v2023 Boris FX Silhouette – Perpetual License

Requirements:

• macOS: 10.15 or higher*
• Windows: Windows 10 or 11
• Linux: Linux distributions that conform to the CY2021 VFX Reference Platform Platform as specified at www.vfxplatform.com

*macOS 12.0 or higher for best performance when using machine learning nodes

Hardware:

Recommended Hardware:

• Processor: Intel or AMD processor
• Memory: 8GB of RAM or more
• Disk: High-speed disk array or SSD storage. 1GB of available disk space for caching and temporary files

Graphics Card:

• NVIDIA GTX 460 or better
• AMD Radeon 57xx series or better
• OpenGL 2.1 capable graphics card
• OpenCL 1.1 capable graphic card
• 4GB of graphics memory for film resolution

Licensing options:

• Nodelocked or floating license.
• Nodelock licenses require an internet connection once every 60 days

Architecture:

• Resolution independent
• Region of interest for enhanced performance
• OpenColorIO v2 color management
• GPU and OpenGL® accelerated
• Multi-processor support
• Mac M1 silicon support

Plugin Support:

• Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro
• Foundry Nuke
• Blackmagic Resolve and Fusion (support for MacOS & Windows only)
• Autodesk Flame

Note: The Silhouette plugin option includes the Mocha Pro node, but does not include Particle Illusion or Sapphire effects.

Silhouette 2023.5

Full release notes here

New Features

• Builder Improvements
  • Expressions in Effect Builder
  • Renaming S_Effect and S_Transition parameters
  • Ability to save favorite effects
  • Quick access menu
  • Autosave inside Effect Builder
• Widgets in Premiere
• Autosave inside Flare Designer
• New LensFlares
• New Builder Presets

Silhouette 2022

Full release notes here

• Packed with Effects: Now includes Sapphire, Particle Illusion, Beauty Studio, Magic Sharp, and more. Hundreds of nodes and thousands of presets!
• Mocha Pro & Tracking Improvements: Now includes the Mocha Pro node with a new surface tool, DOD, and more.
• InPaint & PowerMesh Warp: Powerful advanced compositing nodes.
• Faster speeds: Optimized M1 support & OCIO v2 color management.

Silhouette 2021

• New! Multi-host plugin now included — launch from AE, Nuke, and more.
• New! Lens Correction node
• New! Improved roto shape editing and keyframing tools
• New! Review & approval notes
• New! Improved user interface, movie file support with Gstreamer, and much more

Silhouette 2020.5.7 – 10/09/20

Features
User Interface > Font Size Preference
A User Interface > Font Size Preference was added to adjust the font. This aids in making the text more readable on high dpi monitors.
Note: Setting a larger font size could cause the text to be cut off in certain menus.

Changes
Grain Size Smaller Than .5
The Grain > Size went no lower than .5. The minimum size is now 0.1.

Paint Source Shortcut
The paint source shortcut used to select either Foreground or Output as the paint source has been changed to Alt-P.

Bug Fixes
Edge Snapping Shortcut
The Alt-S edge snapping keyboard shortcut did not work.

Hold Node Frame Value Not Preserved
The Hold node Frame value was not preserved after a project restart. It always reset to 0.

Mac OpenColorIO library
The version of the OpenColorIO library included in the Silhouette Mac app didn’t have the proper signature and could not be found on some systems.

Planar Tracker > Reference Frame
The Planar Tracker > Reference Frame was supposed to display the frame that you first started tracking on and then remain on that frame number. Instead, the frame number continuously changed until tracking completed.

Roto Delete Crash
Silhouette would crash after creating multiple layers and then pressing the Delete icon in the Object List.

Sapphire OFX Issues

• S_Brush, S_Crosshatch, S_RomanTile, S_StripSlide: Presets didn’t do anything in the Sapphire browser.
• S_Effect/S_Transition loaded the image with transparency in the Builder.
• S_Effect crashed after entering and exiting the Builder.

