{"id":519140,"date":"2026-06-26T08:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519140\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:11:09","slug":"boris-fx-releases-optics-2026-5-with-ai-powered-facial-masking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519140\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris FX releases Optics 2026.5 with AI-powered facial masking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted on 7 December 2025. Scroll down for news of the <a href=\"#latestupdate\">Optics 2026.5 update<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Boris FX has begun its 2026 updates to <a href=\"https:\/\/borisfx.com\/products\/optics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Optics<\/a>, its software for applying cinematic effects to still images for retouching, illustration or visualization.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.borisfx.com\/optics-2026-one-click-ai-workflows-new-cinematic-looks\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Optics 2026<\/a> itself adds four new AI tools, for automatically masking parts of the human face, generating depth maps from photos, and denoising and upresing images.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.borisfx.com\/press\/boris-fx-optics-expands-plugin-support-to-apple-photos-capture-one-and-affinity-photo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Optics 2026.5<\/a> makes the software compatible with Affinity, Apple Photos and Capture One.<\/p>\n<p>Making VFX-style effects available to Photoshop and Lightroom users<br \/>First <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2020\/07\/boris-fxs-new-optics-app-promises-vfx-for-photographers\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">released in 2020<\/a>, Optics is pitched as providing \u201cvisual effects for photographers\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It is a renamed version of Digital Film Tools\u2019 DFT, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2019\/09\/boris-fx-acquires-silhouette\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Boris FX acquired in 2019<\/a>, expanded with filters from other Boris FX products. Boris FX discontinued DFT itself in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>It is available as a standalone application, and a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom.<\/p>\n<p>Optics 2026: new AI tools<br \/>Optics 2026 introduces a number of the AI technologies that Boris FX has been rolling out recently in its other software, particularly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/?s=boris+fx+silhouette&amp;x=0&amp;y=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Silhouette<\/a>, its rotoscoping and paint software.<\/p>\n<p>The AI mask-generation toolset introduced in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2025\/01\/boris-fx-releases-optics-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Optics 2025<\/a> is now augmented by Face ML, a new algorithm that automatically generates masks for parts of the face, including eyes, lips and skin.<\/p>\n<p>Three new utility algorithms, Depth Map ML, DeNoise ML and UpRes ML, automatically generate depth maps from photos, remove visual noise, and upscale the image.<\/p>\n<p>New effects from Sapphire, and new presets for Particle Illusion<br \/>Optics also gets new effects from Sapphire, Boris FX\u2019s plugins for compositing and video editing software, particularly the VHSDamage effect and updated PixelSort effect from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2024\/11\/boris-fx-releases-sapphire-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sapphire 2025<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Particle Illusion, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2022\/10\/boris-fx-ships-optics-2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">integrated particle generator<\/a>, gets over 50 new presets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/251207_Optics2026_Photoshop.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-172495\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>New Optics Essentials panel in the Photoshop workspace<br \/>Optics\u2019 UI has also been revamped, with the Photoshop integration getting a new dockable Optics Essentials panel for browsing and applying filters directly in the Photoshop workspace.<\/p>\n<p>The Collections and Filters window has been redesigned to make it quicker to find key filters.<\/p>\n<p>Updated 26 June 2026: Boris FX has released <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.borisfx.com\/press\/boris-fx-optics-expands-plugin-support-to-apple-photos-capture-one-and-affinity-photo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Optics 2026.5<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The update makes the software available for a range of new, non-Adobe host applications: Affinity Photo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/uk\/ios\/photos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Apple Photos<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.captureone.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Capture One<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(We assume it also works with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2025\/10\/check-out-canvas-new-perpetually-free-affinity-software\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Affinity by Canva<\/a>, the new unified edition of the Affinity tools, not just the legacy standalone edition of Affinity Photo, but we\u2019ve contacted Boris FX to check.)<\/p>\n<p>All of the new integrations are included when buying Optics, alongside the standalone edition and Photoshop and Lightroom plugins: the price of the software hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n<p>New Film Burn filter and Color Mixer, and updates to existing tools <br \/>New features include S_FilmBurn, a new filter for mimicking the look of overexposed analog footage, and Color Mixer, a simple slider-based color correction and looks creation tool.<\/p>\n<p>The existing S_Grunge filter gets new stamp presets, intended for adding hand-painted detail to traditional portrait photography backgrounds.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Face ML now generates masks for noses and necks, and Particle Illusion gets new particle sprites and the option to export cinemagraphs at variable frame rates.<\/p>\n<p>Price and system requirements<br \/>Optics 2026.5 is available as a standalone application for Windows 10+ and macOS 12.0+, and as a plugin for the host applications listed in the story above.<\/p>\n<p>A new perpetual licence costs $149; rental costs $9\/month or $99\/year. A single licence provides access to both the plugins and the standalone editions. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.borisfx.com\/optics-2026-one-click-ai-workflows-new-cinematic-looks\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Read an overview of the new features in Optics 2026 on Boris FX\u2019s blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cgchannel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thecgchannel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theCGchannel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>. As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don\u2019t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Originally posted on 7 December 2025. Scroll down for news of the Optics 2026.5 update. Boris FX has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100193,221416,221417,221418,221419,221420,221421,221422,221423,221424,221425,221426,221427,167648,221428,221429,221430,221431,221432,221433,221434,61,293,221435,60,47409,3045,160320,19951,221436,221437,221438,221439,221440,221441,37250,121599,2494,221442,55956,221443,221444,47199,221445,221446,77844,80,221447,221448,221449,79633],"class_list":["post-519140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-affinity","tag-affinity-by-canva","tag-affinity-photo","tag-ai-upresing","tag-ai-upscaling","tag-ai-based","tag-ai-trained","tag-apple-photos","tag-apply-cinematic-looks-to-still-images","tag-apply-vfx-to-still-images","tag-automatic-mask-generation","tag-automatic-object-masking","tag-automatically-generate-depth-map-from-image","tag-boris-fx","tag-capture-one","tag-denoise-image","tag-denoise-ml","tag-denoising","tag-depth-map-ml","tag-face-ml","tag-facial-segmentation","tag-ie","tag-illustration","tag-image-editing","tag-ireland","tag-lightroom","tag-machine-learning","tag-new-features","tag-optics","tag-optics-2026","tag-optics-2026-0","tag-optics-2026-5","tag-optics-essentials","tag-particle-effects","tag-particle-illusion","tag-photoshop","tag-plugin","tag-price","tag-product-visualization","tag-retouching","tag-s_filmburn","tag-s_grunge","tag-sapphire","tag-sapphire-2025","tag-standalone-application","tag-system-requirements","tag-technology","tag-upres-image","tag-upres-ml","tag-upscale-image","tag-visualization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}