If you don’t own Knoll Light Factory, HitFilm Plugins gives you a decent Lens Flare kit to create and customize your own lens flares right in your editor. Editors no longer need to rely on stock footage to achieve effects like light leaks, film damage, or muzzle flashes, these can all be done with HitFilm Plugins. For example, compositing a muzzle flash with complete control over individual components, sizes, and color right from your editor. Not only can you easily add vignettes, letterboxing, and do grain removal through HitFilm Plugins, but you can finally do some decent compositing as well with the powerful controls of these plugins. Built-in effects are usually very basic and limited, but HitFilm Plugins changes all that here. Personally, I hate the built-in effects in these editors and tend to only use Red Giant plugins inside these hosts. The HitFilm Plugins really shine when we bring them into editors such as Premiere, Vegas Pro, or Final Cut Pro X.
Kind of like how Magic Bullet Mojo simplifies the “Hollywood” look, HitFilm plugins simplifies everything. It’s a fantastic way for beginners to experiment and figure what things do visually, rather than focusing on the complex terminology and technical aspects. Overall, the HitFilm plugins tend to simplify effects, which is evident in their names. I talk more about these plugins in the demo video above, but these are some unique effects that After Effects could really benefit from depending on your expertise. There are a few exceptional effects that I want to point out, especially the Gunfire, Parallax, and Cinestyle effects. It makes sense to have these effects in HitFilm, but becomes redundant once you bring them over to AE because they are both kind of the same type of application: compositing and motion graphics. The reason why there is so much redundancy is because these are the same plugins found in HitFilm, which attempt to give you compositing features (similar to AE) in their standalone application. The rest of the plugins are effects that are what I call “fun effects,” such as film damage, fish eye distortion, etc. Things like adding grain, changing color temperature, adding glows, lens blurs, and keying can be done with a single effect using AE’s native tools. The majority of the plugins you’ll find in the HitFilm Plugins are effects that can easily be created and done using After Effects’ built-in tools with about the same amount of ease. This isn’t a bad thing, but I will explain more about this later. Let me be blunt as most members of my community are After Effects users: These set of plugins aren’t really geared towards After Effects. You can view more information and buy the HitFilm plugins here. HitFilm Plugins will be released in late April, 2014.
The HitFilm Plugins are a separate product from HitFilm and will run you $499, but a cheaper upgrade option will be available for those who already own HitFilm.
Buy once and get it for both platforms, Mac & Windows.Works with AE CS6+, Premiere Pro CC, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Vegas Pro.Over 130 premium plugins created using HitFilm technology.To familiarize yourself with HitFilm and its workflow and effects, check out my HitFilm 2 review.įirst, let’s take a look at the features: I had the opportunity to test drive this thing, and today I will talk about the pros, the cons, and everything else you need to know about the HitFilm Plugins before purchasing. FXhome recently announced their newest product, HitFilm Plugins, which brings the power and tools of HitFilm into other NLE applications such as After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut Pro X, and Vegas Pro.