FAQ

What is FxPlug and Fx-Script?
How Do I install FxPlug plugins?
The FxPlug installer tells me that the installation of the plugins failed. What happened?
Why won't the FxPlug plugins show up in Motion or Final Cut Pro even though they are installed correctly?
How Do I install Fx-Script plugins?
An overview of Apple's plugin architectures

What is FxPlug and Fx-Script?

FxPlug and Fx-Script are two plugin interface technologies of Apple's video editing software Final Cut Pro and Motion. A plugin is a program that enhances the abilities of a host application. Therefore each plugin must use a given interface of the host application. Final Cut Pro and Motion are equipped with two plugin interfaces. These are:

Fx-Script:
For Fx-Script plugins it does not matter if you use Final Cut Pro 5.1 on a brand new Mac Pro with an Intel processor, or if you use Final Cut Pro 2 on an older PowerPC Mac. Fx-Script plugins are working with all versions of Final Cut Pro on all Mac computers where you can install Final Cut Pro. This is because of the fact that Fx-Script plugins are using directly the internal functions of Final Cut Pro. A Fx-Script plugin is actually a script that is executed by Final Cut Pro itself. The big advantage of that method is that these plugins are always completely independent from the actual used computer, graphics card and processor, simply because Final Cut Pro is responsible for the execution of each and every function.

FxPlug:
The FxPlug plugin interface is the newest plugin technology from Apple and was first introduced with Motion 2. It was later added to Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 and to Final Cut Express 4. FxPlug plugins are written in "Objective C" (or "C++") and therefore are fully capable of taking direct advantage of all functions of a Mac computer on their own. But this also means that FxPlug plugins have to do everything on their own. Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and Motion are  not helping the FxPlug plugins to do any effect. Even a simple blur has to be done by the plugin itself, because there is no direct "effect help" from Motion, Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express. In a matter of speaking: FxPlug plugins are on their own... and this is exactly what a software developer loves the most. Without any restrictions from the host applications, FxPlug plugins have full access to all functions of OSX, can take full advantage of the installed graphics card and are completely free in their process to create even the most advanced video effects. The capabilities of FxPlug plugins are only bound to the imagination of the software developer and the user of the plugins.

How Do I install FxPlug plugins?

Downloading and installing our plugins is very easy:

- At first you have to download the FxPlug plugin package from our Download page. Therefore go to the Download page and click onto the disk image icon of the package you like to download to your hard drive.

- Double click onto the file you have downloaded. This opens the disk image and a folder will appear.

- Now you can see the installer package. Double click it to launch the installer.

- Follow the instructions of the installer.

The installed plugins can be found in this folder: / Library / Plug-Ins / FxPlug

The FxPlug installer tells me that the installation of the plugins failed. What happened?

FxPlug plugins are installed into a special folder. You can find that folder here:

/ Library / Plug-Ins / FxPlug

Unfortunately this folder will not be created along with the installation of Final Cut Studio. This has to be done by the installers of the third party software installers. If such an installer doesn't do it's job correctly, let's say it doesn't set the permissions of that folder in the right manner, then all following installers have a problem accessing the FxPlug plugin folder. This is why the installation of new FxPlug plugins can fail.

Take a look into your FxPlug plugin folder. If you can't find any of the installed plugins then your installation failed. But there is an easy way to "repair" this. Please do this:

- Drag the content of the folder "FxPlug" to your desktop.

- Delete the folder "Plug-Ins", including the FxPlug folder that's inside.

- Execute the installer of our CHV FxPlug plugins again. This will create a new "Plug-Ins/FxPlug/" folder with the correct permissions.

- Drag the plugins you have on your desktop back to the new folder.

Now you only have to restart Final Cut Pro or Motion.

Why won't the plugins show up in Motion or Final Cut Pro even though they are installed correctly?

FxPlug plugins are only working with Final Cut Pro 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, Final Cut Pro 6 (and later), Final Cut Express 4 (and later) and Motion 2 and 3 (and later). If you have an older version of Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express or Motion, then you won't be able to use any FxPlug plugins.

Another common "problem" is that a lot of CHV's plugins are "Video Generators". In most cases a user looks at first into the "Video Filters" and can't find the newly installed plugins. The free FxPlug plugin "Towers of Film 3D FX" is such a plugin that is not visible in the "Video Filters" bin, but in the "Video Generators" bin.

How Do I install Fx-Script plugins?

CHV delivers all Fx-Script plugins inside a disk image file. When you order a plugin collection, you will receive the plugins attached to an email. Simply copy the attached file to your desktop and double click it. As the disk image opens you will see on the left hand side a folder that contains the ordered plugins and to the right you see an alias to the plugins folder of Final Cut Pro. Now you only have to drag and drop the CHV-plugins folder onto that alias to copy it to your hard drive.

 If you like you can also copy the plugins manually to your hard drive. Therefore you have to open Final Cut Pro's plugins folder at first, which can be found here:

/ Library / Application Support / Final Cut Pro System Support / Plugins

Final Cut Express users need to install Fx-Script plugins into this folder:

/ Library / Application Support / Final Cut Express Support / Plugins

Now copy the plugins from the disk image file to this folder and restart Final Cut Pro to start working with the plugins.

An overview of Apple's plugin architectures

FxPlug

This is the newest plugin architecture from Apple. High render speeds, perfect system compatibility and a lot of additional functions make this plugin interface the best choice for the future. This new interface is implemented in Motion 2 & 3 and Final Cut Pro 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4 and Final Cut Pro 6 (and higher). CHV's FxPlug plugins of course are also Universal Binaries, which makes them run native on both Intel-based and PPC-based Apple Macintosh computers.

Fx-Script

Fx-Script is the plugin interface that works with all versions of Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express. Even though the new plugin interface FxPlug has been added to Final Cut Studio, Fx-Script continues to shine. Fx-Script plugins are also fully compatible with Intel-based and PPC-based Apple Macintosh computers.

After Effects

Final Cut Pro also provides us with the chance to use some After Effects plugins. But unfortunately we can only use "older" AE-plugins, as only an older After Effects plugin interface is implemented.