BlackMagic Fusion 8.0 (Free)

[Rodney]

For those of you that like to composite imagery rendered out of Animation:Master...

 

BlackMagic Fusion 8.0 is out of Beta and available for Mac and PC.

(The Linux release is still in development)

 

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion

 

The program is free for commercial and non-commercial use.

The full studio version ($995) adds stereoscopic rendering, project management etc. and has also been released.

 

The manuals are well suited to get you up and running quickly as are the quickstart and introductory tutorials.

And of note, many of the features in Fusion are available in Animation:Master but are optimized from the standpoint of an image and effects compositor.

As such a workflow generated in Fusion can often be replicated in A:M for those that prefer to keep their projects inside A:M from start to finish.

 

The list of features that the standard (free) release of Fusion brings to the table is a long one but some highlights include:

- 2D and 3D environments, texturing and lighting

- 2D and 3D text

- Vector Paint

- Particles (to include linking 3D Models as particles)

- Color Management/Color Correction

- Tracking and Rotoscoping

- Volumetric Effects

- Node based workflow

- Filters and Effects

- Keyframe Spline Editor

- UV Mapping

- Macros, Expressions and Scripting

- GPU Accelerated Compositing

- Render Manager

- Chroma Key/Mattes/Masking

 

These capabilities may be useful for preparing resources for use with A:M or for extending the use of A:M.

[robcat2075]

Does it do QuickTime?

[Rodney]

Does it do QuickTime?

 

 

Sure does.

[Rodney]

Here's a pretty nice demo of some water effects that should be familar to A:M users who have done work with water.

As I say, most of these effects have one-to-one correspondence with similar approaches in A:M.

 

The demo is from the movie 'Anonymous'.

 

xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOpN6C3ZrjY

 

 

For those not familiar with node-based workflow the quickstart tutorials are recommended:

 

xhttps://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/training

[Rodney]

For users of Photoshop (and for use with A:M's current capability to render out to Photoshops PSD format you'll be pleased to note the PSD import works again in Fusion. This wasn't the case in the previous releases.

Fusion handles the standard image formats that A:M users (bmp, tif, tga, exr, png and jpg) as well as movie formats (AVI and MOV).

 

As Fusion is resolution independent it can also be used to convert to other formats and resolutions not supported by A:M.

 

Fusion has no problem with importing of OBJ files, including model sequences, exported out of A:M although a knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of various model formats will help.

Importing and Exporting is accomplished through the FBX import/export nodes, just make sure you change the file type to the appropriate one for import into A:M (OBJ, 3DS, etc).

Fusion does well at exporting to OBJ format for import into A:M as well. I haven't explored other formats in depth as OBJ appeared to work best.

Some of the modeling tools can make quick work of props and sets for use in A:M although the standard issues apply when using polygon models.

I haven't explored a fully quad-based workflow in Fusion and have reservation about that approach because Fusion is technically not a 3D modeler so is not optimized for that.

Still Fusion can create/export models of all kinds for use with A:M.

 

Fusion can very likely access the additional channels that A:M renders with Open EXR format to include depth channels (which A:M doesn't support yet).

This can be useful when rendering out to EXR and extending those files further for use elsewhere.

 

Particles can easily be contained/constrained within the confines of a Area, Model or Text and one of the more useful effects/nodes is Fast Noise which can be used to create a sense of environmental depth in 2D or 3D space.

[robcat2075]

Quicktime, good.

 

The node-based thing is a real turn-off, though.

[Rodney]

The node-based thing is a real turn-off, though.

 

It won't be once you dive into it.

The breakthrough for me was to realize that A:M's Compositor basically was the same thing just without the visual representation of nodal 'cubes'.

I must admit that intially Fusion (and nodes) turned me off but that was because I had tried some node based software that wasn't very intuitive before and it soured me on the whole idea of nodes.

I gritted my teeth and suffered through about one week's worth of video tutorials and emerged with an appreciation for nodal workflow.

Not that I see that as better than other approaches but useful never the less.

 

I know for a fact that you will be dangerous once you get a feel for the tools and look forward to that and ESPECIALLY what I think you'll be able to push toward A:M given the workflow.

And that is really the prime word for nodes.... flow... those silly strings that connect nodes didn't appeal to me at all but when they can connect in a logical flow that I can trace from start to finish it helps in troubleshooting and in knowing exactly where to go to focus on what needs to be done. This can be much harder in an approach that doesn't have a good visual representation of how and where data is flowing.

 

And lest someone think I'd recommend A:M gain 'nodes'... no I don't really think so. The PWS is an excellent equivalent.

I have seen screenshots of Rasikrodi's bone tool software and that was nodal. If he ever brings that online that might gain some additional interest in nodes.

I really don't have a thing for nodes though... just useful workflows. The nodes are a minor aspect of that and the more invisible the better.

Object Orienting Program is basically nodal so there is that too and that is an important aspect of the programming of A:M and why it has such excellent workflow.

[Rodney]

One of the most difficult aspects for new users of Fusion I believe to be the simple opening and saving/exporting of files.

Initially this seems the opposite of intuitive.

The user must find and open an Input Node in order to open an image/resource.

This is strange territory to folks in the habit of using a simple File/Open approach.

