Fusion Studio 21 Beta Targets High-End Motion Graphics and VFX
Fusion Studio 21 arrives in public beta as Blackmagic Design’s latest push to keep its standalone 3D compositing package relevant alongside the Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve. The focus of this cycle is clearly on professional motion graphics tools and tighter 3D compositing integration, with Beta 3 currently available for artists to test. While Resolve tends to get more promotional visibility, the underlying Fusion feature set is aligned across both products, meaning the advances demonstrated in the Resolve interface also apply to Fusion Studio users. For existing pipelines, the 21 beta is less about headline-grabbing gimmicks and more about deep workflow upgrades: expanded motion graphics options, more capable deep compositing, a maturing USD workflow, and more precise lens correction. Together, these updates aim to make Fusion Studio a more attractive hub for complex VFX and motion graphics jobs that span 2D, 3D and multi-application pipelines.
Krokodove and New Formats Expand Motion Graphics Tools
The standout change in Fusion Studio 21 is the integration of Krokodove, formerly a popular free third‑party add‑on. Now built in, it contributes over 70 motion graphics tools, ranging from image filters and advanced warps to morphing effects and sophisticated titling utilities. For studios, this turns Fusion into a much stronger motion graphics environment without relying on external plugins to fill creative gaps. Format support has also become more flexible: Fusion can now import Lottie animations and OGraf HTML-based graphics, letting designers bring assets from web and UI pipelines directly into their comps. Text creation gets a quality‑of‑life overhaul too, with Text+ and MultiText now handling colored fonts and emojis, plus a built‑in spell checker and auto‑correct. Collectively, these additions position Fusion Studio 21 as a more modern motion design platform that speaks the same language as contemporary digital branding and product teams.
Deeper Deep Compositing and USD Workflow Enhancements
Fusion Studio 21 deepens its 3D compositing credentials on two fronts: deep image workflows and USD workflow integration. On the deep side, a new dColorCorrector node lets artists perform native color correction directly on deep images, avoiding the need to flatten data before grading. This preserves per‑pixel depth information throughout the process and reduces the risk of edge artifacts. Full layer support further streamlines complex deep comps. For USD, Fusion’s toolset gains the uProjector and uCatcher nodes, enabling decal projection and texture reprojection inside USD-based scenes. Artists can mark objects as holdout mattes via a new Is Matte option, simplifying occlusion setups, while the USD renderer adds an Neye AOV to output camera‑relative normals for relighting tasks. With support for Hydra 2, Fusion joins other high‑end DCC tools that are standardizing on the latest USD rendering architecture.
Lens Correction, Cryptomatte and Workflow Refinements for Compositors
For VFX compositors, Fusion Studio 21 refines core utilities that directly affect real‑world shot integration. The Lens Distort node now supports checkerboard calibration, allowing artists to derive a usable lens solve from a single frame containing a checkerboard grid. This makes it faster to match CG renders to plate photography, especially in on‑set data‑constrained situations. Fusion’s standard 3D renderer can now export Cryptomatte data, aligning it with most modern DCC and rendering tools for robust ID matte generation and selective grading inside complex scenes. New Relief Map and Create Relief Map tools generate detailed, self‑occluding textures without subdividing geometry, providing an efficient way to add surface detail in 3D compositing setups. On the usability side, a new Macro Editor streamlines template and macro creation, while MultiInspector allows editing shared parameters across multiple nodes, accelerating iterative look development on dense node trees.
Performance, Platform Support and Availability for Beta 3
Beyond new motion graphics tools and USD workflow upgrades, Fusion Studio 21 beta makes significant under‑the‑hood improvements. SpeedWarp, the AI-based retiming tool, now uses the same engine as DaVinci Resolve’s Edit and Cut pages, promising better performance and consistency across applications. Relight and Depth Map operations are reported to be up to six times faster, a meaningful gain for artists pushing high‑resolution or stereo workloads. The release also introduces native support for Windows on ARM, aligning Fusion with Resolve and optimizing performance on new Copilot+ laptops and tablets. Fusion Studio 21 Beta 3 is available now as a free update for existing license holders, with new perpetual licenses priced at USD 295 (approx. RM1,380). For many users, however, the Fusion toolset will also remain accessible inside the free edition of DaVinci Resolve, albeit with resolution and network rendering limitations.