eyeon Software Inc. announced that the highly- anticipated Fusion™ 6.0 node-based compositing application is now available as an Open Release Candidate. The award-winning compositing application has been a mainstay of the visual effects industry for over 20 years. Optimized for the latest processing and graphics card technologies, Fusion 6 offers significantly improved performance, along with a host of new features and capabilities, including full support for stereoscopic content, Region Of Interest/Domain of Definition (RoI/DoD), interface refinements, expanded 2D and 3D toolsets, and more.

Significant portions of the code for Fusion 6 have been re-written for the new generation of multi-core processors. A new GPU core for accelerated performance and GPU-based production quality floating-point rendering has been added.

“The new GPU renderer in Fusion 6 is all about power,” said Eric Westphal, Product Manager Europe for eyeon Software. “Processing-intensive tasks such as depth-of-field and motion blurring are a breeze on the new graphic cards. This breaks rendering times down tremendously, giving artists a new level of creative freedom.”

The application also features a new colour matrix tool, expanded spline-smoothing tools, and enhanced spline controls. Building on underlying GPU-optimization, Fusion 6 offers support for concatenated 3D LUTs and an all-new material system, which allows users to build their own custom shaders.

“Not only do we get new tools like ColorMatrix and CG shaders, we get dramatic changes to the underlying workflow that will save us thousands of clicks and hundreds of hours of rendering,” said Chad Capeland, Director of R&D at Anatomical Travelogue. “The unification of 2D and 3D views with a common UI and ViewShaders is impressive. It’s really exciting to see so much changing in the application. It even launches faster!”

Stereo Imaging and Expanded 3D Tools

Fusion has been used on stereo productions for years already. Fusion 6 builds on the 3D capabilities of version 5 with stereoscopic imaging tools, including camera controls for eye separation, convergence, and support for stereo display technologies, such as IZ3D and True3Di monitors, shutter glasses, and anaglyph production.

The 3D environment tools now include the ability to map reflections and refractions using 3D cube and sphere mapping. Alongside the advanced 3D particle system from version 5, the new version adds controllable 3D object fog.

Region of Interest

2D enhancements in version 6 include a Region Of Interest/Domain of Definition (RoI/DoD) system, allowing the artist to define which parts of the images to render. In addition to improving performance and memory usage, this introduces an infinite workspace into Fusion.

64-bit RED Support

Fusion 6 also offers RED file format support, including both 32-bit and 64-bit, and real-time .r3d proxy loading.

Workflow Efficiency

Fusion 6 allows supervisors to move easily from pre-vis to finals within the same application. Import and export of scenes and animation offers Fusion artists streamlined interoperability with their 3D animation colleagues, allowing for more collaborative, bi-directional workflows and improved efficiency for facilities. The ability to import 3D meshes from other applications, first introduced in Fusion 5, has been extended in version 6 with a new FBX exporter. This allows animation and compositing teams to share work back-and-forth between 3D applications and Fusion.

UI Refinements in Fusion 6

Already widely regarded for offering a highly-efficient work environment, Fusion 6 adds several UI enhancements, including a more powerful File Browser with image previews and metadata display, along with gamma control for non-linear images. Toolbars can be customized to include user-defined tools, scripts, macros and settings. New 3D navigation tools include depth-cued 3D controls, allowing artists to zoom to selected objects.

A Complete Compositing System for Film and Broadcast

Fusion 6 is resolution-independent and offers extensive support for film, HD, and video standards, making it suitable for a full range of finishing work. With extensive 3D text capabilities, coupled with a non-destructive paint system, Fusion 6 is also ideal for commercial and broadcast compositing. The image viewer has built-in histograms and superb colour correction tools, including colour matching from reference plates and multi-point tracking and stabilizing.

“The new generation 3D system in Fusion 6 leverages GPU and shader pipelines, offering production-quality HDRI images with full deep-pixel output,” said
Joanne Dicaire, Director of Sales and Marketing at eyeon. “Additional 3D finishing tools provide compositors with more control of the assets required to build each shot. Fusion 6 expands the 3D working environment to embrace 3D, live action and classical compositing, all within one comprehensive package.”

For more information on Fusion 6
, contact eyeon Software at +1 (416) 686-8411 ext. 130, email [email protected], or visit www.eyeonline.com.