The folks over at Boris FX have released a new tool that might be of interest to those looking to move an edit from Final Cut Pro to Avid Media Composer. It’s called Boris AAF Transfer and attempts to take your simple to complex FCP timeline and export that into an AAF which is then imported into Media Composer. Feature highlights include (from the Boris website):

  • Alpha Channel Support. Transfer still images and video clips while retaining alpha information, preserving the alpha channel. The transferred sequence appears exactly the same in Media Composer as it did in Final Cut Pro.
  • Boris Continuum Complete Compatibility. Transfer BCC filters and transitions that were applied to clips or transitions in the FCP timeline while retaining all of the keyframed changes that were made to the applied filter or transition effect. The BCC filters are seamlessly transferred into Media Composer as long as the corresponding BCC filter or transition effect is present in the Media Composer host where the transferred sequence is opened.
  • Motion Tab Support. Boris AAF Transfer translates many of Final Cut Pro’s Motion Tab features including basic motion, crop, opacity, and speed.
  • Text Generators. Convert FCP’s built-in text generators into Avid Title Tool effects.
  • Time Effects. Boris AAF Transfer supports many of FCP’s time-based effects.

For a more detailed list of what this tool can do and how some of the FCP features are supported in Media Composer check out this more in-depth pdf. There’s also a video demonstration at the Boris site. The cost of AAF Transfer is $299 and there’s a free demo available.

With the introduction of AAF Transfer Boris moves a bit further into the transfer utility business, space that was previously occupied mainly by Automatic Duck. Boris also makes a $299 product called XML Transfer that is tasked with transferring a Final Cut Pro timeline into Adobe After Effects, territory that was pretty much Automatic Duck’s alone. These tools aren’t needed by everyone and they aren’t cheap but it’s their single focus and ability to save a lot of time and a lot of headaches that makes them one of the most useful tools for many.