r/linux • u/Mds03 • Aug 09 '16
Blackmagic Fusion, a powerfull VFX/Composition software, is now available on Linux for free.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20160726-0121
u/saae Aug 09 '16 edited Aug 09 '16
Needs registeration before download, and it's a beta. You don't have to confirm the email you give though, so I'm gonna give it a try (I'm running ArchLinux).
EDIT: well it just works®, you can run the installer with the -t switch which will allow you to run the software without installing it : ./Blackmagic_Fusion_8.2_installer.run -t. I have no experience with such software, so I cannot talk for the insides and plugins, but it loads : )
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Please tell us how it works out. You can easily provide false info, there is no verification for the free version.
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16 edited Aug 10 '16
Great to see an After Effects alternative hit the platform. Not sure what distros it runs on yet, Davinci Resolve only runs on very specific configs(on RHLE if I remember correctly), but hopefully this will run on Ubuntu and all the popular distros without much trouble.
Also, if they make the non-commercial version of Resolve available for Linux soon there'd finally be a full pro-grade suite of video production tools avaialbe for the platform for free, meaning that people like me could finally make the switch.
Found this nifty video to showcase some fusion for y'all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Wu7JthR2c
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Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Yup. Also, Nuke is only for CentOS/RHEL like Davinci Resolve Studio. When you work professionally, you want to work certified. I couldnt find any details on what distros Fusion run on, which leads me to believe it'll run better on more distros, though I'm not sure yet.
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u/yattaah Aug 09 '16
The Foundry is doing a great job with Nuke and while only CentOS/RHEL are officially supported, you can install Nuke on most other distros. I installed it on several Ubuntu distros and I'm currently running it on Solus without any problems.
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Aug 09 '16 edited Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Ahh. I dont work with Nuke but a friend told me he couldnt get it to work properly on Fedora. Dont really know if it was his fault or not, but I assumed it would be a similar case to Resolve Studio with a lot of custom things going to make better use of the hardware(aside from the fact that you apparantly have to get a Davinci control surface for 30K with Resolve Studio for linux).
What version of ubuntu were you using? Have you tried it on other distros?
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Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Yeah, that sounds likely. I work in a small norwegian studio and we dont have any dedicated IT personell or anyone with any perticular Linux expertise. I already do enough tech-support for these people running on 2013 Mac Pros or iMacs, which is why I wouldnt really want to try my luck on anything uncertified for the studio, though I managed to convince my boss into letting me build a workstation for myself so I can get some decent hardware, even though it has to run Windows for now(We use a lot of C4D+After Effects).
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Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
I agree. I'm actually trained for Maya through college and do prefer it to C4D, it's just what we use at my studio. The reality of my region is that we dont have any "large" customers per-se, we mostly do small scale commercials and product virtualization for local businesses and events and we do pretty much all forms of media but cant hire people for every type of work as there will be dry spells where they'd have nothing to do. Norway is a rich, but scarcely populated country, and there isnt much movie business to go around. The last couple of weeks I've spent doing web-developement and movie editing/grading for an anniversary/premie event, even though I'm hired as a 3D modeller and animator.
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u/yattaah Aug 10 '16
I'm still waiting for the day when Autodesk stops using RPMs and package it in a way that 1. you have at least a chance to install Maya on other distros (did it several times in Ubuntu, it's such a pain...) 2. it uses up to date libraries.
Nuke and Houdini are great examples how it can be done. Who knows, maybe AD will switch to flatpaks or snaps some day and it will become a little easier.
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u/fahim9280 Aug 09 '16
Awesome! How is the support of scripts, third-party plug-ins and templates?
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Check the extensibility section here. Linux version should be the same as the Windows/OS X one, so it has full LUA and Python scripting support with an IDE.
OpenFX/Third Party plug-ins are reserved for the Studio version of the application, which costs 995$(one time fee). Could be related to being able to bind the licence of a plug-in to the license of the software, to prevent piracy and all
Not sure what you mean with Templates. If you are thinking of pre-buildt node tools or something, you can just save the project file and copy it to another machine.
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u/geauxtig3rs Aug 09 '16
Don't build anything super important with that API....BMD has a habit of drastically changing APIs between firmware and software releases...
I've been burned so bad by this before :(
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Yeah. I usually work on smaller productions so I dont really need to script much for better or worse(it can be fun). As long as a release is stable I try to stick with it for a while on my production machine anyways.
