Wednesday, November 18th, 2015 Posted by Jim Thacker

FXhome ships HitFilm 4 Pro

FXhome has released HitFilm 4 Pro, the next version of its editing, compositing, VFX and grading package, improving its 3D and particle simulation capabilities, and bundling in Boris FX’s $299 titling plugin 3D Objects.

Improved 3D rendering, animation and particle simulation
The 3D toolset gets a lot of updates, from fairly basic functionality (support for bump and normal maps, Cook-Torrance as well as Phong shading) to real-time reflections and diffuse lighting in the Viewer.

There is also a new ‘animation value graph’ – a proper curve editor, essentially – while animation paths can now be adjusted in the Viewer with Bezier handles.

The update also adds support for the Alembic file format, enabling users to import baked animations.

The software’s existing 3D particles system gets a new Soften Intersections slider, smoothing interactions between particle textures and 3D models; and a new grid emitter aimed at motion graphics artists.

The output of the emitter can be seen around 05:10 in the video above, with one particularly abstract 3D object getting the brilliant on-screen caption ‘Not sure what this is/Sure is pretty’.

New editing features
The editing toolset also sees some important improvements, including standard JKL controls, and support for variable clip playback speeds, including a new Rate Stretch tool.

The audio tools get a built-in equalizer, “fast noise reduction” and a range of ambience presets, plus a new Doppler Shift option, which automatically adjusts audio based on the movement of a 3D layer.

Attach an audio track to a moving 3D object in a scene, and HitFilm will automatically add a Doppler effect.

More plugins thrown in for free
In addition, Boris FX’s titling plugin, 3D Objects – a $299 add-on for its other host packages – now comes bundled with HitFilm 4 Pro for free.

The bundled version of Imagineer Systems’ mocha planar tracker, originally added in version 2 of the software, also gets an update, adding support for corner pinning data.

Finally, FXhome’s collection of OpenFX effects plugins, first bundled in with HitFilm 3 Pro, has now been rechristened HitFilm Ignite and now supports Catalyst Edit on top of its other host software.

The collection has been expanded from 130 plugins to over 140, with the new plugins “ranging from science-fiction lightswords and hyperdrive effects to instant, high-quality end titles”.

Pricing and availability
HitFilm 4 Pro is available now for 64-bit Windows 7 and above and Mac OS X 10.9 and above. The price of a new licence has gone up since the release of HitFilm 3 Pro, from $299 to $349.

In addition, the free, cut-down version of the software, HitFilm 3 Express, remains available.

Read a full list of new features in HitFilm 4 Pro on FXhome’s blog