Boris Continuum Complete 5 Release Notes
Welcome to Boris Continuum Complete for AE version 5. These Release Notes contain information regarding supported hosts, supported operating systems, installation instructions, known limitations, and other important information about the product.
Boris Continuum Complete is an effects package with over 180 powerful plug-in filters for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Autodesk Combustion, Eyeon Fusion, Quantel Q Systems, Liberty Paint and Boris Red.
What’s New in BCC 5
The following features are new in BCC 5:
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New category of hardware accelerated OpenGl filters
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New filters – Pan and Zoom, UpRez, Match Move, Turbulence, Noise Map 2, Color Choker, Damaged TV, Scanline, LED, Prism
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New Heads-Up-Display on-screen widgets with real-time update of pixel co-ordinates
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Hundreds of new presets are included
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Settings remain fully compatible with the version 3 and 4 releases
Compatibility with Older Versions of Boris Continuum Complete
Boris Continuum Complete 5 settings are compatible with prior releases subject to the following qualifications:
Users with BCC 3.x Installed
For users who currently have BCC 3.x on their system, installing BCC 5.0 will seamlessly replace the older filters with the new 5.0 versions of these filters. Rendered and unrendered effects will not be affected by the switchover from BCC 3.x or 4.x to BCC 5.0. If you are still using BCC 3.0, several gradient presets will be added to your BCC 3.0 Presets folder, which you can load into filters that use the Gradient Load and Save controls. These gradient presets were also included in the BCC 3.0.1 update.
Note for Premiere Pro users:
Due to improvements to Time filters in Premiere, some Time filter presets created in earlier versions of BCC are not compatible with BCC 5.0.
Users with BCC 2.x Installed
If you have Boris Continuum Complete version 2.x installed, running the Boris Continuum Complete 5.0 installer will not remove the older filters. BCC 5.0 filters can coexist with 2.x versions of BCC. However, after installing BCC 5.0, we do not recommend you apply BCC 2.x
filters to any new projects because it will be difficult to determine which version you are using. Once you finish older projects and are confident that you do not have any BCC 2.x filters in any projects, manually remove the BCC 2.x filters from your plug-ins folder.
Installing BCC 5.0 filters will not delete older BCC version 2.x filters, and thus will not affect rendered effects created in earlier versions of BCC. Presets created in BCC 3.x and 4.x can be opened in BCC 5 filters, with the exception of Time filter presets in Premiere Pro, and presets created with the BCC Match Grain filter. Due to changes made to this filter in BCC 4, BCC Match Grain filter presets created in BCC 3.x cannot be opened in BCC 5. BCC filters version 2.x and earlier cannot open BCC 5 presets.
Supported Hosts
Boris Continuum Complete 5 supports the following host applications.
Macintosh
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Adobe® After Effects® 5.5 and later
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Autodesk® Combustion® 2.1 and later
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Boris Red® 3GL and later
Windows
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Adobe® After Effects® 5.5 and later
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Adobe® Premiere Pro ® 1.5 (Premiere version 7.5)
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BCC 5.0 does not support Premiere Pro 1.0 (Premiere version 7.0)
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Autodesk® Combustion® 2.1 and later
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Eyeon® Fusion® 3.0 and later
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Quantel® Q Systems® via V. D. S.® Synapse® software
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Liberty® Paint® V. D. S.® Synapse® software
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Boris Red® 3GL and later
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BCC 5 supports Quantel Q Systems and Liberty Paint hosts via V. D. S. Synapse software.
Minimum System Memory Requirements
The following memory requirements are recommended for both Macintosh and Windows users:
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Minimum 512 MB (assigned to host application)
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Recommended 512 MB (assigned to host application)
Supported Operating Systems
Boris Continuum Complete 5 supports the following operating systems:
Macintosh
Mac OS™ X 10.4 and above
Windows
Microsoft® Windows® 2000, and Windows XP®
Supported OpenGL Configurations
Currently Boris Continuum Complete includes several filters that are OpenGL-dependent, including the BCC Glare, BCC Glint, BCC Glitter, BCC Lens Flare and BCC Lens Flare Advanced, BCC Damaged TV, BCC Scanline, BCC LED, BCC Prism filters. OpenGL is required to use these filters.