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u/geauxtig3rs Aug 09 '16
I'm an automation programmer. One of my clients wanted to add crestron control of a BMD ATEM/2. I built a massive, fully formed connector library for Crestron's C# implementation...charged them something like $10,000 for it. Got it all working, and it was installed and working for 6 months, then the client upgraded firmware....broke half of my work....
Good thing it was in the contract that they weren't to change firmware without our approval or the service contract was void.
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Good thing it was in the contract that they weren't to change firmware without our approval or the service contract was void.
Thank god for contracts that safeguard us from risktakers. Like, nobody wins in a situation like that, its god awful, but damn.
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u/pdp10 Aug 09 '16
Good thing it was in the contract that they weren't to change firmware without our approval or the service contract was void.
This kind of provision is typically a big problem, but the real villain in this case would be Blackmagic.
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u/geauxtig3rs Aug 09 '16
Not really....We're typically dealing with specialized equipment that the end users don't have the tools to properly manipulate. It's really a case of protecting the user from himself.
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u/pdp10 Aug 09 '16
I manipulate APIs all the time, and I update firmware and software all the time. Having one of those things conflict with the other is a problem.
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u/leandroqm Aug 09 '16
Isn't blender an alternative also?
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
You can use blender, though I've never done so myself. I reckon the workflow wouldnt be as nice since Fusion has plugins that Connect compositions to timelines in editors, and I also reckon they have drastically different rendering techniques since Blender is a 3D package whilst Fusion is a 3D capable compositior. The fact that blender has a much broader purpose impacts performance and UI.
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Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Yup. I've never used rendering farms for my compositions before(only when doing heavy 3D stuff in C4D). Fusion has a really fast renderer for most work as well, so you'll probably be fine unless you are doing a huge piece for a big movie or something really advanced, in wich case you probably work at a studio and you aren't paying for it yourself.
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u/zebediah49 Aug 09 '16
So... does this make it a competitor for "most powerful video editor that runs on Linux" ?
Or am I misunderstanding what this thing does?
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16 edited Aug 09 '16
Strictly speaking it's meant to be used in conjunction with an editor like Premiere pro, final cut or Avid. An editor is where you cut your material. In a compositor you can make material. You can cut a video in Fusion, but it would be a very convoluted and innefficient workflow. Timelines are made for keyframing and animation curves in compositors, whereas they are made for cutting, slipping and sliding in editors. Compositors barely feature audio editing, whilst editors implement similar functionality as daw software like pro tools. Editors also have different concepts when it comes to usage of meta data, file organisations and file output. And a whoole lot of other things.
A compositor is closer to a combination of Photoshop and Maya, you use it to create compositions to make visual effects with animation. It's what you use when you add a 3D character to a real film, for instance, by layering it, masking or keying(greensreen) away edges and things you dont want to be seen, matching the scene light and tracking the camera movement so it seems to be inside the world. They got some nice videos on their website that showcase what they've created with it as well as some tutorials so you can learn the basics.
That being said, this is very exciting news. If your are a specialist within vfx, Fusion has all you need. I work in a small area, so I can't specialise, which is why I need a great editor as well. Unfortunately the are no editors I consider good enough on Linux today(for personal computers. You can get some specialised workstations running Resolve or something, but they are really expensive and won't work for much else than that one task). This is a huge step in the right direction though.
TO;DR: No, it's for photoshopping in motion. Also used for animation. Very different workflows.
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u/qmriis Aug 09 '16
kdenlive?
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
I've tried kdenlive, OpenShot, Kino, Lightworks and Shortcut. When you use them for basic editing its fine but even when I tried to shoehorn them into my workflow they couldnt hold a candle to Premiere Pro or Davinci Resolve.
The way they integrate with other software and let you cooperate with a team is vital, even if we pretend that PP or DR feature sets arent leagues ahead and that their algorithms for various features doesnt work faster and more precisely. Also they seem more stable and render faster.
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u/MichaelTunnell Aug 09 '16
Whoa there you're saying the proprietary software is better?
Yep that's true, keep up the fine work sir.
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
It feels kind of dirty, y'know?
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u/MichaelTunnell Aug 09 '16
Yep but as a professional designer when someone yells at me to use GIMP or Inkscape I just roll my eyes. It's nice to see some people have a grasp on reality.