Timebar Frame Markers Didn’t Disappear After Delete
After deleting frames in the Auto Paint window, the frame markers did not automatically delete. You had to drag the Timebar to get them to disappear.

Tree Groups Did Not Minimize
Tree groups did not minimize.

Using DOD Or Crop On FG Before Composite Clipped FG
If a DOD or Crop node was adjusted smaller than the Session size and inserted on the FG input of a Composite node, the FG was cropped.

Known Issues
Trimmed Footage in Premiere Pro Loaded Entire Clip
If a clip was trimmed in Premiere Pro, the entire clip was loaded into the Silhouette Paint plug-in instead of the trimmed clip. This is a Premiere Pro limitation and the issue has been logged with Adobe.

Silhouette 2020.5.6

Updated 8/07/20

Features

Create Tracker > Center of View

Point Tracker > Create placed the tracker in the center of the screen. If you were zoomed in and panned off the center, you wouldn’t see the tracker that was created. Point Trackers are now always created in the center of the current view when using Point Tracker > Create.

Note: Alt-clicking still adds a tracker wherever you click.

Dragging Past Min/Max Parameter Values

When dragging on a value field with an edit range different than the display range, for example the OCIO Gain control and some Sapphire controls, the value can now be Alt-dragged all the way to the edit range limits.

Scripting

Python API To Add Dynamic Ports

Added scripting support for dynamic ports.

• node.addPort() – adds a new dynamic input port and returns it, otherwise None if the node does not support dynamic ports.
• node.removePort(port) – removes the port if it is dynamic.

Remove Single Point Shapes In Nuke Export

• When scripting a Nuke shape export, there is now a check for single point shapes.

Changes

Trees Window Interaction Rewrite

Trees window interactions were rewritten to solve various bugs.

Silhouette 2020.5

Updated: 4/15/2020

Features

Silhouette Paint Plug-in

Silhouette Paint is the industry’s first paint and tracking plug-in designed to bring best-of-breed, 32 bit, high dynamic range paint tools to editing and effects applications. Artists can now access Silhouette’s professional sequence-based paint tools inside their host of choice including Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, The Foundry’s NUKE, Blackmagic Fusion & Resolve, Autodesk Flame and more. Available on macOS, Windows, and Linux. A Silhouette standalone license can run either the standalone or plug-in.

Nodes

Cycle Active Node Menu Keyboard Shortcuts
Alt-]
Cycles to the next node in the Node pop-up menu.
Alt-[
Cycles to the previous node in the Node pop-up menu.

Math Composite Node Now Affects Alpha
The Math Composite node can now affect the Alpha channel. A Channels pop-up menu with RGB (the default), RGBA and Alpha are the available choices.

Node Favorites
Nodes can be tagged as a Favorite allowing them to be grouped separately in the Favorites tab of the Nodes window. You can tag a node as a Favorite by selecting the node (single click) and pressing the Favorite icon located at the top left of the Nodes window.

Time > Hold Node
The new Hold node repeats the specified frame for the duration of the session. Useful for freezing a single painted frame for a clean plate, among other things.

Paint

Auto Paint > Frame Range – New Options
Start>Current and Current>End options were added to the Auto Paint > Frame Range pop-up menu.

Paint Only Alpha
A new Paint Only Alpha parameter in the Paint > Node parameter selects either a hard or soft-edged alpha channel when using the Paint Only output. Previously, a hard-edged alpha was the one and only option.

Paint > Output Unpainted Frames Preference
An Output Unpainted Frames option was added to the Paint preferences. Normally, when using the Paint Only output, only painted frames are rendered. This preference renders the blank, unpainted frames as well, so there is a complete sequence.

Track

Exporting Mocha Tracked Layers as 4 Point Corner-Pin
You can now export a Mocha tracked layer as a 4 point corner-pin.

Point Tracker > Apply Behavior
Tracker > Apply is now enabled with only trackers selected and when clicked, a new layer is created and the tracking data is applied to that layer.
Note: If a layer is selected along with the trackers, the tracking data will be applied to the selected layer.

