Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.2.0 Release Notes

From BorisFX

Revision as of 15:19, 21 March 2013

Boris Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.2.0 Release Notes

Welcome to BorisFX

For more information about BCC 8 software updates, other Boris products, and additional resources, visit our web site at http://www.borisfx.com.

Boris Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.2.0 is an update to:

• Boris Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.0.2 (Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.0.2 Release Notes)

• Boris Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.0.0 (Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.0.0 Release Notes)

Boris Continuum Complete FxPlug 8.2.0 supports the following host applications:

• Apple Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 running Mac OSX 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8

• Apple Final Cut Pro 7 running Mac OSX 10.6, 10.7, 10.8

What's New in BCC8 for FxPlug (Summary of major changes since BCC7):

• Support for FCP X and Motion 5 including many new effect and transition templates customized for FCP X. An overview of many of the exciting new features in BCC8 for FCP X can be found here: http://www.borisfx.com/Apple/bccfxplug/.

• Seven new filters for all FxPlug hosts: Film Glow, Flicker Fixer, Lens Flare 3D, Organic Strands, Particle Emitter 3D, Stage Light, and Wild Cards.

• Addition of the Integrated Beat Reactor with external audio file support which enables simple audio driven animations without complex keyframing.

• New/Revised Filter Categories.

BCC FxPlug 8.2.0 – What's New:

• 8.2.0 contains major stability improvements and this update is strongly recommended for all users.

• In FCP 7, the Boris Continuum Shaders (BCS) filters can now be installed in Mac OSX 10.7 and 10.8 whereas previously they could be installed only when running on 10.6.8. See the Known Issues section below for further details.

• New FCP X effect templates have been added for Unsharp Mask and Optical Flow.

• Significant performance improvements to many of our openGL filters such as Lens Flare 3D and the new Particle filters.

• Several stability improvements in BCC 3DObjects filters

• Particle Emitter 3D has two new blend modes (Lighten and Screen) in addition to the previous Normal and Add modes for interparticle compositing.

• In FCP X the template for Pin Art has been modified to fix the Pin FX behavior. An input well must be explicitly used now to drive the Pin FX.

• The Motion Key template in FCP X now includes parameters for Start/End frames when using the Motion Tracker.

• Numerous quality and performance improvements were made when using Depth of Field in the new particle filters.

• Improved help files for Noise Map 2 and Turbulence.

• Fixed Videoscope problem where the Log feature didn't work properly on 32bit mac hosts.

• Fixed problem where Wipe Transitions id not correctly handle alpha in the outgoing layer even in alpha aware mode.

• Fixed unwanted alpha seam when wipe transitions are used in alpha aware mode.

• Fixed rendering issues in some bit depths in Wipe Transition filters when incoming layer is translucent and composite settings are changed.

• Fixed problem where Halftone looked very different at reduced resolution when using pre/post blur options.

• Fixed incorrect offset amounts when using the motion tracker Offset controls when applied to the Pixel Chooser Oval or Rectangle options.

• Fixed longstanding problem with flickering along the edges in all BCC filters that used large blur amounts such as Pyramid Blur, Gaussian Blur, Film Glow.

• Fix problem with Lens Flare 3d where the Edge map results change when viewed at reduced resolution.

• Fixed problem on Retina Display systems where the left side parameters in Text Window, such as Font, Size, etc. did not work for Extruded Text & Type On Text filters.

• Fixed the behavior of the Motion Tracker Auto-Man parameter in many filters.

• In Pan and Zoom the Video Safe Colors option now scales to the range 16-235 instead of just doing a hard clamp to safe levels.

Getting Started with BCC8 for FCP X and Motion5:

• The Read Me doc included with the installer provides many helpful details in getting started with using BCC8 in the new 64bit FCP X and Motion 5 hosts. For convenience it can also be found here: http://www.borisfxresources.com/borisfx/download_files/BCC8FxPlug64ReadME.pdf

BCC8 FxPlug Project Compatibility Matrix:

• FCP 7 projects created with BCC7 will open correctly when running FCP 7 with BCC8.

• Due to complications arising from the new FxPlug2 API for 64bit Apple hosts, projects created in Motion 4 with BCC7 will display the BCC effects as missing/unknown when opened in Motion 5 with BCC8 and those effects will need to be re-created. Saving BCC presets in Motion 4 may provide a partial workaround for recreating the effects in Motion 5.

• Due to limitations in the FCP X host, it is not possible to bring forward FCP 7 projects with 3rd party filters intact in FCP X.

