Silhouette

The Industry Standard
for Roto & Paint

Silhouette 2024.5

Powered by Machine Learning

Silhouette

World’s Most Refined Rotoscoping

Everything you need to get started

Silhouette Essentials Training

Visual Effects & Compositing

The industry’s leading rotoscoping and paint tool is packed with major compositing features. Silhouette delivers 400+ VFX nodes, including Boris FX Sapphire, Mocha Pro, and Particle Illusion.

Top artists have relied on Silhouette on Hollywood’s biggest titles for over fifteen years. The Academy and Emmy Award-winning toolkit created by visual effect artists recently made its mark on Deadpool & Wolverine, Rebel Moon, Barbie, Dune, and 3 Body Problem.

Why Silhouette?

Industry leading rotoscoping and paint tools
Auto paint for speed and reliability
Powerful tracking options
Node based compositing and image processing
Easy keying for green screens
Includes Sapphire, Mocha, Particle Illusion and Continuum effect tools
Warping and morphing tools
Work as a plugin in your favorite host or as a standalone application

Behind The Scenes

Silhouette powers Fallout

Discover how Framestore used Silhouette to tackle complex roto and paint tasks on the smash-hit series based on the iconic video game.

Plug in to your favorite host

Or work in standalone

macOS

Windows

Linux

System requirements

Mac OS
OS Requirements
  • Monterey (12.0) and higher
Processor (CPU)
  • Apple silicon or Intel (Sandy Bridge or newer)
System Memory (RAM)
  • 16 GB +
Disk
  • High-speed disk array or NVMe SSD
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • Apple silicon integrated GPUs are supported, as are AMD GPUs on most modern Intel CPU Macs.

  • Machine Learning Plugins (ML) require an Apple silicon integrated GPU with macOS Monterey (12.0) and above.

  • If an appropriate GPU is not available, ML plug-ins can run on the CPU with significantly degraded performance.

Monitor
  • 1920×1080 or higher
Network
  • Must have an enabled network adapter (wifi or ethernet)
Windows
OS Requirements
  • Windows 10 & 11
Processor (CPU)
  • Intel x64 (Sandy Bridge or newer)
System Memory (RAM)
  • 8 GB minimum, 16+ GB preferred
Disk
  • High-speed disk array or NVMe SSD
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • Most modern graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD are supported for GPU acceleration, but for best performance, we recommend workstation powered by NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation, or AMD Radeon™ PRO Series.

  • Machine Learning (ML) Plugins plugins require an NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 6.0 or above (Pascal), or an AMD Radeon™ PRO Series GPU.

  • If an appropriate GPU is not available, ML plug-ins can run on the CPU with significantly degraded performance.

Monitor
  • 1920×1080 or higher
Network
  • Must have an enabled network adapter (wifi or ethernet)
Linux
Operating System
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Centos 7-9, a compatible Linux distribution such as Rocky Linux, or Ubuntu
Processor (CPU)
  • Intel x64 (Sandy Bridge or newer)
System Memory (RAM)
  • 16 GB +
Disk
  • High-speed disk array or NVMe SSD
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • Most modern graphics cards from NVIDIA are supported for GPU acceleration, but for best performance, we recommend workstation powered by NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation.

  • Machine Learning (ML) Plugins plugins require an NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 6.0 or above (Pascal).

  • If an appropriate GPU is not available, ML plug-ins can run on the CPU with significantly degraded performance.

Monitor
  • 1920×1080 or higher
Network
  • Must have an enabled network adapter (wifi or ethernet)

New For 2024.5

  • Matte Assist ML

    Create fast animated mattes from a single frame using local models and rendering.
  • Mask ML

    Point and click matte generation driven by ML object segmentation.
  • Optical Flow ML Tracker

    Create optical flow data that can be used to track shapes, objects, or point trackers. Now, with realistic motion blur!
  • Roto > Markup Tool

    Roto QA made easy with trackable strokes and linked notes.
  • Retime ML

    Produce pristine time warps, including animated ramping.
  • Denoiser ML

    New 2x faster denoise models cover even more types of footage.
  • Enhanced Functionality

    Faster processing with GPU nodes, less memory used on roto nodes, caching improvements, and more!
  • Photoshop Brushes & More

    Support for Photoshop brushes, latest versions of Mocha, Sapphire, and Particle Illusion included and more.

Matte Assist ML

Instantly create animated mattes from a single frame. Use the Roto, Paint, EZ Mask, or new Mask ML node to create sample mattes, and let the AI power of Matte Assist ML do the rest.

  • Mix it with traditional roto or procedural techniques to save massive amounts of time
  • Data port communication between nodes delivers faster results with less work
  • Add to the updated Power Matte node to make finely detailed mattes in record time

Mask ML

Create mattes in a flash — driven by machine-learning object segmentation.