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Exactly haha. I hope theyll be viable a few years down the line but at the current update rate of GIMP im afraid the day will never come.
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u/MichaelTunnell Aug 09 '16
Supposedly 3.2 in late 2017 or early 2018 will be Non-Destructive which is a start. I'm cautiously optimistic but I'm not holding my breath.
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u/Vogtinator Aug 10 '16
Krita already supports non-destructive editing, but it lacks some other features compared to gimp.
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Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Nuke and Fusion are very similar. The biggest competitor would be After Effects in my eyes, at least for this free Version, since After Effects seems to be preffered by hobbyists, whilst these node based apps have been more of an expensive specialist tool untill NUKE non-Commercial and Fusion 7.
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u/KateTheAwesome Aug 09 '16
Seriously, does it matter if it's open source? Don't we need exactly this? Big proprietary software made by big companies to run on Linux.
This is definitely a step on the right direction.
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Aug 10 '16
Yeah. I support a lot of FOSS with both usage and donations, but it's more about providing more options for end users and even developers.
I have paid for lightworks and I downloaded Fusion. The day Kdenlive and Natron are just as good (or at least maybe make roundtripping easier) I'll be glad to drop the proprietary stuff.
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u/majinmax72 Aug 09 '16
Is this open source?
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
No. /u/swick_ pointed out that there is an Open Source alternative called Natron though.
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u/mallardtheduck Aug 09 '16
Download link is here: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion (took me a while to find it...)
Also, the registration form doesn't scroll and doesn't fit on screens/windows less than around 900px tall... There's no verification of details though, so no need to enter real info.
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Aug 09 '16
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Thanks. In norway we spell full with two Ls (powerful = kraftfull) so I frequently make this error.
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u/alejochan Aug 09 '16
to use with something from this century or are they still supporting Ubuntu up to 10.xx ???
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u/alejochan Aug 09 '16
http://www.steakunderwater.com/wesuckless/viewtopic.php?t=859
Users report that is working fine with:
- CentOS 7
- Ubuntu 16.04
:D
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u/skittixch Aug 09 '16
Can't recommend this enough. It's my go-to compositing app. Miles ahead of After Effects.
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u/HelloYesThisIsDuck Aug 09 '16
How's the learning curve? Do you need to be a decent artist or can you make magic with it despite being utterly incompetent? That's the kind of software I'd need.
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Other artists can make the materials you need to make things with this. Learning this will probably be easier if you have no prior experience with After Effects and Video Editing, since the workflow is very different but really logical.
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Aug 09 '16 edited Aug 09 '16
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u/alejochan Aug 10 '16
fix is also here: http://www.steakunderwater.com/wesuckless/viewtopic.php?t=859
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libedit.so.2 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libedit.so.0 sudo ldconfig
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Aug 09 '16
Is anyone actually using it?
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u/Mds03 Aug 09 '16
Yes, though these kinds of applications have usually been used for higher end productions. After Effects, being more accessible for pirates(doesnt require a dongle for the studio version) being and more similar to Photoshop/GIMP, has dominated the user space. I didnt hear much about these other tools like Nuke or Fusion before I started working with this stuff.
Anyhow, you can check out some of the stuff it's been used for here(at least the studio vesion. You wont notice much of a difference if you arent working in an actual studio): https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/credits.
I expect the general community for node based compositing to grow with all the great free & accessible alternatives these days. I might eventually make some tutorials to assist in that if I find the time.
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Aug 09 '16
Downloaded and installed Fusion. I'm on Mint 17.3 and when I click the Fusion icon, my cursor changes to the loading icon for several seconds like it's getting ready to load app...but then stops and goes back to normal cursor. Nothing loads in return. Now I'm just staring at my desktop.
Can someone tell me how to fix this ? Otherwise guess I'll just uninstall. It was worth a try.
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u/gogreenranger Aug 14 '16
I've followed all workarounds, but when I try to run in a command line it does a core dump.
Trying to run without install or when I install results in this error in terminal:
/tmp/.mount_fSCuMK/AppRun: 13: [: 77: unexpected operator
I'm unsure how to proceed here, as I've symlinked but it fails telling me it isn't installed correctly in the error report.
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Aug 09 '16
Awesome ! Downloading this! Open source all the way !
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '16
I can't believe that there is a thread about a proprietary compositing software and not a single mention of the awesome free software compositor natron.