Never has it been a better time to be an effects and visual effects geek like me. Boris FX has cornered the market on the high end visual effects, with their flagship plug-in package, Boris Continuum Complete, they purchased both Imagineer Systems as well as GenArts, to lock up the best tracking and roto application on the market today, Mocha (Pro/AE/BCC/Sapphire), and they finished their acquisition a few months ago of GenArts, bringing the highest of the high end visual effects into the mix. Boris FX (we no longer say GenArts Sapphire, it’s now simply Boris FX Sapphire 11) has recently released the next version of Sapphire, Sapphire 11, so let’s take an in-depth look, and see if this newest update is worth your hard earned dollars.

This in-depth look ended up turning out a little different than I thought it would, as I actually sat down contemplating the path that Boris FX took with Sapphire version 11, as it’s definitely not a traditional one. Sapphire and Continuum are now Brother and Sister, and it just so happened that when the acquisition of GenArts by Boris FX was going on, both products were at the same version. Version 10, except BCC had a jump on Sapphire that left it lagging behind just a little bit. The year (or so) previous, Boris FX had acquired Imagineer Systems, makers of Mocha. Now, I’m going to assume that the Continuum team was already in development of version 10, so having the Imagineer Systems team step in and develop the Mocha integration, via the Pixel Chooser almost seemed like a no brainer. When GenArts was acquired, I’m going to guess that version 11 was only on the drawing board, and there really could be only one priority for it, and that is get Mocha Integration in there, so that the brother/sister team of BCC and Sapphire were on level playing fields. Remember, as much as you might think that BCC and Sapphire are “Just the same effects in different packages”, you couldn’t be more wrong. BCC has always been an editor’s toolkit. Not only did/does it have effects, but it also has essential tools for you to use to get your jobs done, and in many cases, fixed. Sapphire has always been about visual effects. You need to simulate lightning, Sapphire is your tool. Want to simulate the moon, or the night sky, you won’t find a more realistic effect than S_Luna. Sapphire has also begun to push the boundaries of effects work in Media Composer by giving us a glimpse node based compositing with S_Effect and Builder tool. So, this is where version 11 got me thinking of it not so much as….”full update”, but a “technical update”. The main new feature in version 11 of Sapphire is Mocha Integration. There have been some additional presets added, and overall speed enhancements, but the core feature update is Mocha Integration in almost every effect in the package. I would almost call this update version 10.5, but I completely understand why it’s version 11, to keep it consistent with version 11 of BCC.

There’s something else that I want to mention before we get rolling and talk about the Mocha Integration. Ever since the acquisition of GenArts by Boris FX, I’ve been wondering if we’re going to see a “converging” of some of the elements of BCC and Sapphire, to take some essential tools from one package, and add it to another. Now, when I say “essential tools”, I’m not talking about effects necessarily. I’m talking about things like porting Pixel Chooser over to Sapphire, and the S_Effect (Builder Tool) from Sapphire to BCC. Boris FX has decided against that route, and has built a custom parameter set for Mocha inside of Sapphire. Let’s take a look!

MOCHA INTEGRATION

Now, to be honest, I’m not going to spend any time on the nuts and bolts of tracking in Mocha Sapphire, as the concept for tracking is the same across all the version of Mocha. What I do want to do is show you how to get into Mocha once you’ve applied an effect, and what results you should be looking for, along with some of the extra parameters you can get in and adjust from within the Effects Editor interface. Let’s us S_Glow as the example effect to work with as, for me, it’s probably the best glow on the market today. Take the effect and apply it to a clip that you’d like Mocha to isolate a portion of. Once applied, you’ll notice the S_Glow effect on the entire shot.

Not quite what you’re looking for, but bear with me here, and it will make more sense in a minute. You can now click on the “Edit Mocha” button, towards the top of the Effect Editor, to open up Mocha Sapphire (the actual application is called Mocha Pixel Chooser, but I’ll be referring to it as Mocha Sapphire for the rest of this article), and track the area of the shot you want to apply S_Glow to. Once you’re done, simply close Mocha Sapphire (MS), and you’ll now see your S_Glow effect applied to the area of the shot you tracked with MS…[continue reading]

Press Release

Imagineer Systems releases new mocha Pro 5.2 point release with major workflow improvements for VFX & post-production artists.

Guildford, UK – November 28, 2016 – Imagineer Systems, the Academy Award­-winning developer of mocha planar tracking & masking software, releases mocha Pro 5.2, a point release with significant new features and fixes for the VFX community. mocha Pro’s highly regarded visual effects software has been used on countless high-profile film and television projects including Game of Thrones, Star Wars: Episode IV and The Walking Dead.

