FXHOME has announced HitFilm 3 Pro, now available for pre-order for release in late November 2014 for just $299. Hitfilm, available for Mac and Windows, supports modern filmmaking workflows that require you to be an editor, VFX artist, and colorist at the same time.
Using contextual workspaces, HitFilm combines editing tools, 3D compositing, 3D object rendering, a powerful particle simulator, and advanced color correction and grading in a single product. HitFilm 3 Pro also includes 130 plug-ins for use in Sony Vegas, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X and Motion. And great news for some: if you already own HitFilm Plug-ins, you’ll get HitFilm 3 Pro for free.
New in HitFilm 3 Pro is a redesigned editor and interface, 3D textures for particles, auto-tracking masks, OpenFX support, 3D fractal particle shapes, 3D camera projection (video below), and denoising. Over 20 new effects include 3D wireframe, heat distortion, auto volumetrics, lens blur, skin retouch, grade transfer, curves, and more. Background proxy rendering for complex VFX and a 16-bit OpenEXR pipeline also help to make HitFilm 3 Pro an attractive option for fast, high quality post-production.
The redesigned editing module gives users access to tools to slip, slice, ripple and roll edit, meter audio, and keyframe, and there’s a new trimmer for finer control. HitFilm 3 Pro includes Academy Award-winning planar tracking with Mocha Hitfilm, providing mask tracking (video below) and 3D camera solving. Sony Vegas users can render HitFilm projects directly on the Vegas timeline. Also, 64-bit architecture and GPU acceleration ensures good performance across a wide range of hardware.
Videos, images, 3D models and particles can all be combined in a unified, 3D compositing environment. HitFilm 3 Pro particles are fully customizable in true 3D, enabling effects from fleets of spaceships or swarms of creatures through to swirling snow, driving rain, or thick dust and debris from an explosion. HitFilm 3 Pro has a new version of atomic particles which can be applied directly to 3D objects, creating an array of particles arranged according to the model’s 3D geometry. They’ve improved the overall visual fidelity of 3D objects, and ambient occlusion now uses 32-bit rendering so you can go up to 32x MSAA if your hardware can handle it.
The dark UI appearance and blue highlights are a carry-over from previous versions! And at $299 for a perpetual license, it’s cheaper than the Apple FCP-Motion combo––and more advanced.
HitFilm 3 Pro is OpenFX compliant, opening the door to a larger world of 3rd-party plug-ins. GenArts Sapphire plug-ins now brings the same tools that were used on Iron Man, X-Men, and Lord of the Rings to HitFilm. If you pre-order HitFilm 3 Pro you’ll even be entered into a prize draw to win Sapphire 8, which retails for $1,699.
FXHOME is also working with developers including Red Giant, RE:Vision Effects, NewBlueFX, and the makers of Primatte to expand choices for plug-ins, and will have news on that soon.