How would you rate Boris FX for Vegas 8

[John Rofrano]

For me it’s a must have plug-in. I bought RED which is Boris FX + Boris Graffiti + more and I use it on almost every project. If course RED has titles (from Graffiti) that FX doesn’t have so the titles get a lot of use. I especially like the credit roll which you won’t get with Boris FX alone. If you can, get the Boris FX + Boris Graffiti bundle which is cheaper than buying each separately.

Boris FX has some excellent filters. The Chroma Key is outstanding! I use to use Serious Magic Ultra before Adobe killed it and I find that the Boris FX Keys & Matte filters are even better. In addition to a great chroma key that works well even on unevenly lit backgrounds, it has the ability to wrap the background as light around the keyed subject which really sells the key. (i.e., light from the new background falls on the subjects shoulders as if they were really in the scene) My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw this and I haven’t used Ultra since. Also the fact that it plugs right into Vegas makes it my go-to chroma keyer now.

The Motion Tracker is worth the price all alone. If you’ve ever spent hours keyframing motion in Vegas to cover an area with a blur or other correction you are going love the motion tracker. Just pick a good point to track and let it calculate the motion, then add anything you want to that path and it moves like it was originally in the video. Use this with the particles for some great effects that move with the camera. The motion stabilization is also great as is the corner pin tracker for replacing parts of video in motion. Like I said, it’s a “must-have” plug-in for me. Just lots of useful stuff.

The generators for rain and snow are also great. I used the snow for an introduction on a Christmas concert I did last year and it really sold the feel. The particle system is also great for adding smoke or other particle effects. Boris FX also has 3D motion that is very easy to use because you can move the 3D layers using direct manipulation in the preview window.

Here is the big thing people don’t think to consider: Even for the things you can do in Vegas, it’s sometimes better to do them in Boris FX because you can save them as a single preset and reuse them. In Vegas you can’t do this! Oh you can save one keyframe as a preset, but what if you have several keyframes? There is no way to save them easily in Vegas. With Boris FX everything you do no matter how complex can be saved as a single preset and then applied again with one click. This is another feature that is worth the price alone in productivity.

As for the integration with Vegas, it’s not as good as it could be but that’s not Boris’ fault. The Vegas API is extremely limited and only gives the plug-in one frame to work with during setup (basically a snapshot) so you have to load the clip into Boris FX to do any work that involves motion. But there are workarounds and the final result is well worth it.

As you can tell, I really like Boris FX/RED and use it a lot. I give Boris FX “two thumbs up”! Integration with Vegas gets only one thumb. It’s way better than using a stand-alone tool but not as good as it could be. Hopefully some day Sony will enhance their API and fix this for all Vegas plug-ins.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Rich Kyanka]

Although it took me a little while to figure out and grow accustomed to Boris RED and the different way it handles layers and the timeline (compared to Vegas), I really started loving it once I got the hang of it. As John said, the chroma keying is excellent, and you can practically generate a completely clean key just by loading the default values. The learning curve can be slightly alienating (especially to folks who lack a lot of free time), but it’s ultimately extremely useful, flexible, and powerful.

[Steve Rhoden]

Sorry John,
I dont think sony will ever enhance Vegas API and other features
to facilitate certain plugins…a lot of us has been lobbying this for years now with no changes or enhancements being made.
Anyway..does boris crashes vegas occasionally?

Steve Rhoden
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[John Rofrano]

> Anyway..does boris crashes vegas occasionally?

I have not experienced any more or less crashes while using Boris with Vegas Pro 8.0. Most of my crashes with Vegas Pro 8 have been while I was using the Vegas tools (Pan/Crop, keyframing, etc.) but that’s just be because I use those tools more. My setup for Vegas Pro 8 has been fairly stable.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Steve Rhoden]

Thanks
i have deliberately avoided adding anything from boris to my
vegas workflow some years back because of a long ago bad experience,
and never gave it a thought since then until now.

I must admit…i have just installed boris red and took it for a spin…and iam pleased with its interface and integration with vegas, although it could be much better. Stability is my greatest concern, but so far it seems quite stable (something it was not a few years back).
You all have good things to say about it….the trial is quite
pleasing… i will be purchasing it..Still,the $995 is a bit steep, although they have it for sale now for $795.But,it is an investment.
I like staying in vegas to get things done, than have to open another app. for a certain effect.

Thanks Guys….

Steve Rhoden
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[Omer Aydin]

I used to try an earlier version of Boris Red with Vegas 6 and I was very disappointed. Due to the nature of Vegas engine, the Boris plugin was unable to aquire realtime preview frames from Vegas to display in it’s own preview screen.
Have they fixed this or you still just see the first frame of the clip while you work on it?

[John Rofrano]

This is something that Sony has to fix in Vegas and unfortunately they have not. For me, it is the single biggest feature request for Vegas Pro 9. They could do nothing else but fix the plug-in API I and would be perfectly happy with it. All plug-in are affected by this limitation.

Some plug-ins, like Mercalli, have tried to get around it by secretly rendering the clip so that it has access to the video. It’s unfortunate that they have to resort to these kinds of workarounds. Because of this, anything that requires motion has to be done in the Standalone version of Boris FX / RED 🙁

This is a definite productivity impact but not a reason to stop using Boris. What would you use? Nothing else plug-ins in any better because it’s Sony’s problem. Until enough people complain to Sony to get it fixed, it’s probably going to stay that way. So don’t just walk away… please complain to Sony about it. Tell them you want the plug-in API fixed so that plug-ins can integrate better. (hold on while I step down from my soap box)

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com