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Blackmagic Design Fusion has long been known as an incredibly powerful node-based 3D compositing and VFX environment, responsible for some of the most indelible cinematic imagery of our time. Tokyo Productions Creative Director Simon Ubsdell has been a Fusion fan and user for years, and here provides a dramatic introduction to Fusion's interface and toolset, as well as a closer look at the motion graphics prowess in Fusion that you may not have been expecting!
Blackmagic Design Fusion has long been known as an incredibly powerful node-based compositing and VFX environment, responsible for some of the most indelible cinematic imagery of our time. Tokyo Productions Creative Director Simon Ubsdell has been a Fusion fan and user for years, and here provides a dramatic introduction to Fusion's interface and toolset, as well as a closer look at the motion graphics prowess in Fusion that you may not have been expecting!
When we asked Simon to tell us more about how this particular tutorial came to be, here's what he told us.
I started using Eyeon Digital Fusion, as it used to be called, back in the last century when it was still very new, and doing visual effects on the desktop was still something of a novelty. Shake and After Effects were both still in their infancy, and Nuke was still a long way off. Even then, Fusion was a very serious contender with a toolset and and image pipeline that meant it could compete at the highest level.
I stopped using Fusion for a few years because most of my work was on the Mac, and Shake and then Nuke did everything I needed. In that time, though, Fusion continued to develop impressively to keep pace with the fast-moving changes in the visual effects world. Blackmagic’s acquisition of Fusion and subsequent release of an entry level free version on the PC and now on the Mac (in Beta at this point) is a complete game-changer, which means that Fusions’s premium quality feature set is now available to a much wider user-base.
Having a mature user community means there are a great many outstanding tutorials and support resources for Fusion available at this time (Eric Westphal’s tutorials for Eyeon deserve a special mention for their outstanding quality), but by and large the tutorials are created by experienced visual effects professionals and addressed at the needs and skill levels of other visual effects professionals.
As a user returning to Fusion, there was a lot that was new to me, especially in terms of Fusion’s 3D capabilities (and of course stereoscopic features), so I wanted to try and share my own journey of rediscovery in such a way that it would help users who are completely new to Fusion.
I’ve tried to explain not just the use of the toolset but also give some background on some of the concepts that may be new to users not versed in the world of visual effects. A lot of new users have opened up Fusion and been intimidated by what looks like a complex and alien interface and toolset, and many are very confused as to what it actually does and is capable of doing, so I wanted to show that it’s really not that difficult to get started and benefit immediately from some of the amazing power that Fusion offers, not just for visual effects but also for motion graphics.
Before you begin, you can download the textures that Simon uses in these tutorials here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Simon Ubsdell
Hi, I'm Simon Ubsdell, Creative Director of TOKYO PRODUCTIONS, a UK-based boutique creative shop specializing in movie trailers, sales promos and TV Spots for the independent film sector both in the UK and across Europe.
I've been a film and video editor for over 25 years as well as being involved in motion graphics, sound design and mixing, music composition, visual effects and compositing, 3D modelling and animation, and colour grading, not to mention writing, directing and producing.
I am also a developer of plug-ins for the video post-production market having released a range of successful and acclaimed products both under the Tokyo brand and as Hawaiki with Robert Mackintosh.
Sorry about that, Bob. I was tidying up my YT channel this morning and obviously got carried away and accidentally made these Private. They are now Public again and you should be able to access them as before.
Re: Blackmagic Design Fusion 8 Intro Tutorial: Fusion Reactor by Brian Scott127871312
Thanks for the tutorial - as I worked through it I noticed that the vertical edge of the cylinder is a very hard edge. It is not as noticeable in your version as mine. I could not see a way to blur the cylinder since it is a 3d object. Is there a way to soften both the top edge and the side of the cylinder? 9722_reactor240.jpg.zip
Brian Scott
President
Image Design Productions, Inc.
The default cylindrical mapping is always going to give hard edges to the sides so I think I'd try using a UV map tool set to camera mapping so I could control the transparency that way, but there are probably other several other ways of doing it. Please feel free to email me if you'd like more details: support@tokyo-uk.com
Re: Blackmagic Design Fusion 8 Intro Tutorial: Fusion Reactor by Andrew Holmes131569022
Great tutorials, I've just downloaded and opened Fusion for the first time, and worked through both your videos. The concepts you've outlined are great basic steps and I can appreciate the effort you've gone to.
I had skipped ahead between the tutorials and started playing with the 3d text. Is there really no way to have a proper material surface on it? Seems a big omission.
Yes, that's my hope too - although I do worry about bloat that could potentially ensure from packing too many separate apps into one. Nuke Studio certainly handles that very well - it will be interesting to see if BM can successfully "fuse" all the components and still have decent RT playback and UI feedback.
