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Boris FX, Inc. Blue

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The Stats

Compatibility

Developer: Boris FX, Inc
Version: 2.5.1
Platforms: Windows XP and Windows Vista, Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon or higher
Host Applications: Avid Media Composer 2.7 or later, Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 or later, Avid Newscutter 6.7 or later. The BLUE 2.5 product includes plug-ins supported for running on the following Adobe product versions: Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 (Premiere Pro 3.1), Adobe After Effects CS3 (AE 8)

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Purchase Information

Boris FX, Inc. Blue
Boris Box Set Windows - Includes RED, Blue, BCC AE, BCC AVX, Final Effects Complete, Final Effects Complete AVX and Title Toolkit

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Description

Perfect for post facilities with client-supervised sessions or demanding deadlines, Blue uses the latest generation NVIDIA and ATI GPU-based graphics cards to provide an interactive effects design experience. Blue delivers real-time processing of 2D and 3D effects as well as real-time playback of video and audio media. Users can adjust effect parameters during playback, a "front room" capability that is ideal for working side by side with clients. The fast export to disk, including hardware rendered anti-aliasing, motion blur, and 3D shadows, provide significant time savings.

realtime filters Boris Blue offers plugin integration within Windows based Avid editors, Adobe Premiere and After Effects CS3, and it can be used as a standalone 3D compositor for Windows XP. Based on the familiar Boris interface, Blue is designed for video editors and compositors who want to create stunning 3D looks without the complex learning curves and render times associated with 3D applications.

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Boris Blue Key Features

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Particles

Use any 3D object as a particle, including extruded shapes and imported 3D Models. Multiple attractors and repellers provide dynamic particle interaction. Sprite-based particles simulate Fire, Smoke and Sparks.

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Enhanced Extrusions

Create custom bevels by defining a curve with spline drawing tools. Extrude text, spline primitives, free hand spline drawings and imported EPS files.

Import 3D models in the .3ds and .obj formats, preserving individual geometry groups.

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Deformers, Image Processors and Generators

Vertex Deformers provide true 3D warping of 3D objects. Blue's Deformers, Image Processors and Generators are fully hardware accelerated for blazing speed.

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Materials including Bump Maps and Reflections

Materials include per pixel lighting controls and texture, bump and reflection mapping. They are also are fully hardware accelerated for blazing speed.

===Sophisticated Animation Made Fast and Easy]]] Blue includes some new tools such as Type On Containers and the Motion Path filter for more convenient creation of complex 3d animations. Combined with full hardware acceleration these high quality effects can be designed and exported with amazing speed.

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Customer Stories

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Why Boris Blue?

"I'm a Boris user who has a Windows machine with a good NVIDIA graphics card, and I now hear that Boris Blue 2 can be used as a plug-in for Avid. You say Boris Blue does 3D, right? Well, what if I already have Boris Graffiti, Boris FX, Boris Red, or Avid FX? I know some of those products already offer 3D text and some offer 3D shapes. Why would I want Boris Blue if I already have something like the latest version of Red or Avid FX?"

Compared to Boris Red or Avid FX, Blue gives you...

Much more speed for both previewing effects and rendering effects. Blue uses NVIDIA graphics cards for accelerated GPU rendering and preview.

Much more sophisticated 3D looks because it has more advanced 3D lighting, more advanced Materials for 3D surfaces, true 3D shape deformers for all shapes, and custom bevels and extrusion faces for extruded objects.

Fast, powerful 3D Particle Emitters for realistic simulation of smoke, fire, and sparks or creation of animated backgrounds and other graphic elements.

The ability to import 3D model files such as .3ds (3ds Max) and .obj (Maya) geometry files, preserving individual geometry groups and maintaining editable texture and bump maps. This gives you access to an infinite number of new 3D shapes for your Boris Blue 3D effects.

Advanced 3D Camera features including the ability to animate a camera along a user defined bezier path. Have a camera stay focused on a specific 3D point or track another 3D object as its target while moving through 3D space.

Better interface tools for composing 3D effects The Blue Composite Window offers split views for simultaneously viewing and adjusting your 3D scene from multiple perspectives. Blue also gives you improved 3D interactors for better manipulating objects in 3D space.

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System Requirements

BLUE 2.5 requires Microsoft WINDOWS XP SP 2 running on an Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon or higher processor, with Apple Quicktime version 6.5 or higher installed. Quicktime software is not included with the Blue installer. If necesssary, Quicktime can be downloaded for free at [url=www.apple.com/quicktime/]apple.com[/url]

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Graphics Boards and Drivers

BLUE 2.5 requires one of the following NVIDIA or ATI based graphics boards:

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500, 3450, 3500, 3700, 4500, 5500, 4600, 5600
NVIDIA GeForce 6800, 7800, 7900, 7950, 8600, 8800
ATI FireGL V3300 and up, V5200 and up, V7200 and up, V8600 and up
ATI Radeon x1900, x1950

When using an NVIDIA graphics board, BLUE 2.5 requires one of the following NVIDIA graphics drivers:

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Quadro FX board drivers

NVIDIA driver version 91.85
[1]NVIDIA driver version 169.61]

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GeForce board drivers

[2]NVIDIA driver version 169.21]

When using an ATI graphics board, BLUE 2.5 requires one of the following ATI graphics drivers:

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FireGL board drivers

Catalyst version 8.44

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Radeon board drivers

Catalyst version 8.2

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Avid Support

The BLUE 2.5 AVX plugin is supported for running on the following Avid release versions:

Avid Media Composer 2.7 or later
Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 or later
Avid Newscutter 6.7 or later

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Adobe Support

The BLUE 2.5 product includes plugins supported for running on the following Adobe product versions:

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 (Premiere Pro 3.1)
Adobe After Effects CS3 (AE 8)

NOTE: like the Blue 2.5 standalone application, the Blue plugins are also subject to the Windows XP, Quicktime, and Graphics board/driver requirements listed previously

NOTE: The current version of the Blue 2.5 Avid AVX plugin does not support Avid Symphony Nitris at this time. Check back for updates on any changes to Blue requirements (including status Symphony Nitris support)

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DualView display mode on a dual monitor NVIDIA based configuration

To run using the DualView display mode on a dual monitor configuration, BLUE 2.5 (standalone or plugin) requires the following NVIDIA driver Performance and Quality settings:

nView Display set to DualView
Hardware Acceleration set to Single Display mode
Unified Back Buffer turned OFF (Quadro only setting, not relevant to GeForce boards)

NOTE: using DualView with Hardware Acceleration set to Single Mode allows the system to treat the 2 monitors as individual monitors while focusing the OGL Hardware Acceleration to the primary monitor. It is necessary to work with your video display windows on the primary monitor for them to update during playback using these NVIDIA settings.

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Monitor configuration limitation for working in 1080i HD size on NVIDIA based system

In the current Blue 2.5 release it is necessary to set nView Display to Horizontal Span in the NVIDIA Control Panel or run the system in a single monitor configuration for working with 1080i HD size projects (1920 x1080 pixels) – meaning the NVIDIA card must be set to treat the 2 monitors as a single wide monitor or it must be driving only one monitor rather than two to successfully render Blue 2 effects at that resolution. Blue 1080i effect output (plugin or standalone) will be cropped when running 2 monitors in DualView configuration.

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