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Posted on 27/10/17 5:35:37 PM
GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 3703

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Blackmagic Fusion 9
I've been having tremendous problems with CS4 recently. I mainly use it for After Effects but, for no apparent reason it, and everything else in CS4, suddenly stopped working and point blank refuses to reload. It just repeatedly says 'Error Code 1603'. Checking it out on the internet suggested that this is a common problem. Speaking to Adobe (one and a half days of speaking to Adobe!!!!) elicited no solution so I am without After Effects for a project that I am working on. Thanks Adobe.

Now to the point of the post. While researching an alternative I found Fusion 9 which is available completely free of charge and is an industry standard special effects and compositing software used in many high-end productions. There is a paid-for version that has just a few more bells and whistles but the freebie would be good enough for the vast majority of people that don't work in Hollywood e.g. the HTCIP Mafia.

It doesn't quite do what After Effects does and it certainly doesn't do it the same way, but it would be excellent for animated logos and that kind of thing. It's also available for both MAC and PC and Linux.

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/fusion

There plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to use it although they mainly refer to v.8 as v.9. has only recently been released. This one is an introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsiC4bmaWZI

I also disccovered that there is a version of Nuke available free of charge which might be worth a look

http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/non-commercial/

Anna, I'm looking at you for Fusion 9. David Mac, if you know anything about this from a professional point of view it would be interesting to hear your thoughts.

In the meantime I'll go and see if I have a bigger hammer to hit CS4 with and get back to my project



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Posted on 28/10/17 1:24:38 PM
DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
Posts: 4900

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Hi Gordon

Fusion is a full industry package. The free version lacks stuff like network rendering and 3D but that’s of little concern to the private user. Like any industry ware it has a steep learning curve and tutorials tend to be aimed at serious users - there’s no black and yellow covered “Idiot’s Guide to Fusion” or "Two Minute Fusion".

Strangely I recommended Fusion privately to Anna quite a while back, as it looked like something she might enjoy playing with. I know she did experiment a bit but I have no idea if she followed up on it. Problem is that it works quite differently from Adobe so there’s a lot of re-learning to do. The big difference is that it is node based as opposed to layer based. Nodes are much trickier to get your head round than layers but are far far more flexible. Corrections, filters, and FX are broken down into components which you drag around and link like a flow chart. It lets you ‘roll your own’ FX. You will also have, in places, to learn a new vocabulary of technical terms and functions.

I don't have first hand 'hands on' experience of Fusion but have worked on plenty of projects that used it and the results looked impeccable.

Black Magic Design offer Fusion and Da Vinci Resolve (more on that in a moment) completely free in unrestricted close to full versions - they make their money on the expensive hardware and control surfaces that goes with them in large professional post houses.

Da Vinci Resolve is another industry standard tool from Black Magic Design that’s been around for years and is constantly upgraded. It started life as a pure colour correction tool but has been expanded to include professional image and sound editing as well. The colour correction tools are positively drool making and leave Photoshop or Lightroom looking very basic. It also has ‘to die for’ masking tools that create masks (known as qualifiers - more new vocabulary) that follow the action as the camera or actors move. Sadly it’s only for movie. Doesn’t do stills. The only real comparison in still photography would be the better RAW correction tools. Which, indeed is what Da Vinci has become since most movie nowadays is originated in digital RAW. Like Fusion it is node based and very flexible …… and initially confusing!

As I said, I cannot speak of Fusion from personal experience but it comes from the same producers as Da Vinci and for many many years I have sat beside professional colourists grading my material from telecine, negative scans or digital RAW files with Da Vinci and what can be done by an accomplished professional hand and eye is just breathtaking. If Fusion is to the same standard, which I am sure it is, then it will jump through hoops happily.

Both are fully featured professional tools. Both are incredibly flexible. Both will need a LOT of learning. But fun to try if you want to .... and can take you to a new level.

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 28/10/17 2:58:01 PM
GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 3703

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Thanks David,

Yes the learning curve looks pretty steep. Thanks for the tip about Da Vinci; I'll have a look and see if I can get it to do what I need.

All I need Ater Effects to do is to animate a piece of video in a particular way and it's incredibly frustrating that I cannot do it because it just crashed and refuses to re-install. This ERROR Code 1603 seems to be a known problem with CS4 but none of the 'solutions' suggested seems to work.