Re: Blackmagic Design Fusion 8 Intro Tutorial: Fusion Reactor by Simon Ubsdell132644977
Thank you very much, Walter.
This is all pretty basic stuff obviously, but hopefully it will help users who are new to Fusion and node-based compositing (and even basic 3D) feel a little bit more comfortable about diving in.
I'm really enjoying getting back into Fusion and am fascinated to see where BM are going to take it. I'm very much hoping that they are looking at something like Nuke Studio, which I think has to part of the plan?
Nuke is still way out ahead of Fusion in most areas, but with BM you really never know what surprises are around the corner.
Join longtime VFX artist, editor, software developer, and business owner Simon Ubsdell for a look at the useful things you can do in Blackmagic Design Fusion with world coordinates data using the Volume Mask tool. It offers very handy way of applying 2D processing to 3D scenes generated either within Fusion or rendered from your favourite 3D application.
Blackmagic Fusion offers a variety of powerful retouching tools (as does DaVinci Resolve of course), so why would you want to build your own? As longtime VFX artist, editor, software developer, and business owner Simon Ubsdell explains, once you understand the underlying principles of the tools, you can use them better! In this tutorial, he shows how building a custom 3D keyer and a custom Linear Light Blend Mode allows a Low Frequency pass to smooth imperfections in the footage, and a High Frequency Pass to restore detail, allowing exceptional control, and producing outstanding results.
Meet The Custom Tool, the most powerful and versatile tool in Blackmagic Fusion's entire toolbox ??" which ironically appears to do nothing when you first apply it. That’s because it’s a tool designed for building your own tools from scratch. That may sound daunting, but under the guiding hand of longtime VFX artist, editor, and business owner Simon Ubsdell, it’s engaging, empowering, and just plain fun. If you are new to Fusion and to compositing you'll find plenty of useful information here, including how to work with channels to create complex effects surprisingly simply. Bonus tips on expressions and keying, too!
Editor, VFX artist, post-house owner, and plug-in developer Simon Ubsdell draws on over 25 years of experience to dig deep into the compelling features found in the new Planar Tracker found in Blackmagic Fusion. Along the way, Simon offers a wide range of tips and tricks, as well as new perspectives on the relationship between tracking and compositing: in short, tracking done right.
In this two-part guide to some of Blackmagic Design Fusion's most powerful compositing and effects features, visual effects veteran Simon Ubsdell offers an easy-to-follow introduction to using basic expressions and creating macros in Fusion -- with some very useful tips for After Effects users along the way. In Part 1, you'll create a chromatic aberration effect with these techniques, and in Part 2, you'll work with bounce/spring, orbit and "look at" expressions. No matter what your level of experience (or inexperience!) with After Effects or Fusion, you're in for quite a ride!
Following his well-received exploration of the power of customized keying inside Blackmagic Design Fusion, Simon Ubsdell goes even further into his look at the liberation from the inevitable limitations of other people's keyers by building your own inside Fusion. Along the way, you'll learn about Channel Booleans and many other insights that you'll be able to use in all of your Fusion projects.
In his latest tutorial for Blackmagic Design Fusion, Simon Ubsdell points out that you can of course simply use Fusion's built-in keyer, and quickly get a good result, but here he shows how combining visual effects nodes to build your own keyer helps you understand the processes to refine trouble keys. Even if you'd prefer not to build your own, you will gain practical insights into channel operations and other techniques to help you unlock Fusion's unique visual effects power.
Join filmmaker and After Effects artist Cody Pyper for a closer look at DaVinci Resolve's Optical Flow to create exceptionally smooth slow motion, even on footage shot at normal frame rates. Cody covers the basics of how to use the effect, and shows some practical applications of Optical Flow for a variety of editorial troubleshooting.
Join filmmaker and After Effects artist Cody Pyper for a deep dive into how to get the absolute best results using the Content-Aware Fill tool in After Effects. Locked-down shots with simple backgrounds are one thing, but Cody shows the details of how to get fantastic results with complicated backgrounds and a moving camera using reference frames.
Tapping into one of the year's hottest design trends, as well as Apple Motion 5's most sophisticated creative tools, longtime VFX artist, editor, software developer, and business owner Simon Ubsdell has done it again: putting together a tutorial that's fast, fun, eye-opening, and immediately practical. Taking advantage of Motion's Clouds generators to create both foreground elements and masks, and the quick combination of three filters from the Stylize category, you're going to be amazed by speed and elegance of this effect when applied to a title graphic: fresh, clean, and ready for easy customizing.
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