BCC FxPlug 8.2.0 - Known Issues and Limitations:

• In FCP X, an effect can sometimes render with a bad frame (green/pink and distorted), if the user continues work in FCP X while background rendering is happening (rather than waiting for the render to complete). See the Read Me document for more details on recommended settings for background rendering: http://www.borisfxresources.com/borisfx/download_files/BCC8FxPlug64ReadME.pdf

• In FCP X, some of the plugins in the BCC 3D Objects category use a custom window for text entry (BCC Extruded Text, BCC Type On Text, etc.), and currently some changes that can be made through text window controls are not reflected in the preview within the text window (although they will be apparent in the effect when previewed in FCP X or Motion). The following text attributes do not preview within the text window:

     - Justification (when Word Wrap is not enabled)

     - Top Down Text

     - Right to Left Reading

     - Negative Line Leading

     - Italics (for fonts that don't include an italic typeface)

     - Superscript and Subscript

• In FCP X, the Motion Tracker does not currently have a Reset button. Making a minor tweak to the tracker starting coordinates before a subsequent retracking pass should ensure that frames are correctly retracked without need for a Reset button.

• BCC8 includes improvements to the Motion Tracker but when opening projects created with BCC7 in FCP 7 you will notice that the older Tracker UI is displayed instead of the newer Tracker UI. The tracker should still function normally for you although you may see tracker messages referring to parameters that are only available in the newer tracker UI. The newer tracker UI is available when applying new instances of effects (as opposed to effect instances that were present in previously saved BCC7 projects).

• When using the 3D Objects category of effects on Mac OS, enabling the "Transparent Object" checkbox will result in the object becoming fully transparent.

• Previewing/Rendering BCC Damaged TV in FCP 7, particularly on older graphics cards, can lead to low memory warnings. Increasing the memory available to the application may help work around this problem.

• In the new particle filters, particularly Particle Array 3D, particles with the same Z depth can sometimes exhibit clipping errors when Depth of Field is enabled.

• In BCC Particle Emitter 3D, changing the Blend Mode in the Spawn group can unexpectedly affect the main particle compositing.

• As part of the new Motion Tracker workflow, if you change the tracker search width, target width, color space, or accuracy after an initial tracking pass, you must now reset the tracker data with the reset button in the tracker banner before starting a second tracker pass. (This is not necessary if only change was to the tracker point picker location.)

• In Type on Text the Line Leading in the text entry preview window does not accurately match up with the leading in the rendered result and the leading may need to be adjusted to generate the desired final render.

• Due to fixes in random number generators, you may see differences between random patterns in saved BCC7 projects when opened in BCC8. The overall “look” will remain the same but the details of the patterns may be differently randomized.

• In Particle Emitter 3D, Organic Strands, Particle Array 3D, and Pin Art 3D when using the pre-installed Image Collection files to define the particle shape, particles with soft alpha boundaries will render with unexpectedly hard edges if you select 10-bit high precision rendering and Apple Pro Res codecs. As a temporarily workaround you can use a well layer to define the particle shape which renders the alpha channels with proper softness.

• You may notice a slight discontinuity in the Stage Light gradient when applied in SD resolutions. This issue is minimized in HD projects.

• Lens Flare 3D generates unexpected darkening in the alpha channel when applied to images with transparent regions. As a temporary workaround apply Lens Flare 3D directly to opaque clips which produces a correct final composite.

• The Beat Reactor audio graph becomes less accurate as the Frequency Resolution is increased to high values. As a temporary workaround use low values near the default setting of 32.

• The Beat Reactor propagation options generate unexpected results in Organic Strands. Use non-propagation modes which work as expected as a temporary workaround.

• Glyph fonts such as IMG Extreme or HolidayPi BT will sometimes render incorrectly or cause unexpected behavior in Extruded Text or Type On Text.

• Gaps in text characters in Extruded Text and Type on Text will sometimes jump between filled and unfilled states while animating with changing geometry such as text on a path or jittering text. Increasing the Polygon Count or adjusting the font or font size my provide a temporary workaround.

Registration and Technical Support:

Make sure to register your product in order to receive the latest technical and upgrade information. Registered users are often eligible to download free BCC filters from the Boris FX website. Any free filters will be available on the Downloads page at http://www.borisfx.com.

You can register online at http://borisfx.com/support/register.html. We offer registered users one year of free technical support starting from the date of purchase.

Contacting Technical Support:

For technical support, contact Boris Continuum Complete AE technical support specialists:

web: http://www.borisfx.com/support/

e-mail: support@borisfx.com

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