  • Easy to use: Single click or drag a box to select an object
  • Add or subtract areas with additional clicks

Pro Tip: The new Mask ML node creates mattes based on a single frame. Use your matte as input to our Matte Assist ML node, where the matte is propagated over time, or limit strokes in the Paint node.

Optical Flow ML

Generate optical flow data to use in Silhouette’s roto-based nodes and the Motion Blur node.

  • Quickly estimate per-pixel motion between frames
  • Track shapes, objects, or point trackers using Optical Flow data or STMap data from other applications, e.g. Nuke’s Smart Vectors
  • Seriously speed up roto tasks with the Auto Keyframe tool that uses flow data together with manual animation
  • Use flow data to generate realistic motion blur

Roto > Markup Tool

Save time on roto QA by adding trackable strokes with connected annotations.

  • Draw freehand strokes, rectangles, or arrows with associated notes
  • Strokes have note, range, color & complete parameters
  • A callout from the Viewer > Notes sidebar connects to the object

Retime ML

Say no to pesky artifacts, and hello to silky smooth time warps with animated ramping driven by innovative ML motion estimation and retiming models.

  • Easily speed up or slow down the timing of a selected frame range
  • Driven by custom algorithms trained on thousands of images
  • Keyframe your effects for maximum impact

Enhanced Functionality

The 2024 release gives artists huge performance gains with foundational improvements, updated nodes, and more.

  • Up to 30% speed increases when using multiple GPU nodes
  • Roto nodes use 33% less memory
  • Big caching improvements mean more frames can be cached into RAM
  • A new Cache Node caches all upstream nodes to disk, resulting in faster playback

Photoshop Brushes & More

  • Silhouette’s fast and non-destructive paint tools get a boost with support for Adobe Photoshop brushes
  • Mocha Pro Node includes new 3D tracking powered by SynthEyes
  • Sapphire, Continuum, and Particle Illusion effects updated to the latest releases

Denoiser ML Refinements

Improved models trained with even more images to produce even higher denoising precision.

Previous releases

Silhouette New for 2023 - April 2023

  • Primatte, Stability AI, UpRes ML, Denoiser ML, Regrain, Expressions.

Silhouette New for 2022 - June 2022

  • Sapphire, Mocha Pro, Particle Illusion and select Continuum BCC+ filters included; Inpaint, Power Mesh, Point control parameter tracking, Cryptomatte.

Silhouette New for 2021 - May 2021

  • Fully featured plugin release, Lens Correction node, Review & Approval Notes, improved shape editing and keyframe tools, Gstreamer media engine and more.

Silhouette New for 2020.5 - April 2020

  • Paint plug-in, Node Favorites, Hold Node, Onion Skin and Python 3 support.

Silhouette New for 2020 - September 2019

  • Magnetic splines, edge snapping, Paint detail separation workflow, group and part tracking.

Silhouette New for v7.5 – April 2019

  • GPU accelerated Mocha, high-resolution image optimization for Paint, compact slider user interface.

Silhouette New for v7.0 - Jun 2018

  • Sequence Editing, Planar Tracker enhanced to track textureless objects, roto and paint enhancements.

Silhouette New for v6.0 - Nov 2016

  • Node based GPU accelerated compositor with total of 136 different nodes--all stereo enabled.

Silhouette New for v5.2 - Jul 2014

  • Crop node, EXR 2 support, Automation Paint enhancements.

Silhouette New for v5.0 - Jan 2013

  • 2D->3D conversion tools, inverse kinematics for roto, shape-based warping and morphing, raster paint history and auto-paint features with match-move.

Silhouette New for v4.5 - Jan 2012

  • Added OpenColorIO color management.

Silhouette New for v4.1 - Feb 2011

  • Planar Tracker rewritten again to be more robust with less user interaction.

Silhouette New for v4.0 - Mar 2010

  • Added Power Matte semi-automatic matting system, rewrote planar tracker, open shapes, scripting, commandline rendering, dual-clone painting.

Silhouette New for v3.0 – Aug 2008

  • Added fully stereoscopic workflow, planar tracking, x-splines, comprehensive keyer.

Silhouette New for v2.0 - Jul 2005

  • Added raster paint, layers, match-move, stabilization.

Silhouette New for v1.0 - Feb 2005

  • Silhouette ships with b-splines, bezier splines and point tracking.

Professional Roto Tools

Create sophisticated masks using B-Spline, Bézier, X-Spline, or Magnetic Freehand shapes. Easy-to-use tools such as variable per-point edge softening and magnetic reshaping assist in creating articulate animations in record time.

