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Monday, November 10, 2014

Blackmagic Design Releases 3D VFX Software Fusion 7


Tim here, and today Blackmagic Design announced that they are releasing the popular visual effects and motion graphics software Fusion 7 for free, with a Studio version for as low as $995. Wow! Like Blackmagic did with DaVinci Resolve and color grading they have now done with Eyeon's Fusion. Back in September Blackmagic announced that it had bought Eyeon in order to acquire this software. Read the full press release below:

Blackmagic Design Revolutionizes the Visual Effects Industry with Fusion 7

Fremont, CA - November 10, 2014 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Fusion 7, the world's most advanced visual effects and motion graphics software, is now available completely free of charge.
Fusion 7 for Windows can be downloaded from the Blackmagic Design website now.
Previously getting access to high end visual effects tools such as Fusion cost thousands of dollars, so it was more restricted to elite Hollywood visual effects artists. Now with Fusion 7 being available free of charge there is no limit to block anyone from creating world leading visual effects. Blackmagic Design believes this will revolutionize the industry and consumers will be able to watch dramatically better feature films and television shows in the future.
Also announced was Fusion 7 Studio, a complete bundle of VFX and motion graphics solutions with collaborative tools and unlimited network rendering for creative teams and larger facilities. Fusion 7 Studio drastically reduces the cost of setting up multi user studios. Fusion 7 Studio will be available for $995 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.
Fusion has been one of Hollywood's leading visual effects and motion graphic tools for over 25 years and has been used on thousands of feature film and television projects, including blockbusters like Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, The Amazing Spider-man 2 and The Hunger Games, as well as hit television shows like Battlestar Galactica, Orphan Black and many more.
The free of charge Fusion 7 is a fully featured solution and is not limited in it's features. It has a massive visual effects and motion graphics toolset that can be used for both personal and commercial work. Fusion 7 features an infinite 3D workspace and an easy to use node based workflow for quickly building unlimited effects. Customers get advanced 3D compositing, paint, rotoscope, retiming, stabilization, titling, an amazing 3D particle generator and multiple keyers, including Primatte. Fusion 7 also lets customers import and render 3D geometry and scenes from other applications as well as create their own elements from scratch.
The $995 Fusion 7 Studio includes everything found in the free Fusion 7 software, plus adds extra high end features such as optical flow tools for advanced retiming, stabilization and stereoscopic 3D production, support for third party OpenFX plug ins, and distributed network rendering so customers can render jobs on an unlimited number of computers at no additional cost! Fusion 7 Studio also includes Generation, a studio wide multi user workflow and collaboration tool that helps creative teams manage, track and review versions of every shot in a production. Customers can also move projects from the free Fusion 7 software to a workstation running Fusion 7 Studio and take advantage of workflow collaboration and unlimited distributed network rendering.
Unlike other software, Fusion 7 Studio doesn't require annual maintenance fees, subscriptions, a connection to the cloud, or per node render license costs. That means customers don't get tricked into hidden or on going costly payments for software they've already purchased.
"Visual effects software has been expensive for way too long and it's time that this changed. Consumers are screaming for more exciting movies and television programs and so we need to do everything we can to help our customers create stunning visual effects," said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. "Now, with the free version of Fusion, everyone from individual artists to the biggest studios can create Hollywood caliber visual effects and motion graphics! When combined with DaVinci Resolve Lite, customers can get the world's most advanced tools for editing, grading, 3D compositing, visual effects and motion graphics, all absolutely free!"

Availability and Price

Fusion 7 software for Windows is available for download now from the Blackmagic Design web site free of charge. Fusion 7 Studio will be available for $995 at all Blackmagic Design Resellers. Existing Fusion 7 customers and customers on a current Fusion support plan can upgrade to Fusion Studio at no additional charge by contacting Blackmagic Design.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company's Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.
This is incredibly significant because what it means is that the software is available to a whole demographic of independent filmmakers who wouldn't have had access to it before. It also makes doing a stereoscopic 3D production more affordable to a certain extent. The full Studio version of the software comes with numerous stereoscopic 3D controls that aren't available in the free version. According to the official page's information: "Fusion Studio includes the world's most advanced camera matching, stereo alignment, convergence and spatialization tools for creating realistic, eye popping stereo 3D!"

Comprehensive Stereoscopic Tools

When you're shooting stereoscopic 3D it can be incredibly difficult to get perfectly aligned 3D images from the left and right eye cameras and lenses. Fusion uses an optical flow toolset that goes far beyond simple transforms and keystone adjustments to correct the intricate alignment and disparity issues that can occur during production. When creating stereoscopic composites, Fusion simplifies complicated stereoscopic workflows by using a single camera instead of complex stereo camera rigs. Fusion can even create 3D from 2D source material, and is used by more studios than any other solution to convert 2D movies into 3D!

STEREOSCOPIC WORKFLOW

Stereoscopic Production

Fusion Studio is a complete solution for stereo conversion! You can rotoscope different elements for displacement, add a 3D camera to your scene and then adjust for eye separation and convergence distance for amazing 2D to 3D conversions!

Stereo 3D Disparity tools

Fusion Studio includes specific tools to solve intricate issues that result from live action stereo production. Repair polarization, color, defocus and even timing differences between two cameras!

Optical Flow

Automatically repair problems with footage using advanced Optical Flow image analysis in Fusion Studio! Remove scratches and dust, smooth color variations and grain, even use optical flow to create super smooth retiming effects!
This is pretty sweet! And this software has been used on numerous Hollywood Blockbusters, including a few 3D flicks you might recognize. Fusion has been used for nearly 25 years to create the visual effects and motion graphics for some of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster films and television shows. This is the first time it is available so widely at two great prices: FREE & $1K.

Now it is only available for Windows Systems at this time. However, Grant Petty revealed on the Blackmagic Forums that they are working on a Mac OS version. Yet, at this time it is impossible for them to predict when that release will be. This is due to the infrastructure of the buttons having been built for Windows with the coding. They haven't left out the Mac users, and plan on opening it up to them as well as to allow all independent filmmakers the option to start experimenting with the free version and then move on to the full Studio version.

So there you have it. If you're running Windows you can head over to the Blackmagic Design Support Page and download it: here

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