This week Blackmagic Design announced a new version of Fusion, their high-end compositing application.

The good news for Avid Media Composer users is that Fusion version 8.1 works with with Fusion Connect 8.1:

This software adds the Fusion Connect for Avid plug-in that is compatible with Avid edit systems, so you can send any clip or stack of clips from an Avid Media Composer timeline directly into Fusion or Fusion Studio. Now Avid editors can have access to Fusion’s powerful 3D compositing and animation tools

Up until now many Avid users have been advised to transfer timelines to NUKE as a 360° video solution. Fusion 8 is a free application that is a peer to NUKE. Before being bought by Blackmagic Design, it was an expensive application. Fusion has been used in the post production of many high-end TV shows and feature films. To promote their hardware, Blackmagic Design made a Mac version of Fusion and released a almost fully functional free version.

As well as being a high-end node-based 3D compositor, Fusion 8 can also use 360° plugins. For example there is the $249 Domemaster Fusion Macros from Andrew Hazelden:

The Domemaster Fusion Macros allow artists to create immersive 360° stereo composites. The new immersive toolset is designed to work with Blackmagic Design’s Fusion compositing software. These macros are great for preparing pre-rendered content for use in a fulldome theater, or on a head mounted display like the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC VIVE, OSVR, or Google Cardboard.

So, if you are a Media Composer editor who is comfortable with learning new compositing applications who is interested in working with 360° video, check out Blackmagic Fusion 8.1 and Domemaster Fusion Macros.