For those who don’t know the tool: Mocha Pro from Boris FX handles planar tracking, PowerMesh, masking and roto as a standalone app or plugin for major editing and compositing hosts, like Resolve, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Nuke, Fusion, Flame and Vegas Pro.

Points meet planes

Mocha Pro 2026.5 adds Point Track ML to PowerMesh and AdjustTrack. The new tracking mode analyses motion across a sequence rather than the frame-to-frame approach used by conventional point and planar trackers.

That’s relevant when a surface stops behaving. Cloth creases (Fashion!). Skin bends (Old Age!), Hands pass over faces (Facepalms!). Shadows move independently from the material beneath them (Are there Ghosts in here?). These are familiar ways to turn an apparently simple tracking task into an afternoon of vertex correction.

PowerMesh already handles local deformation across surfaces such as fabric and skin. Its sensitivity to fine movement also makes it vulnerable to occlusion, changing illumination and objects disappearing. Point Track ML supplies another tracking method for those cases.

The model assigns machine-learning point tracking to groups of mesh vertices and considers frames before and after the current position. Processing can advance in chunks rather than at a constant frame-by-frame rhythm because the tracker analyses a wider temporal range.

Mocha still exposes the resulting mesh for editing. Artists can adjust vertices, smooth curves and remove keyframes when the automated result needs help. Boris FX presents Point Track ML as another tracking option, not a universal replacement for planar tracking.

A clean, planar surface with a stable texture may still require nothing more exotic than the existing planar tracker. Machine learning earns its render time when the shot contains the sort of organic interference that usually produces organic corrections (e.a.: Artist needs to get involved)

Mocha Occlusion without the ritual

A traditional PowerMesh setup may require a separate roto layer for an object moving in front of the tracked surface. That layer protects the tracker from the occluder, but vertices beneath it can lose the subtle deformation that the artist wanted to capture.

Point Track ML targets that gap. It follows the wider motion of the sequence and attempts to preserve movement beneath temporary obstructions. The backpack example in the Video above (Timestamp 6:11) exposes another limitation of planar methods. As the visible surface turns away, the planar shape can stretch into the background. Mesh vertices may also lose their reference when sections leave the image. Point Track ML can predict positions beyond the visible frame and recover them when the surface returns.

Refine Mode raises the analysis resolution for difficult material. It also increases processing time. This is a practical trade rather than a free accuracy switch, which makes it better suited to selected shots than automatic use across an entire sequence.

Artists can, of course, edit the generated mesh with the existing mesh tools. A large falloff area can reposition groups of vertices while retaining the surrounding deformation. Individual PowerMesh vertices also appear in the dope sheet and Curve Editor for direct keyframe work.

A new Planar from Mesh option converts the tracked mesh movement back into planar data. This gives artists a route through shots where a planar solve struggles, but a grid of Point Track ML points remains stable. The mesh performs the difficult tracking, then the resulting motion becomes planar data that can be adjusted or exported through familiar workflows.

AdjustTrack gets an Mocha assistant

AdjustTrack sits at the end of the tracking process. It adds corrective animation to existing tracking data when a surface drifts due to motion blur, fast movement, changing references, or regions leaving the frame. It remains a correction tool. An initial poor track will still produce a poor foundation. Changing the tracking shape or motion settings may solve a problem more cleanly before AdjustTrack enters the job.

When the underlying track works for most of a shot, Point Track ML can now drive “Auto Nudge”. Artists place reference points on recognisable features, choose the correction interval and let the system analyse forwards and backwards from the reference frame.

Support grids add tracking points around an individual reference, across the tracked surface or through a wider portion of the image. These helpers provide the tracker with additional context when the primary feature blurs, changes appearance, or moves off-screen.

The generated adjustments remain editable – Refine Mode exposes higher-resolution analysis when the standard pass lacks detail. This changes the amount of repetitive work not the logic of AdjustTrack. The module still layers corrections over existing data. It can now detect and compensate for drifting reference points without requiring an artist to reposition every one by hand.

A skateboard demonstration uses four bolts as correction references. Auto Nudge adds adjustments at defined frame intervals and keeps the insertion surface aligned despite visible drift in the original spline. The result can return to a host application or leave through the standard tracking-data export.

For compositing work, that means fewer manual surface corrections before a logo, patch or cleanup element can move with the plate. It does not remove the need to inspect the track. It reduces teh amount of keyframing required when the failure follows a predictable drift.

Smaller subjects, sharper boundaries

The masking update concentrates on regions of interest. Object Brush, Matte Assist ML and Refine Matte ML each gain controls that reduce how much of the image the model must consider. Machine-learning models operate within input-resolution limits. A large plate may need to be reduced before analysis, which can discard useful detail around a small subject. Processing a tighter region allows the model to allocate more of its available resolution to the object that matters.

Object Brush now previews the likely selection while the pointer moves across the image. The preview resolution adapts to machine performance. Clicking creates an automatic region of interest around the selected area.

Auto ROI narrows the image section passed to Mask ML. This can produce tighter boundaries around legs, clothing, hands and internal gaps. Artists can disable the automatic box and draw their own region by holding the Command or Control key while dragging around the target.

The feature concentrates model attention. It does not guarantee a final matte. Difficult edges may still require spline editing or subsequent refinement, particularly when the subject contains features that resemble the background. Matte Assist ML receives Search Area controls for propagation across a sequence. Instead of looking through a reduced version of the complete image for the object in the next frame, the tool can search within a defined area around the current matte.

The fields can be keyframed. Artists can widen the search when motion increases and tighten it when the subject remains relatively still. A smaller search area retains more local image detail and can improve contours around small figures, gaps between limbs and holes inside a silhouette. The control belongs in the Classic workspace with the more advanced matte settings.

Refine without background glitter

Refine Matte ML adds Auto ROI around the existing object boundary. The region limits how far outside the matte the model looks for soft edges. This helps remove isolated background sparkles and stray fragments that do not connect to the subject. Hair, motion-softened outlines and semi-transparent boundaries can retain finer detail without inviting unrelated texture from the rest of the frame. The ROI remains adjustable.

This is a sensible control for rotoscoping. Automatic cleanup often fails in two opposite directions: a broad search collects junk, while an aggressive crop removes legitimate edge detail. An editable region gives the artist some say in that negotiation.

The masking workflow still follows three stages. Object Brush creates the initial shape. Matte Assist ML propagates it through the shot. Refine Matte ML produces softer, more detailed edges from the binary result.

Curves for every vertex

The Curve Editor now displays PowerMesh vertex positions. Artists can inspect and modify keyframes for individual vertices instead of treating the mesh as one opaque result.

That is VERY useful, after an otherwise successful machine-learning pass. A track can remain stable across most of a sequence and still contain a small bump, ploink, blurb, bork, pause or offset. Direct vertex curves let the artist smooth or delete problematic animation without rebuilding the mesh.

The editor already visualises track parameters and supports curve smoothing. Mocha Pro 2026.5 extends that inspection to mesh-based motion. The dope sheet also exposes vertex keyframes. Together, both editors keep Point Track ML within a conventional animation workflow. The model generates data, but the operator retains access to the data that affects the image.

Mattes leave in better shapes

Mocha Pro 2026.5 expands rendered-shape and matte-data exports for studio pipelines. Rendered shapes can leave as RGBA with the source clip or another rendered clip. Earlier output concentrated on straight RGB matte data. Combining image and alpha can reduce extra assembly when downstream software expects a conventional RGBA element.

OpenEXR output stores separate layer mattes in a multilayer file. Each matte can occupy its own channel rather than being merged into a single result. This suits pipelines that want one container with independently addressable masks.

Transparent Matte Colors export separates layers through colour channels. Layer controls can assign selected mattes to pure red, green or blue, producing a transparent RGB overlay that downstream compositors can split into individual masks.

Matte-data export also gains an option to disable layer-opacity keyframes for After Effects, Fusion, and Flame. This prevents unwanted opacity animation from travelling with matte data when a receiving setup does not need it, or doesn’t know what to do with it and therefore crashes.

Export additions concentrate on rendered RGBA, multilayer OpenEXR, colour-separated transparent mattes and host-specific matte data. Point Track ML data can also return to planar motion before export. Matte generation consumes enough time already. Repacking channels after export is the sort of pipeline tax that nobody includes in the bid and everybody eventually pays.

Under the hood

Boris FX also adds native Windows on Arm support to the standalone application and the Adobe plugin, among a very few toolmakers. Other host plugins are not included in this Windows ARM update, but we’ll see what happens.

Prices and licences

Subscription pricing starts at 42 Euros per month or 290 Euros per year. Mocha Pro also remains available through perpetual licences (675€), upgrade and support plans. Customers with an active Mocha Pro subscription, Boris FX Suite subscription, Vegas Pro Ultimate subscription or a current Mocha Pro upgrade and support plan receive version 2026.5 as a complimentary update. A free trial runs for 14 days after installation and registration through the Boris FX Hub.

AI with handles attached

The most production-friendly part of Mocha 2026.5 is its refusal to hide the result behind a single button. Point Track ML generates an editable mesh. PowerMesh data can become planar data. AdjustTrack corrections remain adjustable per point. Search areas can be resized and animated.

The automation helps with repetitive repair without removing operator control. That suits shots where a tracker works for 90 per cent of the sequence and then loses its dignity behind an arm, a shadow or a motion-blurred skateboard. But still, new tools and innovations should always be tested on representative footage before use in production.

Get the free trial here: https://borisfx.com/free-trial/?product=mochapro

See what else is new: https://borisfx.com/products/mocha-pro/#whats-new

The post Mocha Pro 2026.5 Tracks Through Trouble first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: DaVinci Resolve combines editing, Fusion, colour grading and Fairlight audio post. Version 21 also adds still-image processing.

Final, mostly familiar

Resolve 21, Fusion, Fairlight Live, and many, many boxes!

Blackmagic Design has released DaVinci Resolve 21 for Windows, macOS and Linux. The release converts the features developed through four public betas into the final 21.0 branch. Most headline additions arrived in the first beta. These include the Photo page, AI IntelliSearch, Speech Generator, CineFocus, MultiMaster trim passes, expanded keyframing, Fairlight folders and more than 70 Krokodove tools for Fusion. The initial feature set appeared in our NAB overview and our closer look at the Photo page.

What the betas added

Public Beta 2 added tethered capture for supported Canon and Sony cameras, background rendering, proxy generation, Fusion remote monitoring and wider access to Studio AI tools. Public Beta 4 concentrated on repair work. It corrected Canon RAW highlights, improved still-image FX controls, exposed Fusion motion paths in the keyframe editor and refined CineFocus output. The final build therefore brings fewer surprises than its version number suggests. That is fine. Production software benefits more from predictable behaviour than another feature attempting to write the porject brief.

The iPad catches up

The clearest final-release addition is DaVinci Resolve for iPad, which now reaches version 21. The tablet edition gains the Photo page with albums, ratings, tags, RAW processing, cloud synchronisation and Resolve’s Color Grading controls. It also receives selected AI tools, expanded keyframing, OGraf and Lottie support, MultiMaster trims and Apple ProRAW decoding. Its feature set still depends on the iPad model and does not match every desktop function. It does, however, move considerably beyond the original Cut and Color configuration.

Pricing and migration

Blackmagic Design turns DaVinci Resolve 21 into a photo app

DaVinci Resolve 21 remains free. DaVinci Resolve Studio costs $295. Projects opened in version 21 cannot return to Resolve 20.3.2. Back up project libraries and individual projects before migration, particularly when shared databases, plug-ins or active deliveries enter the colour pipeline. New tools and innovations should always be tested with representative media and delivery settings before use in production. A missing beta label is useful. It is not quality control.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/whatsnew

The post DaVinci Resolve 21 Leaves Beta first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

What Flow Looper actually does

Flow Looper aims at a very specific pain point: making a still image feel alive without turning it into a full animation project. The core idea centers on drawing a corridor with two splines, then pushing pixels down that corridor and looping the motion with a cross-fade.

That puts it in the same general family as classic flow mapping workflows, but packaged as a Fuse that lives where a lot of Resolve artists already spend their time: the Fusion page. If you ever built a “moving texture down a path” rig in node compositing, you already know the appeal. The win is not that the math exists. The win is that you can hand this to an editor who occasionally opens Fusion, and they might still come back with something usable.

Corridor animation, not a full 2D puppet show

Flow Looper focuses on motion constrained to a defined corridor. You draw the corridor, then the tool handles the continuous movement and looping behavior. The creator describes using several Flow Loopers on a single image to animate different regions. Oh, well.

That corridor constraint matters. It gives you a clear place to cheat motion into a still without needing to invent a full deformation rig. Think steam, fire, drifting energy, or anything that reads as “directional movement” once it repeats cleanly.

The approach also means you can stack multiple instances for layered motion: one corridor for flames, another for smoke, another for embers, each with its own behavior. That layering idea shows up directly in the shared example of a dragon breathing fire, animated by combining multiple instances. At some point, someone will try to animate a face with it. That is fine. That is also how plug-in comment sections become performance art.

Controls: speed shaping, noise, and edges

The feature set goes beyond “make pixels move” and into “make pixels move in a way that does not look like a conveyor belt.” Flow Looper includes start and end flow length controls intended to create acceleration-like behavior, or to keep one end static while the other moves. In practice, that kind of control usually helps sell motion that ramps in, ramps out, or stays anchored so the loop does not scream “tile.”

There is also a turbulence control that varies direction per pixel using noise so the motion does not stay perfectly linear along the corridor.That is the difference between “demo” and “could pass in a shot.” Even small directional variation can break the mechanical look. Edge fading controls aim to blend the flowing region on top of the image more naturally.

The Gumroad listing for Flow Looper shows a price of $12, Which is well worth it, if ou ever had to do something like this, and didn’t have the time for it.

Where this sits in real world Resolve workflows

If you live in editorial and only step into Fusion when the timeline needs “a little something,” Flow Looper looks designed to be that little something, but repeatable and controllable. If you live in Fusion, the tool still has a place, because corridor-constrained motion loops show up constantly in motion graphics and stylized comps. It is also a relatively friendly concept to hand off. “Here is the corridor, here is the direction, here is the loop” is a better brief than “make this still feel alive.”

