FUSION 7 SOFTWARE NOW FREE

Fusion 7, Blackmagic Design’s visual effects and motion graphics software for Windows, is now available as a free download.

“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,” the company says. “Now with Fusion 7 being available free of charge there is no limit to block anyone from creating world leading visual effects.”

And it doesn’t hurt that Blackmagic has also released its new Fusion 7 Studio to coincide with the free software – a cynical person might see the freebie as a kind of loss leader, a promotion to stimulate sales of the AU$1275 Studio for its more advanced features.

But the company hype around Fusion is well justified. Originally developed by Canada’s Eyeon Software, which was acquired by Blackmagic in September, Fusion has been used in the industry for more than 25 years and in 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 cult TV shows like Battlestar Galactica and Orphan Black.

The free software version is well featured and offers an infinite 3D workspace and node-based workflow with all the compositing tools you would expect: paint, rotoscope, retiming, stabilisation, tilting, a 3D particle generator and multiple keyers including Primatte. You can also import and render 3D geometry or scenes from other applications, and create your own elements from scratch.

Fusion 7 Studio adds a number of optical flow tools for advanced retiming, stabilisation and stereoscopic 3D production, support for third party OpenFX plug ins, and distributed network rendering, which allows you to render jobs on an unlimited number of computers. Studio also includes Generation, a collaboration tool with multi-user workflows that allows teams to manage, track and review their production at any stage. Users can also move projects from the free version to a workstation running Studio, to take advantage of the unlimited distributed network rendering – which means every person on the team doesn’t need the costly version of the software.

Blackmagic says the Fusion 7 Studio will be a one-off cost, with no hidden extras, annual maintenance fees, subscriptions, or per node render licence costs.

“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,” says Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty.

The free version of Fusion 7 is available on the Blackmagic website, and Fusion 7 Studio is available through all Blackmagic resellers. Existing Fusion 7 customers and those on a current Fusion support plan can upgrade to Fusion Studio at no additional charge by contacting Blackmagic Design. The company is also working on a Mac OSX version of the software but has not announced a release date.

Source: media releases

LINKS

Software update here

Blackmagic Design: www.blackmagicdesign.com


New Magic Australia: (03) 9722 9700 or www.blackmagicdesign.com