Portland, OR—Red Giant released an update to its VFX Suite—a collection of keying, tracking, cleanup and visual effects compositing tools, all inside Adobe After Effects. Moreover, Red Giant VFX Suite 1.5 introduces Lens Distortion, a brand-new tool for matching the distortion of any lens. It also provides updates to some of the original tools: Supercomp, Optical Glow, King Tracker, Shadow and Reflection.
“When we released VFX Suite last year, our goal was to solve the challenges faced by professional VFX artists by giving them next generation tools right inside of After Effects” said Stu Maschwitz, Maxon/Red Giant’s chief creative officer. “With VFX Suite 1.5, we’re building on that with new and updated tools that allow for even better visual effects and compositing results.”
New in Red Giant VFX Suite 1.5
Lens Distortion is a new tool to make matching the distortion of a lens easy, so that elements are seamlessly composited in a shot. The tool can also determine the type of lens used for a shot on its own, instantly. Moreover, it identifies curved lines that should be straight and solves the problem—all within the After Effects workflow.
VFX Suite Updates
Red Giant also upgraded various existing tools inside of the VFX Suite 1.5. Furthermore, all plug-ins are GPU-accelerated, giving AE users results at faster speeds.
Supercomp 1.5
With Supercomp 1.5, users can utilize the new color match tool (found in the color correction tool). Supercomp will instantly match the black-and-white points of the layers behind it.
In addition, Supercomp now includes professional color handling options; 28 new color spaces were added. The tool also supports popular cameras from Arri, Blackmagic, Canon and RED.
What’s more, optical glow and layer glow tools were updated to include new radiate options for creating organic light rays; the ability to separately scale the RGB channels of the glow; and also the ability to separately scale the effect on the X and Y axes.
Optical Glow 1.5
With updates to this tool, users can add light rays to a glow using its new radiate feature. They can also control the size and center point of the rays.
Upgrades also allow them to separately scale the RGB channels of the glow to create a more organic effect. Plus, Optical Glow 1.5 introduces the option to separately control the scale of the glow effect on both the X and Y axes. 
King Pin Tracker 1.5
Here, a new one-click workflow copies the position of the ‘To Pins’ to the ‘From Pins.’ Consequently, this speeds up processes like painting out an object or adding a set extension.
Moreover, King Ping Tracker now has better placement tools. For instance, it provides the ability to move the entire shape as one, and to grab and offset the edges of a layer within the planar space created by the corner pin.
Shadow 1.5
Now integrated is a one-click solution for instantly hiding the contents of the source layer and showing only the shadow. Users can now also distort a shadow over bumps and dips in the background layer for a more realistic composite.
Reflection 1.5
This tool adds a one-click solution for hiding the contents of the source layer and showing only the reflection. Users can additionally distort a reflection over bumps and dips in the background layer, such as the ripples on the surface of a lake. 
VFX Suite 1.5 Pricing
Red Giant VFX Suite is available as a subscription or as part of Red Giant Complete, which gives editors, motion designers and VFX artists all Red Giant tools at one low price. They include Trapcode Suite, Magic Bullet Suite, Universe, VFX Suite and Shooter Suite. Pricing is as follows:
- Red Giant Complete Annual Price: $599
- Red Giant Complete Monthly Price: $79
- VFX Suite 1.5 Price: $999
- VFX Suite 1.5 Upgrade Price: $199
All current Red Giant Complete subscribers receive this update for free. Users who own a perpetual license of VFX Suite 1.0 are eligible for a $199 upgrade. Users can purchase the upgrade here.