Tangenten Puppet Pin brings mesh warping to Resolve

For artists browsing the Tangenten tag archive, this is the second clear theme: Fuse tools that try to make Fusion friendlier without pretending nodes do not exist. Finally, check performance. Fusion can handle a lot, but it can also punish you for stacking clever tools on top of each other. Multiply a heavy operation by six instances and your interactive session becomes a slideshow. New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, ideally on a clone of the job, not the only copy of the job.

https://tangenten.gumroad.com/l/FlowLooper

The post Fridays for Fusion: Flow Looper animates stills in Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Manuel Kotulla.

Silhouette 2026 lands with fewer steps between “I need a clean matte” and “shot approved”, without taking the steering wheel away from artists. The release updates multiple ML-driven matting tools that can detect, segment, propagate, and refine, while still keeping the workflow artist-controlled.

The additions cluster around three pain points that never die in production: edge stability over time, tracking that survives real-world footage, and pipeline plumbing that does not explode when you scale beyond a single workstation. Silhouette 2026 touches all three, and it does it in a very node-graph way: new models, new nodes, and more data moving through the graph instead of getting stranded in side files.

AI matting that thinks in objects, not in one mask at a time

The AI toolset gets updates across five ML nodes, with a focus on scalable multi-object workflows. Face ML gets a new model plus new Nose and Neck matte options, a full-face matte option, and deeper integration with ML masking and compositing workflows. Depth Map ML gets a new model aimed at more detail and improved temporal consistency.

Mask ML adds multi-object workflow features, including object list management, foreground and background refinement tools, and per-object Cryptomatte data. Matte Assist ML adds intermediate frame caching, improved propagation performance across long shots, and multi-object Cryptomatte output. Matte Refine ML adds a new Video Matting model for improved temporal consistency along edges, and it preserves Cryptomatte data after refinement.

Be wary: running many ML masking nodes can load multiple custom models onto the GPU and fill VRAM quickly, so the multi-object approach inside a single Mask ML node matters for both speed and sanity.

If you live in the land of shallow depth of field, it is simple: keep your IDs, then soften your edges with the model that holds up over time. The Video Matting model option in Matte Refine ML is a temporal-consistency favourite in the training material.

Head Track ML and the 3D Scene node get real

Silhouette’s 3D Scene node now pushes further into 3D-aware shot work. It is powered by SynthEyes technology, and Silhouette 2026 adds a new workflow centrepiece: Head Track ML.

Head Track ML uses ML to automatically build and track a full 3D head mesh, preserving facial motion and expressions for face-aware effects. The ML model loads onto the user’s graphics card, detects the head, and then Silhouette creates and tracks an aligned and scaled 3D head mesh.

From there, the new Unwrap and Rewrap nodes connect 3D to 2D UV space for roto, paint, and beauty work, and a Render Depth node can generate depth maps from Head Track ML meshes for beauty work or downstream VFX pipelines.

The training walk-through frames the workflow as a practical alternative to the classic “stabilize a patch, paint, reapply motion, repeat until retirement” approach. The point is to unwrap the tracked head into a stable 2D space, do the detail work, then rewrap it back onto the moving performance. It even comes with a candy-wrapper analogy, because every 3D workflow deserves at least one metaphor before it hits the studio floor.

There’s limits: For example, Head Track ML does not detect relative distance between multiple heads, and suggests using an “All render” option in the Render Depth node if a depth map for all heads is still needed.

On the camera side, Refine Solve is designed to let artists improve a camera solve without reprocessing the entire solve. It supports fixing bad frames and smoothing problem areas by deleting erratic or unnecessary 3D features, aiming for more stable solves and faster cleanups.

Tracking upgrades that target the annoying bits of reality

Silhouette 2026 gives love to two tracking tasks that tend to chew time: point tracks that fall apart when anything gets in the way, and repetitive object tracks for faces and license plates.

Point Track ML updates the long-running point tracker workflow with ML assistance aimed at motion blur, occlusions, objects going off-screen, and changing reference patterns. It includes three accuracy settings and Viewer Stabilisation to validate and lock the track. This is not a guaranteed fix, but it increases the chance of success in those failure cases that always show up right before delivery.

Object Tracker detects and creates layers for object classes, including faces and license plates, to reduce setup time, and tracker types support occlusion matte input. In the tutorial flow, it can automatically generate new layers and shapes when new faces enter a shot during a forward track.

This feature that works best when you treat it like a fast first pass – the result may not be 100 per cent perfect, but perfect for fast turnaround work. You don’t get “final shapes”, but points where you can attach additional Tracking data, and modify what needs to be cleaned.

Paint tools that aim for fewer clicks and fewer regrets

Silhouette’s paint system gets new tools and workflow changes aimed at cleanup and beauty work. A new Healing Brush supports cleanup and retouching with expanded colour sampling from any input. Brush controls add blend modes and pressure-sensitive sizes. Blur, Clone, and Drag brushes get more natural and flexible behaviour. Clone workflow updates add continuous mode and auto-grade locking. Resize Paint introduces a resolution-independent workflow that allows working in a lower-resolution session, then rebuilding strokes accurately on higher-resolution media.

Resize Paint is a way to work quickly at low resolution and later rebuild exact stroke replicas at high resolution, which is basically a polite way of saying your workstation fans can stop auditioning for a jet engine while you block in cleanup.

Cryptomatte, data ports, and fewer matte files to babysit

Silhouette 2026 deepens Cryptomatte-centric workflows, and the important bit is that it treats mattes as data that should travel with the graph, not as files that should multiply in folders.

Pipeline changes include passing filtered Cryptomatte data as alpha through nodes via an Matte input, enabling objects and layers to act as matte sources. A new Cryptomatte Mixer node can combine multiple Cryptomatte streams into a single output. ML and AI tools support multi-object outputs with improved viewer-based selection tools to speed up scene isolation and matte management.

Beware the workflow trap: do not build one Mask ML and one Matte Assist ML node per object, because each node loads its own model to the GPU and VRAM fills fast. Instead, multiple objects can live inside a single Mask ML node, and Cryptomatte over the data port can move reference data to Matte Assist ML even when reference keyframes are scattered along the timeline.

For OFX plugin users, there is a limitation: Cryptomatte data cannot simply be routed to an output node and expected to appear directly in the host application, due to how OFX plugins work. The workflow is to export to the file system instead, using an Output Multi node for Cryptomatte-generating nodes.

Export details matter, too. Cryptomatte needs EXR for multi-channel properties and uses only lossless compression, and it warns against lossy formats such as DWAA, DWAB, or PXR24. That is a lot of words to say: keep your IDs clean, keep them in one sequence, and do not turn your matte export into a science project with ten folders named “final_final_3_forreal_v02”. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing. Some people collect stamps, after all.

Performance, stability, and the stuff you notice at 2 a.m.

Silhouette 2026 includes performance and playback improvements through ML node caching for several ML nodes, plus predictive playback via pre-fetching and batched render jobs. Playback controls add optimisation options, including adjustable job queue size, preload frames, and threading settings.

Daily workflow improvements include advanced node search with category, intent, and data-type filtering, a Favourites node, an improved naming system, a context-sensitive HUD, and a Safe Mode troubleshooting workflow to enhance stability in demanding environments.

This is the kind of feature that helps the person who inherits your comp at the worst possible time. If your node tree looks like it was assembled during an earthquake, you still have to deliver, so better search and safer startup modes are not flashy, but deeply production-friendly. Yes, you should still test new tools and innovations before use in production, especially when ML models and GPU caching sit in the critical path.

Pipeline automation and AI assistants, now with actual plumbing

The most pipeline-forward change is a built-in JSON-RPC server and an MCP server. The JSON-RPC server allows studios to drive Silhouette remotely, execute Python code, run script files, and control the application via JSON-RPC.

A Python Package Manager manages third-party Python packages inside a directory in Silhouette and stays isolated from the system Python. This is powerful, and it is also the kind of feature that deserves a boring rollout plan. Build guardrails, keep permissions sane, and do not let the intern’s chatbot become the new show supervisor. The intern already has enough power.

The MCP server allows direct calls from AI assistants, which can inspect projects, build node trees, edit shapes and keyframes, and render frames. “ChatGPT, explain what I did there!” is now a valid question that can be answered. Not truthfully or understandably, because … LLMs, but still.

What to watch to get productive fast

If you want a training rabbit hole, the Silhouette training and tutorial ecosystem lives in the video library and training hub on the BorisFX-site, spanning both quick tips and longer courses on all packages and levels of experience.

Pricing and availability

Silhouette is available as a standalone application and as a plugin, with subscription, upgrade, support, and permanent license options. Subscriptions start at $ 545 per year or $ 103 per month. Silhouette supports macOS, Windows, and Linux. Supported host applications include Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Resolve and Fusion, and Autodesk Flame.

Customers with an active Silhouette subscription, Boris FX Suite subscription, or an active Silhouette upgrade and support plan receive the 2026.5 release directly as a update.


https://borisfx.com/products/silhouette/

The post Silhouette 2026 gets smarter roto and 3D heads first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: DaVinci Resolve is an NLE plus color grading plus compositing and audio in one app, with Fusion tools and a Studio tier called DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Resolve Stills stop skating around

Blackmagic Design pushed DaVinci Resolve 21 Public Beta 4 with a fairly specific mission: make small things stop being annoying. On the Photo page, Resolve FX behave more reliably when you transform still images. Resize or reposition a photo with an effect applied, and the overlays and on screen controls now stay aligned so you can keep adjusting instead of chasing UI handles.

The update also improves transparency handling for effects on stills, remembers effect favourites between launches, and fixes warper tool behaviour on photos for more accurate reshaping and manipulation. Also in the stills corner, Canon CR2 and CR3 highlights now render more accurately. Bright areas should keep a more natural look and no longer appear darker than expected when grading or compositing.

Fusion keyframes, meet the timeline

On the Edit and Cut pages, the keyframe editor now supports Fusion motion paths and other modifiers. That means you can tweak animation curves, motion paths, and linked parameters from Fusion titles, effects and macros right next to timeline keyframes, instead of bouncing between editors and hoping you clicked the same parameter twice. It is a fiine quality of life win for anyone who lives on the keyframe lane.

Resolve Studio AI gets a cosmetic touch up

For DaVinci Resolve Studio users, AI CineFocus has improved visual quality for shallow depth of field simulation. Better and Faster modes now handle subtle blur more cleanly, with reductions in edge shimmer, stair stepping and halos so subjects separate more naturally from backgrounds.

AI beauty tools also get refinement. The blemish removal tool allows greater precision for facial area so corrections stay focused where needed, and the face refinement tool now better supports alpha layer workflows, helping isolate and track facial adjustments with less manual masking.

Immersive and raw handling: small, useful plumbing

Beta 4 adds support for Insta360 native colorspace, plus improved DNG decode handling with color value and profile look table support for more consistent image reproduction. DaVinci Resolve 21 Public Beta 4 is available as a free download. As always, test any new beta build on a copy of a project before you let it anywhere near a real delivery.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com

The post DaVinci Resolve 21 Public Beta 4 is out first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Boris FX Sapphire is a multi host VFX plug-in suite for editors and compositors, used in After Effects, Premiere, Media Composer, and OpenFX hosts like Resolve, Flame, and Nuke.

Defocus that tries to behave like glass

Boris FX ships Sapphire 2026.5 with a new effect called Advanced Defocus, built to recreate lens blur character rather than just blur pixels. In Sapphire, artists can start from presets, including ones built from real-world lens references and more stylised options, then dial in Defocus Width plus relative width and height for anamorphic style stretching.

Advanced Defocus focuses on the lens kernel, where artists shape bokeh as circles, polygons with adjustable sides and roundness, or custom shapes. It also includes controls to introduce imperfections tied to aperture blades, such as adjustable blade notches, as well as options for colour fringing and noise. The tool targets everything from cheap, dirty glass to high-end primes, depending on how far you push those controls.

The lens vignette section adds classic edge darkening, but also an optcial vignette control that changes distortion toward the frame edges. A Matte Box control goes past soft cropping by simulating uneven light entry, slightly darkening one side while also clipping individual defocused highlights.

From grungy to clean

Advanced Defocus also includes lens textures that break up overly uniform bokeh, with parameters that range from subtle variation to grungy lens looks. Extra controls include highlight boosting, chromatic-style fringing, and grain management to match the foreground and background.

In Adobe After Effects, Advanced Defocus appears under Effect in the Sapphire Blur plus Sharpen category. The effect can work as a straight lens emulation pass, a stylised motion graphics treatment, or a transition building block. A workflow shown in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Fusion uses Advanced Defocus to soften a keyed background for more believable depth, then adds sensor-style grain to help match elements. Another workflow in After Effects links defocus controls across layers, uses Affect Alpha to defocus type with the background, and offsets values to keep the illusion that typography sits closer to camera.

For edits, Advanced Defocus can also drive transitions inside VEGAS Pro by building an S Transition in the Sapphire Builder variant designed for transitions. That approach ties animation to the transition length on the timeline rather than keyframing, and then applies the same peak values to both incoming and outgoing clips.

Glare gets a rebuild, and flares get louder

Sapphire 2026.5 reworks S_Glare with smoother rendering, richer spectral color, and updated parameters including highlight isolation, cleaner rays, and more natural falloff, plus new styles that widen the look range beyond traditional glare.

In Adobe After Effects, S_Glare sits under the Lighting category and behaves the same across Sapphire hosts. The first control to touch is Threshold: raise it for fewer glares, lower it for more, and expect wildly different results depending on the footage. Sapphire 2026.5 also changes what the defaults look like compared with older versions, so the same effect can start from a different baseline than legacy installs.

Presets matter a lot for S_Glare, but the preview can mislead. Results change with viewer zoom level, so checking at 100 percent gives a more reliable read before you commit. Presets also store Threshold, so loading a preset often means rebalancing Threshold right away to avoid either nothing happening or everything exploding.

If glares drift or slip onto areas you do not want, Threshold Blur becomes the other big lever. Lowering Threshold Blur picks up many more points of interest, which can reduce slippage but may add jitter. A practical balancing rule shown here is: when Blur comes down, Threshold goes up, then you fine-tune from there.

Sapphire includes integrated Mocha inside the effect for masking control. A workflow shown here uses an object brush and Mask ML to generate a mask, then inverts the Mocha mask so glare stays in the scene but stops emanating from a subject.

