ONYX Ai Matte automatically generates masks from video
VFX artist and tools developer Evgeniy Shatskiy has released ONYX Ai Matte 2.5, a promising GPU-accelerated plugin for generating object and character mattes from video footage.
The AI-powered tool generates “production-quality mattes without hours of manual roto work”, masking moving objects in video footage from a rough marquee selection or even text prompts.
It is available for OFX-compatible VFX tools including DaVinci Resolve/Fusion Studio and Nuke.
Automatically generate mattes from video footage for VFX and motion graphics work
ONYX Ai Matte is pitched as a GPU-accelerated matting plugin “built for VFX artists who need production-quality mattes without hours of manual roto work”.
It automatically generates mattes isolating moving objects – characters, animals and inanimate objects – from video footage.
Users can guide the process in a number of ways, including marquee-selecting the object in one frame, or placing guide points around it, and having the plugin track it through the footage.
It is also possible to use rough masks from manual roto work as an input, and even just to enter simple text prompts like ‘person’ or ‘car’ to describe the object you want to track.
The plugin can track up to 32 objects at once in most modes, and 64 in text mode.
After the mattes have been generated, there are a range of options for refining them, including both further AI processing, and standard control parameters like edge feathering and dilation.
The add-on is based on two publicly available AI models: Meta’s SAM 3 for image segmentation, and VitMatte for generating the mattes themselves.
An inexpensive alternative to native AI matte-generation tools and third-party add-ons
ONYX Ai Matte provides an alternative to the native AI matte-generation tools in compositing apps, like DaVinci Resolve’s Magic Mask, and in third-party add-ons like those from Boris FX.
How valuable an alternative it is will depend on how good the masks it generates prove to be in production, but it’s being updated rapidly, and can be tested for seven days for free.
It supports the OFX open standard for image-processing plugins, so it should work with any OFX-compatible application, including DaVinci Resolve, Fusion Studio and Nuke.
Autodesk’s Flame isn’t listed in the product documentation, but also now supports OFX.
Price and system requirements
ONYX Ai Matte is compatible with OFX-compatible software including DaVinci Resolve 18+, Fusion Studio 18+, and Nuke 13+, running on Windows 10+. It requires a NVIDIA CUDA 12.6+ GPU.
For individual artists, a perpetual Indie license costs €80 (around $93). Studio licenses start at €180 ($210) according to team size. There is a free seven-day trial.
Visit the ONYX Ai Matte product website
Read more about how ONYX Ai Matte works in the online documentation
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