Localization
BCC is localized in several languages – English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. BCC 5.0 installs a Boris Language Pack file which reads the system language specified on your system and translates its menus into that language, if it is supported. Localization should be automatic and requires no work on the part of users. The Boris Language Pack file is located in the following location:
Macintosh:
System Drive/Library/Application Support/BorisFX/Boris Language Pack.ecs
Windows:
C:\Program Files\Boris FX, Inc.\Boris Language Pack.ecs
Editing Language Pack files with the Boris Localizer
The Boris Localizer is a standalone Mac OS X application available through your local Boris reseller that can be used to update the translation of BCC filters in any of its eight supported languages. Use the Boris Localizer to edit Boris Language Pack files which contain translations of BCC menus and parameters into various languages. Contact your reseller for more information on using the Boris Localizer to edit the default BCC translations.
Working with OpenGL
Currently Boris Continuum Complete includes several filters that are OpenGL-dependent. These are:
BCC Glare, BCC Glint, BCC Glitter, BCC Lens Flare, BCC Lens Flare Advanced, BCC Damaged TV, BCC Scanline, BCC LED and BCC Prism filters. OpenGL is required to use these filters.
OpenGL Acceleration Requirements
The first time you apply any of the Open GL filters, BCC performs a fast, automatic test to look for the specific OpenGL capabilities. If your configuration passes this internal test, the filter opens with OpenGL enabled. If your configuration does not pass, an error message displays instead of the image, and OpenGL is disabled. However, depending on the error message, youmay elect to enable OpenGL manually. See the next section for information on working with unsupported systems.
Working with Unsupported Configurations
If your system does not pass the OpenGL test, an error message displays. Clicking Options at the top of the filter displays an Open GL Settings dialog box showing that OpenGL is disabled. Click the Test OpenGL HW button in this dialog to view the results of the internal OpenGL test. This is the recommended method for examining your system’s configuration. A window displays information about your system, including the graphics card, OpenGL version, driver, texture memory and OS version. Two types of error messages can display in this window.
The first type of message indicates an unsupported configuration. In this case, you can try manually enabling OpenGL by selecting the Enabled checkbox in the Open GL Settings dialog box. In many instances, unsupported hardware can correctly render the OpenGL filters. If you enable this option and your system displays distorted frames, you will not be able to use the OpenGL filters.
The second type of error is a critical error. In this case, you cannot manually enable OpenGL and you will not be able to use the OpenGL filters. When you finish with the OpenGL dialog box, click OK to close the window.
Working with 8-bit and 16-bit Filters
Boris Continuum Complete can work with both 8-bit-per-channel and 16-bit-per-channel media; 16-bit-per-channel makes a larger range of colors available. This option’s availability is dependent on your host application. For example, the Adobe After Effects production bundle supports 16-bit color, while Boris Red, Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Adobe’s Premiere Pro do not. However, this could change in future versions. Consult your host application documentation for information on setting the color depth and render options. When you work with high-resolution images that use a narrow range of colors, such as gradients for film effects or HDTV output, 16-
bit-per-channel mode means that transitions between colors display less banding, and more detail is preserved. You can choose to work in 8-bit-per-channel or 16-bit-per-channel mode for each project. BCC automatically uses the color depth that was set in your host application. However, the BCC Color Palette, Rays and Star Matte filters do not operate in 16-bit color depth. If an effect supports only 8 bits, and your project is set to 16 bits, the host application displays a warning. Using an 8-bit effect in a 16-bit project will result in a loss of detail.
To optimize performance, you may want to create your effect in 8-bit color mode, save a
preset and then render a 16-bit file for maximum quality. However, you should preview the final effect to make sure that it looks correct. Even if you work with 8-bit media, at times your images may look better in 16 bit. This can occur when you are using multiple filters, or a complex filter with multiple inputs.
The OpenGL filters are 8-bit only.
Note for Advanced After Effects Users
In some cases 16-bit rendering provides an advantage even for an 8-bit project. Some filters have complex multi-pass algorithms which can render more smoothly in 16-bit, even in an 8-bit
project. You can compare the rendering of your effect by switching the project bit depth between 8-bit and 16-bit. If the effect looks better in 16-bit (when applied to 8-bit media) than it does in 8- bit, you can either:
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Render the whole project in 16-bit.
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Quit After Effects and remove the 8-bit filter from the Applications Support folder.
