OpenGL-accelerated Extruded Text, 13 New Filters, Support for AE’s Camera & Lighting System

Marlborough MA ‘ February 5, 2009 ‘ Boris FX, the leading developer of integrated effects technology for video and film, announced that Boris Continuum Complete 6 AE (BCC 6 AE) is now available. BCC 6 AE brings nearly 200 filters to Macintosh and Windows versions of Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. The new release features 13 new filters including Extruded Text, Extruded Spline, Type-On Text, Layer Deformer, Smooth Tone, DV Fixer, and Pixel Fixer. In addition, BCC 6 AE delivers unique workflow enhancements such as support for After Effects’ Camera and Lighting System, the ability to import After Effects mask paths into BCC 6 AE filters, saving and loading of XML-based animated presets, a single-click custom preset navigation tool, and motion tracking data import and export in an industry-standard format.

“BCC 6 AE is a giant leap forward in 3D,” commented Boris Yamnitsky, president and founder, Boris FX. “We harnessed the power of modern graphics cards to deliver a true 3D experience for editors and compositors while integrating with Adobe applications tighter than ever before.”

“The beauty of BCC 6 AE’s new 3D text and spline filters is that I can now create and fine-tune 3D objects within After Effects – at the same time as I’m working with other BCC 6 filters like rays, particles, generators, and distortions,” commented Larry Andersen of Spot Editorial in Boston, MA. “I also appreciate the 3D filters’ thoroughness – built-in textures, character animation, camera, and lights make for very powerful yet easy-to-use tools.”

• 13 New Filters ranging from realistic 3D vector graphics extrusions to organic 3D deformers to painting and image restoration. The new 3D Objects category includes Extruded Text, Extruded Spline, Type-On Text, and Layer Deformer. New image restoration filters include DV Fixer, Smooth Tone, and Pixel Fixer. New image painting filters consist of Charcoal Sketch, Pencil Sketch, Water Color, and Cartoon Look. New OpenGL filters include Lightning and Tile Mosaic.

BCC Extruded Text – OpenGL-accelerated 3D text generator with built-in 3D shatters and a warp deformer. This filter uses AE masks for defining custom bevels, extrusions, and text on a path. The resulting 3D object adheres to AE’s native camera and light controls. Multiple 3D materials can be created from AE layers or external image files featuring texture and bump maps as well as reflections. Each material can be individually saved as a preset and applied to the front, back, bevel, or extrusion surface of the text object. The text object can be further deformed and animated with a number of innovative deformers such as Bend, Taper, Twist, Shatter, Ripple, Pulse, or Curl.

BCC Type-On Text ‘ 3D extruded text can be animated in true 3D space in a type-on or type-off fashion with each letter precisely interacting with the rest of the text in 3D. All 3D properties of the BCC Extruded Text filter are available in the Type-On effect.

BCC Extruded Spline – based on AE masks or built-in primitives such as a medallion or heart. Create 3D extruded objects fully-modeled with bevels and spline-based extrusion profiles.

BCC Layer Deformer – warp any 2D layer in 3D space with built-in 3D shatters and bend deformers. Create 3D shapes such as fully or partially wrapped spheres and cylinders with multiple layers mapped onto the surfaces. Animate true 3D shapes with AE’s native camera and lights.

BCC Pixel Fixer – remove bad pixels resulting from a faulty digital camera sensor or dust on a camera lens. Up to 10 bad spots can be repaired with a single filter application -without any degradation of image quality or sharpness.

BCC DV Fixer – soften or remove diagonal stair-step lines (aka jaggies) from a clip captured with a lower-quality camera. Repair compression artifacts without degrading image sharpness or quality.

BCC Smooth Tone – smoothes or softens an image while preserving detail contrast, making skin tones silky-smooth without loss of sharpness in the image. A great tool for working with “talking heads” and on-camera interview footage.

BCC Charcoal Sketch – simulates the painterly look of an image that was created using charcoals

BCC Pencil Sketch – simulates the look of a hand-drawn pencil-sketched image

BCC Water Color – simulates the wash look of a water color painting

BCC Cartoon Look – simulates a rotoscope toon-animation look

BCC Tile Mosaic – simulates the look of hand-cut opaque titles

BCC Lightning – generates simulated lightning bolts and plasma arcs

• Import AE Mask Paths into Boris Continuum Complete Filters. From 3D text on a path to custom bevel profiles and extruded spline objects, AE masks can now be used to control the geometry of BCC 6 AE filters. Now there is no need to learn a custom user interface or switch to a different application to adjust spline shapes. Users may take advantage of AE’s familiar mask tools for all custom spline work. Additionally, all BCC 6 AE filters feature the ability to load custom AE spline masks into BCC’s built-in PixelChooser matte and masking system for ultimate control over the filtered result.

• Custom Animated Presets. This unique feature lets users save and re-use every parameter animation in every BCC filter – even across host applications and platforms. BCC 6 AE includes 1000+ factory-installed animated presets. Animated presets are now saved in an industry-standard XML format so that they can be viewed and edited by any XML-compliant text editor.

• Single-Click Custom Preset Navigation Tool lets users easily browse presets without opening a pop-up box. Both static and animated presets are immediately applied and the host preview window is automatically updated to reflect the selected preset. Over 1500 factory-installed, user-modifiable presets are included with BCC 6 AE.

• Built-In Motion Tracker Enhancements are found in almost every filter. Users may now save motion tracker data from one filter and load the saved data in another filter or in After Effects itself.

• Significant Performance Gains. Every BCC 6 AE filter is either OpenGL-based or multiprocessor-accelerated for ultimate rendering speed on modern computing and graphics platforms.

Pricing and Availability
Boris Continuum Complete 6 AE supports Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro and is available immediately through the Boris FX worldwide reseller channel and direct through the Boris FX web site at www.borisfx.com for an MSRP of $995 USD. Owners of previous versions of Boris Continuum Complete AE may upgrade for an MSRP or $295 USD. A 14-day trial version is available for free download from www.borisfx.com. Customers who purchased BCC 5 AE in 2009 are eligible to receive a free upgrade to BCC 6 AE.

Boris Continuum Complete 6 FxPlug for Apple Final Cut Studio and Apple Final Cut Express and Boris Continuum Complete 6 AVX for Avid editing and finishing systems are scheduled for release later in Q1 2009. Customers who purchase Boris Continuum Complete 5 FxPlug or Boris Continuum Complete 5 AVX as of February 5, 2009 will receive a free upgrade to Version 6.

About Boris FX
Founded in 1995, Boris FX is the leading developer of integrated graphics and effects technology, delivering 3D compositing and vector graphic products for the broadcast, post production, film and multimedia markets. Boris products have grown to serve over 200,000 artists worldwide. The company’s success lies in its ability to tightly integrate and leverage technologies through strong partnerships with industry-leading manufacturers such as Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Grass Valley, Media 100, and Sony.