6 Most Popular Video Editing Plugins and Effects

June 24, 2023
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Video editing is an art that requires both technical skill and creative vision. 

While most video editing software has a wide range of built-in features, sometimes you need more specialized tools to achieve a specific look or effect. 

This is where video editing plugins and effects come in. These powerful tools can significantly enhance the quality and creativity of your video projects, allowing you to achieve professional-looking results quickly.

In this article, we talk about video editing plugins, their effects, and how they can benefit you in the long run!

Video Effects, Plugins: Who Can Use Them?

If you want to create high-quality videos, using video editing plugins and effects can greatly help regardless of your skill level.

These plugins and effects can provide you with different styles and effects that would otherwise take a lot of time and effort to achieve. 

But to be more specific, the following people can benefit significantly from using video editing plugins and effects:

Filmmakers

Filmmakers often use plugins and effects to create cinematic effects, like color grading, motion control, and film grain. 

These tools can help them achieve a specific look and feel for their films. Which is especially important if they want to create modern stylized films.

Marketing Professionals

Marketing professionals often use video editing plugins and effects to create brand promotional videos. 

These tools can help them create visually stunning content that captures the attention of their target audience.

YouTube Creators

YouTube Creators, or simply YouTubers, use plugins and effects to enhance their videos and make them more engaging for their audiences.

 These tools can help them add creative visual elements, like transitions and text overlays.

Why Do You Need Video Editing Plugins and Effects?

Video editing plugins and effects can significantly enhance your video content's quality and visual appeal. 

These tools offer a variety of features that can help you achieve specific effects, improve the color grading and color correction of your footage, and add creative visual elements to your videos.

You might want to use them for various reasons, but the most compelling reasons are the following:

Efficiency

Video editing plugins and effects can streamline your workflow by helping you achieve specific effects quickly and easily. 

On some applications, plugins can help you finish your projects in only a few clicks. 

This can save you time, improve your productivity, and help you get started on your next project as soon as you can.

Customization

Video editing plugins and effects allow you to customize your videos uniquely and creatively. 

For instance, you can use a plugin to add a unique visual effect, like a glitch or lens flare, to make your video more interesting.

Consistency

Plugins and effects can help you maintain a consistent look and feel across your video content. 

This can be especially important when creating content for a brand or organization.

6 Popular Video Editing Plugins and Effects

Discover the top six video editing plugins and effects currently in high demand. 

These plugins provide various features and tools, including color grading, correction, 3D animation, and compositing, to elevate your video editing skills to a higher level. 

Whether you are new to video editing or an experienced expert, familiarizing yourself with these plugins and effects can significantly enhance your capabilities and help you achieve your desired results. 

Magic Bullet Looks 

Photo by Maxon

Magic Bullet Looks is a video editing plugin with various video-editing software applications, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. 

The plugin is developed by Red Giant, a company specializing in creating visual effects and motion graphics tools.

The primary purpose of Magic Bullet Looks is to apply a variety of color grading and film emulation effects to the footage, allowing video editors to achieve a unique visual style. 

The plugin applies a "look" to the footage, including color, contrast, and saturation characteristics.

Some of the features of Magic Bullet Looks include:

  • Various customizable presets include options for emulating popular film stocks and looks.
  • Various color grading tools include a color wheel, color curves, and color correction tools.
  • A range of film emulation tools, including film grain, lens distortion, and vignetting.
  • A preview window that allows users to see the effects of the color grading and film emulation in real-time.

Sapphire

Photo by Sapphire

Sapphire is a set of video editing and motion graphics plugins that can be used with different video-editing software applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. 

Boris FX, a company specializing in developing visual effects and motion graphics tools, created these plugins.

The Sapphire plugin suite includes a range of tools and effects for video editors and motion graphics artists, including:

  • Lighting: A range of lighting effects, such as lens flares, glows, and light leaks.
  • Transitions: A variety of customizable transition effects that can be used to create smooth transitions between video clips.
  • Effects: Various video and audio effects, such as glitches, chromatic aberration, and retrograde.
  • Text: A set of text generation and animation tools that can be used to create custom titles and lower thirds.
  • VFX: A set of visual effects tools, including particle systems and 3D compositing tools.

