Fusion for Mac: get a sneak peek at the Hollywood-grade VFX tool on the Mac
Yes it is April 1st, but Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty did reveal back in November that the famously Mac-loving company was working on a Mac OS X version of the VFX software, which has been used in many Hollywood blockbusters, TV series and high-end commercials.
"We are lucky that the engineering team who has been working on Fusion 7 has kept the codebase very modern and clean so that allows us to move it forward," said Petty when the story broke last year. "I use a Mac so I want to use Fusion without needing the VMware emulator I need to use now."
There are currently two versions of Fusion 7 on Windows. The standard version is free and is aimed freelancers or small studios, while Fusion 7 Studio costs £635 and has tools for larger post-production and VFX houses.
Fusion 7 features an infinite 3D workspace and a node based workflow for quickly building unlimited effects. Customers get advanced 3D compositing, paint, rotoscope, retiming, stabilisation, titling, a 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.
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, stabilisation 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.
We'll have to wait for NAB for any Mac-specific features or pricing, but as with the Windows version, it's not expected to require annual maintenance fees, subscriptions, a connection to the cloud, or per node render license costs.