  • Specialized shape editing tools: Magnetic splines, point groups, weighted keyframes, brush-based reshape, split shapes, collapse, and distribute points
  • Integrated tracking: Point, planar, and Mocha planar tracking
  • IK (Inverse Kinematics): Animate limbs and all jointed creatures
  • Render mattes with realistic motion blur
  • Export to industry standard shape formats including Cryptomatte
  • Stereoscopic 3D workflow
  • Built for teams and collaboration with review/approval notes

Fast and Reliable AutoPaint

Silhouette’s 32-bit float raster-based paint and tracking system — with its unique non-destructive AutoPaint recording system — meets the demands of high-resolution, color-managed VFX pipelines.

  • Paint tools: Pressure-sensitive customizable brushes and presets, including Clone, Grain, Repair, Drag, and more.
  • Channels & detail separation: Paint on individual RGBA channels or work on separated detail and color views for advanced control.
  • Sophisticated cloning: Advanced offset and warping, onion skin, and display views enable a streamlined workflow for aligning, patching, and removing unwanted pixels.
  • Powerful tracking options: Native point, planar tracking, and Mocha options.
  • Warped surface paint workflow: Use the Mocha Pro and PowerMeshWarp nodes.

Node-Based Compositing

Silhouette’s core is a powerful gestural node-based effects tree that delivers film-grade results.

View or edit any combination of nodes to control every detail in your image with 400+ specialty nodes organized into Color, Composite, Diffusion, Filter, Film Lab, Image, Key, Light, Particle Illusion, Sapphire, Special Effects, Time, Tints, Transform, Warp, and OFX groups.

  • Tracking and spline data ports and node actions
  • OCIO v2 color-managed workflow
  • Customizable workspaces for dual monitor set-ups
  • Precision color grading with 4-way color wheels and presets
  • Proprietary matte generation
  • Edge tools to color correct or blur the composite’s edge
  • Matte manipulation using shrink, grow, blur, and wrap functions

Multi-Host Plugin

The full Silhouette interface can also be launched as a plugin from standard VFX applications: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Fusion, Resolve, and Flame.

The Silhouette multi-host plugin is included with Silhouette standalone application licenses or can be purchased as a separate option.

Warping & Morphing

Get the highest level of artistic control and render quality on digital retouching, image deformations, and even talking animals.

Shape or pin options: Create invisible touch-ups, subtle facial exaggerations, or dramatic transitions.

Music videos & effects shots: Unique shape-to-shape morphing transitions can be timed per layer with interactive previews for fast flexibility. Used in some of the world’s most famous music videos. Intro to Morphing Video

Beauty Work: Pin Warp allows user-defined image areas while leaving other areas untouched. Create a subtle nip and tuck or completely reposition an arm or leg. Watch Now

Keying & Matte Generation

Handle the most difficult keying and matte challenges — including shots with fine hair detail, smoke, or reflections — with proprietary matte extraction techniques.

  • Primatte: The keying industry standard uses a GPU-accelerated algorithm based on 3 multi-faceted polyhedrons which can be visualized using the 3D Preview display.
  • zMatte keying: Features multiple matte creation, light wrapping, edge correction, spill suppression, and matte manipulation. Watch Now
  • Power Matte: A unique interactive workflow enhances matte creation on normally non-keyable shots with foreground and background shape selectors that generate incredibly realistic and accurate results on semi-transparent objects. Watch Now

Powerful Tracking Tools

Access the industry’s top tracking tools to speed up paint, roto, warp, and stabilization tasks.

  • Choose point tracking, native planar tracker, or the award-winning Mocha Pro node.
  • Create a seamless workflow between Mocha and Silhouette nodes with the surface tool, data ports, and node actions.
  • Pre-processing filters — Blur, Sharpen, Contrast, Gamma, De-Noise, or Remove Flicker — increase track accuracy on problematic images.
  • Apply post-processing filters to tracking data: Average, Smooth, Merge, and more.

Sapphire, Particle Illusion & Continuum

Create with compositing and effects plugins from Boris FX sister products.

  • Sapphire: Best-in-class effects include UltraGlow, UltraZap, Lens Flare, Shake, and more. Watch Now
  • Particle Illusion: Add 2D/3D animated simulations like snow, smoke, and fire with fluid dynamics.
  • Continuum: Select nodes include Atmospheric Glow, Magic Sharp, Beauty Studio, Light Leaks, Video Glitch, Film Glow, and many blur filters.

Mocha Pro Node

Award-winning Mocha Pro planar tracking is included with Silhouette.

