Sapphire plug-ins for Avid Media Composer allow for spectacular results. Sapphire plug-ins have been used in feature films and television programmes, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Superman Returns, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars Episode 1, 2 and 3, Spiderman, The Matrix trilogy, etc. I tested Sapphire on an Avid Media Composer system, but the Sapphire plug-ins system is also available for Final Cut Pro 7, After Effects, and on Windows also Autodesk, Sony Vegas Pro, and Nuke. A complete Sapphire license isn’t complete without a subscription to the FXCentral presets online database.
I was given the opportunity to test Sapphire 6 with a one-year subscription to FXCentral. When the Sapphire plug-ins for Avid Media Composer have been installed, they are immediately available in the Special Effects tab for each project.
Each Sapphire plug-in has a complete effect editor, with sliders, rotators, value fields, and buttons for help, checkboxes for masking, and buttons for on-screen widgets. Some of the most spectacular results that you can achieve with Sapphire plug-ins on an Avid Media Composer system are achieved through a method called nesting. Nesting is the process of placing an effect on top of another in the same segment.
Most of the Sapphire plug-ins can also be restricted to keyframe areas, started and stopped by using the advanced keyframe editor in the Avid effect editor. Using this editor, you can set keyframes for different parameters at different times. In addition to the effects editor, Sapphire plug-ins support on-screen widgets. On-screen widgets add an overlay interface to a clip; the overlay can be manipulated with the mouse. It’s an intuitive and real-time way to adjust an effect.
Finally, the plug-ins can also be used as part of a compositing process. For example, if you create a mask or an alpha channel in Avid Media Composer, you can apply a Sapphire plug-in just to the visible area.
There are about 200 effects in Sapphire 6, but combined with the nesting feature and the masking-only support, the possibilities to change the look and feel of footage is endless. I tried various effects, including a few glow effects, a transition that adds lightning, and different colour effects. As with all special effects of all developers, it takes a skilled artist to create something convincing, but it doesn’t take an artist to see the quality of the results. It is also obvious to any reviewer how well each effect can be tuned using the easy to use effect editor interface.
After having tried single effects from Sapphire 6, I already felt like I was using the full product portfolio of Red Giant in one plug-ins package. That feeling only became stronger when I started to use the nesting capabilities, although I must be honest: nesting effects requires a hefty machine to avoid stuttered playback. Applying an effect to a masked area again strengthens the realism and impact you can obtain when using Sapphire 6, because the effects can be more subtle and unexpected.
Sapphire 6 goes well beyond other special effects generators in certain areas as well. For example, the Lens Flare effect allows you to create or edit your own lens flare. It offers about a dozen elements that may constitute a lens flare! You can then again save this as a preset, and even share this preset on FXCentral.
All effects can be saved as a preset, and presets can also be imported from the FXCentral site. Many of these presets have been created by top artists such as Lutz Albrecht, 3D animator and graphics designer at IWG Video & Medienproduktion in Leipzig, Germany.
It’s this holistic approach to special effects that makes Sapphire 6 truly unique. You don’t just get an extremely tunable effects engine which allows you to create the exact effect you are after, but also a complete community system you can tap into. No wonder then that Sapphire is an industry leader. Sapphire 6 costs approx. €1,200.00.
