CHV-electronics's Magic 3D FX is a package of four plugins that allows you to create stunning 3D effects within FCP.

This recurring series looks at the communities that have sprung up to support Final Cut users. Big and small, near and far, users groups are a thriving part of the creative ecosystem.

· When did this user group start? In January 8, 1997

· Who runs the group? Gary Miller, President, and 8 board members

· How many members are there? 150

· How often do you meet? Monthly

A weekly roundup of buzzworthy tips, tricks, and topics from the Final Cut Studio community:

Red Digital Cinema announced this week support in Final Cut Pro6 (Final Cut Studio 2) for the native REDCODE Raw format. Digital Production Buzz reports that "Red Digital Cinema have released Redcine, a software tool to convert native REDCODE footage to any codec you have installed on the system. QuickTime Reference files, link the source REDCODE Raw footage into a QuickTime movie so that applications like Final Cut Pro can use the footage 'natively'."

Dennis Radeke at The Genesis Project blog has been putting together some excellent tutorials on After Effects basics. The blog is said to be "A blog for beginners in the creative space. Beginner to intermediate trips, tricks and tutorials on several Adobe products, especially After Effects, Premiere Pro and Photoshop.

Upon first digging into Adobe Photoshop CS3, a few features have really popped out at me as incredibly useful. I would like to offer a brief overview of some of these new ways of attacking your creative challenges using the latest version of Adobe's flagship app. PsCS3 will run you about $649 to buy it outright if you do not own any previous versions. If you own Photoshop 7, CS, or CS2, you are eligible for upgrade pricing - looks like $199 for the upgrade.

The brand new—and long-awaited "universal"—versions of Adobe's industry cornerstone apps for Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs running Mac OS X version 10.4.8 or above and Windows machines running XP or Vista have been officially announced, and the day is finally here when we can all start figuring out which Adobe CS3 package we're going to pick up.

Even if you aren't into Nine Inch Nail's music, you should really check out their new offer, "Year Zero." Not just the music (which I admit, I like, but isn't really what I normally listen to), but the free Garageband version posted to their website. Not that NIN is mastering their songs in Garageband (I believe I read they use Pro Tools, but bounced each track out individually to create the Garageband version, though I can't lay my hand on the source of that).

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Yesterday morning's hang at Kennedy Airport in New York City shook an old chestnut loose. I was asking myself, "what did I want 20-30 years ago that Apple has since delivered?" I can remember being a kid at the airport in the late 70's early 80's, or in a store for hours with my Grandparents or something, and feeling desperately in need of some kind electronic entertainment.