When you relaunch AE, BCC issues a one-time warning message that the 8-bit
optimization is not present. Ignore this message. The filter now creates all internal processing in 16-bit. Filters that are likely to benefit from 16-bit processing in an 8-bit project include all of the filters in the Lights category as well as: Light Matte, Glow Matte and Colorize Glow . Any composition in which you restrict the color space (for example, with levels or contrast), and then post process the image may look better in 16-bit. The OpenGL filters and the Rays filter are 8-bit only.
Working with Presets
Boris Continuum Complete has the ability to load and save presets. The PixelChooser has its own presets, and you can move the PixelChooser preset to other filters. BCC 5.0 includes a collection of presets for you to use. These effects are installed into the following (default) location:
Macintosh:
System Drive/Library/Application Support/BCC Presets 5.0 AE/Filter folder
Windows:
C:\Program Files\Boris FX, Inc.\BCC Presets 5.0 AE\Filter folder\
Presets are only compatible with the filter in which they were created. For example, if you attempt to load a Cartooner preset into a Blur filter, the preset is ignored.
However, PixelChooser presets load even if they were saved from another filter's
PixelChooser parameter group. Macintosh Combustion users cannot type the name of the preset in the dialog box because of a limitation in the Combustion architecture. All presets are saved with a default name Preset001.bcp . We strongly recommend you go to the filter’s folder in the Finder and rename the preset to a meaningful name immediately after saving it.
Presets do not save Motion Tracker data. If you open a new preset, any saved
motion tracking data will be lost. Loading a preset overwrites existing motion tracker data.
Presets created on a Windows system may be dimmed in the Open dialog on a Macintosh. However, they will open if you select Show all Files in the Open dialog.
Copying Presets to Your System
Copy presets to the default preset folder location on your system (see the previous section). You can also save your own presets to these folders. Presets must have “.bcp” as an extension and must have between three and 28 characters other than the “.bcp” extension.
Presets names must use alphanumeric characters only. Special characters in a preset name will dim that preset in the list. Inside the BCC Presets folder, each filter has its own folder. Place the preset inside the folder of the filter for which it was made.
Inside the BCC Presets folder, each filter has its own folder. Place the preset inside the folder of the filter it was made.
Loading Effects
To load a previously saved filter settings file, you must first apply the same filter to your media. Click the L or Load button. A dialog box allows you to load a file. The saved parameter settings are recalled and applied to your effect.
Combustion Macintosh users cannot choose a preset from the menu. Press the L button and browse to the location of the preset on your drive. Combustion Windows users will not see the name of the loaded preset in the Preset name field.
Saving Effects
After you apply a Boris filter and adjust the filter parameters, you can save the parameter settings by clicking the S or Save button. A dialog box allows you to name and save the file.
Preset names are limited to alphanumeric characters. Special characters in a preset name may result in the preset being dimmed in the Load preset list. Saving a BCC setting creates a static effect. Each filter has its own settings folder created when you install Boris Continuum Complete. We strongly recommend that you save files in the default location. Otherwise, the filter may not be able to locate them when you try to load a setting.
Combustion Macintosh users cannot type into the Save As dialog to change the file name. BCC automatically generates unique file names (on a per filter basis) starting with
Preset001.bcp . We recommend you immediately go to the filter’s folder in the Finder and give the preset a meaningful name to your effect.
Saving a BCC setting using the Save button does not store keyframes. Animations saved as settings saved appear static when you load them.
Presets must be named with “.bcp” as an extension and must have between three
and 28 characters other than the “.bcp” extension. Presets names must use alphanumeric characters only. Special characters in a preset name will dim that preset in the list.
Loading Preset Effects Created in Earlier Versions of BCC
To open presets created in a version of BCC earlier than 3.x, click the L or Load button and browse to the earlier BCC Presets folder, rather than loading the preset from the default BCC 3.0 Presets folder. The BCC presets folder’s previous location is the same as the BCC 3.x Presets folder, but does not contain 3.0 in its name.
Earlier versions of the BCC Presets folder are located in the following directories:
Macintosh:
System Drive/Library/Application Support/BCC Presets/Filter folder/
Windows:
C:\Program Files\Boris FX, Inc.\BCC Presets\Filter folder\
Because of updates to BCC filters, presets created in previous releases of BCC may not look the same in BCC4 as they did in the release they were created.