 

A simple conversion of images in Fusion however might be very straightforward:

 

Input node

Output node

 

So a sequence of images in PNG would be fed into the input

The input connects to the output node

The output node specifies the format and filename to convert to (i.e. MOV)

 

Want to add an effect, color correction, text, etc.? Insert that new node between the input and the output.

 

The file/save structure is then reserved for collections of these nodal instructions.

That way those instructions can easily be reused.

[detbear]

The things the movie industry has done with Fusion look really impressive. I don't have any experience using it, so I have no idea how

it compares to say....."Nuke".

 

Nuke is very expensive from what I understand. So the free offer could be enticing.

[Rodney]

I've tried to use Nuke (non commercial) a few times and can't wrap my head around some of it's workflow.

Fusion has a very simple organization to it. So simple in many ways that I've caught myself being frustrated a few times by the desire for something... anything... new.

With Fusion that interest could very easily be covered by learning to use the LUA scripting language but my head currently doesn't want to go that route.

 

Nuke is the up and comer because money is being poured into development and (IMO) The Foundry has a suite of other tools that studios can purchase, Katana being one of the buzz word programs.

But I really really like Fusion's simplicity and yet it's ability to be as deep as necessary (through complex combination of nodes). The interface itself though is very straightforward.

That is one of it's major strengths.

 

William,

With your knowledge of production you really should have Fusion in your arsenal.

 

On the surface Nuke and Fusion are very similar but Nuke feels heavy (much like Adobe products often do... my primary critique of Adobe) but Fusion feels light as a feather in comparison but doesn't fall short in capabilities or capacity for throughput.

 

 

The things the movie industry has done with Fusion look really impressive.

 

And one of the more impressive aspects of that is how it's the same program that you get for free (minus the expensive plugins and an army of programmers at your beck and call ala Hollywood).

[Rodney]

I just posted on Blackmagic's Davinci Resolve Beta release where more of Blackmagic's way forward is being revealed.
I thought I should also provide more info related to Fusion because it's part of their long term plan too.

If you look at the pricing model for Fusion Studio you'll see the studio version of Fusion runs $995 per unit.
Their website now has added discounts for volume purchases to include the following:

$0 FUSION 8 - Node based compositing tools, color correction, etc. (see online feature comparison list for more info)

$995 FUSION 8 STUDIO
Everything in Fusion 8 plus advanced optical flow image analysis tools for stereoscopic 3D work, retiming and stabilization. Fusion Studio also includes support for third-party OpenFX plugins, unlimited distributed network rendering, and Generation for studio wide multi user collaboration to track, manage, review and approve shots when working with large creative teams on complex projects.

$8,955 FUSION 8 STUDIO 10 USER LICENSE PACK
Multi user license pack that features a network license for 10 users and Fusion Server software for managing floating licenses for up to 10 Fusion Studio clients at a time on your Ethernet network.

$17,895 FUSION 8 STUDIO 20 USER LICENSE PACK
Multi user license pack that features a network license for 20 users and Fusion Server software for managing floating licenses for up to 20 Fusion Studio clients at a time on your Ethernet network.

$44,495 FUSION 8 STUDIO 50 USER LICENSE PACK
Multi user license pack that features a network license for 50 users and Fusion Server software for managing floating licenses for up to 50 Fusion Studio clients at a time on your Ethernet network.

So what is the takeaway here?
The takeaway is that there is considerable value to be found in the free release of Fusion.

 

Blackmagic obviously hopes that users of their free release will graduate to paid use.

If you do move to the studio tier due to collaborative project requirements, especially commercial work, it is likely your project will be able to establish a budget for it.

In the meantime, those in the free tier will be mastering the Fusion workflow that enables them to take on commercial work.

[Rodney]

Images can be composited directly in A:M but sometimes we need a bit more power and options.

Some folks use Adobe After Effects or any number of other approaches.

 

In my estimation Blackmagic Fusion is the best solution available for this (and many other) purposes.

It's real power is not so much what comes with the program but what can be made by combining the tools/nodes.

 

Blackmagic recently released version 8.2 which is primarily a release for Linux (the first time for linux).

So now those compositing tasks can be pushed over to those other computers while you press on with your character animation in A:M.

 

Fusion is free for commercial use with all the various bells and whistles.

The Studio release which reserves collaboration and management features, plugins and 3D stereocopic workflow is available for $995.

Fusion can import 3D models (OBJ is likely the most useful from A:M) but I haven't established any workflow worth reporting.

 

In my estimation every graphic artist and animator should have Fusion installed.

 

With Fusion it becomes a trivial matter to render out scenes from Animation:Master and composite them together, adding effects, color correction and any number of other elements required.

 

Here's a intro demo for v8 (more of an overview for professional users already familiar with basic composition and related workflows):

It does demonstrate how 2D images can quickly be turned into 3D scenes with realtime reflections and effects.

 

 

v8 Demo: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Wu7JthR2c

 

To download:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion

[Rodney]

Ohoh. Hot off the presses.

As predicted... Blackmagic Fusion is back (with version 9) and the price point for the Studio release dropped from just short of $1K to $299.
Even without any major upgrades to the software, in my estimation that is yet another game changer.

And... the free release is still available with most of the upgrades included.

Using the free version with A:M is a no brainer. Do it.
I sense purchasing the Studio release has just appeared on my radar.

Link: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/