Maxon releases Red Giant 2024.2 with new 3D tool Geo
Part of Maxon’s launch promo for its Spring 2024 releases. The new features in Red Giant 2024.2 are shown in the first minute of the video.
Maxon has released Red Giant 2024.2, the latest version of its collection of effects plugins for After Effects and other compositing and video editing software.
The release introduces Geo, an entirely new tool for texturing, lighting, and cloning 3D objects in After Effects, and makes minor updates to Universe, Trapcode and Magic Bullet.
Geo: a new tool for working with 3D objects in After Effects
The main change in Red Giant 2024.2 is Geo, a new tool for texturing, lighting, and cloning 3D objects in After Effects, for both motion graphics and visual effects work.
Users can import 3D models in standard file formats: OBJ, FBX, GLB, glTF, DAE, C4D and 3DS.
It is then possible to assign up to five materials to a model, each with its own set of physically based properties, following the roughness-metalness PBR workflow.
Material properties can be controlled with imported texture maps or, more significantly, using existing After Effects layers or comps.
Geo also comes with controls for setting up a background environment, including a built-in sun light, support for image-based lighting, and environment fog.
For motion graphics, there are integrated cloners along the lines of those in MoGraph in Cimema 4D, for creating cuboidal, spherical or cylindrical arrays of objects.
For visual effects and product visualization work, a shadow catcher system makes it easier to composite rendered 3D objects into background footage.
Minor updates to Universe, Trapcode and Magic Bullet Looks
The existing tools get smaller updates, with online effects library Universe getting the option to add attenuation to custom blur maps in the new Bokeh plugin.
Trapcode, Maxon’s motion graphics and VFX plugins for After Effects, gets a performance update, with “enhanced” playback and rendering in 3D particle tool Particular.
Magic Bullet gets UI updates to the Looks plugin to improve color management workflow.
Price and system requirements
The Red Giant 2024.2 plugins are available for Windows 10+ and macOS 12.0+, and are compatible with After Effects 2023+.
Some products are compatible with other host applications, including DaVinci Resolve.
All of the products are rental-only, and are available via Red Giant subscriptions, which cost $79/month or $599/year, or Maxon One subscriptions, which cost $149/month or $1,199/year. Individual Universe subscriptions cost $30/month or $199/year.
Read a full list of changes in Red Giant 2024.2 in the online changelog
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