S_Glare also appears as an embedded component in S_NightSky, where you can open the glare editor, load glare presets, and adjust glare size to customise the look directly within the NightSky effect.

Procedural ridges, more presets, faster stacking

A new Texture Ridges effect generates ridge-like patterns from noise, with controls for octave scaling, speed, frequency, contrast, and layering to build animated surface detail and abstract motion design textures. Sapphire 2026.5 also adds more than 100 new and improved presets, including anime, sci-fi, and abstract fractal motion graphics looks.

Effect Builder gets an interface update aimed at faster custom effect and transition creation, plus new built-in Dots and Noise tools. If you build stacks for repeatable looks, this is the part worth a quiet test session before you let it touch client shots.

Pricing and updates

Sapphire ships as a plug-in collection with subscriptions, upgrade and support plans, and perpetual licenses. Subscriptions start at 545 US dollars per year or 80 US dollars per month. Customers with current Sapphire or Boris FX Suite subscriptions, or with Sapphire upgrade and support plans, get the 2026.5 release obviously as a free update. If you aren’t sure: get the free Trialversion. As always, test new tools and presets in your own pipeline before you rely on them in production.

https://borisfx.com/products/sapphire/#whats-new

The post Boris FX Sapphire 2026.5 adds Advanced Defocus first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Boris FX Continuum is a multi host VFX plugin set for editors and compositors in Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion, Foundry Nuke, and DaVinci Resolve plus Fusion, with a shared FX Editor and Particle Illusion module.

Deinterlacing that does not feel like archaeology

Continuum 2026.5 adds an ML based deinterlacer called “BCC+ Deinterlace ML”. The idea is to take interlaced material (The bane of archived footage) and output progressive scan frames – the kind of footage you still get handed at the worst possible moment, including analog TV sources and VHS transfers, and it sits in the image restoration lane where you want it.

It also lands next to the classic, non ML deinterlacing option, BCC Deinterlace, which already covers interlaced to progressive conversion and includes options like TeleCine style pulldown and converting 29.97 fps NTSC to 24 fps film style frames. The takeaway: 2026.5 now offers two approaches in the toolbox, and you can pick based on what the clip does when it hits motion, fine detail, and compression.

Four ML models get a tune up, plus a GPU memory bouncer

Continuum updates four ML models: Face ML, License Plate ML (Yes, it’s a thing, and surprisingly useful!), Motion Blur ML, and UpRes ML. Face ML adds nose and neck segmentation, giving the face tool more regions to isolate for beauty work, stylised grading, or targeted fixes. Motion Blur ML adds a prismatic colored blur trails option, which pushes it from pure repair into a more obviously stylised look.

The release also introduces an ML model unload system that automatically removes an unused model from the GPU after a period of inactivity, then reloads it when needed. In day to day work, that aims to reduce the slow creep where multiple ML effects sit on a timeline and quietly claim VRAM, especially when you bounce between shots and forget what still has an ML node enabled. VRAM is too expensive these days to waste it on unused code.

If you rely on masking helpers for cleanup and selective looks, the best advice remains boring and true: test ML updates on your very, very worst footage first, not your demo reel footage. New models can change edges, temporal stability, and failure cases, so validate them before you bake them into a show pipeline.

FX Editor gets better at isolation and color sanity

Continuum’s FX Editor adds an integrated Pixel Chooser workflow for isolating effects within a single layer using shape masks, luminance keys, and AI-driven depth maps. The point is fewer stacked layers and fewer “why is this matte two precomps deep” moments. If your day involves lots of stylisation, glow stacks, lens effects, or targeted distortions, faster isolation saves time and makes revisions less error-prone.

The FX Editor also adds a colour management panel with OpenColorIO colour config presets, plus exposure and gamma sliders. That targets consistency when you jump between host apps or when a project uses a defined colour config, and you want the plugin preview to match the host viewing transform as closely as possible. The panel does not magically solve color management on its own, but it gives you one more place to keep settings aligned instead of eyeballing it.

An info panel provides live RGBA and pixel position readouts. That sounds small until you need to match a graphic element, verify a clamp, or confirm what the effect actually output at a pixel. It is the kind of utilitarian feature that rarely makes marketing art but regularly saves real time.

You will likely see these changes show up first in workflows already living on Pixel Chooser driven isolation, especially for masking heavy looks, selective blurs, and depth based focus tricks. One caution: more control panels also mean more places for mismatched settings, so build a quick checklist for the team and keep it consistent across shots.

Warps and displacements get rebuilt for more control

Continuum 2026.5 overhauls parts of the warp and displacement category. BCC+ Ripple now includes three independent ripples you can adjust separately or globally, plus new waveform shapes and perpendicular height options aimed at advanced distortion looks.

Displacement effects, including BCC+ Displacement Map, BCC+ Polar Displacement, and BCC+ Vector Displacement, gain access to over 1000 built-in displacement maps via the FX Editor, along with RGB separation controls. They also add built-in glitch animation and an integrated Beat Reactor that syncs animation to music. That combination signals an intent to make these effects more preset-friendly while still giving artists enough knobs to art-direct motion without keyframing every wobble.

If you have already used distortions as a finishing pass, the refresh should feel like less fighting for predictable behaviour and more time exploring variations. If you use them as a hero look, plan for a quick reapproval cycle on existing presets, because reworked effects can render slightly differently than older versions.

Wipes learn to take direction, literally

Three wipe transitions add a gradient control: BCC+ Smoke Wipe, BCC+ Texture Wipe, and BCC+ Depth Wipe. The gradient aims to guide direction, focus, and motion so the wipe does not have to hit the entire frame uniformly. Gradient types and radial direction changes live in the FX Editor, so the same place you audition presets becomes the place you shape the transition.

This is the kind of feature that can quietly improve editorial pacing. A wipe that starts where the viewer already looks often feels cleaner than a wipe that bulldozes the whole frame at once. It is also a practical tool for hiding cut pain when you need to blend shots that aaaalllllmoooooost (*Arrrgh*) match.

If you work in multiple hosts, the core appeal remains consistency: the same transition concept travels between apps, so you can rough it in the edit and refine it later without switching tools.

Particle Illusion gets parameter linking that actually helps in production

Particle Illusion inside Continuum, and in the standalone Particle Illusion Pro, gains several upgrades in 2026.5. Parameter linking lets you link parameters across particle nodes, so one change updates all linked nodes. That targets the common problem where a multi-node preset looks great until you tweak one emitter and everything falls out of alignment.

Colour mapping adds gradient mapping modes for more deliberate colour control, including angular, linear, and radial mapping, plus controls for offset and angle. The emphasis is non-random control, which helps when you need art direction rather than happy accidents.

Clone Particle Type links position-related parameters to keep multi-node effects aligned while you adjust looks. Link All Clone Parameters allows retroactive adjustments to existing presets, so you can modernise an older setup without rebuilding node by node.

For motion graphics and comp work, these features read like a direct attempt to make particle presets more editable without breaking. That matters because Particle Illusion thrives on presets, but production survives on revisions.

About one third into your tests, try pushing a complex preset harder than you normally would. If the links hold under aggressive changes, you can trust them in real jobs. If they break, you at least learn where the limits are before a client does.

Presets, performance, and the usual upgrade math

Continuum 2026.5 adds more than 150 new presets across categories, including Blur, Lens, Particle Illusion, Stylise, Title Studio, Transitions, and Warp. Several existing effects gain new parameters, including BCC+ Scanline and multiple dissolve variants tied to ripple and displacement. Beat Reactor also extends to more effects.

Title Studio receives improvements and adds 70 new drag-and-drop presets. If you rely on Title Studio as a fast title lane inside an NLE or comp host, more responsive performance and a refreshed library tend to matter more than a single marquee feature.

Pricing stays in the same model family: subscriptions, upgrade and support plans, and perpetual licenses. Subscriptions start at $325 per year or $48 per month. Customers on a Continuum subscription or upgrade and support plan, or the Boris FX Suite subscription, receive 2026.5 as a complimentary update.

As always, run a proper production-style bake-off before you roll it out. Test archival interlace conversions, stress the ML tools on tough edges, and verify that existing presets render consistently across your key hosts.

https://borisfx.com/products/continuum/

The post Boris FX Continuum 2026.5 tunes AI and FX Editor first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: CrumplePop bundles AI audio cleanup plug-ins plus the SoundApp app, now adding ARA clip-based processing inside supported DAWs.

ARA: less playback, more decisions

CrumplePop 2026.5 adds an ARA plug-in version of SoundApp so editors can run separation and cleanup directly inside ARA-capable DAWs (Reaper, Protools, and most of the relevant ones) instead of bouncing between apps – this is a workflow upgrade for music, voice, and cinema stem separation, plus audio cleanup.

ARA is “audio random access”. (When that triggered a Daft Punk stuck in your head: Welcome to the club). In practical terms, the plug-in ingests and analyses the entire clip in one big chunk, then lets you adjust and update results without relying on real-time playback. Standard insert effects only process what runs through them as the playhead moves. ARA flips that relationship so the tool can work with full context across the whole file.

That difference lands hardest in longform. A ten-minute clip already punishes indecision, but a sixty-minute podcast or a two-hour panel turns every micro tweak into a playhead workout. With ARA, you can process a long recording, jump to the problem spots, and keep iterating without constantly scrubbing back just to confirm what changed.

Why ARA speeds up longform editing

Long pieces usually fail in boring, repetitive ways. Room tone drifts. A guest turns away. HVAC ramps up. The neighbours of their recording location take up tap dancing. In a real-time insert workflow, you discover these issues as you play through the timeline, then you loop and replay sections to judge each adjustment. The longer the recording, the more that loop becomes the job.

ARA reduces that overhead by letting the plug-in analyse the full clip up front and update results immediately after processing. You stop measuring progress in minutes of playback and start measuring it in edits you can actually commit. That changes how you tackle podcasts, interviews, and conversations where the same problems recur every few minutes across a single file.

ARA also stays clip-centric. When you cut a long recording into regions, move sections around, or reuse parts for pickups, the processing stays tied to the clip rather than requiring a new export for every region change. That matters in sessions where long-form edits rarely remain one continuous timeline for long.

Processed Audio Cache makes model comparisons practical

CrumplePop 2026.5 introduces a Processed Audio Cache in SoundApp. The idea stays simple: process a clip once, then switch between models without reprocessing every time. That processing carries over to every instance of that clip in a project, so segments on the timeline retain their processing without needing a redo.

That cache matters because separation and denoise work often depend on comparison. You try one model, then another, then you go back. Without caching, that workflow punishes experimentation. With caching, comparing Music 4 Stems against Voice 2 Stems, or indoor cleanup, becomes a fast toggle rather than a repeated wait. The update also brings faster model loading and optimised performance as part of 2026.5, aimed at reducing slowdowns when switching between models.

Inside the DAW: stems, levels, and render back to track

SoundApp ARA targets stem separation and denoising. The demos show workflows that break a music clip into drums, bass, vocals, and other elements, then refine the vocal further with a denoise model – there is a whole toolbox of different tools and models, including advanced AI models for music, voice, and cinema stem separation, plus GPU-accelerated on-the-fly processing and one-click cleanup tools such as wind, traffic, echo, pop, and noise removal.

The interface supports switching between Demix and Denoise model families, installing additional models via a manage models view, and bypassing processing. Of course, you can render the processed result back to a new audio waveform on the track after isolating content.

Host support for SoundApp ARA includes Pro Tools, Cubase, and REAPER, plus Samplitude and Sequoia, with more ARA hosts. The thing about the Audio industry is that they agreed on a set of standards for Plugins and exchanges. As VFX, we could learn a thing or two from that… Avid also maintains an ARA plug-in listing for Pro Tools. If your DAW does not support ARA, the ARA workflow does not apply. Sorry. But then, you can always use the Crumplepop Standalone.

Multi-host packaging and pricing

Pricing and availability are at a monthly subscription at 25 US dollars, an annual subscription at 175 US dollars, and a perpetual license at 345 US dollars. Upgrade and Support starts at 195 US dollars.

The announcement also states that customers with active CrumplePop, Boris FX Suite, and Vegas Pro Ultimate subscriptions, or with a CrumplePop Upgrade and Support plan, receive the 2026.5 release as a complimentary update.

The best thing? These processes and iterations are local, so you don’t need any additional cloud credits, render coins, or tokens. Get your crumple, start popping, and reiterate as long as it takes.

Where this fits in post and VFX reality

If you spend your day in audio post production inside longform edits, ARA helps most when you do repeated cleanup passes or stem experiments across the same clip. It does not remove the need to listen critically, nor does it guarantee clean separations. It also can’t help when the conversation you are cleaning up is boring, sorry.

It does make the iteration loop less annoying, which is often the difference between doing the careful pass and shipping the first acceptable version. For teams already leaning on demixing audio as a rescue tool for baked mixes, ARA pushes that rescue work closer to normal editing. You stay in the DAW, you compare models faster, and you render results back to track without a side trip to a separate app.

If nothing else, it gives your next Pro Tools session a better chance of staying focused on decisions rather than on file logistics. And yes, it also helps when someone delivers a two-hour planning call with a mystery hum, a chair squeak, and a laugh track that should have stayed in the edit bay.

https://borisfx.com/products/crumplepop/

The post CrumplePop 2026.5 adds ARA, and that’s interesting first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Previously in this Series

1. Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere to Resolve
2. Switching to Resolve: Your first cut
3. Switching to Resolve: Selects and assembly in Multicam editing
4. Switching to Resolve: Sharing and delivery

Transferring to another editing software can be tough, since we’re already fast and efficient with the current tool. No matter what your reasons for switching are, this and the previous articles will help you to get started in Resolve. We’ve already looked into the basics of the software. How to edit your first video, so in this article, we’ll cover the final steps: delivering your video and sharing and archiving your project files.

Sharing formats and what they do

We already established the differences between the Resolves Project Library-based system and Premiere Pro projects. But how does that affect sharing files? Firstly, it’s good to know that there are different file formats you can share. In Resolve, you can share the whole project (like in Premiere Pro, .drp), share individual Timelines (.drt), or create a DaVinci Resolve Project Archive (.dra). The big Advantage: Resolve offers the flexibility to export only what is needed or to export everything.

Like in Premiere Pro, Project files don’t include the project’s footage. They can be exported by navigating to file > export project, or by using the shortcut strg/cmd + E. Alternatively, they can be exported from the project manager by right-clicking the project and choosing export project. Exporting a project is useful for creating backups, switching devices, or handing the project over to another person.

