Blackmagic Design (www.blackmagicdesign.com) has announced that both Fusion 8 and Fusion 8 Studio, the world’s most advanced visual effects and motion graphics software, is now shipping and is available for download from the Blackmagic Design website for both Mac OS X and Windows.
 
The release of Fusion 8 is the first ever Mac compatible release of Fusion, which was previously a Windows only product. Fusion 8 Studio is now also available in 10, 20 or 50 multi user licenses. The multi user licenses feature a single USB dongle programmed with multiple licenses that plug into a machine running Fusion Server, which is installed by default with Fusion Studio.

Fusion Server manages the licenses across the Ethernet network. That means licenses can be floating and aren’t tied to any single machine, making it easy to administer in large facilities with lots of users. In addition, projects can be easily moved between Mac and Windows versions of Fusion so customers can work on the platform of their choice.
 
Fusion 8 features a revamped interface. As part of the port to Mac OS X, the underlying architecture in Fusion has been modernized. Now that the port to Mac OS X is complete, the Fusion engineering team will work with the visual effects community to add even more powerful new features and continue modernizing the software’s workflow and user interface, according t the folks at Blackmagic Design.
 
Fusion 8 is available in two versions. Fusion 8 for Mac and Windows is free for customers and is now available to download from the Blackmagic Design website. It’s suitable for independent effects, motion graphics, and broadcast design artists. Fusion 8 features integrated 2D and 3D compositing and motion graphics software with a toolset featuring paint, rotoscope, titling, animation, multiple keyers, an amazing 3D particle system, advanced keyframing, GPU acceleration, and support for importing and rendering 3D models and scenes from other applications.

Fusion 8 Studio for Mac and Windows is available with pricing starting at $995. It has all of the same features as the free version, but also adds advanced optical flow image analysis tools for stereoscopic 3D work, retiming and stabilization. Fusion Studio also includes support for third-party OpenFX plugins, unlimited distributed network rendering, and Generation for studio wide multi user collaboration to track, manage, review and approve shots when working with large creative teams on complex projects.