Trial Licensing
An unrestricted, 15-day trial license can now be obtained automatically.

Viewer

Onion Skin
A Viewer > Onion Skin mode was added to the Viewer. Onion Skin does a mix, as defined by the Mix value, between the current frame and either previous or later frames. This is useful for creating frame by frame, hand-painted animations.

Stereo Align > Mix Mode
A Viewer > Stereo Alignment Type > Mix preference option is now available for the Viewer > Stereo Align mode.

Architecture

Python 3
Silhouette 2020.5 now uses Python 3.

VFX Reference Platform 2020
Silhouette 2020.5 now adheres to the VFX Reference Platform 2020.

Changes

Paint
Auto Paint – Delete Key
The Delete key now deletes the selection in the Auto Paint window.

Blemish and Grain Brushes Now Randomize
The Blemish and Grain brushes now randomize from frame to frame.

Clone > Red Triangle/Exclamation Point
The red triangle/exclamation point icon in the Paint > Clone tabs was changed to a green dot.

User Interface

Actions > Copy > Selection Moved/Renamed
Actions > Copy > Selection was moved and renamed to Edit > Copy Selection.

Cursor Position Color Values
The cursor position color values when in the Paint node are now displayed in the Status Bar.

Hide Disconnected Inputs
Disconnected inputs are now hidden from the Paint and Roto View menus.

Zoom Default to Fit
The default zoom is set to Fit when activating a source or Session.

Bug Fixes

Alpha Only Render Issues
Alpha only renders from Silhouette either crashed when re-imported or couldn’t be displayed.

Freehand Tool In Tracked Layer – Spline In Wrong Place
The Freehand tool was not using the layer transform during shape creation. This could also affect Magnetic shapes in certain cases.

Layer Center Motion Vector Used Layer Center
In the Tracker, when viewing the motion vectors for a selected layer, the center of the layer rectangle was used instead of the layer’s position + anchor.

Lens Flare

Flare Editor Crash
Clicking in the Flare Editor Viewer, but not on a control point, caused a crash.

Occlusion Crash
When View > Occlusion was selected with no Occlusion input, Silhouette crashed.

License Window Loop After Deactivation
After deactivating, selecting Cancel cycled between the Silhouette license window and the Boris FX license tool. The only way to stop it was to activate or run in demo mode.

Mocha

Automatically Created Track Layers Not Really Selected
If you had a selected shape in the Mocha tracker and tracked, a new layer was created, the shape was placed in the layer and it was tracked. After tracking, the layer appeared to be selected, but the track controls were grayed out. To track again, you had to click on the selected layer to really select it and you could then track again.

Mocha Tracker With GPU Enabled In Hi-Res Sessions
The integrated Mocha tracker drifted with the Tracker > Mocha > Use GPU If Available preference enabled.

Mocha Stopped After 5 Frames
The integrated Mocha tracker stopped after 5 frames the second time you tracked using Mocha.

Multi-part EXR File Crash
EXR layers containing only alpha or only two channels caused a crash in the Sources window when set to Thumbnails view.

OCIO Initialization Failure
When using the ACES OCIO config, the OCIO processor would not initialize because the sRGB view was named differently. This could cause a crash on startup.

Paint

Align Mode Wrong With Source Match Move
When using Source Match Move, Clone > Align was not positioned correctly.

Clone > Interactive and Region
With Interactive enabled, turning Region on and then off caused Interactive to not work, but the Interactive button was still highlighted.

Clone > Warp Cursor Flashed in Onion Skin Mode
The Clone > Warp cursor flashed while moving it when Onion Skin is on.

Cutout Brush Not Saving
If you painted a stroke with the Cutout brush, the result was not saved on the frames you painted on.

Paint Only – Undo Strokes Appear
Strokes removed with Undo appeared in the Paint Only output.

Arrow Cursor Sticks On – Mac
When using a pen/tablet on Mac, if you slowly moved over a sash, the cursor changed to a split icon and stuck on. You had to hit Esc to get rid of it.

