Product: eyeon Software Releases Two Versions Of Fusion 5.1

Officials from Toronto-based compositing software developers eyeon Software have announced the release of Fusion 5.1, the latest version of the company's multi-platform desktop compositing application. The Fusion 5.1 software is available as a robust developer version as well as a streamlined version wherein no image processing abilities from the Fusion toolset have been included. Benefits to the Fusion 5.1 developer version include file loading and saving to select formats, which officials note allow a developer to load an image, test that image with a custom plug-in or function, and save the result to disk. In addition, the software also allows plug-ins to be loaded and tested without requiring a full license. Thus, the developer version allows independent plug-in manufacturers and post-production facilities the ability to write and test custom tools for Fusion without having to invest in a retail copy of the application. The developer version of Fusion 5.1 also does not watermark images, and is restrictive only in terms of file format support to ensure the appropriate use for plug-in development. First announced during at SIGGRAPH 2006, Fusion 5.1 includes a number of new features, such as 3DS, OBJ and FBX support to allow for importing of models and scenes; the capability to project images and live action onto 3D geometry; the ability to apply twists, tapers, bends and skews with Bender 3D; as well as other tools including 3D Displace, Sky Creator and Distort tools. Other enhancements with the version include paint enhancements such as new multi-stroke paint features and performance enhancements, mask improvements that now use standard tools like merge or boolean, multi-path maps for large networks, universal Windows and AE plug-ins that can run under Linux, and UI improvements including color organization of flow tools, plug-in LUT loaders, file browser enhancements and a hot key manager.