Free compositing/special effects program

CrackTheSky · Post by **CrackTheSky** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:58 am

Check this out - Wax. I came across this searching for Vegas plugins. It's a neat little special effects/compositing program which can also act as a plugin for Premiere, Pure Motion EditStudio, and Vegas. It actually seems relatively powerful. I haven't tested it too much yet, but for those of us who are too poor for After Effects and don't really need all the bells and whistles AE provides, this seems like a reasonable alternative, especially considering it's freeware. It actually has a similar layout to AE, so someone more familiar with that program can give a better verdict on it than I can.

It's not too complex, so if you're looking for something to use alongside your editing program to deal with certain effects, give this a look-see. I've had problems getting it to work as a plugin for Vegas, but as a standalone program it seems to work fine, and it can export to whatever codec you choose.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:53 am

Wax has about 1% of the functionality that AE has :p

CrackTheSky · Post by **CrackTheSky** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:21 pm

Zarxrax wrote:Wax has about 1% of the functionality that AE has :p

Haha, well obviously it has nowhere near the versatility that AE has, but I was surprised at what it could do that Vegas couldn't, so I'll be keeping it

Keeper of Hellfire · Post by **Keeper of Hellfire** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:51 pm

That what's interesting for me is the particle generator, anything else seems to be covered by MoviePack, as far as I can judge after a short look. Unfortunatly I can use it too as standalone version only. The premiere plugin appears in the FX list and I can apply it to a clip, but if I try to open it, it crashes with an access violation.

Minion · Post by **Minion** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:13 am

well, i had something planned for AE tonight. i opted to give this program a shot.

it's not very flexable. 90% of the shit in it are canned effects and transitions.
took about 5 minutes to figure out that it wasn't capable of doing the task i required.

i think i'll keep the premiere plugin, just because. i'll likely never touch it again though.

(FYI, the plugin and the stand alone program are exactly the same)

Keeper of Hellfire · Post by **Keeper of Hellfire** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:32 am

Minion wrote:(FYI, the plugin and the stand alone program are exactly the same)

That's what I did expect, it's the difference in the workflow that makes me wish the Premiere plugin would work in MoviePack. Simply applying it to a clip compared with exporting the clip (except you're using clips), importing it in Wax, exporting it if you think you're finished and importing it again. And the last three steps every time if you want to change it. Not to mention that you have to care not to overwrite the original clip if you export from Wax.