For lovers of the deceased Magic Bullet Looks....

[Gerald Webb]

Found this in my emails this morning, looks nice if your after quick "Looks".
Sapphire Edge for Sony Vegas | SV Plugins | Video Effects Software | GenArts®
and the sample page
FX Central Video Looks, Tutorials, and More | GenArts®

[Nicholas de Kock]

Thanks for the link! Trust in Sapphire to deliver, will have to give it a try, happy day!

[Mike Kujbida]

I'm surprised Leslie Wand hasn't chimed in here yet as he's been using Sapphire for a while now and loves it.

[Leslie Wand]

hello there mike!

i've been spruking (aus for 'selling') genarts stuff ever since i demo'ed the original sapphire ofx plug in. absolutely stunning - as was the price (approx $1500).

with sapphire edge we now have a viable alternative to mb and not only viable, but in many ways superior - you can really create signature looks very easily (yes, you could play around in mb as well), but from what i've seen and gathered, most people just click a preset and call it quits. well f that's your style, sapphire works just as well.

having said all that, i have to admit to a steady withdrawal from fx in general - i'm seeing so much stuff now that is colour-graded to abstraction, unnecessarily complex transitions that have absolutely no purpose other that to 'show-off' the software / editors talents, or just simply videos that depend on these and other artefacts to carry the storyline because in itself, the script can't!

but hey, don't let that stop anyone from dl'ing a trial version of my favourite plugin!!!

[David Johns]

Originally Posted by Gerald Webb

looks nice if your after quick "Looks".
Sapphire Edge for Sony Vegas | SV Plugins | Video Effects Software | GenArts®
and the sample page
FX Central Video Looks, Tutorials, and More | GenArts®

I just bought this and have used it on one project so far; easy to use, fast to render and preview, easy to tweak (to a degree - I have a feeling the substantially more expensive Sapphire software would have even more configurable tweaks). Quite pleased, although it's a bit pricey for what you get.

Cheers
Dave

[Gerald Webb]

Maybe Leslie can answer this,
if you get the more expensive Sapphire suite, do you get Sapphire edge as well, or is it a separate plug in?

[Leslie Wand]

they're separate entities and designed along the lines of diy or preset (though with a lot of options).

go

Sapphire Edge Plugins | Video Effects Software | VFX | GenArts®

then click 'which sapphire is right for me'.

i would think that unless you're doing serious high-end post edge would be both the most cost effective and easiest to use.

ymmv

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Leslie Wand

.i have to admit to a steady withdrawal from fx in general - i'm seeing so much stuff now that is colour-graded to abstraction, unnecessarily complex transitions that have absolutely no purpose other that to 'show-off' the software / editors talents, or just simply videos that depend on these and other artefacts to carry the storyline because in itself, the script can't!..

Leslie yes. Mind you, I've read elsewhere, your wish for some "umph" with a wipe? And yes, I agree with you. IMO, and this has to be blasphemy, my beloved BBC Top Gear gets verrrry close to being over-egged. Only my opinion.

Less is more.

Cheers

Grazie

[Leslie Wand]

your quite right grazie, i too have fallen for the more 'umph' factor, but this time, i think, with some justification....

wanting something with the feel of 'weaving' in a transition - so i played with a number of plugins, before finally liking sony's own gradient wipe. and thinking that their 'floral' pattern was even better in terms of what i was looking for.....

unfortunately it doesn't quite have that 'wow' factor that can be created with other, none luminance wipes. what's missing is either an outline or drop-shadow....

still, you're quite right, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones ;-)

and nearly every 'breaker' i see on tv nowadays is one garish breaker too many.

keep your feet on the ground while you reach for the stars...

[Graham Bernard]

Ok, Leslie, - apologies for diverting away from OP - the transition for me WOULD involve the Action of weaving, the shuttle, the move of the Waft, the loom raising or lowering or the weavers hands, AND the sound that that makes. Composite the end of clip A with the beginning of clip B using a layer track ABOVE the 2 ends. There's much to do here.

Cheers

Grazie

[Leslie Wand]

oh dear grazie, you would come up with a good idea wouldn't you! ;-)

[Graham Bernard]

Yeah, well that's why I get paid the BIG bucks.

Often, actually ALWAYS, the narrative has the answer. Rely on the footage AND the reason why the client was wanting the job done, and the solution will be staring you in the face.

Glad I could help.

Grazie

[Nicholas de Kock]

Personally I like to keep my FX as natural as possible I like my images to "pop" with color. After playing around with Edge my first impressions of the plig-in I'm not overly impressed, it's a bit laggy on my system and doesn't offer that many features. What I like about Red Giant MBL is the ability to use gradient & spot exposure those are the features I use the most, Edge has hundreds of presets which I'm sure many will find useful but personally the core look can be a achieved straight in Vegas by a simple S-Curve in Color Curves. In my tests rendering isn't much faster than MBL.

I also haven't been able to figure out how to create my own presets.

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Nicholas de Kock

I also haven't been able to figure out how to create my own presets.

I explain how to do it in the first 42 seconds of this video.

[Ian Stark]

Adam, I think (but feel free to correct me) that Nicholas might be talking about creating new presets from scratch specifically with Sapphire Edge. I think the answer might be that you can't, other than through limited tweaking of existing presets. I get the impression that Edge is just a collection of pre-built looks and that Genarts decides when to add new looks that you can access with a subscription. Perhaps someone who's bought it can confirm?

While I'm here, another vote for 'less is more'. But also a comment to agree with the pro-MBL camp: MBL has a lot more to it than just the ability to create a look or use presets. It has a ton of tools that I found extremely useful every day for repairing, highlighting, covering etc - Nicholas mentioned a couple, and there are many more. They're probably all things that can be done natively within Vegas but, like the NewBlue plugins, they require few rather than many clicks and that's what does it for me these days. Anything that saves me a few minutes and that my clients like wins my vote - regardless of whether other videographers can spot the treatment a mile off ;-)