- Free Effects Plugins
- Best Effect Plugins 2016 Free
- Best Effect Plugins 2016 Download
- Best Effect Plugins 2020
2016 is almost over! I want to present you with a list of some of the best free plugins launched this year. If you need a free effect plugin or a new virtual synthesizer plugin, take a look and choose from the list below that plugin you consider will better suit your needs. All these plugins were some of the hottest freeware releases in 2016. Many of these free audio plugins work both on. Here is where the third-party free After Effect plugins come on the stage. Firstly, they allow even novices to add the special flavor they want. Secondly, they significantly save your budget. Free After Effects Plugins for Motion Designers. Although the number of free After Effects plugins is large, not all of them are capable of doing a great job. Ozone Imager V2 is probably one of the best free VST plugins as it allows a music composer to have full control over the width of the sounds. The tool has three different vectorscope meters that instantly show the stereo width and help you widen or narrow the sounds precisely as per the project requirements. KeyShot is a real-time ray tracing solution and as of 2016 it is now compatible with Maya as a direct plugin. This is good news for Maya users. KeyShot's speedy and efficient workflow makes it a perfect rendering solution for both product visualisations and interior renders.
Studio Head Paul Hatton explores some of the not-to-be-missed plugins that are available for Maya – check out his top 10!
Studio Head Paul Hatton explores some of the not-to-be-missed plugins that are available for Maya – check out his top 10!
Free Effects Plugins
Plugins such as Golaem Crowd are incredible tools that will make your life as a 3D artist easier. You'll also be able to deliver better results than if you just relied on the native Maya tools. © Golaem Crowd
Maya is a comprehensive piece of simulation and animation software. It sets itself apart from 3ds Max in areas of animation, lighting and VFX. Despite the extensive nature of the software there is always room for improvement and that is where bespoke plugins come to the fore. Maya has a strong community of developers that have set about making our workflows easier by putting easy to use tools in our hands. In this article we're going to take a quick whistle-stop tour of 10 of the plugins which you should take a look at.
Maya Carbon Scatter
Real-world environments are made easy with Carbon Scatter. It can handle millions of plants, trees, stones and other objects allowing you to create incredibly varied and beautiful scenes. They also have a shop which contacts a huge variety of plants and trees for an easy drag and drop solution.
Scatter objects naturally with this simple to use plugin
Maya HDR Light Studio
This is not technically a plugin but I thought it was worth a mention all the same! It's a brilliant solution to lighting your model as it lets you set up custom designed HDR images that can then be used in any renderer. Its interface is visually led making it very intuitive to work with.
Create custom lighting setups that bring your lighting and reflections to life
Maya Phoenix FD
This plugin is an absolute steal from Chaos Group. It allows Maya users to create a variety of simulations including fire, water and smoke. It is quick, versatile and incredibly straight-forward to get quickly realistic results. Check out the trial and you'll never look back.
Fluid simulations can be achieved inside of Maya but not as simply as with Phoenix
Realflow
Another major player in the fluid simulation market is Realflow. If you're used to using Maxwell then Realflow will sit nicely in your workflow. Realflow also includes GPU acceleration and impressive simulation solvers that enable users to create what they need with impressive speed.
Finding a reliable fluids simulator is vital if you need it to deliver on a tight deadline
Maya MiArmy
This one is a little random although I hope some of you find it a helpful recommendation! It's called MiArmy and it is a crowd simulation plugin. It allows for AI and behavioural led animation and creates crowds that interact in a believable manner.
Crowd simulation is made easy with MiArmy Best external hard drive 1tb.
Golaem Crowd
Another plugin for crowd simulation purposes is Golaem Crowd. What I love about this plugin is that it has a diverse array of free characters and motions that can be utilised in your scenes. It also has a physical simulation feature which can achieve some pretty cool results.
Crowd simulators have come on leaps and bounds in recent years and Golaem is one such example
Maya Keyshot
KeyShot is a real-time ray tracing solution and as of 2016 it is now compatible with Maya as a direct plugin. This is good news for Maya users. KeyShot's speedy and efficient workflow makes it a perfect rendering solution for both product visualisations and interior renders.
Best Effect Plugins 2016 Free
Keyshot is definitely an emerging entity and well worth checking out their trial software
RenderMan
Best Effect Plugins 2016 Download
Pixar have released their famous RenderMan software for Maya. RenderMan will helpfully work with all your Maya geometry, materials and lights and so on, and translate them for use in the rendering process. It is stable and quick and can be utilised right from within the Maya user interface.
There are now more renderers than you can shake a stick at but RenderMan is well worth a look
Shave
Best Effect Plugins 2020
This plugin has been utilised by an incredible variety of clients in the games and VFX industries. Its track record speaks for itself. It is compatible with all the major renderers and can be relied on for creating impressive results. It is largely texture map driven enabling users to increase realism.
Shave has a very impressive list of clients that have utilised this technology
Pulldownit
This is a quick Voronoi based solution to shattering and fracturing geometry. When doing this kind of work you want a stable solution and Pulldownit providers that. You can shatter geometry accurately based on materials such as stone and glass. The fracturing is also captured in key frames so is perfect for animation.
Shatter and fracture geometry with ease with Pulldownit
Keep up-to-date with the latest plugins
Many of the plugins I have selected for this article have stood the test of time. They are plugins which are utilised in industry pipelines, making them reliable and trustworthy solutions. I would highly recommend that you keep an eye on Maya forums to keep ahead of the game in terms of developers releasing plugins to make your life easier. Anything that can save you time, will save you money and therefore makes it a no-brainer for investment. There are plenty of paid plugins out there but it's important to not discount free ones as they often do an excellent job.
Related links
Take a look at Maya's overview
Wiki's list of Maya plugins
Autodesk's app store
Simply Maya – a resource website
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