Important Information for After Effects Users
The BCC 5 installer will install the 16- bit filters in the After Effects plug-ins folder, and the 8 - bit filters in the following location:
Macintosh:
System Drive/Library/Application Support/BorisFX/Lib/BCC3BitDepthSupport/
Windows:
System Drive:\Program Files\BorisFX, Inc\Lib\BCC3BitDepthSupport\
The filters will automatically render in 16-bit or 8-bit, depending on your project bit depth. Only the After Effects Production bundle supports 16-bit color depth.
Using AE Masks in the BCC PixelChooser
The PixelChooser allows you to select masks created in After Effects.
Create a mask in After Effects and set the Mask Mode menu to None in the After Effects timeline. Apply a BCC filter containing the PixelChooser and set the PixelChooser menu in the filter to On . In the PixelChooser’s Mask menu, choose the mask you created in After Effects. The region defined by the AE mask is used by the BCC filter’s PixelChooser.
Tracking and Time Stretch in After Effects
Tracking works with time stretch in AE provided that you redo the tracking after you change speed, and that the speed is > 0. You can also time stretch a precomposition (forward or back), and apply a filter with tracking. Time stretching an effect that has been tracked in a precomposition does not work properly. Animated time remapping with the tracker has not been tested.
Important Information for Premiere Pro Users
Keep in mind the following information when working with Premiere Pro. BCC 5.0 does not support Premiere Pro 1.0 (Premiere version 7.0).
Displaying Position Points and Enabling Direct Manipulation
To display positions points in Premiere’s Monitor window you need to enable direct manipulation in a filter by clicking to select the name of the filter in the Effect Controls window. However, due to limitations in Premiere Pro, when adjusting parameters in the filter, the position points may randomly disappear. To make them reappear, click to select the
filter’s name at the top of the filter again. Click the bottom of the filter to deselect the filter name when you are done adjusting the onscreen controls.
The effect name in the Effect Controls window should not be kept highlighted unless you are actually adjusting position points. This is true whether you are tracking or just working with an effect. Working with the effect name highlighted causes the filter to process slower.
Important Information about Motion Tracking
Because of limitations in the Premiere Pro architecture, there are several issues you need to be aware of when motion tracking. For detailed information including step-by-step directions on using the motion tracker in Premiere, click the Help button in the Motion Tracker banner in filters that contain the Motion Tracker. Set the Fit Menu to 100% When you motion track, set the Fit
menu at the bottom of Premiere’s Monitor window to 100% . If you set it to any other choice, the motion tracker does not work.
Tracking on the Fly
Because of limitations in Premiere Pro, motion tracking on the fly does not play every frame, and plays at a reduced rate. As a workaround you need to slowly step through single frames or render the clip.
You need to slowly advance the by pressing the right-arrow key, making sure not to hold
down the key and waiting until each frame has finished tracking before pressing the right-arrow key again. If you hold the key down or press it too fast, Premiere Pro will jump ahead and track out of order. The motion tracker requires frames to be processed sequentially or it gives an error message. Tracking in Premiere sometimes fails and tracks frames out of order. Usually, changing an unused parameter and retracking fixes this. Once an effect has been successfully tracked, retracking it should work.
Working with Witness Protection filter
When you use the BCC Witness Protection filter, your effect is visible in Premiere Pro while track on the fly is enabled, and you see both the crosshair and the effect. After rendering once with track on the fly enabled (in order to get tracking data), you must disable track on the fly and render again for the effect to fully render correctly.
The Reset Button
Premiere does not correctly clear its cache after you press the Reset button. When you Reset the Tracker parameter controls in Premiere a confirmation dialog is displayed with instructions on how to proceed.
Working with Premiere and OpenGL filters
If you enable or disable an OpenGL dependent filter, you need to move the current time indicator or refresh the image in your sequence monitor in order to see the change. Follow the instructions onscreen after pressing Reset.
Important Information for Autodesk Combustion Users
Keep in mind the following information when working with Combustion.
Working with Presets in Combustion
The following limitations using presets exist when using Combustion:
Limitations when using the Macintosh version of Combustion
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You cannot select a preset from the menu; you need to press the L button and browse to the location of the preset on your drive.
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You cannot type into the Save As dialog to change the file name. BCC automatically generates a unique file name (on a per filter basis) starting with Preset001.bcp . We recommend you
immediately go to the filter’s folder in the Finder and give the preset a meaningful name to your effect.