Very useful and different from Premiere Pro: If you only need to transfer an individual Timeline to another project or to another person, Timeline Export is the thing for you. This also doesn’t include footage. To export the Timeline, go to File > Export > Timeline.

If you’re done with your edit and want to archive it, or if you need to transfer your project with footage to another person, Davinci Resolve Archives can be quite useful. These include the project file with all the timelines and the project’s footage. To export an Archive, open the Project Manager, right-click on the project and choose Export Project Archive.

Reminder: all exported files discussed can not be opened directly. They need to be loaded into a project library first.

Media Management: trimming and packaging media

When handing over a project to another person for grading, effects or sound, they usually need a copy of the footage. This can be annoying when the projects get quite big, and only a few parts of the footage are actually used in the Timeline. In this case, Media Management comes in handy. Media Management offers several options for reducing data when working with large amounts of footage before going on. The Key advantage: this offers flexibility to export only what is needed or to export everything

Navigate to File> Media Management to open the Media Management window. In Media Management, we have the option to export the entire project, selected Timelines, or Clips. For all these options, we can then choose between copying or transcoding the media. When choosing to copy, we had the option to copy all media from the project, copy only used media, or copy used media trimmed with handles.

In the last case, we can decide how many frames from each clip to render before and after each cut. All media will stay in the original file format. Important to know: if there are multiple instances of the same clip, Resolve will subclip them, adding a suffix to the files. When relinking the new footage to the original project, it might not match. In this case, try using the “Relink To New Files” option when working with the trimmed media.

When transcoding, all footage will be transcoded to the same file format. This can be chosen for audio and video individually when transcode is selected, and gives us the same options: use all media, use media, or trim used media. Hit start to create a copy of your Project, Timeline or Clips with your chosen settings to the set destination.

Adding and styling Subtitles

It doesn’t matter whether you’re working on a documentary or on social media clips; subtitles are essential today. Thankfully, Resolve has great options to help you get yours in fast and easy. Firstly, there’s the manual way: To add a subtitle track, right-click on the videotracks header and choose Add Subtitle Track from the menu. After clicking on that track, the Inspector will go into Subtitle Mode and give you the option to manually add a caption by clicking Create Caption.

The style of subtitles can be changed for an individual caption by checking “custom caption” or by switching to the “Track” Tab to customise the whole subtitle track. For fast subtitles, Resolve offers various Subtitle style Presets. To apply one, go to the Effects Panel and open the Titles. Scroll down until you find Subtitles and drag and drop the chosen one onto the subtitle tracks header.

The style will then be applied to the whole track. The little extra when you’re working on social media Clips: There’s a handful of animation presets, which will automatically animate our subtitles directly in Resolve—no need to search for an external tool.

Manual and Automatic Subtitles

I know, typing subtitles manually isn’t really fast. Luckily, Resolve offers the option to generate subtitles from a transcript automatically. Personally, I love this feature, since I most of the time edit from a transcript anyway. To use this, right-click on the timeline > AI tools > auto transcription> transcribe. In this case, the subtitle track doesn’t need to be created before.

In the auto transcription menu, speaker detection is available. When activated, Resolve will automatically detect multiple speakers, which can then be named. After transcribing, a transcription window will open. To create Subtitles from the Transcript, click on the three-dotted menu and choose “create subtitles from audio”. This will save you a lot of time typing, since you only need to check the automatically created subtitles.

Deliver page and rendering.

Once your subtitles are created, it’s finally time to deliver your video, and we’ve got plenty of options to configure how it’s rendered on the Deliver page. The Advantage of Resolve: its encoding engine is integrated into the Deliver page, while Premiere’s companion encoding program, Media Encoder, is an external tool that must be installed and updated separately from Premiere Pro.

When you open the page, you’ll still see our bottom Timeline, but you’ll soon notice it’s not editable here. Still, in-and-out marks can be set. The left side shows all available delivery settings, while the right side shows our render queue.

For a fast render, Resolve offers rendering presets at the top of your Render Settings, e.g., H.264 Master, ProRes422 HQ, YouTube, or Vimeo 1080p. If you don’t want to use presets, you can choose between various Codecs and file formats from the master file, from QuickTime ProRes to a small, lightweight share file with .mp4 h.264 or h.265. Resolve can also be used to deliver advanced formats such as DCPs and Dolby Vision.
The settings to do this are right below the Presets and are split into Video, Audio and File settings.

Entering the Render Queue

When set the way you need, click Add to Render Queue to do exactly that.
Note that there’s no need to create new render jobs when changes are made. Already-added render jobs can be updated by clicking the pen icon in the top-right corner of the render job. It will then be opened in the render settings, where it can be either updated or added as a new job by clicking the button at the bottom.

What I like to point out: the render queue is not project but database-specific. This lets you add render jobs from different projects to one queue. Why is this awesome? It saves me time, since I can work on different projects and hit render at the end of the day. Even better: When working on a network database, everybody can add their render jobs to the render queue, which can be rendered from another powerful computer in the network.

There are three options for exporting the subtitles we’ve created: burned in, embedded in the file, or exported as a separate file. Scroll down to the end of the Render settings to find the Subtitle Settings.

Data burn-in options and where to enable them

Clearly, not every render is a final render straight away. Most of the time, there’s some review loop. To make this easier, burning Data into the render can be very helpful. Resolve offers lots of options for what can be burned into a video. To see them go to Workspace > Data Burn-In.

To select a data type, check the box next to its name. It can then be customised on the right side. After selecting, close the window. The Set Data will automatically be burned into the renderers added after the Data burn-in is set up. To deactivate this, uncheck the boxes in the same menu, or go to advanced settings in Render settings to disable Data burn-in for individual renders.

Creating Dailies with metadata burn-in

If working on a bigger production, rendering dailies might be necessary. For this, burning in metadata is very helpful. Resolve makes it incredibly easy to create dailies due to its built-in colour management, data-burning-in functionality, wide codec compatibility, timecode support and handling of tags and metadata.

To transcode clips for dailies with data burn-in, go to the media pool, right-click on the bin you want to render and choose “create new timeline using selected bin”. With the new Timeline created, go to the deliver page and activate the data burn-in as discussed. This time, the clips should not be rendered as one single clip but individually. To do so, choose Individual Clips at the point render right below the Location Settings.

Creating vertical versions

Since people are often consuming content on smartphones, creating an extra vertical version of your edit might be necessary. Thankfully, Resolve makes this extraordinarily easy.

Before creating your vertical Timeline, make sure you duplicate your Timeline and add _vertical to your title. To change the Timeline Resolution, right-click on your new timeline and choose Timelines > Timeline Settings. In the menu, uncheck the Use Project Settings Checkbox. What I really love is how simple it is to change to vertical Resolution: click the Use vertical resolution checkbox and hit the OK button.

Even though Resolve automatically adapts to the new resolution, some shots in your Timeline might need reframing to keep the object of interest in frame. To do this, the Inspector would be the right place to go. You can either move your shot with the position parameter and keyframe if necessary, or use the smart reframe tool.

This studio version-only tool can be activated by clicking on the AI smart reframe. When clicking the reframe button, Resolve will automatically reframe your shot to fit the frame. If you want, you can manually set a region of interest, which Auto Reframe will try to keep in frame.

Hopefully, with all that said, you’re already a little faster and feel more secure using Resolve instead of Premiere Pro. For more tips and learning materials, check out the DaVinci Resolve Training website, which has books and tutorials on every page.

The post Switching to Resolve: Sharing and delivery first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jana Johnston.

For those who don’t know the tool: DaVinci Resolve is a page-based post suite for edit, grading, VFX, and audio, with collaboration via Blackmagic Cloud. The Studio edition adds higher end finishing and advanced features on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

What beta 2 actually adds

Blackmagic Design turns DaVinci Resolve 21 into a photo app

The Studio installer now includes additional software for remote monitoring, alongside utilities for hardware control panels. It also installs Blackmagic RAW Player and Blackmagic Proxy Generator into the applications folder. On the Photo page, Studio adds direct image capture via tethered cameras from Sony or Canon. Studio also enables using Resolve’s native AI toolset in this workflow, including AI IntelliSearch.

Also: The new Handbook with the new features and their explanations is online: Resolve_21_New_Features_Guide.pdf

Studio leans hard into AI

Studio adds AI IntelliSearch for searching people or objects, plus AI SlateFinder and AI SlateID for detecting slates and populating clip metadata. It also adds AI Speech Generator for turning written text into spoken voice, and AI CineFocus for refocus with bokeh and lens effects.

Studio also imporves AI Face Age Transformer, AI Face Reshaper, and AI Blemish Removal, plus AI UltraSharpen and AI Motion Deblur. Studio lists improved AI UltraNR quality for UHD and higher timelines, and this is where you should test early, because AI fixes can be brilliant right up to the frame where they are not.

Background work and heavier workflows

Studio adds background renders, quick exports and porxy generation, plus background analysis for transcription and audio classification. It also adds support for remote monitoring of Fusion previews, tying the workflow closer to real review patterns on set and in facilities.

For immersive and VR, Studio lists initial VR180 and VR360 standard immersive workflow support, viewing source clips as immersive or viewport, immersive transform controls, and deliver presets for Meta Quest and YouTube. Apple Immersive workflows add foveated rendering support.

Practical warnings, still the same rule

Resolve 21 aims to keep project libraries compatible with Resolve 20.3.2, but projects created or opened in 21 no longer open in 20.3.2. A full project library backup plus individual project backups stays the smart move before opening real jobs.

Pricing stays simple in the available info: the public beta is a free download, and DaVinci Resolve Studio is listed at $295. If you touch the Color page changes, keep your usual discipline: validate scopes, transforms, and deliverables in your own colro pipeline before you call anything production-ready.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20260414-01

The post Blackmagic Design updates Resolve 21 beta 2 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Headshot is a plug-in inside Character Creator 5 for turning photos or head meshes into rigged CC characters that can move on to Autodesk Maya, Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity.

Two ways in: photo or mesh

Headshot now sits at version 3 and requires Character Creator 5. The tool targets digital humans built from either a single portrait or an existing 3D head model, with both paths ending in a fully rigged CC character ready for animation work.

The image workflow starts from a facial photo and runs through automatic 3D head generation plus topology and shape refinement, camera lens correction, normal map creation, and texture reprojection. The mesh workflow targets static head models and runs automatic head wrapping, mesh refinement, and texture baking. The same product page frames the mesh workflow as optimized for photogrammetry, sculpted assets, and mobile scanned models.

Both workflows chase the same goal: convert reference into a character that stays on CC topology so facial animation and downstream retargeting behave predictably. That matters more than the marketing word salad, because your rig cares about edge flow, not adjectives.

Image workflow: faster first pass, more knobs after

The image workflow focuses on building a likeness from a single portrait. Headshot 3 adds AI Image Enhancement tools described as head leveling, expression neutralization, lighting correction, stray hair removal, and 4K upscaling, all applied to source photo material used for the head build.

Headshot 3 also adds AI Image Generation, (text to image generation) with portrait images up to 4K resolution and side or full body images up to 2K resolution. AI Image Generation is powered by Google Nano Banana and requires credits for each generation. The same ecosystem also promises you can swap or replace textures after mesh changes, with texture reprojection that updates after mesh modifications.

For anyone who has ever tried to fix a face by nudging ten sliders and then regretted it on frame 180, Headshot 3 adds preset driven morphing on top. The version has 58 facial presets intended to enhance depth and highlight unique features, with an adjustable slider for fine tuning per applied preset. This is the part to pressure test early. New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, especially when your deliverable lives or dies on a tight closeup.

Mesh workflow: wrap, sculpt, and keep topology honest

The mesh workflow centers on converting a static head model into a fully rigged CC character using head wrapping, refinement, and baking. It is positioned for turning scans and sculpts into animation ready characters while keeping CC topology.

Headshot 3 adds a spline based reshaper that supports portrait and profile views for alignment of features such as double eyelids and nasolabial folds, described as enabling more accurate facial animation. As well as Bezier controls for refining front and side profiles, with granular adjustment aimed at eyelid structures, mouth curves, and the flow of laugh lines when used with CC5 characters.

Texture work also gets more explicit tooling. The forum post describes a De light function that removes shadows and highlights to produce a clean albedo texture and can generate roughness and normal maps automatically for a full PBR texture set. It also brings a 3D mask brush for removing unwanted blemishes and photo artifacts such as stray hair or eyelashes, with edits on selected texture channels or across all channels at once.

Body matching and the bigger character pipeline

Headshot 3 pushes beyond the head with body matching. The launch post describes using full body reference photos so the AI automatically generates a matching body shape to complement the face, producing a cohesive character build that is fully rigged and ready for animation within the Character Creator 5 ecosystem.

On the promo side, that means a single workflow aims to move from reference to a complete character rather than a floating head. On the pipeline side, it means you still need to verify your own handoff points like shading conventions, texture packing, and how far the exported result matches your studio standards for facial rigs and blendshape naming.

If you are tracking internal workflow topics, this release lands squarely in character animation and the places where facial rigs meet real production schedules. It also sits close to mocap cleanup, since a fast character build only helps if the face holds up once you start driving it.

Again, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production. Do the boring tests now so you do not do the expensive ones later.

Pricing, promos, and what is actually specified

There is an Early Bird Offer running April 27 through May 31 and it includes Headshot Morphs 1400 plus valued at $99 and 100 AI Image Gen Credits valued at $30. It lists a starter package for Character Creator 5 at $329 from $498, Headshot 3 at $129 from $199 as a member special, and an upgrade price of $99 for Headshot 2 customers.All prices are for Windows perpetual licenses.

New users can purchase Headshot 2 for $129 as a special offer and get Headshot 3 free at launch, and that Headshot 1 and 2 owners can upgrade to Headshot 3 for $99 starting on launch day. The early bird offer runs until May 31st, 2026.

