Boris White Papers

• Competitive Statement: Boris Continuum Complete vs. GenArts Sapphire

  Boris Continuum Complete is a collection of over 200 VFX filters for video editing and compositing software applications, with full support for Adobe, Avid, Apple, and Sony platforms. Pricing starts at $995 for a floating license.

  GenArts Sapphire is a set of over 240 VFX filters for Adobe, Avid, Apple, and Sony host applications. Pricing starts at $1,699 or $2,499 for a floating license.

  While there is crossover between Boris Continuum Complete and Sapphire, a substantial subset of BCC filters is unavailable within Sapphire...

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• Competitive Statement: Boris Continuum Complete vs. Red Giant Products

  Boris Continuum Complete is a collection of over 200 VFX filters for video editing and compositing software applications, with full support for Adobe, Avid, Apple, and Sony platforms. The MSRP starts at $995.

  Red Giant Software offers four separate VFX filter suites - Magic Bullet Suite, Trapcode Suite, Keying Suite, and Effects Suite - with MSRPs ranging from $799 to $899 per suite for a combined price of around $3,400. A discounted bundle containing all four suites is not currently offered. All Red Giant filters support Adobe After Effects; support for other video editing software applications varies.

  While there is crossover between the filters offered by BCC and Red Giant Software, a Red Giant customer must rely on third-party tools to obtain essential BCC functionality such as extrusions, glows, and motion tracking...

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• Competitive Analysis: Boris Continuum Complete vs. GenArts Sapphire

  Since its inception, Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) was designed to complement NLE systems such as Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Premiere Pro by bringing high-quality compositing and effects creation to the editor's timeline. Along with eye-candy and organic looks, BCC packs core technologies such as Optical Flow, Motion Tracking, 3D Extrusion, and OpenGL.

  Compositing applications such as Adobe After Effects benefit from BCC’s 3D Extrusion features, integration with After Effects’ Camera and Lighting, and import of AE masks for use with extruded shapes and bevel profiles. In addition, BCC’s built-in Beat Reactor technology, which is available in most BCC filters running in the After Effects host environment, is another a major feature that is unavailable in any Sapphire filter effect.

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• Transferring Avid or Final Cut Pro Program Sequences to After Effects

  Editors using Apple Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer frequently turn to Adobe After Effects for a wide range of tasks, including basic format conversion, advanced compositing, and even complete desktop finishing. After Effects features a robust plug-in architecture with a wide range of native and third-party filter options. As a resolution-independent application, it is also particularly conducive to working with larger-than-HD sized camera files, such as RED Digital Cinema's RECODE raw (.r3d) format. For these and other reasons, editors often perform basic editing in FCP or Media Composer, but reserve After Effects for the finishing touches, such as keying, visual effects, and color correction with custom looks...

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• Moving Projects or Sequences between Avid and FCP

  Oliver Peters, an award-winning editor and frequent contributor to numerous industry trade publications, recently authored a white paper regarding moving projects or sequences between different nonlinear edit applications. The white paper discusses Boris Transfer FCP, a set of import and export plug-ins for Apple Final Cut Pro, which enables timeline interchange between Final Cut Pro and Avid editing and finishing systems. Oliver noted Boris Transfer FCP's ability to transfer a wide range of timeline effects, including Boris Continuum Complete filters, which are correctly translated between Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer / NewsCutter / Symphony / DS. He also noted Boris Transfer FCP's ability to move sequences between systems, regardless of whether the media was originally acquired from videotape or tapeless cameras.

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• OpenGL Accelerated Effects and Graphics in Boris FX Products

  Graphics display hardware is widely recognized for visual effects creation. Despite many limitations and technical challenges confronting developers, the raw image processing power of modern GPU engines is unmatched by any multiprocessing, general-purpose computer system.

  The engineering crew at Boris FX was one of the first in the video industry to recognize the power of modern GPU engines and harness it to create the most stunning visual effects for post-production professionals.

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• Real-Time Chroma Keying on the GPU

  A method is presented to efficiently compute a Chroma Key effect utilizing the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) available in most modern computers. At the time of this writing, the method is implemented in the BCC Chromakey Studio plug-in for Apple Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, and Motion under Apple's FxPlug plug-in format. The process consists of four separate image-processing algorithms, a chroma key matte computation, a spill suppressor, a matte choker, and a light wrap filter. Rather than executing the four filters sequentially, as would be appropriate on the CPU, the method reorganizes the flow of execution to maximize parallel processing and memory throughput, thereby taking full advantage of the parallel nature of GPU hardware. The method optimizes GPU throughput by performing image-processing tasks in parallel and minimizing texture lookup and global memory access.

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