
I tried Progresso with a rectangular shape the size of the video frame and was surprised to see that the progress bar wouldn’t fit nicely, not even if I changed the HD viewport to a 4K version. In Apple Motion, the new Universe 3.1 features won’t work without a footage or image layer as they are categorised as filters, even though you’ll sometimes want to use some of them - the HUD components, for example - without a background at all. The Dashboard is a simple browser which, in Final Cut Pro X at least, is limited to showing the presets and the effects for each parameter, while the entire tool lives in FCPX’s Effects Inspector with a dazzling array of controls to scroll through. Unfortunately for us users of any of the other hosts - Final Cut Pro X, Apple Motion, Avid Media Composer, Magix VEGAS Pro 14, DaVinci Resolve 14 and HitFilm Pro 6.0 - we are not so lucky. In Premiere Pro and After Effects, Universe has a new Universe Dashboard that you can dock and which brings all of the Universe tools together in one place. I took a look at the new features with Final Cut Pro X and Apple Motion.

Also new in this release are 35 new presets in the HUD category. Together, these have over 90 presets, readily available from the Universe dashboard in Adobe After Effects to help get you started. Red Giant’s Universe 3.1 release introduces three brand-new text and motion graphics tools: Progresso, Numbers, and Array Gun.

Universe, Red Giant Software’s subscription-based plug-in for Adobe After Effects and seven other NLEs and compositing apps, has been updated to version 3.1 and incorporates some interesting new modules.