If you plan to lean on AI Image Generation, remember the product page also states it requires credits for each generation. Test the workflow, confirm what consumes credits in your actual use, and validate liekness under your lighting and animation range before you commit it to a client deliverable.

https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/headshot/

https://discussions.reallusion.com/t/headshot-3-is-coming-pre-launch-offer-live-now/16736

The post Reallusion ships Headshot 3 for CC5 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

You’ve managed to get your footage into Resolve and create your first cut. But what if your project gets a little more complex? When recording Interviews with more than one camera, you’ll probably be looking for the easiest way to synchronise and edit your footage. For this reason, we’re going to take a look at working with timecode and multicam editing, as well as levelling your audio, refining your Clips, and adding Titles in Davinci Resolve Studio.

Previously in this series

1. Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere to Resolve
2. Switching to Resolve: Your first cut
3. Switching to Resolve: Selects and assembly in Multicam editing
4. Switching to Resolve: Sharing and delivery

Working with timecode for your Interviews

When recording with multiple cameras, timecode is a useful tool for synchronising multiple recording devices for easier post-production. Even though they are popular, many cameras don’t support timecode recording. For this reason, it is possible to use external devices like Tentacle Syncs to record timecode via the camera’s audio input and store it on the audio track.

When opening files in Resolve, I usually like to scrub through footage to get a first impression. Recording timecode on the audio track is a mistake. Why? The time code on the audio track sounds horrible and loud! To fix this and get a usable timecode track, there’s an easy way. In the mediapool or mediapool panel, right-click on the clip, then navigate to Audio Sync and choose Update Timecode from Audio Track. This will update the video’s timecode to the one recorded on the audiotrack.

If you’re combining cameras that can record timecode with those that can’t, that’s no problem. Resolve supports embedded timecode as well as audio timecode.

Fixing interview audio channels

Now that we’ve got our time code right, it’s time to take a look at our clips’ audio. Often when working in a multicamera setup, I get multiple mono-audios from interviews recorded on one camera. Resolve might interpret these as a single stereotrack rather than individual mono-tracks. To fix this, right-click the Clip and select Clip Attributes. In the now open menu, go to Audio. To change your Stereo track into mono tracks, click on stereo at format and set it to mono, and when you want to set the source for that channel, choose the wanted audio at Source Channel.

To add a new track, choose your format below the top menu under Format, then set the number of tracks to add under Tracks. Then click Add. This can be configured like before.

Building Multicam: Two Ways to get started

After getting the audio settings right, it’s time to build the multicam edit. Resolve offers two options for setting up your multicam source timeline: manually or automatically. If you choose to set up the multicam source manually, it should be familiar to you if you’re switching from Premiere Pro. Start by creating a new Timeline and adding your footage with the different angles on different videotracks. To sync the footage, highlight it, then right-click and choose Auto Align Clips.

In the now-open window, choose whether to sync with timecode or waveform, then hit Sync.

Personally, I like to use option two: letting Resolve handle multicam creation for me. To do this, I like to set some metadata first. In the Media page, highlight all Clips from one camera angle and open the shot and scene Metadata from the Metadata Panel.

At Angle, define what to name your Camera Angle. To make your Multicam source more structured, do this for all your multicam camera angles. If you don’t want to name your Angles, you can skip this part, and the Angles will be named as the Clips.

When all your footage is correctly tagged, right-click the footage bin and choose Create multicam using selected Bin.

In the window that opens, choose whether to sync the angles by Timecode. To choose the angle name set before the Metadata Angle, choose Metadata – Angle from Angle Name. What I do like is the option ‘Detect clips from the same camera’. When you check this checkbox, Resolve will place clips from the same camera in a single videotrack instead of creating multiple tracks when working with multiple clips from the same camera.

With everything set to your liking, click Create to let Resolve automatically create your multicam source timeline.

Multicam editing basics

Now we’re ready to start editing. Firstly, create a new Timeline to edit your Interview into. When double-clicking the multicam source, it opens in the source viewer, just like a normal clip. You’ll notice that instead of one big image, you’ll see multiple angles, depending on the number of tracks in your source Timeline. When first opened in the Source Viewer, it will be set to Source Mode, which lets you use your insert methods as usual. By clicking on an angle, you can choose which one will be active when inserting into the Timeline.

Since this is only a first assembly, it’s normal that some of the angles need to be switched afterwards. To do so, you’ve got two options. If you do remember which camera is which angle, simply right-click on the clip in the timeline and choose Switch Multicam Clip Angle. It’s a quick way but doesn’t give you any visual information of the angle you’re choosing.

For this reason, I most times prefer to use option two: setting the source viewer to multicam mode. To do so, click on the filmstrip below the Source Viewer to open its menu. Choose Multicam from the appearing options. Now here comes the irritating part when switching from Premiere, since it’s exactly the opposite of what you’re used to: to switch the angle, use Alt / Opt + click on the new angle, to set a new cut, only click on the new angle.

When switching angles, I often want to stay with one audio track rather than switching between video and audio. This can be easily done by clicking on one of the matching icons below the source viewer: the film strip for just video, the musical notes for just audio and the combination for both. Once chosen, this will stay until you click on another option.

Lastly, I want to point out one feature I learned about way too late. Ever had the need to not just mark an individual point in your timeline but a whole duration? No problem. If you want to give a specific title to one part of your interview for fast editing, you can use a duration marker. For this, set an in-out range for the wanted duration, right-click and choose convert in and out to duration markers. Just like with usual markers, Name, Notes, Keywords and Colour can be added when double clicking on the marker.

Interview Trimmed Workflow: getting rid of gaps

The soundbites in the Timeline are only our starting point. To refine the interviews, you might want to eliminate some gaps. An easy way to do this is by using the waveform to identify gaps first and then simply cutting before and after the gap using the blade. The found gap can then be deleted using backspace.

A note: when using backspace, Resolve will leave the gap empty. If you want to ripple delete and let Resolve close the gap for you, you’ll need to use the delete key instead. You’re deleting lots of silence in the middle of clips and have lots of gaps? Try navigating to Edit in the top menu and choosing ” delete gaps to let Resolve close all the gaps for you.

If the gap is at the start or end of the clip, a quick way to remove it is to ripple. By hovering over the clip near an edit point, a ripple icon will appear, showing which side of the edit point will be rippled. Note that it makes a difference whether you’re in Selection Mode or Trim Edit Mode. When using the ripple in Selection Mode, it will leave a gap that you’ll need to close manually with the delete key if desired. When using ripple in Trim Edit mode, the clip will be shortened and the rest of the clips will move to close the gap.

If you like to replay your footage and combine this with deleting gaps, Trimming start and end with shortcuts could be the way for you: Simply play to the point the gap starts and press Shift + [ to Trim from the start of the clip to the playhead and  Shift + ] to trim from the playhead to the end of the clip. Note that Trim Start and Trim End will ripple if you are in Trim Edit Mode. If you want your gap closed directly in Selection Mode, you can use cmd or ctrl + shift + [ or ] to ripple trim the start or end. 

Making shortcuts work in Multicam

When deleting gaps, you might note that, depending on whether your keyboard has [] or not, these might need to be reassigned. When using some non-English keyboards, you might notice that certain shortcuts aren’t fully optimised yet. This will hopefully be improved soon. To assign the needed shortcuts, go to Davinci Resolve > Keyboard Customisation or press Ctrl/cmd + alt + K. You’ve now opened the space where you can see which Shortcuts are assigned and what operations are assignable.

Personally, I love this Window, since it also offers a visual way to explore existing and possible shortcuts. To assign the Trim Start to a shortcut, type Trim Start into the search field in the lower right. Enter the new shortcut after double-clicking on the existing keystroke. When the shortcut is already assigned to something else on the same page, Resolve will give you a warning before overwriting. To save your custom keyboard, go to the three-dotted menu in the top right and choose Save as new Preset.

Structuring the Timeline

With the cleaned-up Timeline, it’s usually a good point to make a backup of the work done until now. This can be done by duplicating the Timeline, just like in Premiere Pro. To do this, go to the Media Pool Panel and right-click on Timeline. Then choose Duplicate Timeline or copy and paste into the Media Pool Panel. Don’t forget to rename the timeline with an up-counting number to keep track.

Extra tip: When right-clicking the now-obsolete version, you can deactivate the timeline by clicking Deactivate Timeline. This will make sure it can not be opened until reactivated. I do like this option, since it prevents me from accidentally working in the wrong Timeline. Especially when working with multiple people in a shared project, this keeps us all from accidentally working in different versions. The Deactivated Timeline will be marked with a crossed-out eye symbol.

Opening the new Timeline, it’s probably a good idea to add some extra structure to make our lives easier in the future. One way to start is to colour-code parts of the interview differently, depending on their content. To change the colour of a clip in the Timeline, right-click the clip and select Clip Colour. From the opening submenu, choose a colour you like. If you like to work with colour coding you’ll be happy to hear that shortcuts can be assigned to all the colours in the Keyboard customisation window.

Sometimes it can also help to elevate powerful comments to higher video tracks. To do this without accidentally moving a clip some frames, use opt/alt + up or opt/alt + down to move a clip up or down a track.

Quick balancing Audio

It’s time to add some music. Most times, the added music is way louder than our current interview. The quick fix for this should be familiar to you when switching from Premiere Pro. Firstly, highlight all the interview clips in the Timeline. Then right-click on them and go to Normalize Audio Levels.

The now open menu gives you different options of Normalization Modes and the possibility to enter a Target Level of your choice. Important to note is the Set Level option. If you want to normalise multiple clips with an already constant audio level, Relative is the option you want to choose, since it analyses as if all the clips were one. If you want to bring clips with different starting levels to one target level, Independent would be the best choice.

Using Normalisation is a fast way to level the music and the interview to reach a good starting point. We’re going to take a look at some more advanced ways later.

Pulling B-roll into the interview timeline with Auto Track Selector

Since we can now see and hear our interview, it’s time to get some b-roll in, possibly without destroying everything established before. To do so it’s a good idea to lock the tracks we don’t want to be influenced by what we’re doing next. This can be done by clicking on the lock in the track header.

There are also other options for influencing which track is used when inserting footage. The track selector is the tool to define on which track the footage will be inserted. The blue rectangle represents the source clip and indicates which track is the one on which footage will be inserted in from the source viewer or media pool. If it is deactivated, it’s not possible to insert any footage. These are independent for audio and video.

Refining and Titles

Some added shots might need a bit of refinement. In addition to what we already looked at in the inspector in the last article, there’s one more feature you won’t find in Premiere Pro: Dynamic Zoom. When activated in the inspector, it will add motion to your clip by zooming between sets of frames. To define the start and end framing, open the drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner of the Timeline viewer and choose Dynamic zoom.

The start framing will be indicated by the green rectangle, and the end framing by the red rectangle. These can be moved and scaled freely, making not only easy zooming, but also panning possible really fast. To define whether the movement should be Linear or have ease in or out, go to the inspector and choose from the Dynamic Zoom dropdown menu. By default, it’s set to Linear. To change the direction of movement, use the Swap button.

If you want to add some speedraming, Resolve offers a Keyframe Editor, which can be found in the top-left corner near the Media Pool Panel. This offers the option to keyframe lots of parameters from Transformation, Cropping, Composite, Lense Correction and Speed and might look familiar to what you’re used to from Premiere Pro. Add keyframes by clicking on the keyframe symbol at the parameter you want to edit.

To change the Clip speed, go to the Inspector and set your speed at Speed Change. To visually see your speed ramp, click on the curve icon in the top left of the keyframe Editor. The Keyframes and changes are now shown in curves, which can be edited by clicking and dragging. If you want to add an ease in or out, click on one of the options at the top of the Panel to add handles, which then can be manually edited.

After all your visuals are set, it’s time to finish the audio. To add some dynamics, we can duck the music either manually with keyframes or using Resolve’s auto ducker. To add keyframes to our music, I start by increasing the audio track height. Keyframes can then be added either by Alt/Option + clicking on the line in the audio clip in the Timeline, like in Premiere Pro, or by clicking on the keyframe symbol in the inspector’s Audio tab at Volume, when the audio Clip is selected.

Alternatively, Resolve’s Ducker can be used. This can be found in the inspector as well, but only when the whole audio track is selected, since it can only be applied to the entire track. To do so, click on the music tracks header. In the Ducker menu, set the Source to whatever Track you want your music to duck to and define how much and how fast the ducker should attack.

Lastly, you might want to add a Title to your video. Resolve has various Title options available in the Effects panel. What I love about these: they can be live-previewed like clips and transitions before applying. Once added to the Timeline, Titles can be adjusted in the inspector like all other effects. Pro Tip for future editing: In addition to standard Titles, fusion Titles are available. These can be used as normal Titles, but can also be adjusted further in the fusion page if needed.

Your Video should now be ready for delivery. For tips on getting your video ready for different distribution platforms and rendering it fast and easily, stay tuned for the next article.

The post Switching to Resolve: Selects and Assembly in Multicam editing first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jana Johnston.

For those who don’t know the tool: Fusion Studio is a node-based compositor for VFX and motion graphics, living next to DaVinci Resolve and sharing its licensing universe, minus the timeline politics.

Motion graphics gets a bigger toolbox

Fusion Studio 21 adds support for Krokodove motion graphics effects, plus over 70 new motion graphics effects and tools. A new Macro Editor arrives with an inspector view and publishing to macros, aimed at making reusable tool setups less of a scavenger hunt.

Text tools also pick up practical upgrades. Text+ and MultiText add spell checking. Font handling expands with emoji and color fonts, plus a font browser for previewing and selecting fonts. MultiText adds improvements for position, pivot, alignment, and CSV import, and it gains double and triple click selection with drag selection, which should make dense text comps less like surgery with oven mitts.

Roughly a third into testing, expect your existing templates and macros to need a quick sanity pass, because new editors tend to surface old assumptions. That is normal. Test new tools before you trust them in production.

SPEEEEEEEEEED

Fusion 21 also leans harder into retiming with the SpeedWarp node SPDw. SpeedWarp is an AI powered retiming tool that analyzes motion between existing frames to construct new intermediate frames for smooth slow motion without stuttering. It uses DaVinci’s neural network and supposed to be good at reconstructing complex motion where traditional interpolation or frame blending would typically blur or distort.

HTML and JSON graphics walk right in

Fusion Studio 21 adds native support for OGraf HTML graphics and native support for Lottie animations. That combination targets a common pain point in broadcast and social deliverables: motion packages that need to travel cleanly between teams and machines without turning into a pile of fragile renders. And since there is always one more Typo, you want it to work quickly.

