Results tagged “avid fx” from Final Cut Studio, Avid, Adobe, and Video Streaming

Adding video inside a title or graphic is a very simple task if you are using Boris FX. 

For those of you who are Media Composer Users, "When I talk about Avid FX, think Boris FX red.'  Same exact thing.  For Final Cut Studio user's you'll have to purchase Boris Red software seperately.

Even though this Giant Crawling Title effect  can be created outside of Boris FX, you may find it easier to use because it's resolution independent. This means you can create titles that exceed the resolution of your sequence.  Another great thing about Boris FX (Avid FX) is that you can use the Boris FX engine.  You don't necessarily have to use it as a plug-in.

Read on to see how to add video to an Boris FX title.....

All retail versions of Avid Media Composer ship with a program called Avid FX.  When you see Avid FX think Boris FX, that’s because it’s the same exact program.

I’ll warn you, if you plan on regularly using the Avid FX plugin, you’ll want to make sure that you have a beefy machine with plenty of RAM.  Avid FX is much more than a software plugin, it’s an entire compositing program.  When it comes to building complex effects Avid FX is extremely useful.

However, one issue you may run into is the amount of time it takes to create good looking composites.  Plus, the rendering time can be extremely long. The saving grace is that you can run Avid FX as a stand alone engine. 

This means you can build your entire animation on another computer.  I’ve found this process can actually save a lot of time, especially since you don’t need to tie up your Media Composer software while building your effects sequence.  Plus, the Avid FX engine will run much master outside of the Media Composer software.  Running the Avid FX as a plugin while Media Composer is running is a big drain on your system’s resources.

This Avid FX engine as shown above is the same exact interface as the Avid FX plugin.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to use Avid FX as a plugin.  For this example, we’ll build a six sided spinning cube using Avid FX. 

You can use the Avid FX plug-in to add creative effects to titles that you've created within the standard Avid title tool.

Avid FX is a special plug-in that is basically the same as a licensed version of Boris FX.  Avid FX can be launched as a stand-alone application, or it can be launched as a plug-in directly from the Avid software.

Avid FX ships with any Media Composer software license.

It's well worth mentioning that the latest version of Avid Technology's Media Composer software now supports real-time processing based on CPU and GPU resources.  This is a dramatic improvement over previous versions in terms of how the software processed effects.  This ehancement has been introduced in version 3.05.

GPU stands for 'Graphics Processing unit', and was introduced by the NVIDIA corporation. By assigning tasks to a GPU, the Media Composer software can now process more effects in real-time.

I ran a quick test using NVIDIA's Quadro 3500 Graphics card with 256 megs of ram. I was able to run 10 layers of real-time without a performance hit.  Of course, this card is classified under NVIDIA's High-End Products. 

The minimum graphics card to run Avid Media Composer 3.05 is the Quadro FX 560.  Bottom line, a faster graphics card with more video ram will give you an improvement in real-time processing.

For optimal performance, make sure you use the certified NVIDIA drivers for the Avid Media Composer software.

In case you missed it, Avid Xpress has been discontinued, and you can still upgrade to Media Composer from Avid Xpress. It is well worth the upgrade price.  There is a downloadable upgrade, and an upgrade that ships on a DVD.  It is best to order the upgrade that ships with a DVD because you'll also receive an additional suite of components. 

The additional suite of components includes:  Boris Continuum Complete, Sorenson Squeeze, Avid DVD, Avid FX, and Sonicfire Pro. Avid DVD is basically a bundled version of Roxio's DVDit 6 Pro., and Avid FX is equivalent to Boris FX Red 4.3.  No doubt about it, this is an incredible deal.

For those of you who have upgraded from Avid Xpress Pro to Media Composer, Avid Technology has an incredible deal where you can add Avid FX, Boris Continuum, Sorenson Squeeze, and Avid DVD at a nominal cost.

This special bundle is labeled as 'Avid 3rd Party Application Bundle' on Avid's storefront. It is available to any Media Composer 3.0 customer who purchased their software 'via download'.  It's an incredible value for only $195.00.

Avid FX is basically the equivalent of Boris FX, but it is licensed under Avid Technology's name.