FX Home Announce HitFilm 3 Pro For Mac and PC

Posted on Oct 29, 2014 by Julian Mitchell

FXHOME has announced that the latest version of its video editing and visual effects software, HitFilm 3 Pro, is now available for pre-order from hitfilm.com for just $299 (£229), ahead of its release on 24th November 2014.

A year is a long time in the VFX industry. FX Home went to crowd sourcing to pay for their next round of development and maybe try and loose the shackles of their ‘Just for YouTubers’ reputation. This is unwarranted as many a large post production studio will find something they can use in the HitFilm box of tricks.

But in the last year Blackmagic Design has bought eyeon Software and also brought their Resolve grading product to the brink of becoming a fully fledged editor. The HitFilm 3 Pro release must be seen in the shadow of those products and also what AutoDesk might do next with Smoke For Mac. All the same HitFilm 3 Pro does have an impressive roll call of abilities.

HitFilm 3 Pro combines editing tools, 3D compositing, 3D object rendering, a particle simulator and a toolkit for advanced colour correction and grading, all in a single product. Over 180 fully customizable visual effects are included plus 130 plugins for use in Sony Vegas, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X and Motion.

“Modern filmmaking requires you to be an editor, VFX artist and colourist at the same time: HitFilm 3 Pro gives you everything you need.” Says Joshua Davies, FXHOME founder and CEO.

New in HitFilm 3 Pro is a redesigned editor and interface, 3D textures for particles, auto-tracking masks, OpenFX support, 3D fractal particle shapes, 3D camera projection and professional de-noising. Over 20 new effects include 3D wireframe, heat distortion, auto volumetrics and more. Also background proxying for complex VFX and a 16-bit OpenEXR pipeline.

The redesigned editing timeline gives users access to all the tools they need including slip, slice, ripple and roll edits, audio meters, keyframing and a new trimmer for fine control. Filmmakers craft projects in the fast, non-linear editor and can switch between multiple 3D compositing timelines as easily as changing tabs in a web browser.

HitFilm 3 Pro includes planar tracking from Imagineer Systems, providing mask tracking and 3D camera solving. Sony Vegas users can render HitFilm projects directly on the Vegas timeline. 64-bit architecture and GPU acceleration ensures the best performance across a wide range of hardware.

Filmmakers can generate thousands of particles with HitFilm 3 Pro, all of which are customisable in true 3D, from fleets of spaceships or swarms of creatures through to swirling snow, driving rain or thick dust and debris from an explosion.

Videos, images, 3D models and particles can all be combined in a unified, 3D compositing environment. All elements are rendered accurately in relation to each other, making it easier to construct scenes inside a single application.

“HitFilm 3 Pro is the best product we’ve ever created and is the result of two years of intensive development. Since we set up back in 2001, FXHOME has stood for supporting the next generation of filmmakers,” explained Joshua Davies, FXHOME founder and CEO. “With HitFilm 3 Pro, we have created a compelling combination of power and price, putting professional visual effects and editing software in the hands of students, indie filmmakers, educational institutions, VFX studios and YouTube creators; in fact, anyone wanting power, choice and value in one package.”

HitFilm 3 Pro costs $299/£229 and will be available to purchase from 24th November at hitfilm.com for both Mac and PC.

Minimum requirements are:

– Mac OSX 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9

– 64 bit Windows Vista, 7, 8

One HitFilm 3 Pro license contains three separate activations, and includes the HitFilm Plugins package launched earlier this year.

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