I wanted to share with readers that Blackmagic Design has recently done two updates that may be of interest to video editors, colourists and video special effects afficiandos.

BMD announced Fusion 9.0 yesterday.  The standard version of Fusion 9.0 is completely free and is full featured.  The Studio version retails for a new low price of $299USD.  For those unfamiliar with Fusion, it is analogous to Apple Motion or Adobe After Effects.  The Studio version is designed for multiple users working together on a project, the standard version is single user on a project at a time.  If the full Adobe bundle is not sufficiently price friendly or generating enough of a return on investment, take a look at Fusion.  You will be surprised at how powerful it is and see why professional studios rely on it.

BMD also updated Resolve and Resolve Studio 14 betas to Version 6.  DaVinci Resolve has for years been the leading professional grade tool for colourists.  BMD dropped the price of Studio this year from the thousands to $299USD.  There is also a free version for single users and the functionality is the same excepting multi-user support and the inclusion of some effects in the package.  To use the Studio beta, you must have a license dongle from Studio 12 or earlier.

The beta of V14 of Resolve completes the transition from Resolve being a colourist tool to a complete and extremely robust non-linear editor.  BMD acquired Fairlight last year and a complete Fairlight audio toolset is built directly into Resolve.  No round-tripping to external applications.  The edit suite is robust and comparable to Premiere Pro or FCPX or AVID.  Multiple export templates are included, and the export engine is queue based so it can run in the background.

From the perspective of a colourist, DaVinci Resolve is the choice of professional colourists around the world.  It is so incredibly powerful.  BMD also make a series of colourist consoles to speed up the process for those who desire such kit.

BMD has never charged for version upgrades.  Support is quite good and is North America based.  You can actually get a real person on the phone!

If you do video editing, colourizing, audio in video or preparation of video for different playback mediums, you owe it to yourself to try DaVinci Resolve.  If you do any kind of animations for titles, graphics, interstitials, trailers, headers or loops, you owe it to yourself to give Fusion a try.  You cannot beat the price and you don't lose anything over more expensive options.