Tuesday, November 25th, 2025 Posted by Jim Thacker

Boris FX releases Sapphire 2026


Boris FX has updated Sapphire, its set of effects plugins for compositing and editing software.

Sapphire 2026.0 adds a new effect mimicking the look of analogue film burns, and a new whiplash transition powered by Sapphire’s Mocha tracking toolset.


New film burn effect and Mocha-powered whiplash transition
Sapphire 2026.0 adds two main new plugins: S_FilmBurn and S_MochaWhip.

S_FilmBurn – also available as a transition – uses high-resolution scans of physical film stock to recreate analogue film burns.

It includes a range of controls for the components of the effect, including light leaks, lens flares and film grain, plus artifacts from analogue film, like leader elements and sprocket holes.

S_MochaWhip is a transition that isolates a subject in one clip, tracks it using Sapphire’s built in Mocha tracking toolset, and whips it into a new clip.

Boris FX describes it as adding “more modern spice” to the existing S_WhipLash transition.

Updates to the existing lens flare and grunge effects
The existing S_LensFlare effect gets another new Pro Lens Flare Pack: eight readymade lens flare presets “inspired by authentic cinema optics”.

Grunge effect S_Grunge gets over 80 new texture stamps based on oil paint, chalk, ink, sponge, and splatter materials.

In addition, Sapphire’s Effect Builder, for creating custom effects, has been updated to enable users to inspect drivers and driven connections by hovering over the node graph.

Pricing and system requirements
Sapphire 2026.0 is available for a range of compositing and editing software, including After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Flame and Nuke, on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Perpetual licenses now cost $1,865 for the Adobe/OFX and Avid Media Composer editions, or $3,075 for a multi-host licence.

Subscriptions cost $80/month or $545/year for the Avid and Adobe/OFX editions. Multi-host subscriptions cost $144/month or $985/year.

Read an overview of the new features in Sapphire 2026.0 on Boris FX’s website

Read a full list of new features in Sapphire 2026.0 in the online release notes


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