Magic Bullet Suite
Magic Bullet Suite is an After Effects
plug-in that does much more than make
your DV footage look like film. It’s
a true 24p finishing process, incorporating
high-quality film effects and styles
to take your DV, Digital Betacam, or
HD footage all the way to film print.
Magic Bullet works on all Standard Definition
format video (up to 720 x 486 NTSC and
720 x 576 PAL, 16:9 or 4:3), and on
all resolutions supported by After Effects,
including High Definition formats (1280x720
and 1920x1080).
New
Features of Magic Bullet Suite version
2:
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Misfire—13
filters to accurately mimic film
grain, splotches, scratches, and
projection artifacts |
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More Looks—23
additional preset film treatments |
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Look Suite
Mac optimisation—up
to five times faster rendering
on Power Mac G5 vs. Power Mac
G4 |
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HD capability
included as standard (no separate
HD version) |
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No dongle
required |
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Optional unlimited
render licenses |
Upgrading
from previous versions 1 and 1.5:
| Upgrading
from version 1.x requires a one-time
check for the dongle. Once the
software is installed, the dongle
is no longer required. Magic Bullet
Suite HD owners get the Render
License as part of their upgrade
- please contact The Carpark directly
to arrange this. |
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Magic
Bullet Suite comprises the following
plug-ins:
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Magic Bullet
Magic Bullet is the workhorse
plug-in that converts the video
sources to 24p and helps reduce
some of the artifacts present
in digital video footage. You
can do these operations separately,
so you can use Magic Bullet to
de-artifact progressive-scan (or
faux progressive scan) footage,
or you can de-interlace footage
without otherwise affecting it. |
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Look Suite
Look Suite is the creative centerpiece
- here you will find a selection
of preset looks that you can apply
to your footage, or you can design
your own. The preset looks are
designed to mimic a number of
popular shooting styles and post-processes,
but Look Suite provides you the
power to create your own unique
looks and save them as your own
presets to use again or share
with others. |
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Misfire
Accurately recreates characteristics
of old film, including grain,
splotches, and scratches—as
well as projection artifacts like
flicker and gate weave. In addition
to a master plug-in with 13 categories
of control, plug ins for another
13 effects are included in the
package. |
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Opticals
Opticals allows
you to generate beautiful film-like
fades to black, burns to white,
and cross-dissolves. |
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LetterBox
LetterBox allows you to crop your
output to standard film and television
aspect ratios simply and effectively. |
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Broadcast Spec
Broadcast Spec is designed for
Magic Bullet projects which need
to meet broadcast specifications.
It has settings for DV output
as well as uncompressed standard-definition
output devices such as CineWAVE,
Digital Voodoo, or Igniter. Since
many HD projects will be broadcast
over Standard Definition airwaves,
Magic Bullet HD users can also
make good use of Broadcast Spec. |
Look Suite, Opticals and Broadcast Spec
make complex and subtle color adjustments
to your footage. To do this at the best
possible quality, it is recommended
that you use them in 16-bit After Effects
projects. The 16-bit option is a powerful
feature available only in the After
Effects 5.0 or later production bundle.
If you do not have the Production Bundle
of After Effects, fear not. These plug-ins
use The Orphanage's DeepColor technology,
allowing them to adjust your images
internally at greater than 16-bit quality
and render them back to your 8-bit projects
without any banding effects. Why should
the Production Bundle folks have all
the fun?
Who
needs Magic Bullet?
Magic Bullet has been
the post-production process of choice
for numerous filmmakers, independent
and studio alike. Magic Bullet was designed
to be the last step in any digital production.
Here are some examples.
Feature
Films
As
stated above, Magic Bullet has been
used on many feature films that have
been seen on 35mm film and video alike.
Examples include Alison Anders' Things
Behind the Sun, Ethan Hawke's Chelsea
Walls, and Campbell Scott's Final. In
all of these cases Magic Bullet provided
the filmmakers with not only the best
possible image quality from their DV
originals but with flawless film and
video output from the same digital source.
And in each case the directors worked
with their cinematographers to apply
unique and distinctive looks to the
films, enjoying the kind of creative
control that previously was the exclusive
domain of big-budget filmmakers.
But the Bullet is not just for indies
- in the recent film Vanilla Sky starring
Tom Cruise, Magic Bullet was used on
a variety of video footage - both to
seamlessly match it in to surrounding
35mm footage and to create unique video
looks.
TV Shows
Magic Bullet's 24p video output
is perfect for TV Shows, and can actually
allow digital video to replace film
acquisition in some cases. In the ABC
TV Movie Superfire, the Bullet was used
to match video stock footage to the
production's own 35mm film shots. Armed
with Magic Bullet Suite v1.0's Broadcast
Spec plug-in, you can be sure that your
video signal will meet PAL broadcast
standards.
Commercials
Millions of viewers watched the Nike
spot Take Me Out to the Ball Game in
the 2001 World Series and never once
suspected that it was shot with a PAL
DV camera - thanks to Magic Bullet.
Music
Videos
Anytime budgets are tight and production
value must be high, Magic Bullet can
help make cost-saving digital video
a viable choice. And it can help with
high-end projects as well - The recent
music video for Cher's A Song For the
Lonely was processed though the HD version
of Magic Bullet.
Motion
Graphics
The ability to integrate all kinds of
source media - film and video alike
- in a common 24p environment at the
highest quality is something any motion
graphics artist would want. Magic Bullet
unites disparate video sources with
ease.
Visual
Effects
It's not uncommon for small
elements for big-budget Visual Effects
films to be shot on video, even DV.
Magic Bullet can convert that video
to 24p at the highest possible quality
so that those elements can be used with
confidence - even on film-resolution
shots! And Magic Bullet's proprietary
deartifacting option can drastically
reduce the color artifacts that make
pulling a good key off of DV bluescreens
or greenscreens so difficult.
Web
Assuming anyone out there still
cares about the web, Magic Bullet can
help there too. High quality deinterlacing
helps reduce the strain on compression
algorithms, and 24 or 12fps is a lot
less data than 30 or 15!
System
requirements
Application
|
After Effects 6.0
or later |
System
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Mac OS9 or OSX (PowerMac
G4 or later) |
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Windows 2000 or XP (Home/Professional),
Pentium III 600 MHz or greater;
RAM 256MB minimum |
