Publisher: Red Giant
Website: http://www.redgiant.com/
Platform: PC & Mac
x32/x64: x64
Description: Special effects Plugin Suite
Purchase/Rent: Rent
Pricing: $99/year or $20/month
Download Demo: Click Here
Expected Release: Available Now
Review Issue: Iss. #126 (08/16)
Reviewed By: Mark Colegrove
Final Score: 9.3
Back in 2014, Red Giant launched Universe, a reasonably priced, subscription-based, set of effects and transitions compatible with Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Final Cut X, Motion, Vegas, Davinci & Hitfilm. It’s a great set of plugins that I’ve found myself dipping into from time to time. To read my review of the original version click here.
Recently they’ve launched the 2.0 update to the plugins, which includes 4 new effects as well as 29 updates to existing ones. So we figured it’s time to take another look!
Ease of Use
As before, the set of tools installs via Red Giant Link, and all your effects appear in your effects bin across several “Universe” bins. As part of the subscription, I was very pleased to see that this 2.0 version was already installed on my machine come review-time.
The effects are all easy to apply and work with. While there are many options to tweak an effect exactly to your liking, most effects come with built in presets (via a dropdown menu) and 22 even come with a much more visual “preset browser.” This not only shows you what each effect is really capable of, but will also quickly help you find a good starting point if you’re on a deadline!
Depth of Options
All told, you’re getting over 60 effects and transitions with a Universe subscription. The categories include: Blur, Distort, Generators, Glow, Motion Graphics, Stylize & Utilities as well as the Transitions.
Always a classic, and a staple of Red Giant Univers, the damaged “VHS Look”
While the presets are really helpful, you’re also given TONS of control over each effect so that you can really dial in the right amount of “tape noise” on your VHS look for example.
A handful of new effects in this 2.0 update really put the focus on motion graphics this time around, and include:
- HUD Components – Overlay “Heads Up Display” elements onto your footage (i.e. the “Minority Report” effects)
- Line – Easily animate a line between two points
- Logo Motion – Create dynamic logo animations quickly
- Color Stripe – Create your own transition using layered blocks of color
Performance
I was immediately surprised how fast a lot of these effects were running on my machine. I’m an Adobe user, and Universe recently added support for their most recent 2015.3 release, which features fast playback improvements. For example, a 4K “Fractal Background” effect played back completely smooth, without rendering my timeline first.
All effects in the Universe bundle take advantage of your GPU for playback, and I was amazed that even the most graphically demanding effects (the VHS look, the Glow effects, etc.) would play back immediately and without any stuttering, allowing me to spend less time rendering things out and more time actually editing.
Value
The beauty of it is – if you already have a Universe subscription, then you already have version 2.0. All in all, the annual subscription is the most cost effective at $99 for a year (its $20 monthly).
While it’s still a good value – the only downside here is that this is a price increase from the time of my initial review in 2014 when it was available for $10 per month. Gone is the lifetime membership that was offered back then as well as the scaled down “free” version which featured 29 effects.
Take a look through the effects to see if there’s enough here you’d regularly use to make Universe worthwhile for you. What I like is that the focus here seems to be on “popular” effects. So you get a lot of effects you’ll come back to regularly as opposed to the one “cool effect” you use in only one project and never touch again.
It’s also clear that Red Giant is very committed to this product and we’ll see more updates regularly.
Final Comments
All in all, Red Giant is continuing the evolution of a stellar product with the release of Universe 2.0. The preset browser is extremely helpful, and while I’ve been taking regular advantage of effects like the Swish Pan, Knoll Light Factory Carousel & VHS effects for a couple years now, I see myself using some of the new effects like Line and Color Stripe regularly as well down the road. While the price increase is a bit of a jump, it’s still much less than comparable products like Boris Continuum Complete and GenArts Sapphire. And though those programs offer many more effects, it seems like the focus in Universe is on effects you’ll use more regularly.
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Breakdown
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Ease of Use
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10.0 |
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Depth of Options
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9.0 |
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Performance
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10.0 |
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Value vs. Cost
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8.0 |
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Overall Score |
9.3 |
Mark Colegrove
Mark Colegrove is the director of 2008's horror/comedy Isle of the Damned, which is self-distributed through his production company, Dire Wit Films. Based in Maryland, he currently produces corporate video and is working on his second feature, Driven to Succeed, a driver's ed comedy.