Introducing Movie Looks and Noir, Plus Plastic Bullet Free For a Limited Time
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 9:00AM 
Today Red Giant Software has released two new iOS apps that I helped design and create, Movie Looks and Noir. To celebrate the launch, Plastic Bullet is free on the iTunes app store for just two days.
Ever since we released Plastic Bullet, folks have been asking for some kind of “Magic Bullet Looks for the iPhone.” It probably surprises no one to learn that we’ve been working on just that for a while now. Pick a video, trim it down to just the part you want, choose from a variety of preset Looks, and then adjust those Looks to taste using Strength and Brightness controls.
Noir converts photos to black and white and allows you to re-light them using an editable vignette. It’s like a Colorista Power Mask for your phone. Noir is a universal app—buy it once and install it on both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.
Noir started as a little passion project for me. I wanted a way to prep my iPhone shots for use with Cinemek’s powerful Storyboard Composer app, but I was frustrated with iPhone image editing apps that forced me to tap my way through byzantine mazes of menus and ugly sliders to adjust my images. I wanted to quickly give my images a storytelling quality, with all the necessary controls on one screen. Then a funny thing happened—we distributed an early beta of Noir within Red Giant, and people flipped for it. The images they were making were gorgeous, and they were having crazy fun making them. In case it’s not obvious, that’s pretty much all I ever hope for the tools I create.
Movie Looks has been an equally fun challenge. Getting a tiny little phone to render HD video effects is no easy task, especially when you don’t want to compromise on image quality. We’ve built a completely new rendering engine and worked hard to make it as seamless as possible on the phone.
Noir and Movie Looks are available now, each for $2.99. More information is available at Red Giant. Plastic Bullet is free for April 19–20.
Reader Comments (11)
Stu,
Got all three, thanks for the heads up, will point a link to images that have gone thru the noir treatment later. Please send a thank you to all the folks at Red Giant for me.
Laurence Zankowski
Wow, I really want those apps. They look amazing! :)
I'm on Android though... I have been jealous of the plastic bullet app since it was released, and now this. Are you trying to have me buy an iphone? You almost did it :)
Really hoping for these to be released for Android one day.
Until then, thanks for a great blog! I've been coming here for years, but registered just now just to say all of us going the google way also would love them brilliant apps.
Fred
this is so cool, are there any plastic bullet fan sites?
thanks stu
Hi Dimi, there are flickr groups for Plastic Bullet and Noir:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/plasticbullet/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/noirphoto/
There's a Facebook page for Plastic Bullet:
http://www.facebook.com/plasticbulletcamera
Stu,
Thank you for the new apps! Posting Noired niece photo now...
I assume you've seen this:
They will clearly need bullet apps....
+1 for some android love
Stu
Noir is making me nuts, I am going back to all my images and seeing which ones can be noirified( is that a word? ) The ipad is filling up with images, I can not stop from testing everything. I have digital paintings I did in art rage that are now noirified, I have images that are converted to 2 bit black and white, run through color effects and then noirified... it is an addiction...
OT: could you explain again how a camera like Red has a degree of shutter? are there in these 4k plus cameras a rotating shutter?
I am confused on this issue.
be well
laurence
You rock Laurence, glad you're digging Noir!
Most digital cameras, like Red's, have electronic shutters. The shutter interval is expressed in degrees for consistency across frame rates and for familiarity's sake. Both Red One and Epic have the option to display shutter in fractions of a second as well.
Hello,
Movie Looks is great, but could benefit from a few stability and usability improvements:
- 2.35:1 crop should be moved into an option for every look. This way, you can combine footage with different looks without incompatible aspect ratios.
- the file picker could go into the Camera Roll by default in order to save superfluous taps
- the frame picker could pick a middle frame by default
- in the tweak dialog, the "half/full" switch should remember its state. It can be annoying to have to switch to "full" every time (and having to rerender if you forgot)
- the first warning dialog should have a toggle like "don't ask anymore"
- after leaving the playback dialog, "Select another video" should throw the user right into the file selection dialog (instead of the startup screen of the app)
Bottom line: There are probably other people like me who got addicted by this app and use it as a regular tool. Removing redundant taps/dialogues/steps would make us happier.
Great feedback Florian, thanks very much!
Stu
have you tried noir running through the ipad2 and the HDMI adaptor!
Awesome to see the images being worked on on a big flat screen. Which leads to getting the app to become 1080p capable or something like that...
Also, I am thinking about starting a 12 step program for NOIR addicts, we'll all become friends of Stu!!!
I do not use flickr but still will have a llink soon for my noir images, which at this point are all over the map...
be well
laurence