Boris FX, the folks who develop integrated graphics and effects technology, are now shipping Boris Graffiti 2.0, an upgrade to their graphics and titling application, and the only integrated vector-based titling package on the market that supports Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Premiere, among others.
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Version 2.0, original slated for release in late 2001, is compatible with both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X (version 10.1 and higher). Its vector tools allow easy creation of sophisticated animations such as text on path, with exceptional sharpness, he added. Along with animation tools such as Type On and Title Containers for auto-animated rolls, crawls, fades, shuffles and zooms, Graffiti 2.0 allows users to map text to 3D shapes, and extrude and composite in three dimensions. Graffiti 2.0 also supports the addition of third-party Adobe After Effects filters.
Graffiti 2.0’s Vector Text feature offers “razor-sharp clarity at any scale, as well as the ability to export animations to Flash, according to Boris Yamnitsky, company founder and president. It sports expanded title animation capabilities that let you animate both the path shape and the text position for Text on Path over time. “Type On” features one click type-on animation of progressively applied skew, tumble, spin, rotate, scale, opacity, and position to a text page, alone or in combination, so individual characters can fly/spin/fade/zoom/shuffle on or off the screen.
Third party plug-ins developed for Adobe After Effects can now be used with all NLE systems supported by Boris Graffiti 2.0. They appear in the Boris Graffiti Filters menu, and behave like any other Boris filters.
Version 2.0’s beefed up 3D power includes a number of preset materials (such as gold, aluminum, copper, glass, and plastic), as well as an Advanced Materials options for creating custom settings for reflectivity, transparency, specularity, color and more. Also new is the full control over reflection and texture maps, 3D lights, and multiple cameras per scene — any of which may animate Pan, Orbit, or Position.
Graffiti’s Natural Media includes procedural Wood, Wood Plank, Fractal Noise, Marble, Granite, Fabric, Reptilian and Random Color. You can apply Natural Media as realistic surfaces for 2D and 3D text, or animate them to create organic backgrounds, Yamnitsky said.
Compositing tools include 27 Apply modes for each layer in Boris Graffiti, motion blur, advanced particle filters, and Smart View to dynamically update views of animated parameters in the timeline. The Audio Import and Playback scratch audio track includes timeline waveform display and level controls designed to enable easier reference and synchronization during effect animation design. Graffiti 2.0 supports realtime playback of scrub audio, and sync audio during “Preview to RAM.”
There are also performance improvements. Open GL and dual processor support on both Mac and Windows systems means faster effects creation and faster rendering, Yamnitsky. Graffiti 2.0 also boasts Altivec enhancement on Mac G4 machines.
The pro version of Graffiti 2.0 supports all Boris Graffiti hosts and adds support for Avid Xpress, Avid Xpress DV, Avid Media Composer, Avid Symphony, Discreet edit, Fast silver, Media 100 i, and Media 100 iFINISH. The newest versions are now available at a manufacturers suggested retail price of US $495. Boris Graffiti Professional 2.0 has an MSRP of $995. Upgrades from previous versions of Graffiti are $199.