Fusion update brings Avid roundtripping to free users on Windows and Mac

Blackmagic Fusion 8.1

A recent firmware update for Blackmagic's Fusion 8 VFX software expands interoperability for Avid Media Composer to users of the free version and is now cross-platform.

Since its purchase of the VFX program Fusion in 2014, Blackmagic's versioning strategy for Fusion has paralleled that of its color grading (and editing) application, DaVinci Resolve. Like Resolve, there are free and paid versions of Fusion. Fusion Studio, to justify its $995 price, has a suite of features that are not present in the free version, including network rendering, a stereoscopic 3D toolset, optical flow tools and third party plugin support. However, Fusion version 8.1 lifts one such capability and ports it to the free version, which may interest users of Avid Media Composer.

With Fusion 8.1, users of the free version can now use the Fusion Connect plugin in Avid Media Composer with a Avid|DNxIO box, providing a means to roundtrip clips, sequences and layer stacks from Media Composer to Fusion. Integration with Fusion is as simple as applying the plugin to clips or portions of the Media Composer timeline. A composition with a node tree is automatically built in Fusion standalone to add whatever VFX effects or motion graphics are needed. In addition, users can play multiple versions of a Fusion composition within Media Composer.

Previously, Fusion Connect was only available to Studio users on the Windows platform, but update 8.1 also brings cross platform compatibility, meaning Mac users of the Studio and free versions of Fusion can implement this feature in their workflows.

The Fusion 8.1  update can be downloaded directly from the Blackmagic support page.