  • GPU-accelerated object removal
  • 3D tracking powered by SynthEyes
  • PowerMesh warped surface tracking
  • Insert compositing with AdjustTrack
  • Award-winning stereo 360/VR tools

Learn more about Mocha Pro

Compare Silhouette & Mocha Pro

Mocha Pro Plugin
Silhouette Plugin
Mocha Pro Application
Silhouette App
Standalone application for macOS/Win/Linux
Mocha Pro planar tracking interface
3D Tracking
Media Composer & VEGAS Pro Support
Premiere Pro Support
Node-based compositing with color correction and image processing filters
Advanced paint tools with AutoPaint and detail separation
Includes Mocha node for Silhouette
Includes Sapphire effect nodes for Silhouette
Includes Continuum and Particle Illusion nodes for Silhouette (mac & windows only)

Take your compositing and rotoscoping skills to the next level with Silhouette Essentials training broken up into a two part series with easy to follow lessons.

Over 9 hours of training videos to help you go from beginner to advanced

Watch them for free or follow along with exercise files for $95

Tutorials

Need help? We’ve got you!

Forum

A place for Silhouette users to discuss tips, tricks, product feature requests, and best practices.

Forum

Discord

Join our SynthEyes Discord to exchange tips, get quick help, and connect with fellow VFX artists.

Discord

Help Center

Search technical questions or open a ticket with our knowledgeable support team.

Support

Frequently asked questions

What is Silhouette?
Since 2005 Silhouette has made its mark on film and television visual effects and post-production. Silhouette is an award-winning GPU accelerated compositing application that runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. Silhouette’s standout features are advanced rotoscoping tools and a non-destructive 32 bit, HDR paint system. Silhouette is also a node-based compositing tool with integrated planar tracking, keying, matting, warping, morphing, and a total of 400+ different nodes, including premier plugins Sapphire, Mocha Pro, and Particle Illusion wrapped in one integrated node-based package–all stereo enabled. Silhouette supports ACES color management via OpenColorIO. In 2019 the Silhouette team was recognized with Academy and Emmy technical achievement awards for the software’s contribution to the feature film and television industries.

Silhouette is now shipping version 2022 with multiple purchase, subscription and bundle options:

  • Silhouette Standalone + Multi-Host Plugin
  • Standalone Multi-Host Plugin only
  • Bundles
    • Bundle: Silhouette + Mocha Pro (Standalone + Multi-Host)
    • Bundle: Silhouette Plugin + Mocha Pro Plugin (Multi-Host)
    • Boris FX Suite (Silhouette, Mocha Pro, Sapphire, Continuum, and Optics).
What is the difference between Silhouette and Silhouette Plugin?
The Silhouette Standalone and Plugin have the same feature set with the main difference being the Plugin is responsible for loading source inputs and final rendering. Although the Plugin doesn’t allow more than three inputs, additional sources can be added directly within Silhouette. In addition, the plugin does not include Sapphire and Particle Illusion. View our Compare Chart.
Are projects compatible between the Silhouette Standalone and Silhouette Plugin?
Yes, Silhouette Standalone and Plugin projects are interchangeable with a couple of caveats.
  1. The sources need to be reconnected when opening a Plugin project in the Standalone.
  2. The OCIO colorspace may need to be adjusted when opening Plugin projects in another host or in the Standalone as some host applications perform colorspace conversions.
What is the difference between the integrated Mocha tracker and the Mocha Pro plug-in for Silhouette?
The integrated Mocha tracker tracks directly within the Silhouette user interface and links to Silhouette’s spline tools. The Mocha Pro plug-in launches the Mocha user interface and provides access to GPU-accelerated tracking and object removal, stabilization, lens calibration, AdjustTrack module, 3D camera solver, stereo 360/VR support, and more. Learn more about the differences: Silhouette and Mocha Pro Comparison Chart
How do I disable 0 opacity roto shapes in the Viewer?
There is a Fade Outline With Opacity Shape preference which enables the behavior of hiding 0 opacity shapes as long as they are not selected. This preference defaults to off. The V key toggles the visibility of 0 opacity shapes on/off regardless of how the Fade Outline With Opacity preference is set.
How do I reset the Silhouette preferences?
Windows
  • Close Silhouette if it is running.
  • From the Windows Start Menu, type regedit.
  • When regedit appears in the list above, click on it.
  • Go to the Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\BorisFX\ and delete the appropriate Silhouette product folder.
Macintosh
  • Close Silhouette if it is running.
  • Make sure you’re in Finder or open a Finder folder.
  • Hold the Option key and click Go from the top menu bar.
Click Library.
  • Navigate to the /Preferences folder and delete all .plist files with Silhouette in the name.
Linux
  • Close Silhouette if it is running.
  • Open a Terminal window.
  • Type: rm ~/.config/BorisFX/Silhouette.conf
Can’t see your question listed above? Visit our Help Center

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