I have NewBlue Video Essentials II, III, and IV. I use maybe 1-2 effects from each package and those are pretty neat. I will probably never use the rest, but I knew that when I bought them. Other users might enjoy the other effects but they just don't pertain to the kinds of videos I do.

Do download the trial and see if you like 'em. It's too bad NewBlue can give you an a la carte approach instead of a package.

It's too bad NewBlue can give you an a la carte approach instead of a package.

As cheap as they are, they would probably be almost as much individually as a package. :)

Thanks for the comments guys.

The Chromakey plug-in is my main interest so I'm researching a little to see if there is over $200 difference in the two products chromakey plug-in.

TrueBlue Video Essentials is $79While BorisFX is $299

I just thought I'd ask around before committing the time to downloading and trying... as it is easy to burn up hours evaluating new software... as I'm sure you guys know... but ultimately that is the final test :)

While I have the NewBlue, I still use the Vegas Pro Chroma Keyer with the Chroma Blur to do my CK work.

> I read some good things about both of them over at the Cow Vegas Forum
> http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/24/914474

Since the time that question was asked on the COW, Boris has come out with Continuum Complete 7 for Vegas Pro 10 (I had answered that BCC wasn't available for Vegas because at the time it wasn't). Here is something to consider:

Boris FX and BCC7 have way more keying tools than NewBlue FX but to be fair... NewBlue is a whole lot cheaper. So if you only want to spend $79 then NewBlue has a very respectable chroma keyer. I have it. It works beautifully.

What you get with Boris is a lot more control over the matte for doing very difficult keys (i.e, Alpha Process, Chroma Key, Composite Choker, Light Wrap, Linear Color Key, Linear Luma Key, Make Alpha Key, Matte Choker, Matte Cleanup, Motion Key, PixelChooser, TwoWayKey, & Wire Remover) . In that list is what I consider to be the "secret sauce" of selling a good key and that's Light Wrap. What Light Wrap does is take the light from the background that you've keyed in and wraps it around the foreground subject enhancing the illusion that they are really in scene. For example, if the sky is blue and the grass is green, then there is blue reflection on top of the person and green reflection on the bottom and they instantly "fit" into the scene. For me... this alone is worth the price of admission.

So... if you are OK with spending more to get more, then the choice is between Boris FX $299 and BCC7 $599. I don't know what Boirs' plans are for the next version of Boris FX (that said they are updating it) but it currently does not have the tight integration that BCC7 has. Also, BCC7 has 123 plug-ins including 3D extruded text which Boris FX doesn't have (you'll need Boris Graffiti to do that). Once the introductory price is over, BCC7 goes back to $999 so while $599 is a lot of money, it's still a great deal but you need the budget for it.

Bottom line: if you just need a good chroma keyer right now and don't want to spend a lot of money, download the trial of NewBlue FX and see if it works for you. If you want to invest in an incredible set of tools that will address dozens of situations (including outstanding chroma key with light wrap) get BCC7. If you can't afford BCC7, get Boris FX.

Hope that helps,

~jr

I have Boris and New Blue. If I make the same effect with each plug the quality of Boris's effect will always be better than new Blue's. My guess is the quality on New Blue is lowered some how for faster rendering speed, but Boris looks better than Blue.