That means the company is aiming to make Fusion a disruptive influence in VFX software, just as it shook up the camera business with its cinema camera line and put price pressure on color-correction tools by bringing a free version of the powerful DaVinci Resolve to desktops. Blackmagic emphasized that Fusion 7 Studio has no annual maintenance or subscription fees, does not require an Internet connection, and has no per-node costs for rendering licenses. When Blackmagic purchased Eyeon Software, Fusion 7 sold for $2,495, including the Dimension toolset but not including Generation, which tacked on an extra $995.

A full list comparing the feature sets is available at the Blackmagic website. Projects can be begun in Fusion 7 and transferred to Fusion 7 Studio to take advantage of the collaborative features, the company said. For a paid upgrade, Fusion 7 Studio ($995) adds high-end features including the optical flow toolset introduced in Eyeon Dimension, the asset-management front-end included in Eyeon Generation, support for OpenFX plug-ins from third parties (such as GenArts and RE:Vision Effects), and distributed network rendering. The software includes an array of 3D compositing, painting, rotoscoping, retiming, stabilization, titling, paticle generation, and keying tools.

The free Fusion 7 is not feature-limited, Blackmagic said. Just two months after purchasing Fusion 7 maker Eyeon Software, Blackmagic Design has made the VFX and compositing package for Windows available as a free download. Paid Version Adds Optical Flow Toolset, Third-Party OpenFX Plug-in Support, Distributed Network Rendering for $995

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