and wondering why I am being a pain, but not realizing he is the one who sent me the wrong file.....i need a beer.

Ian, it is obvious why my e-mails did not go through. It had to be because the attachment was an executable file. If I had changed the extension it would have been fine, and then you would have re-labeled it .exe and been off to the races. Mystery solved.

ahhh, that makes sense.

thanks for trying. im glad tech support figured it out though!

ok, I am officially a huge fan of this program! man, I am so glad its working now.

Hi Ian,

I am currently having major difficulties running/installing MB Looks. I had the suite in my old PC, and now I'm trying to run in it in my upgraded PC. So far, no go.

I've been running the Adobe NLE (CS2 old version) and MB Suite together, and have worked amazing in my old Dell. But since I've upgraded to an i7 system (with a geforce 9800 GT card, running XPPro 32bit, and the same Adobe CS2), I've yet to make it work.

FWIW, Red Giant tech support have been emailing me suggestions, but none have worked so far. (Might need to start calling 'em up soon, cause I need to start working!)

What was Red Giant's solution for you?

it was a long complicated process, and in the end, I have NO idea what they did to make it work. he kept sending me the same link to download the program, I would uninstall the old program files and re-install using the link he would send. then all of a sudden, it installed.

will yours even load the program? mine would load the setup files, then I would run the setup, as it was "installing" it would crap out. is that similar?

Hi Ian,

Initially, Magic Bullet Suite (Colorista, Instant HD, Frames) installed and loaded up fine with my new PC, EXCEPT MB Looks! Like you, it'd start to load the setup files, tried to run, then stop, and have a Microsoft message saying,"encountered a problem and needs to stop."

Red Giant tech seemed like they'd send me a different zip file (first, they sent me a file for Adobe CS3, instead of for use with my old Adobe CS2). Tried loading 'em but partial success (MisFire would show up, but still no Looks). They sent me some registry files to add, but I'm not real technically inclined, so don't know if I did that right. Hmmm.

More MB Problems
 

I was happily using Quick Looks - and then I started getting a "unable to create suitable frame for LooksBuilder message". It was sporadic. I uninstalled & reinstalled - and now I can't get the plug-in manager to recognize MB at all. Initially there was no problem with this. The stand alone version still works for jpeg.

When I called Red Giant support - he (John) suggested that the default install directory (c/program files/magic bullet...) didn't sound right and he thought it should be in a Sony directory. Have tried all kinds of configurations and have removed and reinstalled many times.
I tried getting back to support, but I think I'm out in the cold - and have searched extensively for other help to no avail.

Can anyone tell me where MBL or MBQL is installed???

TIA

tech support had me install to the program files. I would fill out the tech support form, the tech really went above and beyond for me, replied at least 9 times in under an hour. it was great. of course, it was a pain at the time because I just wanted it to work.

Hi Ken,

Sorry to hear about your Looks problem. Seems like we're in the same boat (but different NLEs). Red Giant tech Jeremy replied to me the same day I filed my support form; he gave me some solutions, additional downloads, including registry files, but still no MB Looks.

I've actually just finished doing a clean re-install of XPPro. After I've loaded up the drivers and updates, I'm going to install Adobe CS2, Cineform Prospect, and finally the MB Suite (and the rest of the other apps, like TMPGEnc).

Will let y'all know how it goes; wish me luck!

Jeff,

Well, now I'm fixed. Interestingly my original problem was likely caused by not having the play head in Vegas in the middle of the clip in the timeline. It seems simple but Jeremy (at Red Giant) pointed this out and it is important. I got the same message today(sorry, unable to create suitable frame...) with the new download. I also updated the drivers on my video card while I was waiting for a solution.

So, this is what worked for me. (in Vegas 8.0c) For other forum members in the future.

Update drivers on video card.
Re-download the zip file
Extract files and re-install (to default directory)
Now it should show up in Vegas FX list

To apply the MB effect - MAKE SURE THAT THE PLAY HEAD (vertical line) is in the middle of the clip, not on first or last frame. I tried to apply effect to the track - and it didn't work. When I moved the play head to the middle of a clip in the timeline - I could apply the effect to the entire track.

Good luck with yours Jeff - let us know how it works out.

anyone else having irratic rendering issues? sometimes I will get all the way through, and sometimes it will just stop. all the videos I have tried it on have been about 2-3 minutes.

Success!
 

So I downloaded an updated version of Looks, per Jeremy's email. Un-installed MB Suite, including Looks (which I deleted from the Plug Ins folder of Premiere Pro, and Looks Builder from the Program Files folder).

Installed Colorista first (which had always installed properly), then installed Looks (version 1.2) and---voila! It installed and it's up and running again. (Like an old friend you've missed :)

So happy to have Looks back, but I'm crossing my fingers (or at least get as many projects completed before something else happens :)

Oh, thanks everyone for the help/advice/support/shoulder to cry on.

Best,

glad to hear it!

See post #2 in this thread!!