New mocha Pro 5.2 features include cross-platform, floating license support for both standalone and plug-in options and a new Render-Only license option for network node rendering.

“We are happy to address the needs of our enterprise customers and the larger studios that require the flexibility and security of floating license support,’ says Ross Shain, CMO of the newly merged Boris FX/Imagineer Systems/GenArts group. “Since releasing the mocha plug-in option for Nuke, Adobe and Avid, the number one facility request has been for floating licenses on the plug-in option.” Shain continues, “With the 5.2 release a facility can now serve a mix of mocha Pro standalone or plug-ins across teams and also push render intensive tasks, such as object removal, to render farms for increased efficiency.”

New in mocha Pro 5.2

• New Floating License Support: You can now run both the mocha Pro standalone and mocha Pro plug-in options off one floating license server.
• New Render License Option:  A new Render License option allows users to render projects on a networked render farm or different workstation without taking up a full license.
• Improved GPU tracking performance: mocha’s planar tracking has been updated to take advantage of supported video card hardware for significantly faster motion tracking. OpenCL GPU tracking in mocha v5.2 is even faster and now supports 16 and 32 bit source images.
• New Apply Tracking Feature in After Effects Plug-in: You can now apply generated tracking data to other layers via the plug-in interface rather than exporting to the clipboard.
• Improvements & bug fixes: including improved Python scripting support, improved handling of larger, multi-layer projects and numerous plug-in fixes for Adobe, Avid and OFX.

mocha Pro 5.2 is available as a free download for all owners of mocha Pro 5.

read the mocha Pro 5.2 release notes

mocha has made its mark on Hollywood blockbusters such as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the “Harry Potter” series, and “The Hobbit.”

Top 3 Features

1.  New Plug-in Options

mocha Pro 5 can now be run as a plug-in for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, OFX hosts Blackmagic Fusion & The Foundry’s NUKE. Uses the host media engine, no transcoding! 

2. Faster GPU Tracking

mocha renowned planar tracking has been updated to take advantage of OpenCL video cards for significantly faster tracking on 4K and high resolution projects. 

3. Object Removal

Automatically remove unwanted elements, wires, rigs and tracking marks with ease.

mocha Pro’s Remove Module detects and blends pixels from other frames with little user input, offering massive time savings. Clean plate functionality imports and corrects fixed frames for digital beauty work and matte painting. 

mocha Pro also offers tools for advanced roto work, stabilizing, an insert module, and more. Discover more about mocha Pro. 

Part I. Covers the point motion tracker built into BCC for simple motion tracking tasks.

Part II. Covers the integrated mocha/BCC Pixel Chooser (found in BCC 10) which can be used for planar tracking and rotoscoping tasks including effects isolation and screen replacement.

Part III. Covers the new mocha Pro 5 plug-in for Avid, which is best for advanced compositing and finishing tasks. The plug-in harnesses the full power of mocha Pro directly in your timeline, including tracking, roto and the additions of insert module, the stabilize module, Lens module and the remove tool.

mocha Pro 5 can now be run as a plug-in for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer. Uses the host media engine, no transcoding!

2. Faster GPU Tracking

mocha planar tracking has been updated to take advantage of OpenCL video cards for significantly faster tracking on 4K and high resolution projects.

3. New License System

Have license, will travel! Simply “activate or deactivate” your license and run mocha Pro 5 on any computer.

4. Supports the Most Formats

Whether running as a plug-in or standalone, mocha Pro 5 supports more formats than ever before. New exports include Fusion, Silhouette, improved Flame/Smoke & more. View Chart

5. New Lower Pricing!

Purchase the mocha Pro 5 plug-in for Adobe or Avid for only $695! Or choose the 1 year year Multi-Host + Standalone Subscription for only $595 Purchase Now Upgrade Now

For the first time ever, mocha Pro is being offered as an affordable plug-in to run inside Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro & Avid Media Composer. Plug-in support for OFX hosts such as Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve and The Foundry’s NUKE coming soon! If you are already running the Adobe bundled mocha AE or any past mocha software versions, we invite you take mocha Pro 5 for a spin.

Webinar: June 30th at 12pm EDT / 9 am PDT

mocha Pro 5 for Adobe Users

In this live 1 hr training session, Imagineer product specialist Mary Poplin will cover the new mocha Pro Adobe plug-in designed for Adobe Creative Cloud users.  

Space is limited. Reserve your webinar seat now.

 Topics covered: 

• Plug-in interface and workflow in both After Effects and Premiere Pro 
• Screen Replacements using Insert Module 
• Stabilize and Smooth Camera Motion 
• Remove Unwanted Objects with Remove Module 
• Advanced techniques for planar tracking and roto-masking