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Boris Effects, from Artel Software, has been around for years. I first experienced the package as a plug-in module for Media 100. It added a DVE capability that enabled the creation of the same type of effects that are typically done on hardware DVEs, but in a nonlinear environment. It started out by providing a limited number of effects, and the effects had to be rendered. Depending on the supporting hardware, this was sometimes time-consuming.
However, Like the nonlinear editing systems (NLEs) that it supports, Boris has continued to evolve and improve over the years. Boris Red, on a fast platform, provides a wide range of very useful capabilities that can be a big enhancement to various NLEs.
Boris FX and Boris Graffiti
Artel has developed several related products. There are currently two versions of Boris FX. The Standard version, priced at $495, is a powerful DVE with a variety of 3D and 2D capabilities. Standard features include unlimited timeline layering, animatable particle and blur effects, anti-aliased 3D DVE shapes, page turns, cubes, spheres, and cylinders. The Professional version, priced at $995, adds several new effects including a camera-shutter motion blur, image-- shattering particle effects with customizable shapes, independent light sources, and advanced compositing and keying capabilities. Boris Graffiti is another stand-alone product. At $495, it is a resolution-independent, full-featured 2D/3D title animation package, with the ability to manipulate text in 3D space. You can extrude standard fonts and add bevels and light sources. You can wrap text around spheres, ripples, and waves. You can apply motion blurs and particle effects and create all kinds of rolls, crawls, and multipage fades.
Boris Red
Boris Red, at $1,995, is the product that brings all these features together, and then some. By combining the best features of Boris FX and Graffiti, it opens up a whole new set of capabilities. There is an...