One of the unique features of Sapphire is its GPU acceleration, which allows the plugins to run faster and more efficiently on compatible systems. 

Sapphire also offers a range of presets and customizable options, making it easy for users to create a unique visual style.

Red Giant Universe 

Photo by Maxon

Red Giant Universe is a set of video editing and motion graphics plugins.

These plugins are compatible with popular video-editing software applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. 

The plugins are created by Red Giant, a company that develops visual effects and motion graphics tools. 

The Universe plugin suite provides video editors and motion graphics artists with various tools and effects:

  • Transitions: A range of customizable transition effects can create smooth transitions between video clips.
  • Effects: Various video and audio effects, such as glitches, chromatic aberration, and retrograde.
  • Text: A set of text generation and animation tools that can be used to create custom titles and lower thirds.
  • VFX: A set of visual effects tools, including a knoll light factory and a 3D particle system.
  • Motion Graphics: A set of tools for creating motion graphics, such as animated backgrounds and logo animations.

One of the unique features of Red Giant Universe is its subscription model. Instead of purchasing the plugin suite outright, users can subscribe monthly or annually, giving them access to all of the tools and updates as long as their subscription is active.

FilmConvert

Photo by FilmConvert

FilmConvert is a plugin for video editing that can be used with Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. 

It is created by FilmConvert Ltd, which specializes in making film emulation plugins and tools. 

The main goal of FilmConvert is to give your footage a more cinematic appearance by mimicking the look and feel of different film stocks. 

This is achieved by adding elements like color, grain, and saturation to your footage.

Some of the features of FilmConvert include:

  • There is a range of film stock emulations, including popular options such as Kodak, Fujifilm, and Agfa.
  • Fully customizable settings to easily adjust the film stock emulation's intensity and other aspects of the footage, such as exposure, contrast, and saturation.
  • Support for a range of camera profiles, allowing the plugin to work with footage from various cameras, from handheld cameras, to the more top-of-the-line digital video cameras.
  • A grain management tool that allows users to control the amount and type of grain applied to the footage.

Neat Video 

Photo by Neat Video

Neat Video is a plugin that reduces noise in videos. 

It works with popular video-editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and Avid Media Composer. 

ABSoft, a company specializing in video processing tools, developed this plugin. Video noise is common in low-light or high-ISO settings. 

Neat Video reduces noise to produce cleaner and more professional-looking video footage. 

It analyzes the video to create a noise profile, which it uses to reduce noise. 

The plugin includes customizable tools and settings to help users achieve their desired results.

Some of the features of Neat Video include:

  • A range of noise reduction presets to apply different levels of noise reduction to the footage quickly.
  • Advanced noise reduction tools for precise control over the noise reduction process, including a noise profile editor and a temporal filter.
  • Support for different types of noise, including chroma noise and temporal noise.
  • A preview window that allows users to see the effects of the noise reduction in real-time.

NewBlue ColorFast 2

Photo by NewBlue

NewBlue ColorFast 2 is an essential video color correction plugin compatible with various popular video editing applications, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and Avid Media Composer. 

Developed by NewBlue, a company that excels in designing video editing plugins and tools, ColorFast 2 is the go-to solution for any video editor who wants to effortlessly and speedily correct color issues in their footage. 

Some of the features of ColorFast 2 include:

  • Various color correction presets apply stylish looks to the footage quickly.
  • Advanced color grading tools for precise color correction, including a 3-way and secondary color corrector.
  • Advanced masking features that allows for selective color correction of skin tones.
  • Support for high dynamic range (HDR) footage, including working with HDR metadata and converting HDR footage to SDR.

Creating Better Video Content

Video editing plugins and effects can significantly enhance the quality and creativity of your video projects. 

The six plugins and effects discussed in this article—Magic Bullet Looks, Sapphire, Red Giant Universe, FilmConvert, Neat Video, and NewBlue ColorFast 2—are among the most popular and and is an industry standard. 

Whether you want to achieve a specific film look, reduce noise and grain, or create complex visual effects and motion graphics, these plugins and effects can help you achieve your goals.

Written By
Andrea

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