We need to talk about OGraf

The OGraf Standard is a web based broadcast graphics specification from the European Broadcasting Union. It targets graphics like lower thirds and over the shoulder elements, and it aims to make them deliverable and renderable across diverse platforms instead of being trapped inside closed vendor systems. The idea is modular graphics workflows where components can be mixed and matched, so teams can create a graphic once and render it on traditional broadcast outputs, digital platforms, web streams, and even inside video editing tools.

At the spec level, OGraf defines what a compliant graphic looks like and how a renderer should interpret it, so a graphic can be created once and used in multiple compatible renderers. A graphic must include a JSON manifest ending in dot ograf dot json plus a JavaScript file that exports the graphic as a Web Component, along with any resources like images, videos, and fonts. The spec also describes a typical workflow split into editor, controller, server, and renderer, and it explicitly allows those parts to come from different vendors rather than a single all in one stack.

That is excellent news for Fusion Studio users because it adds native support for OGraf HTML graphics, which turns this from a broadcast only niche into something you can pull directly into comp land without reinventing the pipeline.

If your shop already gets OGraf packages from a broadcast graphics team, or you need to hand off the same graphic logic across multiple renderers, native OGraf support means fewer bespoke conversion steps and less glue code that breaks at the worst possible time. It also gives Fusion users a more standardized on ramp for HTML graphics workflows, which is the kind of boring interoperability that saves hours.

USD and the 3D side of comps

Fusion Studio 21 updates its USD stack with support for USD SDK 25.11, including the Hydra 2.0 API for the Storm renderer. USD support expands to 3D matte objects and textures, plus a USD Texture Projector and Catcher. The USD Loader also gains global in and out controls. On the compositing side of 3D, the 3D Renderer adds support for Cryptomatte. Fusion Studio 21 also adds native support for creating Relief Maps.

There are also workflow improvements that focus on day-to-day graph hygiene. Fusion Studio 21 lets you change common inspector properties for multi-tool selections, and it can change common inspector values across all selected multi-tool layers. That should reduce the classic Fsuion ritual of clicking twelve nodes to change the same one value.

Deep, stereo, vectors, metadata, and lens work

Fusion Studio 21 adds multilayer support for stereoscopic 3D clips and deep images. Deep images gain color correction. Vector channel support is added for multilayer workflows.

Metadata handling gets more flexible: user defined metadata variables can be used in paths, expressions and scripts. Lens Distort adds checkerboard calibration and GPU acceleration.

Fusion Studio 21 also allows keyframes and spline views to open as a floating window, which is a small quality-of-life feature that tends to matter a lot once you animate all day.

Installer scope and the extra apps

Fusion Studio 21’s installer puts the core application on your system and also adds utilities for setting up hardware control panels. It also installs Blackmagic RAW Player and Blackmagic Proxy Generator into the applications folder. On macOS, installation runs via the Fusion Studio Installer icon, and removal uses the Uninstall Resolve icon. On Windows, uninstall goes through Programs and Features, selecting Fusion Studio and running Uninstall. On Linux, uninstall comes from choosing the uninstall option after running the installer.

Minimum system requirements to actually run it

The macOS minimum requires macOS 15 Sequoia or later, an Apple Silicon based computer, and 16 GB of system memory or 32 GB for improved performance. For monitoring, it lists Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

The Windows minimum requires Windows 10 Creators Update, 16 GB of system memory or 32 GB for improved performance, and a GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM. It lists a GPU that supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8, AMD and Intel official drivers from the GPU manufacturer, and an NVIDIA Studio Driver 570.65 or newer. For monitoring, it lists Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

For Windows on Arm, the minimum calls for Windows 11 for ARM on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite series processor, with 16 GB of system memory or 32 GB for 4K.

On Linux, the minimum calls for Rocky Linux 8.6 and 32 GB of system memory, plus a discrete GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM. It lists OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8 support, AMD official drivers from the GPU manufacturer, and an NVIDIA Studio driver 570.26 or newer. For monitoring, it lists Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

Pricing and licensing reality check

Fusion Studio is listed at $295. As always, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, preferably on a clone of the job, not the only copy of the job.

Link Citation Block

// Quoted info
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/compare
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support
https://www.komkomdoorn.com/krokodove/
https://ograf.ebu.io/
https://lottie.github.io/
https://openusd.org/
https://github.com/Psyop/Cryptomatte
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicraw
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicproxygenerator
https://www.apple.com/macos/
https://www.microsoft.com/windows
https://www.kernel.org/
https://www.khronos.org/opencl/
https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone
https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mobile/snapdragon/pcs-and-tablets/snapdragon-x-elite
https://rockylinux.org/
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

The post Fusion Studio 21 beta is here first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Blackmagic Camera turns an iPhone into a manual camera app that can feed directly into Resolve workflows, now with wrist control via Apple Watch on iOS. Or the other professional controllers you might have.

A wrist remote for phone rigs

Phone cameras already live in all the inconvenient places. High on a stand. Gaffer-taped to a car. Wedged into a tiny corner for a cheat shot. The update to Blackmagic Camera targets that exact pain point with a companion app for Apple Watch that can control and monitor the iPhone camera remotely.

The Watch companion focuses on practical set tasks. It can start and stop recording, show framing, and display audio levels. It also exposes key controls from the wrist, including exposure, focus, and LUT selection. The whole point is simple: keep all hands off the phone when a touch would wobble the shot, it is too far away, or the camera’s protection against the environment (Animals, Art Directors, the Public) is already in place. The Watch companion installs through the Watch app on the iPhone, and it pairs up as a remote control surface for the camera app. If you want to see it in action, have a look at this video from 9 to 5 Mac:

New hooks for studio style control

This update also adds support for ATEM camera control when you use Blackmagic Camera with ATEM workflows. That matters for anyone building iPhone based multicam setups that need consistent shading and control.

The same update adds support for Blackmagic Focus and Zoom demands when used with Blackmagic Camera ProDock. That pairs the app with physical lens style controls, aimed at a more traditional camera operating feel on a phone rig. Those demands already exist as hardware controls for compatible lenses in Blackmagic’s camera ecosystem. Here, they extend into the phone rig world when you connect through the ProDock.

HDMI portrait output and other workflow fixes

The App Store release notes for the current version list several production-facing additions and fixes beyond the Watch comanion.

The update adds support for full-screen portrait mode HDMI output. That targets vertical capture pipelines where you still want proper monitoring on external displays, without awkward letterboxing or UI clutter.

Pricing and availability

Blackmagic Camera on the App Store is free. Hardware mentioned in the update, including Blackmagic Camera ProDock, carries its own pricing and availability outside the app listing. But you know that, don’t you?

The boring advice that saves shoots

New features feel exciting right up until they meet real world constraints like wireless congestion, rigging compromises, heat, storage, and a director who wants the fifth take to roll instantly. Treat the companion like any other control surface: test it, rehearse it, and build a fallback plan before you rely on it in production.

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

The post Apple Watch control for the Blackmagic Camera? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Samplitude is a Windows DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for recording through mastering, with a video timeline and plugin workflows via VST3. The Suite edition folds in Soundly and Sound Forge for faster SFX pulls and file edits, and was acquired by BorisFX last year.

Finally video that behaves

Samplitude 2026 adds a new video engine aimed at smoother playback and better responsiveness when you keep the picture inside the session. The feature set targets full-resolution 4K footage at up to 60 fps, with GPU acceleration on NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel hardware.

Codec support gets an refresh as well. The new engine supports AVC and HEVC, via the standards behind H.264 and H.265, plus AV1. For anyone who has ever had to keep a dialogue edit locked to picture while a laptop fan negotiates with physics (Random example… *cough*), that’s amazing: get video decoding off the CPU so the machine can spend its budget on audio processing.

Samplitude also keeps its existing video import formats, and 2026 positions the new engine as the part that makes navigation, scrubbing, and playback less painful while maintaining tight sync inside the project.

Audio engine work that targets dense sessions

The 2026 update includes performance and stability work, paired with VST3 and audio engine improvements.

The goal is to keep demanding sessions running smoothly by improving CPU management and multicore performance, especially when projects lean on heavier processing chains and higher-latency plugins. This focuses on fewer workflow interruptions during recording, editing, mixing, and mastering, even when the session scales into complex multitrack mixes.

OSC control turns the DAW into a network device

Samplitude 2026 adds OSC remote support, built around Open Sound Control workflows. The feature is intended to let users trigger editing, mixing, and transport functions over a network from a phone or tablet, and it also calls out control surfaces like Stream Deck.

This is not a “single vendor controller” story – interoperability with OSC-compatible apps and controllers is reeeeeaaaally common in audio land, but in many cases not the “Headline” Feature of a new control surface. That matters in small booths, multi-room recording setups, and any environment where the person pressing record is not the person sitting at the DAW. (Get an overview of OSC on Wikipedia, and check your current hardware – some already support it, like my webcam! )

Suite-only routing and library integration aim at post workflows

Samplitude Suite adds an FX Routing Matrix designed for flexible routing through plugins, with support around stereo, surround, and more advanced effect chains. The matrix is a way to route track channels into plugin inputs and then return plugin outputs where you want them, including sidechain-style configurations and multichannel bus work.

Suite users also get Soundly integration inside the arranger window. Find an effect in Soundly, then send it into the Samplitude timeline so it appears on the project without manual file wrangling. The integration also includes organising personal clips alongside the Soundly database, for faster reuse of common assets like theme music or recurring effects beds. Or the swearing bleep, if you edit podcasts.

Finally, the Suite bundles Sound Forge 2026 as an integrated audio editor, with sample-accurate editing, finalisation, and mastering tools for stereo and surround work. The positioning here is: use the DAW for timeline decisions, then jump into a dedicated file editor for detailed waveform surgery and repeatable processing tasks.

Expanded ARA2 support adds two named tools

Samplitude 2026 expands ARA2 support with ReSing and MTrackAlign. The workflow described keeps analysis and processing inside the DAW without exports or manual file shuffling, and it frames the integration as faster clip-based correction and alignment work directly in-session.

Small fixes that add up in daily editorial

Beyond the big-ticket items, Samplitude 2026 lists a set of additional improvements that speak to everyday production friction. It includes overload and noise protection that automatically mutes audio at critical levels. Export gets an option to quickly export audio without effects via a checkbox. The plugin buffer dialogue is updated with clearer descriptions for choosing buffer settings. Navigation adds an “Open in Windows Explorer” option to the right-click menu. Marker list export gets usability and compatibility improvements. Arranger controls bring back a classic double-click behaviour for full track fit. Resampling options get a streamlined workflow. Nested VCA support allows controlling multiple VCAs at once with a single fader.

Pricing and availability in plain numbers

Samplitude is sold with subscription and perpetual options. The listed monthly subscription is $25, the annual subscription is $145, and a perpetual license is $395. Upgrade and support plans start at $185.

Samplitude Suite lists an annual subscription at $175, a perpetual license at $495, and upgrade and support plans starting at $275. The Suite does not list a monthly subscription option.

What to test first before you roll it into real work

If you are considering a move to Samplitude 2026 mid-season, the obvious test plan writes itself. Validate picture playback with your facility’s usual codecs and frame rates, prohibit acquisition from randomly integrating new cameras, and check the GPU path on the specific machine builds you actually ship work on. Then stress the audio engine with your worst sessions, including the plugin chains and routing patterns you know can break lesser setups. If you plan to use OSC control, test your network conditions and controller mapping early, before a client session turns into a Wi-Fi troubleshooting workshop.

https://borisfx.com/products/samplitude/

The post Samplitude 2026: the DAW that learned new video tricks? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: DaVinci Resolve is an all-in-one post app with pages for Edit, Color, Fusion, and Fairlight. Version 21 adds a dedicated Photo page, so stills get the same node-based treatment as motion.

A platform update, not a party trick

DaVinci Resolve 21 lands as a broad update that touches media management, editing, colour, Fusion, Fairlight, and immersive delivery. The headline is not a single new transition or a one-button grade, but an expansion of what the application wants to be: a hub that can ingest, organise, finish all media – and now also treat still photography as a first-class citizen.

Resolve already built its reputation on page-based workflows that keep tools focused while staying inside one project. Version 21 leans further into that idea. The new pieces mostly aim to save time in real sessions: faster material finding, less metadata drudgery, tighter editorial control surfaces, clearer node management, and less timeline chaos as audio tracks multiply.

The Photo page puts stills on the same rails as grades

The most visible addition is the Photo page, integrated directly into the interface. It is not a tiny import dialogue or a bolt-on viewer. It is a dedicated workspace for photo management and image editing, tied into the same grading approach used for motion.

Photographs can be imported and managed as albums, with adjustments intended to preserve original source resolution and aspect ratio while reframing and cropping. A LightBox view shows an overview of an album with grades applied, and grades can update across the collection in real time as you work. Albums can also appear as timelines on other pages, keeping access consistent when you jump between tasks.

The Photo page also supports direct image capture through tethering for select cameras, with live capture saving directly into an album. Camera settings such as ISO, exposure, and white balance can be adjusted from within the application during capture. Collaboration extends into this photo workflow via Blackmagic Cloud, with album contents, metadata, tags, grades, and effects available for multiuser work.

AI search and analysis aim at real-world editorial pain.

Resolve 21 adds new AI-driven (Because of course, nothing these days without…) media tools built around analysis and retrieval. AI IntelliSearch is designed to search for people and content after media analysis, including individual faces, specific objects, and dialogue keywords. Results can appear as clips in the media pool, targeting faster clip organisation and faster assembly decisions when you already know what you need but cannot remember where it lives.

AI Speech Generator expands the AI toolset into synthetic voice creation. Written text can be transformed into spoken audio using prebuilt voice models or a custom voice created from a sample. A unique voice can be created from as little as a 10-second clip, and speed, pitch, and inflexion can be adjusted to shape multiple performances for voiceover or narration.

AI CineFocus targets focus and depth of field adjustments. A focal point can be defined by clicking, then aperture and focal range can be adjusted to change the depth of field. Controls include aperture shape and optical effects such as bokeh, and parameters can be keyframed for rack focus style moves.

Even more ML Tools

Additional AI tools in the release include Face Age Transformer, Face Reshaper, Blemish Removal, UltraSharpen, Motion Deblur, and Slate ID, which extracts slate clapperboard details into metadata fields. The slate tool is described as working even when clips are dark or out of focus, which is exactly where human assistants are usually dragged into data-entry duty.