Stroke Tool Not Selecting Paint State
When using the Stroke tool, the associated paint state changes, like brush size and opacity changes, were not selected.

Tracker Node > Black Viewer
When hooking a source into a Tracker node, the Viewer was black until the cache was cleared.
Viewer > Node Selector Pop-up Menu Did Not Open

The Viewer > Node selector intermittently did not open.
Weighted Keyframe Crash
If you there was only 1 keyframe, pressing Alt-K and then OK or Cancel caused Silhouette to crash.

Silhouette 2020.0.2

Updated: 12/03/19

Changes
Enable Source > Extend Duration On By Default
Source > Extend Duration is now enabled by default. This means that the head and tail frames of a sequence are extended outside of the work range and that single frame imports exist on all frames.

Timeline > Show Work Range On By Default
Timeline > Show Work Range is now on by default. This allows keyframes set in the work range to be visible when different from the Session frame range.

Bug Fixes
Legacy Feather Did Not Work
Legacy feathering did not work.

Node Name Error
Certain OFX nodes had legacy naming in the Node window.

Nuke 9+ Exporter Issues
• The Silhouette Motion Blur > Samples value was not transferring to the Nuke Motion Blur > Global > motionblur parameter.
• The Silhouette Shutter Phase value was not transferring to the Nuke Motion Blur > Global > shutter offset parameter.

Open Spline Feather Handles Couldn’t Be Hidden
Alt-F now toggles open spline feather handles on and off.

ROI Keyframes Not Saved With Project
ROI keyframes were not saved with the project.

RotoOverlay Was Opening By Default
The RotoOverlay window was opening by default and was not supposed to.

Shift-Alt Did Not Work For Stereo Align
The Shift-Alt shortcut did not work for stereo alignment.

Viewer Proxy Resolution Problems
Paint Node
The Paint node displayed a cropped image in the Viewer at proxy resolutions.

Transform Node
When Viewer proxy resolutions were used with a Transform node, images of a
different size than the Session were blank in the Viewer.

Silhouette 2020.0.1

Updated 11/22/19

Features
Copying/Pasting Mocha Trackers & Shapes to Silhouette
Shapes and trackers copied to the clipboard in Mocha can now be pasted into a Silhouette Roto node. Requires Mocha Pro 7.0.2 or later.

Changes
Make Disabled Nodes More Obvious
To make it clearer when a node is disabled, there is now an X over the node while disabled.

Mocha Tracker Status Window – Initializing Message
When using the Mocha tracker, an “Initializing” message appears in the tracking status window while the GPU shaders compile prior to tracking.

Paint > Subpixel > Speed Up
Some Paint > Clone brush filters, like Sinc, take longer to process. If there is no transform and no Clone offset, Silhouette will use a fast processing path regardless of the Subpixel setting.

Request a Trial Screen – Removed Host ID
The Host ID was removed from the Request a Trial screen as it was not needed.

Bug Fixes
Composite Node Crash
The Composite node could crash when working with different sized foreground and background inputs.

Trees Window Won’t Zoom In Until You Zoom Out
You had to zoom out before you could zoom in to the Trees window.

Windows Crash On Startup
Windows could crash or exit unexpectedly during startup.

What’s New in Silhouette 2020:

• Integrated Mocha tracking now included at no extra charge
• New Roto tools: Magnetic splines with edge snapping, RotoOverlay previews and Weighted Keyframe creation to change the timing of shape animations
• New Paint tools: New Dodge, Burn and Detail brushes as well as a frequency (detail) separation workflow for improved retouching
• Improved Planar Tracker: Group tracking of multiple planar surfaces in addition to tracking non-planar surfaces through overlapping shapes
• New nodes DOD and Extract Detail
• New interface enhancements: Multiple Viewers, Node and Object windows; Streamlined Workspace and more
• New bundle options: Add the Mocha Pro plug-in for Silhouette for increased tracking and VFX workflows