Red Giant unleashes Universe 2.0

Red Giant has updated its subscription suite of GPU-accelerated effects and transitions, with a particular emphasis on motion graphics.

Recently, popular software maker Red Giant has released the next major iteration of its Universe offering of cross-platform effects plugins. We positively reviewed the previous Universe as part of a longer review that roped in the company's Trapcode Suite and Effects Suite plugins. Now, the updated Universe brings new effects, features and tweaks to the subscription-based library of 60 plugins (and counting).

New Motion Graphics Plugins

Four new plugins headline Universe 2.0. Each of the following plugins offer motion graphics tools to enhance the workflows of editors and VFX artists:

• HUD Components: Instantly create Heads-Up Display elements for use in motion graphics; this tool is packed with tons of presets, element shapes and behaviors for creating a variety of HUD effects.
• Line: Easily generate a line between two points to simulate flight paths, travel indicators on a map, and a variety of additional motion graphics; draw it as a curving bezier path or a straight line, change the color and style of the line, as well as the start and end points and how they animate over time.
• Logo Motion: Instantly make logos and text more interesting and dynamic by animating imagery on and off the screen with a hinge style swing, slide on, or a slightly eased in and out "pop."
• Color Stripe: Create a transition that uses layered blocks of color wiping across the screen to reveal a second layer.

New UI and Features

In addition to the new plugins, Red Giant has revamped the user experience for 22 Universe plugins, outfitting each with a 'visual preset browser' for rapid and easy previewing. By hovering over an effect, users call forth an animated preview of the effect, with application to clip just a mouse click away.

New functionality has been added to another 18 of Universe's plugins, upping the total number of updated plugins to 29, with some overlap between 'visual preset browser' and feature additions. Here are how three standout plugins have been augmented:

• Holomatrix II: New distortion effects based on holographic imagery from films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.
• Camera Shake: Redesigned and enhanced to make it simple to quickly achieve a variety of realistic camera shakes with little to no effort - great for enhancing action sequences, and for simulating various camera setups and scenarios, such as filming with a car mount, on a boat, and even in an earthquake.
• Unmult: Additional controls to help users precisely remove black backgrounds from footage and create an alpha channel, a useful tool for compositing footage of fire, smoke, water and more.

Present subscribers of Red Giant Universe may download the most version of Red Giant Link, which is the company's tool for keeping users on the most current versions of its products. User may update version-2.0 through Link's Universe panel.

We'll explore the new tools and features of Red Giant Universe 2.0 and let you know what we think about the improvements. Look out for a mini-review of Red Giant Universe 2.0, coming soon!