Review – Genarts Sapphire 10 for Media Composer
By Jim Bask
Well Ladies and Gentlemen, we are definitely in an interesting time! I’ve written this review on the heels of probably the second biggest announcement in our industry in recent memory, and the funny thing is that the same company was behind both big news announcements. Boris FX’s purchase of Imagineer Systems was a groundbreaking purchase as, at the time, it gave editors the hope of having Mocha tracking capabilities in their NLE timelines and, needless to say, Boris FX and Imagineer Systems delivered. Big time. The second biggest announcement in our industry in recent memory is, again, another Boris FX acquisition, and this time it’s the purchase of their main competitor, Genarts. This is huge, as it means that there is now really only two main companies that focuses on the Avid Editor and that is Boris FX and New Blue FX. Something that I do want to mention in this review, and it’s something that’s important for me to say is that from what we’ve heard directly from Boris Yamnitsky, President and CEO of Boris FX, is that BCC and Sapphire will remain as two completely separate products (see Scott Simmons’ interview with Boris for the full details), so let’s take a look at Sapphire 10, the newest effects package from GenArts, and the first under the Boris FX banner. Before we jump into the price of GenArts Sapphire 10, I want to point out that version 10 is supported in Media Composer 6-8, but there is limited functionality in the S_Effect and S_Transition effect in versions 6 – 7.0.3, with full compatibility kicking in, in version 7.04 and higher….[continue reading]