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Posted on 28/10/17 4:55:26 PM
GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 3703

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Just downloading Da Vinci Resolve and have found some tutorials. Half way through the first basic tutorial I was already asking why would anyone want to use After Effects when this is available?

Looking forward to some interesting learning curves with this one.

Unfortunately I still need to sort out the CS4 problem as I was doing a video tutorial that demonstrates animating a piece of video in After Effects.


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Posted on 28/10/17 6:09:27 PM
DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
Posts: 4900

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
No idea if this might be the problem but to run CS 4 apps with a recent OS on Mac you need to install legacy Java SE 6. If you are on Windoze no idea. So long since I did this I can't remember any more.

This may help. It refers to CS 5 but applies equally to 4. A quick google of "CS4 legacy java" will throw up other information as well.

Worth a look?


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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 28/10/17 10:58:04 PM
GKB
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Posts: 3703

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Thanks David. Unfortunately, although I mainly use a MAC, my copy of After Effects is Windows. I asked Adobe if I could trade in the Windows serial for a MAC serial but you can guess the answer.

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Posted on 29/10/17 09:21:53 AM
tooquilos
Wizard of Oz
Posts: 2793

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Hi Gordon and David,

Gordon, Im sorry to hear you are having issues with CS4..very frustrating. The other day I couldn’t connect to Adobe Creative Cloud for love or money. I looked up solutions and they were more complex than the problem. Several hours later, I was none the wiser. In the end I uninstalled and reinstalled it and presto..it worked. Time wasters!

With BlackMagic Fusion, I did install it and spent over a week, in the evenings, doing tutorials. What can be achieved is amazing, particularly with text.. however I just could not get my head around the node system and the terminology. For example, I wanted to add a reflective surface on an object and I searched for hours trying to find it. In the end, after making some inquiries, I discovered what I needed was a ‘Phong’. In a thousand lifetimes I would not have known this. I realise now that this term is a standard industry term but I had never come across it before. Working with the nodes, even though all the users and reviews say its much better/efficient than layers and far easier than AE. It was impossible, for me, to understand, rationalise it and create some type of workflow with some sort of finished project in the end. Im completely self taught in AE..through trial, error and persistence but without proper guidance and instruction I can’t see myself progressing with Fusion.

I was talking to someone who uses Fusion often and I explained my situation and they said, through their experience, it comes down to what you start off with and learn on. Photoshop and AE are first cousins that are also good friends. They 2 compliment each other. AE is the natural progression when you want to do more and Photoshop doesn’t just cut it. The principles, options and workflow are very similar.

I had a look at Davinci Resolve and that looks very akin to Premiere. I will download it and see how that goes.

Gordon, if you need a hand to finish off this project, yell out. And yes, you can't trade a Mac serial for a Windows one. I found that out also! Ridiculous.

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Posted on 30/10/17 09:29:47 AM
GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 3703

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Thanks Anna.
I finally managed(I hope) to get it installed but it took the nuclear option of reinstalling Windows and then it took two attempts before an abbreviated install worked.

Too busy this week to see if it really is working so it's going to be next weekend before I breathe again

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Posted on 04/11/17 1:54:52 PM
GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 3703

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Update:

I continued to have problems with the installation and then had problems with other installations. After a bit of beating head on brick wall far too many times I found this web address on the Microsoft site. If anyone has similar problems try going to this site. It immediately resolved all my installation issues.

I always knew that there was a good reason to ignore Windows and stick with MAC ...

http://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17588/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed

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Posted on 09/12/17 3:01:32 PM
GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 3703

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Another very powerful piece of video editing and Special Effects software that I have found is HitFilm. This is available in two flavours - the Pro, paid for, version and Express which is totally free. There is one requirement to be met before you can download the free version and that is that they require you to download it through either Facebook, Twitter or a Google account - a small price to pay for a very powerful piece of software for both MAC and PC.

Intro video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rDml44HJ-U

Download link: http://hitfilm.com/express



My previous issues with CS4 have not gone away so I am now looking elsewhere for SFX software as Adobe are of no help whatsoever.


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Posted on 16/09/18 07:03:45 AM
Emil
KAFKAsFRIEND
Posts: 413

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Re: Blackmagic Fusion 9
Hi all,

Alexis Van Hurkman would help you. I bought his great book Color Correction and there are helpfull tutorials on youtube as well. I use DaVinci software. It is true the nod system is a little bit tricky but the results are amazing.

Have a fun with blackmagic softwares.
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