Dover Studios co-founder Andrew Hazelden has released Domemaster Fusion Macros version 2.0. The Domemaster Fusion Macros is a collection of 68 macros and 30 scripts that simplify and streamline the process of creating VR content in the Blackmagic Design Fusion compositing package. This toolset will boost your VR production capabilities and let freelancers and indie studios compete with the big shops on commercial VR projects. These macros are great for preparing pre-rendered content for use in a fulldome theater, or on a head mounted display like the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC VIVE, OSVR, or Google Cardboard. The node based macros allow artists to reformat stereoscopic imagery between LatLong, angular, and domemaster projections, convert LatLong imagery to cubic formats, and rearrange 6 sided cubic panorama images. Fusion’s node based approach makes it easy to re-target immersive content for Oculus Rift & Gear VR, fulldome, and panoramic format presentations, or composite live action footage into a panoramic backplate. As a bonus, the Domemaster Fusion Macros include several stereoscopic merging nodes so you can output your immersive content in the stereo 3D over/under, side by side, and anaglyph formats. Twenty-seven compositing examples are provided that show how to get the most out of the Fusion Macros. There is an advanced example that shows how to use a fast UV Pass technique to remap imagery between different panoramic projection formats. Domemaster Fusion Macros version 2.0 is now available for download and is priced at $249 USD for a single user license. Existing version 1.0 customers can upgrade for $99 USD. For more information about the macros check out Andrew Hazelden's Blog.

New Features in Version 2.0

• The Domemaster Fusion Macros have been updated to work with Fusion 8.
• The new "Generate UV Pass in PTGui" script automates the process of creating a set of UV pass warping maps from a PTGui Pro project file. This script allows Fusion to use a node based workflow to stitch panoramic 360° multi-camera rig imagery. The generated UV pass warping maps can be used in After Effects, Nuke, TouchDesigner, or any other tool that supports a UV Pass warping mode.
• There are now 27 Fusion example compositing project files included that give practical examples of node based panoramic 360 degree compositing workflows. There is a new roller coaster example scene that is rendered by Fusion's 3D animation system into the equirectangular, fulldome, and cubic panoramic image projections.
• The new Mac and Windows based graphical installer program makes it easier to get started right away.
• A set of Fusion 8 hotkeys was created to speed up the process of building a VR composite in Fusion. This is especially handy for quickly adding the nodes required when using a UV pass based VR stitching workflow in Fusion or Fusion Studio.
• The PanoView GUI makes it easy to send your immersive imagery to an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive HMD. You can now send panoramic imagery from Fusion to a desktop panoramic 360° media viewer or an HMD with a single keypress! The PanoView GUI window is accessible by running the "Edit PanoView Preferences" script.
• The "Send Media" scripts make is easy to pass media from Fusion to the rest of your design software like Adobe CC, Affinity Photo & Designer, Photomatix Pro, TouchDesigner, PTGui, and Autopano Pro. These tools are now easier then ever to configure using the new "Edit Send Media to Preferences" script.
• A new "Open 360 Video Metadata Tool" script was added that will launch the YouTube 360 / Facebook 360 spatial media metadata embedding program. This cuts down the time required to prepare a finished VR movie for delivery to online video platforms.
• The new "Convert Movies to Image Sequences" script lets you extract image sequences and audio files from a folder of movies. This is handy if you want to do challenging compositing tasks with footage sourced from video production formats like MP4 videos, QuickTime ProRes, Matroska MKV, or HVEC H.265 compressed footage inside of Fusion.
• The new 360° environment map based panoramic texture baking macros named "Angular2MeshUV", "CubicFaces2MeshUV", and "Equirectangular2MeshUV" allow you to convert and transform your panoramic imagery into any image projection imaginable. It works with your movies, HDRI imagery, and image sequences and uses the UV layout of a user defined FBX, OBJ, DAE, 3DS, or Alembic format polygon mesh to control the final image re-projection.
• The new "CubicFaces2DefishedRectangular" and "CubicFacesStereo2DefishedRectangularStereo" macros allow you to take panoramic cubic imagery and extract a regular 16:9 or 4:3 style video frame that can be shown on a TV or computer monitor in either a mono 2D or stereo 3D format.
• A collection of panoramic 360° mesh resources were added to allow for in-scene Fusion playback and review of custom image projections.
• A new "UVPassFromRGBImageOnDisk" node was created that does the UV pass warping inline in the composite by loading the UV image as an attribute inside the node instead of using a separate loader node for accessing the imagery. This node compliments the existing "UVPassFromRGBImage" node to allow for more flexibility in how you structure your comps.