Speaking of sequence to sequence, how about system to system? Does your shop work with Final Cut Studio, After Effects and Combustion? If so, these saved custom files can also be read by any of the editing systems that are using Damage. All programs should be this user-centric.
Depth of Options
Power = Control. You have a lot of control with this plug-in. Damage isn’t simply a collection of presets that will hopefully fit your needs. It gives you absolute control over everything. Each of the four categories of this plug-in are divided into has specific parameters emulating the real world reasons for the interference. Depending on the category you choose, there may be a smorgasbord of parameter controls.
But, again the folks at Digieffects have made it easy to find a starting point before you even begin working with the controls. At the very top of these category controls is the Digieffects Banner. This banner has four (1-4) little buttons that provide a starting point for certain looks with the chosen filter. Think of them not as presets, but as diving boards for different swimming pools with similar water. For example, if you are reproducing a cell phone video effect with Blockade, certain starting points simply look more like a cell phone video and others look more like web TV. Personally, depending on the effect, I found that there were a couple of starting point that I used more frequently than others. Clicking on the starting point reconfigures all of the controls and let’s you get into the finessing of a look by skipping the macro types of adjustments.
So, once you select your starting point using one of the buttons for one of the four Damage options, what’s next? Well, frankly I’m not going to cover everything because there is a ton of “everything”. The simplest category, Artifact, has 6 parameter controls; the most complex, Skew, has 39 parameters.
Don’t panic! While there are many parameters, they are all named with common sense titles. So common sense, in fact, that you really don’t need to visit the documentation. However, the online documentation is some of the finest that I’ve seen for a plug-in. It’s concise, written with a sense of humor and clear explanation that leaves you feeling gratified for inquiring instead of scratching your head and wondering why you tried.
While there may be many parameters that you can adjust, each section is clearly labeled with a header identifying what it oversees. Again, common sense categories like, Color, Glow, Distortion, Bars and Vertical Hold. No muss, no fuss so you can hit the ground running with this addition to your tool set.
The other very nice touch is that you can control opacity of the whole effect, whichever one you’re working with, by adjusting the source blend. That gives you the ability for nuance or total visual carnage. Sweet.
