For those shooting drama and want to make it obvious that the material being viewed is on a monitor or TV (“Sir, we’ve just recovered this videotape of the rescue mission to the Amazon whose flight crashed in 1992!” “Put it in the VCR now, sergeant!”) Damage is an excellent plug-in. Additionally, for those who need to insert newly shot footage into old video, running those new shots through Damage could help them blend much more easily. And for those who wish to spice up their transitions, it could be combined with the usual fades, wipes, and dissolves, to simulate a TV being switched on or off.
Unlike some of DigiEffects earlier plug-ins, Damage need be registered only once to clear the plug-in out of demo mode, which places a DigiEffects logo in each shot. (Some earlier DigiEffects plug-ins require uploading the product’s password for each effect, a slightly tedious, albeit one-time chore, when dealing with a plug-in with 20 or more individual effects).
Once an effect is loaded into a video track’s effects bin, clicking on the DigiEffects name brings up four presets, each of which, once selected, can be tweaked further in the settings below. The effects range from subtle videotape-style artifacts to heavy interference that renders a shot nearly unrecognizable.
Also, unlike some of those earlier effects and many video effects in general, there’s no waiting patiently for shots to slowly render to see the effect in action. Just drag one of the Damage plug-ins from the shared effects folder to the effects bin of the track you’re working on, and its individual, err, damage, is plain to see.
So are these plug-ins right for you? If you're a video editor who's made it to the end of this article thinking about all the ways you can "Damage" your footage, that answers your question! And for $99.00, it's certainly worth experimenting with. Those producing a sci-fi or high-tech drama should likely get plenty of use out of Damage. Screen on, Mr. Sulu!
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