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Peter Wiggins, CEO of Idustrial Revolution, sent me an email last week announcing the release of their latest XEffects plugin for Apple Final Cut Pro X: Rips. This is the fourteenth in the XEffects series.
Peter also sent me a demo license so I could take a look at this new title for myself.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
XEffects Rips includes 10 effects, 10 titles and 8 transitions that rip off sections of media leaving behind a paper tear edge.
Like all FX Factory plugins, Rips is easy to install and works like any other FCP X title, generator or effect.
Developer: Idustrial Revolution
Website: idustrialrevolution.com/products/xeffects-rips
Released by: FXFactory
Website: fxfactory.com
Price: $39 (US) till March 1, 2018; $49 thereafter
A free trial is available on the FXFactory website that is fully-functional, but watermarked.
PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION
To purchase and install Rips, first download and install the FXFactory application. The software is free and easy to install. FXFactory specializes in aggregating and marketing effects for FCP X, Motion, Premiere and After Effects from a wide variety of developers. Even better, as you build a collection of effects, FXFactory allows you to enable or disable any of their effects with a single mouse click.
Once FXFactory is installed, purchase Rips through the FXFactory interface and it will be installed automatically.
I am a big fan of FXFactory and their support for smaller developers.
WHAT RIPS DOES
What Rips does is “tear” a video clip like it was a piece of paper to reveal a second image underneath. You have control over all images, Rips simply provides the tearing effect.
Each effect provides almost 30 different position and formatting controls. The Angle and Rotation controls allow easy changes to the direction of the tear, while the X and Y controls allow positioning the tear.
Each effect and title, but not transition, allows the ability to select different shapes for the tear, different textures for the paper revealed by the tear and the ability vary the width of the torn paper border.
Other useful settings include:
Rip effects are easily created by positioning the foreground clip above the background clip.
BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
Rips also include ten Rips that are designed for titles. But, these require a bit more work to create.
Here, for example is the “Bottom Rip Horizontal” title. Notice how it tears to reveal black under the image. This isn’t black, but a potentially transparent title background.
However, there’s no place in this Rips title to add text. Instead, select the clip you are tearing, along with the Rips title, then combine them into a compound clip.
Then, UNDER the compound clip, add another title clip for the text you want to display, then under that lower text, put the texture – in this case, I used a Paper background – that you want placed under the text.
Here’s the final result. The image of the woman and the tear are in the compound clip, the the text, then the texture under the text.
TRANSITIONS
Rips also supplies transitions that tear from one image to the next. There are eight pre-set transitions, with a wide variety of position and direction control over the speed and direction of the rip.
However, as this is a transition, no paper edge is displayed or available.
SUMMARY
We don’t think of video as being “rippable.” But Rips provides eye-catching effects that make video behave in ways that we don’t expect.The formatting controls are extensive and combining Rips with text provides an exciting new way to bring infographics to life.
My only wish was that a few more tears from top to bottom were included. However, they are easy to create by adjusting the Angle and Rotation settings in the effect interface.
Check out the free trial and see how Rips can add some additional excitement to your projects.
