Blackmagic Design had a lot of exciting announcements at NAB, making it easy to miss the significant updates to its standalone VFX product, Fusion Studio.
To be clear, despite the many new features in Fusion 16 Studio, a lot will feel familiar, especially to Resolve users. Essentially, Fusion 16 incorporates all the improvements made to the Fusion version within Resolve and introduces them to the standalone version for the first time, hence the jump from v9 to v16 to align with the primary product.
The differences between the two versions frequently spark debates, especially given the price difference between Resolve (free) and Fusion Studio. The two are quite impressively comparable, but the standalone version provides professional functionality like the Primatte 5 keyer, network rendering, and VFX editing functions needed for large-scale VFX projects.
The standalone version now boasts an updated user interface and significantly improved performance, according to Blackmagic. All 3D operations are GPU accelerated, and there are numerous other GPU-accelerated tools, including time effects, dissolves, stereo 3D tools, vector motion blur, corner positioning, and color tools.
B-spline and bitmap mask operations have also been revamped, along with the planar and camera trackers. Improved memory management enhances the reliability of large compositions with numerous tools, making Fusion 16 faster and more stable.
Perhaps the best news for VFX houses invested in Fusion as a standalone product is that it will continue to be supported. Following the v9 release in 2017, the absence of a new standalone version last year raised concerns that Blackmagic was phasing it out in favor of the Resolve version. However, the company now confirms that the two share a video base, and future updates to DaVinci Resolve Studio will also include updates to Fusion Studio.
The Fusion 16 Studio public beta is now available for download.
