Thursday, April 11th, 2013 Posted by Jim Thacker

The best new software from NAB 2013


CoreMelt’s SliceX in action. One of the applications announced at NAB this week, the masking plugin for Final Cut Pro X now comes in a new edition powered by Imagineer Systems’ mocha planar tracking system.

Many of the new tools on show at NAB this week are more for editors than VFX artists, but there are a few that overlap with software CG Channel does cover.

We’ve already run separate stories on After Effects’ new integration with Cinema 4D and Hiero 1.7, The Foundry’s Nuke-compatible shot-management and review tool.

Below, we round up some of the other significant releases. We’ll add more if we spot them.

SliceX powered by mocha
Imagineer Systems and CoreMelt have teamed up to integrate Imagineer’s Academy Award-winning mocha planar tracking technology into CoreMelt’s SliceX mask-creation plugin for Final Cut Pro X.

According to the press blurb: “SliceX powered by mocha lets you create instant shape masks to cut out layers or isolate effects directly in Final Cut Pro X without having to go into Motion or [another] external program.

“With this new version, mocha planar tracking allows artists to quickly and easily track roto shapes for accurate masking with significantly less manual keyframing.”

SliceX powered by mocha is available to preorder with an SRP of $149. The plugin is currently available at a launch price of $99 on the CoreMelt website. The standard version of CoreMelt costs $79.

Read more about SliceX powered by mocha on Imagineer Systems’ website

Sapphire 7
GenArts has also updated Sapphire, its collection of effects plugins for After Effects, Nuke, Final Cut and Autodesk and Avid editing and finishing tools.

Additions in Sapphire 7 include S_Beauty, a new effect for colour-correcting skin tones automatically in talking heads footage, and a new S_EdgeAwareBlur option, which preserves a crisp edge on blurred objects.

The S_Sharpen tool has been given more control parameters; and S_LensFlare has been updated, including presets to simulate real-world lenses.

Motion blur has been added to many effects; and more of the plugins now support GPU acceleration via CUDA. The number of presets has been raised, and presets are now shareable between Sapphire’s host platforms.

Sapphire 7 is available now. A new node-locked licence costs between $499 and $3,995 depending on the host platform; with After Effects and Nuke versions coming in at $1,699.

Read more about Sapphire 7 on the GenArts website