Interview - Boris Yamnitsky, President, BorisFX

Pro Editing @Home by Kevin McAuliffe

Anyone who reads my articles knows that I like plug-ins. Let me rephrase that. I LOVE plug-ins, as they make my day to day editing life so much easier. One of the premiere plug-in designers in the business today is BorisFX, and I had a chance to ask their president Boris Yamnitsky some questions about their current products, and what we can expect from this plug-in giant in 2009.

PE@H: Can you give me a bit of history of BorisFX, and why you decided to create the company?

BY: I started BorisFX (or rather Artel Software, it became Boris FX a few years later) in 1995 after spending a couple of years with the Media 100 engineering team working on the first Media 100 FX Option. The big idea was to create DVE style transitions for Adobe Premiere on the Mac and for Media 100. Both were badly lacking any DVE capability comparable in quality with more expensive hardware solutions from Sony, Grass Valley or Pinnacle. The first product, called Boris FX, was introduced at Mac World Boston in 1995 where it won Best of Show from DV magazine. The Boris FX company was launched.

PE@H: What does BorisFX offer editors and motion graphic designers that other plug-in companies don't?

BY: Although the first Boris FX plugin started out as a software-based DVE, the product line quickly expanded to include chroma keying, text, compositing, vector graphics, spline masking, paint, motion tracking, optical flow, 3D extrusion, etc. Most plug-in packages remain the creation of a single person and lack the breadth of technological base. Our products, leverage from the work of a larger engineering team, the best and the brightest engineering minds in the industry (yes, being in Boston, near MIT is a plus).

Here is an example: the UpRez filter from BCC 5 has a mode called Magic Sharp. The quality of this algorithm is unmatched by any competing product when compared side by side. It was a result of very extensive R&D. Smooth Tone and DV Fixer in BCC 6 resume this quest for top-notch image processing. read more...