Developer(s) | SilhouetteFX LLC |
---|---|
Stable release | 2020.5 / April 2020 [1] |
Operating system | Linux, Windows, Mac OS X |
License | Proprietary |
Website | SilhouetteFX |
SilhouetteFX began as a rotoscoping tool for the visual effects industry. SilhouetteFX has been expanded to include capabilities facilitating paint, warping and morphing, 2D to 3D conversion and alternative matting methods. As of V6, SilhouetteFX retains all of the aforementioned capabilities now embedded in a node-based digital compositing application.
SilhouetteFX is named for the art form associated with Étienne de Silhouette (July 8, 1709 – 1767). The fundamental output of a rotoscoping program is a matte which when viewed appears as a silhouette of an object to be treated in isolation of the remainder of an image. The image density of the matte determines how a compositing operation effect will be applied. Image pixels corresponding to brighter pixels in the matte will be treated differently than image pixels corresponding to darker pixels in the matte VFX.
The developer, SilhouetteFX LLC, was formed as a partnership between principals from Digital Film Tools and Profound Effects, Inc. Partners include Paul Miller, Marco Paolini, Peter Moyer and Perry Kivolowitz.
In 2019, Boris FX, a leading developer of VFX, compositing, titling, video editing, and workflow tools for broadcast, post-production, and film professionals acquired SilhouetteFX.
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Gregory S. Butler is an Academy Award-winning American visual effects supervisor. He graduated from Suffield High School in 1989 and afterwards entered Hampshire College. Despite his initial plans to study history, a work-study job with the audiovisual equipment in the library made him interested in film production. Butler graduated in 1993 with a major in film, television and theater design. Afterwards he moved to California to work for Industrial Light and Magic for 9 months, where after intern work he managed to become an assistant in the effects department, starting with assistant credits in The Mask and Forrest Gump. Following a job at Rocket Science Games until the company's bankruptcy in 1996, Butler went to Tippett Studio and did effects work in Starship Troopers and My Favorite Martian, rising up to a technical director job, and Cinesite for Practical Magic. While reluctant at the requirement of moving to New Zealand, Butler was convinced by his writer-actor brother to jump at the opportunity of working for Weta Digital in The Lord of the Rings. Among his achievements was working on the creation of Gollum. for which he was awarded a Visual Effects Society Award.
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