All of this sounds like a lot, because it is. The practical question is whether it reduces the time spent hunting, tagging, and rebuilding context. That is the part worth testing on your own footage, in your own bin structure, with your own mix of accents, lighting, and, of course, the slate handwriting. New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production.

Cut and Edit focus on friction, not reinvention.

The Cut and Edit pages get workflow refinements centred on keyframes, curves, and graphics handling. Keyframing updates include new ease animations with loop, pingpong, and relative modes, plus simultaneous adjustments to multiple clips. The curves editor adds a normalised zoom mode that scales curves to fill available vertical space, and four-point Bezier easing supports complex retiming.

Fusion effects can now be adjusted directly in the keyframes and curves editors on the Cut and Edit pages. That aims to keep motion graphics tweaks closer to editorial timing, instead of forcing constant page hopping for small parameter changes.

For titles and text, multi-language spell check is available, a font browser window allows previewing fonts, and text tools add support for colour fonts and emoji. Character-level styling allows different attributes within a single text box.

Graphics format support also expands with native handling for OGraf HTML graphics and Lottie animations. JSON and Lottie files can be dragged into the media pool and treated like rendered animation clips, with alpha channel recognition for compositing over video.

Some of these changes are quiet, almost boring. That is the point. They target the daily grind where small delays stack up into lost hours and extra coffee.

Colour tools add deliverables, logic, and node clarity

Resolve 21 adds tools meant for finishing multiple versions from one timeline. MultiMaster trim passes allow generating multiple trim deliverables from a single timeline. When enabled, additional layers appear in the node editor for trim operations, aiming at managing different output standards in one go.

The node editor also gains a layer list view that lists nodes in rows by count. The intent is a less-crowded interface and easier node-management actions, such as switching, locking, bypassing, and removing nodes. If you have ever stared at a dense node graph at 2 a m and wondered which branch you are about to break, that alone could be a quality of life win.

Group workflows also expand with group versions, allowing alternate looks to be compared within group-based grading. The scopes can be customised to display a chosen nit range for monitoring.

Magic Mask adds a render-in-place option to cache a tracked mask as a travelling matte node that links to the active node, enabling continued work with lighter processing.

Fusion gets Krokodove and a sharper macro workflow.w

Fusion in Resolve 21 adds the Krokodove toolset as an integrated collection of motion graphics and compositing tools, described as over 70 new graphics. The tools are intended to be editable starting points, so they can be customised and used as the basis for building your own looks.

If your team has been building internal macros for years, this is the kind of content library that can speed up onboarding and prototype work, as long as you still keep a consistent house style.

Macro building also gets an updated macro editor with interface improvements, a new inspector view, and support for publishing macros for immediate use.

Fusion connects more tightly to Fairlight through an Animator modifier that can drive animation based on audio analysis. Audio levels from timeline clips or media pool sources can drive parameters for animation.

Fusion also updates its USD toolset to support OpenUSD SDK 25.11 with the Hydra 2.0 API for the renderer, along with features such as 3D matte objects and textures, texture projector and catcher tools, and global in and out controls for the USD loader.

The result is a more connected motion graphics and VFX environment inside the same project that holds your edit and grade, without forcing a round trip through exports just to try a different lower third.

Fairlight organises the chaos with folder tracks.

Fairlight adds folder tracks for audio organisation. Tracks can be assigned to a folder and collapsed into a composite view, with mini rectangles representing folder contents, including number and duration of clips. Folders can be expanded back to individual tracks when detailed work is needed.

A mixer should not have to scroll for days just to find the one track somebody muted in the wrong place. This kind of structure also plays nicely with the reality of modern sessions where deliverables, versions, and language tracks multiply faster than anyone wants to admit. Anybody wants in on the bet when Connected Conform gets re-invented?

Immersive delivery keeps getting attention.

Resolve 21 continues immersive workflow development with VR180 and VR36, delivering presets for Meta Quest and YouTube. Immersive orientation can be handled using spherical Panomap rotation with pitch, tilt, pan, yaw, and roll adjustments. ILPD retargeting data can be applied in Fusion for stereoscopic handling and compositing.

Apple Immersive workflows add support for foveated rendering for improved playback and viewer experience on Apple Vision Pro. If your shop lives entirely in flat frames, you can ignore this. If you deliver immersive content, having presets and orientation tools inside the same project beats stitching together a toolchain of specialised “utilities”.

A few more practical add-ons

Resolve 21 adds a Picture-in-Picture effect that lets you quickly resize and position a clip over another clip as a floating frame, with adjustable parameters such as size, placement, frame rounding, and drop shadow. This fits nicely with “Fast turnaround” YouTube / podcast productions, or if you want to record a tutorial – maybe about this tool in Resolve, for maximum recursion?

IntelliScript expands screenplay import support for Final Draft and plain text formats, creating a cut by comparing script text to transcribed audio, then allowing refinements with standard editing tools.

Metadata handling improves with star ratings and tagging (useful for photos), plus new media pool columns to expose those fields for filtering takes.

Availability and pricing

DaVinci Resolve 21 is available as a public beta now. The software is offered as a free download, and DaVinci Resolve Studio is listed at $295.

Resolve 21 is big enough that you should treat it like any major platform. Shift: install it alongside your stable version, throw real projects at it, and see where it helps and where it still trips over the weird corners of your projects. It is easy to get distracted by confusing AI features and shiny new pages, but the real win is whether the day-to-day work gets smoother.

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

The post Blackmagic Design turns DaVinci Resolve 21 into a photo app first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Before we start: We typed this during the live stream, so watch out for deeper and more precise News and Articles about Resolve 21 and Fusion 21. (And the removing of some typos the day after)

The 100G shift: fewer cables, still redundant

Blackmagic Design is using NAB 2026 as a coordinated move to a new SMPTE 2110 ecosystem built around 100G networking. The goal is to reduce cabling complexity while keeping redundancy, monitoring, and routing features in a footprint that fits broadcast racks and mobile units.

The centre of gravity is a new class of native 2110 switchers, designed around 100G links rather than baseband trunks. The ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP moves the Constellation line into a 100G design with 32 inputs and 28 outputs. It includes standards conversion on every input, four multiview outputs, 16 ATEM Advanced Keyers, four DVEs, and two SuperSource processors. A larger three-rack-unit model targets bigger sports and broadcast work with 64 inputs and 52 outputs.

Infrastructure gets a matching 100G backbone

A pile of new rack hardware is positioned as glue between the new switchers and the wider world. Blackmagic SDI Expander 8x12G converts a 100G connection into eight 12G-SDI inputs and eight 12G-SDI outputs, aimed at bridging IP cores to SDI edges. Blackmagic Studio Bridge 10G PWR aggregates eight separate 10G Ethernet connections into a 100G link and adds 90 watts of PoE per port, intended to power multiple Studio Camera Pro 6K systems from a single bridge. The Ethernet layer here leans on IEEE 802.3 Ethernet concepts, and the power spec ties into Power over Ethernet as a technology class.

For recording and replay, HyperDeck ISO Recorder 100G is recording eight channels over a 100G workflow to network storage. A key workflow promise is that Resolve can access files while they are still recording, which pitches a tighter handoff between acquisition and post.

Routing and timing details are also called out in the wider 2110 fabric. Blackmagic Ethernet Switch 820 expands the 2110 infrastructure with eight 100G ports, PTP clock distribution, NMOS control, and redundant power. The timing note points to PTP as a production-critical building block, while the control layer references NMOS for device discovery and orchestration in IP facilities.

Storage and removable media aim at replay and shared post

The replay path is paired with new storage and media hardware intended to sit in the middle of shared workflows.

Blackmagic Cloud Store Ultra is a faster dual-100G storage design intended to sit at the center of Resolve replay and shared post workflows. Blackmagic Media Dock Ultra uses Blackmagic Media Modules in a rackmount form for removable high speed storage, pitching a more controlled way to move media in and out of a facility or truck without improvising around generic drives.

There is also a new rack utility converter designed to keep a 2110 system calm when the outside world does not behave. Blackmagic Up/Down Cross 100G is an eight channel standards converter intended to shield a 2110 system from mismatched incoming formats. In practical terms, it is presented as a buffer between the promise of clean IP routing and the messy reality of mixed feeds. Monitoring and local control also get attention in rack-first environments. ATEM Monitoring Rack Panel 20 and 40 combine monitoring outputs and control panel functionality so a rack can retain local ATEM operation even in newer ventilated rack designs.

Cinema cameras keep getting pulled into live

A camera software update adds an ST2110 Live mode to URSA Cine 12K, pitching it as a live production camera while leaning on digital film image quality language, plus built in color correction and dedicated LUT handling for 2110 output. The clear throughline is that the cinema camera becomes another node in the same IP plant, not a separate island that demands special cabling and conversions.

New accessories are also listed for broadcast lens and operator needs. URSA Cine Studio Viewfinder is introduced, along with a Sony B4 mount and a lens control cable intended for broadcast lenses and production demands.

High frame rate 2110 as a future workflow teaser

One future track focuses on high frame rate production over 2110. The pitch is that 100G Ethernet is not just about more channels, but also higher frame rates, with workflows aimed at 240 fps or even 480 fps capture.

To support that direction, a URSA Cine 12K LF 100G and a Blackmagic Studio Bridge 100G are previewed. The same infrastructure is intended to feed Resolve replay with high frame rate media, while using Up/Down Cross 100G to derive standard frame rate feeds for the rest of the system. This is the point where the platform story becomes very literal: acquisition, conversion, replay, and shared storage all orbit the same 100G core.

Immersive production plans: live 3D and more switching

A second future track targets immersive production with a live chain built around URSA Cine Immersive 100G. The outlined chain includes a URSA Cine Live Encoder module, plus HyperDeck and DeckLink updates for immersive handling. A future ATEM Solaris switcher family is also in the works for full 3D and immersive switching.

The scope here matters because it frames immersive as a live pipeline problem, not just a post problem. It also implies that switching, capture, encode, and I/O need to be designed together if the goal is real-time immersive production.

Fairlight Live: software mixing with broadcast expectations

Audio is treated as a major pillar of the NAB 2026 story, centered on Fairlight Live. It is a software based live audio mixer designed for broadcast, ATEM integration, SMPTE 2110 workflows, and surround, spatial, and immersive audio.

Channel scale is positioned as elastic, with support for hundreds or thousands of channels depending on the host computer. It is said to work with standard computer audio and USB devices, and includes broadcast functions such as cue playback, talkback, snapshots, routing tools, and third party plug-in support.

To pair with the software, Fairlight Live Audio Panel hardware is launching in 10, 20, and 40 fader versions. The intent reads as a familiar split: compute and software can scale quickly, while tactile control stays purpose-built and consistent.

DaVinci Resolve 21: Photo page, AI tools, broader umbrella

DaVinci Resolve 21 is the main software release, a large update that spans a new Photo page, multiple AI tools, improvements across Edit, Cut, Color, Fusion, and Fairlight, immersive and VR work, and more than one hundred new features overall. (More on that tomorrow, and a test is soon to follow!)

The Photo page brings the application’s film color grading toolset into photography. On the AI side, IntelliSearch is a object, face, and content based media search. Both in bins, certain types of media, trqanscripts, and media-libary-wide. We all have that one folder ….

AI Clip Analysis and AI Slate ID are included, with AI Slate ID reading slate metadata, and writing those into the file metadata – so, the first ingest pass is quickly filled with all availble stuff from set, but do keep an assitant with a non-medical handwriting, or use a digital slate. An AI Speech Generator is also on board, generating spoken audio from written text, whoich is claimed to learn a new voice with just a few seconds or minutes of training. We’ll try that soon, with our best southern bavarian accent.

Edit and Cut updates include improved keyframing, better curves, and a new font browser. Color gains multi-master trim pass grading, node editor improvements, larger node stack options, group grade versions, and updated immersive workflows.

One notable packaging detail is the integration of the Krokodove effects package into Fusion and Resolve, adding more than 70 built-in Fusion effects. That is a pragmatic kind of news, because built-in effects tend to survive long projects better than scattered third-party installs.

Since they are Fusion-based, you can use them as is, or confiugure and personalise them to your hearts desire. Or use them as a jumping off point to create your own.

Fusion 21: deep tech work, not just polish

Fusion 21 is one of the biggest technical updates in the package, and the list is dense in the best and worst way. It adds a Fairlight Animator modifier, plus a new macro editor. Multi Inspector controls allow editing shared properties across multiple nodes. Lens distortion analysis gets improvements.

The native 3D renderer gains Cryptomatte output, tying into the broader Cryptomatte standard for ID mattes. There are relief map tools, full layer support in the Deep toolset, and a Deep Colour Corrector.

On the scene description side, Fusion 21 includes OpenUSD SDK 25.11 with Hydra 2.0 for Storm. There are also new projector and capture nodes for USD, plus stereoscopic and immersive workflow updates. Speed Warp is now listed as available inside Fusion, and there are UI changes, variable mapping, and support for OGraph HTML graphics and Lottie animations. The overall theme is that Fusion is being treated as a serious systems piece inside Resolve, not a bolt-on compositor with a few convenience features.

Pricing and the usual reality check

The larger point across this whole slate is coherence. The product updates line up as a platform push that tries to make live IP infrastructure, replay, storage, cameras, audio, and post feel like one continuous system. That does not remove risk. New tools and new workflows should be tested in your own pipeline before they touch a live show, a tight delivery, or anything with real money attached.

The post Resolve 21, Fusion, Fairlight Live, and many, many boxes! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

(Advertorial) By embedding powerful AI into generative stages while simultaneously keeping the control of traditional 3D workflows through cinematic RTX Rendering, upgraded image-to-3D in Headshot 3, precision AccuFace 2 capture, CC Mesh Wrapping Tools, Image to Cloth, and realistic Joint Corrective Morphs.

RTX Render: Achieve Cinematic Path-Traced Realism

Elevating render quality has long been a shared desire among our users, and Reallusion is doing just that by introducing RTX rendering as a free update. Developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, this integration leverages advanced RTX technology to deliver the cinematic quality of path-traced rendering at near real-time speeds.

With RTX GPU and DLSS technology, artists can showcase their work at its absolute best with exceptional clarity and performance. Optimised for Reallusion’s digital human shaders, RTX rendering offers control over hair, skin, and subsurface scattering, bringing characters to life with full realism.

