EffectsLab Pro
Name: EffectsLab Pro
Company: FXhome (http://fxhome.com/)
Price: $149 USD, £89, €129
Platform: Mac OS X, Windows 2000/XP/Vista
I have been a member of FXhome since June 2004 and in that time, FXhome has gone from being a “small” community of just 16,213 people to 79,001 and growing each day. The main reason for the boom is the release of their new range of products in late 2005 known as “The Lab Range” which include EffectsLab (special effects), CompositeLab (compositing) and VisionLab (which has the features of EffectsLab and CompositeLab plus more).
Fact: Since the full release of EffectsLab and CompositeLab on the 23rd of November 2005, the community has almost tripled in size!
Today I will be reviewing EffectsLab Pro.
This is probably the most difficult step that you will encounter while using the program. You need to buy the software. (I’m not saying its difficult, I’m saying that the program is so easy to use that this seems like Everest compared to the matchbox that is working the program). This can be done from the FXhome store, Amazon.co.uk and certain retailers also have the products in stock.
If you buy it from FXhome.com, you can have it running on your computer within 10 minutes because it is offered as a download. However, if you buy it from Amazon or your local retailer, you have to wait or go out and get it yourself.
Installation couldn’t really be simpler. Follow the prompts and you’ll be good to go.
When you first load up the program it asks you which language you would like to use. Although FXhome is a British company, users come from all over the world and have translated the programs into French, Spanish, Italian and German. The program only asks you which language you want to use when you install or upgrade.
TIP: You can change your language settings at any time by going to Edit –> Preferences
After you have chosen your language you are shown the welcome screen which is like “home base”, everything starts from here. You can start a new project using a movie file or an image stream you have, use a blank canvas, or open a previously saved project. The welcome screen also has the latest news from FXhome.com so you can see what is new on the site if you decide not to visit it.
Once you have loaded/imported your footage you can now start “playing” with the effects engines. You have a choice of the “Neon Light” engine which can be used to make neon signs, lasers and even lightsabers as seen in Star Wars, the “Muzzle Flash” engine which, as the title suggests, creates muzzle flashes that are seen when a weapon is fired, the “Optics” engine used for creating lens flare and almost anyother type of light effect that you can think of and the “Particle” engine (known in the community as “Penguin”) which can create almost anything you can imagine!
Adding effects to your footage is as simple as just clicking and dragging the effect you want. Of course, you will have to place the effect where you want it to appear on your footage but that is easy too. When using the neon light 4-point engine its as simple as clicking your mouse four times. With muzzle flashes, optics and particles you have just one point to drag around the canvas. Try and tell me that your more expensive programs are that simple!
Also, FXhome have a huge preset library where you can download “premade” effects from other FXhome users to save you time if you are looking for a certain effect. EffectsLab can also import stock footage, image streams and still images for you to add to your project too.
Once you are happy with what you have its time to render. To do this, set the “in” and “out” points on your footage that you want to render, select the menu item Render –> Render Settings, set the settings, hit “OK”, choose the menu item Render –> Render and wait while EffectsLab does its magic.
TIP: If you are happy with your render settings you won’t need to change them each time.
EffectsLab can export Apple Quicktime (.MOV) and Directshow (.AVI) files and import PSD, BMP, JPEG, PICT, PNG, SGI, TARGA, TIFF as well as .MOV and .AVI.
If you are having trouble working out what you need to do with your new program, you can use the Support section of FXhome.com which includes video tutorials, text tutorials and support forums where you can ask other FXhomers and Team FXhome themselves!
When you feel your masterpiece is good enough, or you want some constructive criticism, you can submit your movie to their online cinema and let the community voice their opinions.
A fully functional, non-time limited version of EffectsLab Pro can be downloaded from the product demo page.
Well I guess this just about wraps up this review of EffectsLab Pro.
Design: 4/5
Realism: 4/5
Ease of use: 4/5
Support: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Brining the total score to 85%
System Requirements:
Mac OS X 
- 1GHz PowerPC® processor (G5 recommended)*
- Mac OS X v10.3.2 or greater
- 512MB of RAM (1024MB or more recommended)
- 100MB of available hard-disk space for installation
- 32-bit (millions of colors) color display adapter
- QuickTime 6.5 software recommended
*Compatible with Intel® processors but not a Universal Binary.
Windows 
- 800Mhz Intel® Pentium® III processor (or equivalent) and later
- Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4 or Windows XP Professional or Home Edition with Service Pack 1 or greater or Windows Vista
- 512MB of RAM (1024MB or more recommended)
- 100MB of available hard-disk space for installation
- 32-bit color display adapter
- Microsoft DirectX 9.0b software required
- QuickTime 6.5 software recommended
Useful links:
FXhome.com
Store
Cinema
Support
Online forums
