Even more exciting than fancy effects is the capability to go "under the hood" of the plug-in system. By using the plug-in manager in conjunction with Apple's Quartz Composer, you can not only fiddle with existing plug-ins, but also create your own new ones just like the pros do. Noise Industries touts this feature as being so simple that you can do it "without writing a single line of code." That much is true, but despite that fact, creating your own plug-ins is not a task for the beginner or even intermediate user, unless you love to tinker with these types of things.

If you've used Quartz Composer or similar graphical node-based compositing engines before, you should be pretty comfortable with the interface, and if you've had a lot of experience working with computer graphics and video effects, then you'd know what all the little fiddly bits do. If, for example, you're familiar with Apple Shake, you should feel right at home. Otherwise, it's a little daunting.

Noise Industries has assembled a quality piece of software in FxFactory Pro, taken as a whole. The ability to customize the wide variety of offered plug-ins, the expandability offered by the ability to quickly and easily install additional plug-ins, and the seamless integration with FinalCut in specific and the Macintosh platform in general are all strong points in its favor, and the $399 price is competitive. Based on these factors, we can recommend FxFactory Pro 2.0 to the intermediate-to-advanced videographer who wants to apply a wide variety of post-processing digital effects. Let the post-production fun begin!

Requirements: Mac OS X Leopard version 10.5, Mac OS X Tiger version 10.4.9 (or later), Mac computer with PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel processor
Final Cut Studio 2: Final Cut Pro version 6.0 or later, Motion version 3.0 or later
Final Cut Studio: Final Cut Pro version 5.1.2 to 5.1.4, Motion version 2.1.2
Final Cut Express: Version 4.0 or later
Graphics Card (one of the following): ATI Radeon 9550, 9650, 9600, 9600 XT, 9700, 9800, 9800 XT, ATI Radeon X800, X850, X1600, X1900 XT, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT, 2600 PRO, 2600 XT, ATI Mobility Radeon 9600, 9700, 9800, X1600, NVIDIA GeForce 6600, 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL, NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 7600, 7800 GT, 7800 Ultra, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, 8800 GT, NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, 5600

• Very fast rendering times.
• Highly extensible and customizable.
• Wide range of effects included with basic purchase.

• Requires extensive previous experience to use all the features.

A quality set of highly-customizable special effects, transitions and video generators.

Mike VanHelder is an IT professional with a sideline in film production.

Noise Industries
77 Appleton St. #3
Boston, MA 02116
www.noiseindustries.com

$399, 15-day free trial available