An Avid DS for free: Fusion Connect turns your Avid into a finishing powerhouse.

Blackmagic just announced a free live link from Avid Media Composer to Fusion free or Fusion Studio, their high-end compositing platform. What does that mean to you? Read on…

Avid DS was a finishing system complete with node-based compositing that was unceremoniously dumped around 2013. No one can blame Avid for discontinuing it–finishing is a tough market in this world where a once million dollar Flame can now be rented for $750 a month.

But it left a gaping hole for artists who love the Avid environment but want to do more effects work that Avid Symphony permits. That’s where Fusion Connect comes in. Like the integration introduced at NAB this year between Resolve and Fusion, it allows an Avid editor to send a portion of their timeline to Fusion, perform some effects voodoo magic, and have the resulting render automatically update in the Media Composer timeline. It includes versioning, so an editor can compare different versions of the effects work instantly in the timeline.

Node-based compositing can be intimidating to newcomers. The good news is that Fusion includes a lot more user-friendly effects than, say, its primary competitor The Foundry’s Nuke. Where Nuke requires a competent knowledge of compositing math to get going, Fusion’s “über nodes” allow you to do more without having to dig too deep (compare Fusion’s basic Color Correct node to Nuke’s Grade node to see what I mean).

Fusion is available for both Windows and Mac, with Linux following soon.

If you’re Avid editor interested in this development, you may want to check out the guide to nodes and Intro to Fusion at our sister site, moviola.com.

Here’s a link to the official press release.