A good friend of mine, Patrick Sheffield, has been working on a few FCP plugins for a while. He made some free ones a while ago starting with the Two-strip and Three-Strip color looks based on what he saw on THE AVIATOR. Since then, between editing commercials and music videos and documentaries and writing a book on Motion 3 (due out soon) he has been busying himself by making some VERY useful and VERY cool plugins.

One of the first he did was the Electronic Makeup Artist (EMA). This makes wrinkles vanish into thin air…so your grandmother will look like your mother’s sister in no time. Then there is Digital Coverup that does wonders for the young kids…gets rid of those nasty zits on their face. Those right there will be HUGE for a lot of people. But then there’s more.

He has a LOOKS SWEET package that adds Vibrance to your videos, or a Glamour look…and Mr. Fixit works on fixing that nasty OVEREXPOSURE that happens on some images, like clouds and white coats and foreheads. This is a step up from the Capt’s Blowout Fixer, in the free section. I have used the Blowout Fixer and now Mr. Fixit more than once. Pesky foreheads.

Then there are the Video Painter and Graphic Novel Look (GNL) that give your video that painting or drawn look. I have used these on more than one project…it makes the tease to a show look really cool. Great for the fast cut sections or mystical recreations that I need to accomplish. And was a great way to lead from the live action into the animation that we used on a show.

Anyway, yes I am pushing these hard. Because they are darn useful and I find myself using them quite often. There are demo versions available, instructions, presets…all sorts of cool stuff. Take a gander.

EMA will make your grandmother shine, and Digital Coverup will make your teenager hate you less. I find that darn worth it.