Beyond digital humans, RTX unlocks new possibilities across commercial visualisation and industrial design, enabling more immersive visual experiences. With dynamic time-of-day transitions, adjustable cloud density, and natural atmospheric motion, achieving perfect lighting has never been easier.

Headshot 3: Next Level of Lifelike Digital Double Generation

Headshot 3 represents a massive leap in digital identity. Reallusion has developed and trained a proprietary AI model specifically for accurate image-to-3D head reconstruction. Trained on a vast dataset of facial scans, this model interprets facial landmarks, depth cues, and subtle anatomical features more accurately from 2D images. As a result, it produces a more precise head mesh with improved topology, enhanced identity preservation, and more accurate proportions.

In addition, Headshot 3 has included a range of powerful new features designed to achieve significantly higher likeness and precision. This includes 4K AI image generation from text prompts, spline-based head-shape refinement with fully controllable Bézier adjustments for portrait and profile, and built-in lens correction.

Users can also take advantage of texture channel enhancement and intuitive mask brush tools to effortlessly remove shadows and blemishes. For even greater accuracy, new body matching capabilities support full-body image measurements, ensuring accurate proportions for a more faithful digital double.

To celebrate this release, Reallusion is currently offering an exclusive prelaunch offer, allowing users to secure Headshot 3 for free by purchasing Headshot 2 before its official release.

AccuFACE 2: Highly Accurate, Lips and Facial Tracking

With the introduction of the new HD facial profile in Character Creator 5, Reallusion has correspondingly upgraded its motion capture capabilities with AccuFace 2. Adopting a newly trained tracking system optimised specifically for CC5 characters, this major update delivers exceptional accuracy and responsiveness.

The system captures even the most subtle high-frequency lip-sync details for natural expressions and speech. With support for both live webcam input and video-based tracking, AccuFace 2 offers flexible capture workflows without compromising quality.

When combined with video motion capture, you can produce high-quality facial and full-body animation seamlessly within the Reallusion toolset.

Mesh Wrapping: Open The Gateway to the Character Creator Ecosystem

As AI-generated 3D models become increasingly prevalent in the industry, integrating these static assets into professional animation pipelines has become vital. To address this, Reallusion is introducing CC Wrap.

This powerful tool allows you to effortlessly wrap any models, alongside traditional 3D models and cloth meshes into standard Character Creator (CC) topology.

By conforming to CC topology, this technology acts as a gateway to the entire CC & iClone ecosystem. You can seamlessly access Reallusion’s extensive asset libraries and instantly transform static meshes into fully functional characters, completely ready for highly detailed facial expressions and body animations.

In addition, detailed 3D outfits can be created from image references, featuring automatic skin weighting that significantly streamlines the entire character creation workflow.

Joint Corrective Morphs (JCM): Ensure Anatomical Accuracy with Realistic Muscle Deformation

In our pursuit of more realistic animation quality, Reallusion is introducing “Joint Corrective Morphs” (JCM) as a free update. This feature delivers enhanced accuracy for body shapes across a wide range of poses. Built on a joint-based deformation system, this technology goes beyond basic shape correction for extreme poses. It produces more natural and realistic muscle deformation, ensuring characters maintain anatomical integrity during complex animations.

AI Studio: 3D Previs to AI Render – Effective Hybrid Production

AI Studio is a true game changer for iClone and CC users, transforming 3D previs projects into photorealistic images and videos. It also supports stylized rendering, allowing you to tailor visuals to your unique creative vision. The built-in AI Actor Creator ensures character consistency across every shot while delivering lifelike dialogue and performances.

These AI-powered tools also enable precise character interactions and camera control, guided by iClone motion data and reference footage. Powered by Reallusion AI Cloud services, the pipeline is streamlined for efficiency without the need for additional hardware.

iClone 9: Rig anything. Animate everything.

Take a first look at how we’re unlocking more creative freedom in 3D character production. No longer limited to human characters, you can add skeletal structures to any model. You can retarget motion between characters with matching hierarchies to ensure consistent animation transfer.

Use custom Control Rigs for precise animation control, apply squash and stretch for expressive deformation, and add spring dynamics and secondary motion with ease. By enabling collision-aware simulations, artists achieve greater flexibility and control in every stage of animation.

Stay Ahead of the Curve: Choose Your Access

Reallusion is dedicated to keeping our users at the vanguard of the CG-AI transformation, providing the cutting-edge tools needed to ensure peak production efficiency.

To maintain that competitive edge, you now have flexible ways to integrate these upcoming innovations into your pipeline. By joining our Subscription plans, users will automatically receive updates to the latest versions and all these great upcoming features at no additional cost. Alternatively, users can choose to acquire Permanent Licenses upon their official release dates.

The post Reallusion Announces 2026 Vision: Redefining 3D Production through Hybrid AI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

ASCII, but with more controls than the name first suggests

ASCII Resolve is one of those tools whose name sounds like a novelty filter until you look at what it actually exposes. Installed as a DRFX package, it drops into DaVinci Resolve as a ready-to-use effect and ships with seven presets built around different symbol sets and workflows.

The useful part is not the retro terminal joke. It is the amount of control. In the setup, users can adjust pixel frequency to define how large the generated symbols appear, then shape the source image first with contrast and gain controls before the symbol remapping happens. There is also an invert option, which is exactly the sort of small checkbox that turns an effect from “cute for ten seconds” into “actually usable for design work.” The result is a less fixed look, more luminance-driven abstraction.

Gradients, palettes, and letters instead of just symbols

The colour section appears to be more than a token palette dropdown. The effect includes multiple colour presets, but it also allows custom gradients, with individual points corresponding to separate symbols. That matters because it means the mapping is not only based on brightness, but can also be art-directed at the symbol-band level. If a preset gets close but not quite there, individual hues can be nudged without rebuilding the look from scratch.

There is also a letter-based variant that pushes the effect from ASCII cliché into proper retro motion-design territory. In that version, users can choose preset character groups such as alphabet, capital letters, numbers, patterns, round, orthogonal, diagonal, and more detailed sets. A custom mode accepts a user-defined nine-character string, and the font itself can be changed as well. Based on the walkthrough, monospaced or code-like fonts appear to be the most convincing choice, which will surprise nobody who has ever willingly opened a terminal window.

More than one workflow inside Resolve

The package is so split into several variants depending on where and how users want to work. Beyond the standard effect presets, there are custom Edit page and Fusion page versions for users who want to replace characters with their own shapes or icons. In the Edit page workflow, users can load external image files through loaders and map them across brightness levels. The recommendation in the demo is to arrange those assets from brightest to darkest, so the luminance translation stays predictable.

The Fusion-oriented version goes a step further. There, the source image is connected to the main input, while additional square graphics or text elements can be fed into the other inputs as replacement shapes. The creator recommends square assets, ideally around 100 by 100 pixels, to keep the setup responsive and avoid unnecessary lag.

The broader product line also includes an ASCII PRO Pack on Gumroad, listed from €9.90, while the free ASCII Resolve effect remains available as a separate download.

Free ASCII Effect for DaVinci Resolve: https://skapecreates.gumroad.com/l/qouon
ASCII PRO Pack for DaVinci Resolve: https://skapecreates.gumroad.com/l/xwtwmx

The post ASCII Resolve: Free Resolve effect turns footage into configurable text art first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Vegas Pro (formerly Sony Vegas) is a Windows-first nonlinear editor built for fast timeline cutting, finishing, and delivery, with tight audio tools, broad format support, and a workflow that stays nimble even when projects get messy.

Boris FX announced the acquisition of Vegas Pro, Sound Forge, and Acid Pro from MAGIX Software GmbH. The deal folds a long-running Windows NLE and two established audio tools into the same product family as the company’s existing VFX, motion graphics, audio, and photo toolsets, and it also brings new AI technology into the organization.

The product development teams and engineers behind Vegas Pro, Sound Forge, and Acid Pro will come over with BorisFX, with teams based in Madison, Wisconsin, and Germany. And to get all that rolling, the Vegas Pro 2026 release is the first major update in this new setup, introducing new features across the lineup and signalling that more development and integration work is planned beyond this initial drop.

If you learned to cut on Vegas Pro (Sony Vegas, previously) back when the last millennium was still the current one, you are not alone. I first used Vegas Pro more than a quarter of a century ago, and my knees just filed a bug report about that fact.

Vegas Pro 2026 aims straight at speed, stability, and staying local

Vegas Pro is available in three editions: Vegas Pro, Vegas Pro Plus, and Vegas Pro Ultimate. The 2026 release introduces major new features across the lineup, with an explicit focus on workflow and stability. The core editing workflow adds advanced 2D and 3D titling options, support for NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, a newly updated AI model, AI-driven transcription and voice generation tools, and support for the ProRes RAW format.

There is also a new integrated title package called the Continuum Title Pack, described as a collection of 2D and 3D motion graphics and titling tools from the Continuum toolset. It includes 70 drag-and-drop presets, and it is designed to let users design, extrude, deform, and animate titles and graphics without leaving Vegas Pro.

On the performance side, the Blackwell GPU support is positioned around accelerating playback, compositing, effects processing, and rendering, and it also calls out smoother handling for 4:2:2 footage by removing the need for software decoding for AVC or HEVC formats on supported systems. On the codec side, Vegas Pro 2026 adds native, Apple-certified ProRes RAW support on Windows, with RAW parameter control inside the application, including colour space, ISO, and white balance.

Depth masks, transcripts, and voiceover, without the cloud detour

The Enhanced Z-Depth Effect is an AI-based depth model trained by the in-house machine learning team, with the goal of more accurate, higher-resolution depth masks and improved foreground and background separation. It is aimed at practical compositing-style use, like placing text behind people or adjusting background treatment quickly.

Speech-to-Text is a fully offline voice-over transcription with no internet connection required, with support for over 100 languages, text-based editing, automatic subtitle creation, and unlimited transcriptions with multiple model options to balance quality and performance. This offline transcription feature is available exclusively with Vegas Pro subscriptions.

Text-to-Speech is also described as offline, creating voiceovers locally on a PC with no internet connection required. It supports 9 languages and 54 voices, allows unlimited voiceover lengths, and includes adjustable speed, pitch, and volume controls. It is also available exclusively with Vegas Pro subscriptions.

Subscriptions also include access to a Storyblocks media library inside Vegas Pro, offering royalty-free stock footage, music, and sound effects directly in the application.

Plus and Ultimate lean into effects and audio

Vegas Pro Plus includes everything in Vegas Pro and adds tracking and masking tools, motion graphics and particle effects, audio editing, and AI-driven audio cleanup. It includes Mocha Vegas planar tracking, described as a way to track surfaces and objects, create masks and roto shapes, stabilise footage, and apply tracked effects using the same planar tracking tech used in other products. It is integrated directly within Vegas Pro Plus. It also includes Particle Illusion Pro, a real-time GPU 2D and 3D particle engine with thousands of presets and customizable emitters, available as a plugin.

Vegas Pro Ultimate includes Vegas Pro Plus and adds two VFX plugin packages, AI-powered audio clean and stem separation, and photo editing and digital artist tools. It includes Mocha Pro and Continuum, plus CrumplePop SoundApp as a standalone audio toolkit, and Optics as a photo editing toolkit available as an Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom plugin and as a standalone application.

Pricing is clear, and licensing is not “one size fits all”

Vegas Pro and Vegas Pro Plus are available with subscription or perpetual licensing. Vegas Pro Ultimate is available as a subscription plan.

Monthly subscriptions are $17.95 for Vegas Pro, $24.95 for Vegas Pro Plus, and $39.95 for Vegas Pro Ultimate. Annual subscriptions are $99.95, $149.95, and $199.95.

Upgrade and support plans are listed at $143.95 for Vegas Pro and $199.95 for Vegas Pro Plus. Perpetual licenses are $219.95 for Vegas Pro and $299.95 for Vegas Pro Plus.

A practical gotcha lives in plain sight: offline Speech-to-Text and offline Text-to-Speech are subscription-only features in this release, so your licensing choice directly affects your feature set.

The toolbox effect, now with fewer missing pieces

The product family list includes tools for video editing, VFX, motion graphics, audio, and photography plugins powered by AI, and it includes – as you damn well know – products such as Silhouette, SynthEyes, Continuum, Sapphire and Mocha Pro, alongside Vegas Pro and multiple audio tools like CrumplePop and Sound Forge. Currently it is not included in the Suite, just in the family – but we’ll see what happens there.

For my own day-to-day, that combination feels like a pretty complete toolbox, because it covers editorial, tracking, roto and paint, camera solving, and a lot of audio cleanup and finishing in one place, with fewer reasons to go hunting for another wrench mid-project.

Sound Forge

Sound Forge is a dedicated environment for detailed audio work beyond the timeline, positioned for precise editing, mastering, and restoration. It is also a comprehensive tool for audio recording, editing, sound design, and mastering, built around a single audio file workflow.

Features cited include recording up to 32 channels at once, automatic record start, a second-source audio option, restoration tools, quick dialogue editing, applying effects, and WaveColor visualisation, plus fast background operations intended to save time. It is integrating seamlessly with Vegas Pro or working alongside a preferred digital audio workstation.

Acid Pro

Acid Pro is the third new tool in the Boris -Verse, and it is a loop-based music software designed to make it easy to create songs and beats without prior experience, built around a simple workflow and a large collection of royalty-free loops. It includes automatic pitch and tempo matching, live preview, multitrack recording, editing, and mixing.

It also includes hit-point markers for tight video sync and an intuitive timeline arranger. In other words, it sits right where a lot of editors first meet music creation: quick structure, quick iteration, and fast alignment to picture, without pretending every user wants to become a full-time producer overnight. That last part is a personal reaction, not a spec sheet.

Training and upgrades

To celebrate the launch, Vegas Pro users can claim complimentary access to the Vegas Pro Essentials training series, a premium download normally priced at $49.95. The 22-part course includes more than three hours of instruction, with included footage, project files, and high-resolution lesson videos, and it is available until Friday, December 5, 2026.

Customers who own any previous version of Vegas Pro or Sound Forge can upgrade to the latest versions at a single, simplified price until Friday, December 5, 2026, via the webshop.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/vegas-pro/
https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/sound-forge/
https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/acid-pro/
https://borisfx.com/

The post Boris FX welcomes Vegas Pro first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.