Product Reviews

With the success of digital video cameras and the introduction of FireWire in the new G3 Macs, the desktop digital video revolution is in full swing. Increasing numbers of artists and producers are now incorporating DV into their work. Whether its for the Internet, multimedia or broadcast, the skill sets and demands are the same. Only the end resolution differs.

In light of this, various companies have turned their attention to producing 'bridges' between the powerful world of television graphics and the low-end market. Although in their raw form both Premiere and After Effects offer an impressive range of DVEs (Digital Video Effects), other developers are supplying even more exotic, powerful, flexible and impressive add-ons.

Boris FX is one such long-standing DVE workhorse. Its suite of 44 effects ranges from useful (colour correction, blurring, chromakey) to esoteric (particle systems and distortions). In addition, there's Boris' distinctive suite of 3D effects such as video cubes, spheres and cylinders.

On a more basic level, Boris offers extensions to existing After Effects features. Its blurs, for example, include Gaussian and Directional, and the additional PixelChooser. It offers more subtle control over the application, enabling you to choose specific types of pixels to be processed by the filter. With blurs, you can now marquee a rectangular or circular selection to pull off the very desirable and fashionable 'depth blurs' over small parts of a moving image. You can choose blue, green or red channels only, or just the saturated or luminous shades. Another source image in the composition can also be used as an effect overlay. Accidental or intentional use of this feature can produce startlingly original effects and give an unusual look to the footage, as well as providing another tool to help you pull off the effect you desire.

Most effects are PixelChooser-ready, and several of the 44 new plug-ins are simply traditional effects with this new system added. Boris Brightness & Contrast, for example, has nothing to offer over After Effects' Brightness & Contrast. The same goes for its extensive suite of colour manipulation plug-ins, although the PixelChooser's ability to affect individual shades within an image makes it a powerful correction tool.

Distortion-wise, Boris Bulge is an extension of the classic, yet unpopular, Pinch effect, with extra pinning options enabling

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Boris to pull off a good impression of the extreme fish-eye lens. Ripple and Wave are similar extensions of a common filter type, offering an additional Chaos option with a selection of waveforms (sine, sawtooth, square) and 3D light rendering for a burnished chrome finish to your effect.

Boris also has an improved and comprehensive suite of six keying effects for rendering parts of video footage transparent. As well as seamlessly handling traditional blue and green screen setups and linear luma keys (creating transparency based on one channel, usually luminance or RGB), Boris also provides a powerful range of chromakey options for fine-tuning a matte. Lightness, balance and density can be tailored initially, and then individual values of red, green and blue adjusted. Finally, intuitive settings for spill ratio and tonal range can correct flare from lights and keying obstacles like blonde hair. Again, After Effects' own keying facilities aren't inconsiderable, but Boris - while not attaining the power of standalone plug-in, Ultimatte - makes the process more straightforward.

Boris also offers a suite of little touches, occasional but good-looking effects which can brighten up any video sequence. Among these is Light Sweep, the classic shimmering pass often seen over metallic logos, and Area Spotlight for smoothed cones of light passing across your footage, or for distinctive gels falling across your images. In particular, Boris has an impressive new particle system, made special by its ability to use any layer in a composition as a particle. You can have a swarm of titles fuzzing around your screen, or force a rain shower of other clips to come tumbling into view. The different gravity types (straight, random or centrifugal) and 'wall bounce' give some choreography to your particles.

The whole package is rounded off with the classic effects Boris has always been good at - wrapping multiple video images around cubes, cylinders, and spheres and then bouncing them around the video frame at your leisure, Quantel-style.

It even includes the dreaded 'page turn' - a good example of where Boris lies in a market steadily filling up with DVE plug-ins, and where the choice is already boiling down to a question of fashion and style as well as feature set and price. If you're looking for innovative end results, Boris may not be the best choice. ICEd Final Effects and DigiEffects plug-in suites such as Aurorix and Bezerk provide more avant-garde, experimental results. Boris is more of a DVE workhorse. With the exception of the new particle system and effects rendered with PixelChooser, most of its filters perform an excellent impression of effects already overused in broadcast and multimedia.

If you're looking to push the desktop digital video envelope into new visual directions, you may wish to look elsewhere. However, if you're working for audiences which demand all-spinning, 3D hyperkinetic, visual effects, Boris offers a spread of dependable and impressive options.