Lottie - DIGITAL PRODUCTION https://digitalproduction.com Magazine for Digital Media Production Wed, 22 Apr 2026 06:06:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 236729828 Fusion Studio 21 beta is here https://digitalproduction.com/2026/04/22/fusion-studio-21-beta-is-here/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 05:00:00 +0000 https://digitalproduction.com/?p=271032 A visually striking digital artwork featuring a futuristic humanoid robot on the right, glowing with blue and orange lights, and a dramatic urban background with burning buildings on the left. The center reads

Fusion Studio 21 goes harder on motion graphics, fonts, USD and deep comps, plus Windows ARM64. Also ships RAW Player and Proxy Generator.

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

]]> A visually striking digital artwork featuring a futuristic humanoid robot on the right, glowing with blue and orange lights, and a dramatic urban background with burning buildings on the left. The center reads

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.

The image features the word "MIRROR" prominently displayed in stylish, alternating black and white fonts against a vibrant red background. Elaborate, swirling designs flank the text, adding a decorative flair, while the glossy surface below creates a striking reflection that enhances the visual impact.
A vibrant background featuring a repeating pattern of interlocking circles in shades of gold and mint green against a deep purple backdrop. The word "SEAMLESS" is prominently displayed in bold red letters, seamlessly integrated within the circular designs.
A textured gray canvas displays the elegant, cursive title "DeFlicker" in a glossy, shimmering silver. The image is divided, with a bold red diagonal line indicating a comparison of visual effects: one side labeled 'WITH' and the other 'OUT', suggesting varying degrees of clarity and enhancement.
A vibrant graphic design featuring the word "FRAGMENTS" in bold, stylized yellow letters. The background is a smooth gradient of green with overlapping, darker, abstract shapes, creating a dynamic and visually striking effect. Intricate lines connect some elements, enhancing the modern look.
The image features the word "DIME" in a bold, pixelated font set against a deep blue gradient background. The letters seem slightly blurred, with soft edges and a glowing effect, creating a sense of motion and depth. The overall aesthetic is modern and digital, evoking a tech-inspired vibe.
A vibrant, abstract design features blurred gradients of purple, blue, and green hues, converging towards the center. The words "MAPPED DUPLICA 3D" are elegantly displayed in bright orange and yellow, adding a modern touch to the colorful composition against a dark background.
An abstract graphic featuring vibrant, layered shapes in soft blues, warm oranges, and pinks, blending together against a deep maroon background. Small markers with numerical values rest above the shapes, creating a dynamic visual flow that suggests rhythm and motion.
A digital graphic featuring the large word "RASTERIZE" in bold, black typography, set against a vibrant, pink background splashed with geometric triangular patterns. The scene is illuminated with a gradient that transitions from deep black to an energetic pink, creating a visually striking contrast.
An abstract digital illustration features a vibrant, contrasting color palette of neon greens, pinks, and blues. In the center, the large word "PULL" is stylized with block letters, while colorful, geometric human figures dynamically engage in a pulling motion, enhancing the visual energy.
An abstract graphic featuring bold, overlapping letters in black and white, with vibrant splashes of red and yellow. The letters are deconstructed and layered against a warm yellow background, creating a dynamic and energetic composition.
The image features the stylized text "EXTRUDE" in bold, 3D letters rendered in shades of white and yellow, set against a vibrant turquoise background. Below it, the term "MOTION GRAPHICS" is presented in striking red, emphasizing the dynamic theme of the design.
The image features the word 'WORM' in stylized, bold lettering, rendered in a vibrant green color against a deep burgundy background. The letters gradually dissipate into tiny green particles on the right, creating a dynamic and artistic effect.
A 3D illustration showing a stylized, blocky structure resembling the letter 'E,' composed of red and white cubes stacked in an intriguing, open design. The background is a soft blue with scattered red spheres floating around, creating a whimsical, playful atmosphere.
The image features the word "DIRECTIONAL" in large, bold letters, interspersed with arrows pointing in various directions, set against a dark background. Below, the word "SCALE" is displayed in a smaller, elegant font. The colors of the letters vary, creating a visually dynamic and engaging composition.
The image features the word 'SHEAR' in large, bold typography against a soft green background. A stylized yellow propeller spins to the left, suggesting motion, while lines indicating airflow or speed dart to the right, enhancing the dynamic feel of the design.
The word "GROW" is prominently displayed in bold, stylized yellow lettering against a deep maroon background. The letters are elongated, with varying widths creating a dynamic visual effect that emphasizes the concept of growth. The design is vibrant and eye-catching.
A vibrant graphic featuring the words "SEAMLESS LOOP" in large, colorful letters. The letters are made up of various bright hues, including orange, pink, blue, and purple, and are surrounded by subtle sparkling effects against a solid blue background, creating a dynamic visual impact.
A playful and whimsical scene features a rounded character, resembling a cup filled with pink liquid and bubbles, lifting large teal weights with ease. In the background, several smaller, colorful blob-like figures watch, adding a lighthearted atmosphere to the image.

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.

https://images.blackmagicdesign.com/images/products/fusion/landing/animations/animations@2x.jpg?_v=1604483566

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.

https://images.blackmagicdesign.com/images/products/fusion/landing/vector/vector@2x.jpg?_v=1604483567

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.

https://images.blackmagicdesign.com/images/products/fusion/landing/workflow/workflow@2x.jpg?_v=1604483568

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.

https://images.blackmagicdesign.com/images/products/fusion/landing/effects/effects@2x.jpg?_v=1604483358

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.

// Quoted info
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/compare
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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
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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.

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