Limitations when using the Windows version of Combustion
Due to limitations in the Combustion architecture, when you load a preset, the name of the preset does not appear in the preset list.
Understanding Field Handling in Combustion
Some time-based filters (for example Particles, Time Filters, and Motion Blur effects) need information from the host application to know whether to field render. Since Combustion does not pass that information, BCC assumes field rendering if the frame rate is 25.0, 29.97, or 30.0 fps.
FIXES - BCC 501 - AE HOST API
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 Premiere Pro, dragging the cursor over the numeric entry field of any filter parameter (scrubbing) could result in the random generation of black frames. This affected the preview only and did not affect the final render. The issue has been fixed in this version of the software.
In the previous version of BCC 5, the use of special characters (ie, symbols or slashes) in the names of some options in two filters (BCC Pan and Zoom and BCC UpRez), prevented the use of these options within certain hosts. The only host that was affected by this issue was Boris RED. The issue has been fixed and the affected filters now operate as expected in all hosts.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 Premiere Pro, attempting to load a preset using the pop-up preset list after using the L or S buttons may cause the host to behave unexpectedly. This issue has been fixed with this version of the software.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe Premiere Pro CS3/2/1.5, if the cursor was placed over the preset pop-up menu after a loaded preset has been modified, the modified values return to the default state of the loaded preset. The issue has been fixed in this version of the software.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe Premiere Pro CS 3/2/1.5, when the Preview Target feature in the Pan and Zoom filter was set to Mix mode, the on-screen UI (HUD) Preview boxes did not display correctly in the host Record Monitor. This issue has been fixed in this version.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 After Effects host on Macintosh systems, attempts to use the preset load pop-up function to load a factory installed (or user configured) preset did not always load the preset but sometimes left the filter at the default setting. This issue has been fixed, and the preset load mechanism operates as expected.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 After Effects host on Macintosh systems, the BCC 3D Extruded Image Shatter filter did not appear in the host filter list. This issue has been resolved and the filter now appears in the host filter list as expected.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 Premiere Pro, if the BCC Multi-Shadow filter was applied to a clip that contained alpha information, the host could exhibit unexpected behavior. This issue has been fixed and the filter now behaves as expected.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 Suite or Autodesk Combustion, the BCC Optical Stabilizer would not generate the expected stabilized image. The issue has been fixed in this version of the software for all hosts, except for Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.We are working with Adobe to correct this Issue.
In the previous version of BCC 5, when using the product within the Adobe CS3 Premiere Pro, if the BCC Alpha Spotlight filter was applied to a clip, the host could exhibit unexpected behavior. This issue has been fixed and the filter now behaves as expected.
KNOWN ISSUES - BCC 501 - AE HOST API
When using any of the filters that are included in the BCC OpenGL category within the Adobe Premiere CS 3/2/1.5 host, an error message would sometimes appear at random in the host user interface. We are working with Adobe to resolve the issue.
If the BCC 3D Extruded Image Shatter filter was applied to a clip within the Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 host, a DirectX error message would appear on the screen after the user has exited the host. We are working to resolve this issue.
The Custom Banners at the top of every BCC filter are not displayed when using the filters within the Adobe Premiere Pro CS 3 host environment on Macintosh systems. We are working with Adobe to correct the issue.
When using the BCC Pan and Zoom filter in the Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 host environment on Windows and Macintosh Systems, the filter will display an error message when attempting to use External Files. The workaround is to use media from the host project window until this issue is resolved. We are working with Adobe to resolve this issue.
When using the BCC 3D Extruded Image Shatter within the Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 host environment on Windows Systems, a bad frame is sometimes generated at random in instances where the BCC 3D Extruded Image Shatter has been applied to a clip. We are working with Adobe to resolve the issue.
The built-in Motion Tracker generates an error message when used in 16 bit color depth within the Boris RED host environment. Because RED includes it's own motion tracking system, users can work around this issue by relying on the motion tracking system within the Boris RED user interface to lock a filter parameter to the motion of a particular array of pixels in a clip.
The built-in Motion Tracker generates an error message when used in the Adobe CS3 Premiere Pro host, and the built-in Motion Tracker feature does not function as expected. We are working with Adobe to resolve the issue.
Sometimes, after installing the BCC filters into the Adobe After Effects CS3 host, several of the BCC filters would appear to be missing from the filter menu. We are working with Adobe to resolve the issue.