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Boris FX Red 4.1 By Kevin McAuliffe/Creative Mac

mary | 27 September, 2007 08:49

I have been an editor for a long time (about 11 years now), and I have been familiar with Boris FX 9.1 (Academic Pricing)'s plug-ins for almost as long, and when I was asked if I would be interested in taking a look at Boris RED 4.1 (Academic Pricing), I really didn't have my expectations set very high, as I have always had a bit of a preconceived notion in my head of what the package is and what it can do. Let me just say that I have now seen the light. The RED light! Let's take a look at Boris RED 4.1 (Academic Pricing).

The installation for RED can look a bit daunting, but one thing that Boris FX 9.1 (Academic Pricing) has done is give the users options. The first thing that I loved about this program is that it can run as a standalone application, like Adobe After Effects, as an "effect" inside of Final Cut Pro or both. For all the users out there, I would suggest installing both the Boris RED Engine to use as a standalone, and then install the Boris RED for Final Cut (the effect) for either Mac Universal or Power PC, so you have the best of both worlds.

The "effect" version of Boris appears in your video filters under "Boris FX", and the "engine" portion appears in your "Applications" folder under Boris RED 4.1 (Academic Pricing). Both installations are quick and simple, and you will be up and running in a matter of minutes. Boris offers a two week trial of the application, and then you can purchase it directly in the "Help" menu.

When I saw what you get with Boris RED 4.1 (Academic Pricing), I was completely blown away. You not only get all of FX and Grafitti's effects and functionality, but you also get all of Continuum Complete's effects in one package. In total, you are looking at over 180 effects. Believe it or not, but there are also some Final Effects and DigiEffects Delirium plug-ins thrown in there for good measure. Some of the effects highlights include nineteen different keying filters including Chroma, Luma and RGB difference Keyers, thirteen different blur filters including Gaussian, basic and directional blurs, you also get Glows, Lighting effects, Partical effects, and so many more that I almost can't even count. You even get a Wire Removal filter to remove rigging from your shots. I've only scratched the surface of filters that you get, but let me tell you that you will have more effects than you could possibly ever need.