Blackmagic Design (www.blackmagic.com) has announced a free Fusion 8.1 update that adds Fusion Connect for Avid as well as compatibility with the latest Avid Artist DNxIO video interface. The Fusion 8.1 update is available now for both Fusion 8 and Fusion Studio customers, and can be downloaded from the Blackmagic Design website.
 
Previously, Fusion Connect for Avid was only available in Fusion Studio on Windows for $995. Fusion 8.1 now adds Fusion Connect for Avid to the free version of Fusion, and is available to both Mac and Windows customers using Media Composer with the Avid Artist DNxIO video interface.
 
Fusion Connect for Avid is an AVX plugin that Avid editors can use to round trip single clips, sequences of clips, or even stacks of layers from Media Composer to Fusion for adding visual effects and motion graphics. Once Fusion Connect for Avid is applied to clips in the Media Composer timeline, it will create a Fusion composition with a node tree that is linked to the correct Media Composer sources.
  
Fusion 8 for Mac and Windows is free for customers and is now available to download from the Blackmagic Design website. Fusion 8 is a full professional 3D visual effects and compositing system that is suitable for independent effects, motion graphics, and broadcast design artists. Fusion 8 features integrated 2D and 3D compositing and motion graphics software with a massive toolset featuring paint, rotoscope, titling, animation, multiple keyers, an amazing 3D particle system, advanced keyframing, GPU acceleration, and support for importing and rendering 3D models and scenes from other applications.
 
Fusion 8 Studio for Mac and Windows is available now from $995. Fusion Studio has all of the same features as the free version, but also adds advanced optical flow image analysis tools for stereoscopic 3D work, retiming and stabilization. Fusion Studio also includes support for third-party OpenFX plugins, unlimited distributed network rendering, and Generation for studio wide multi user collaboration to track, manage, review and approve shots when working with large creative teams on complex projects.