Fusion 8 functionality severly limited

Hello,
First off, I don't mean to sound ungrateful at all, but I do have some issues with the free version of Fusion8 that was just released.
I work at a small production company in Oakland CA and we have been using After Effects and Smoke for the past 20 or so years (we are all Mac based). Recently, I've opened up our companies owner to the idea of trying Fusion as a compositing option. Like all new software, he is extremely hesitant to use it here because its new (to us) and he is comfortable with the software that we know and already have paid for. I convinced him to let me download the free version of Fusion8 so I could show him some of the things it could do which we couldn't do before (or as quickly). However, while trying to demonstrate the program to him, I basically found that most functions I needed to dial in a key were not available in the demo version of the software. I'm not even talking about advanced functions, I couldn't even get passed the keying stage of this footage because so many of the functions and modes in primatte are disabled.
I've been trying to learn your software at home in my spare time on my windows machine where I had downloaded the free version of 7. That version of the software seems to be much less inhibited and imagine my embarrassment when I tried to do so many of those same functions in front of my boss, only to discover that they were unavailable in this version of the software.
I believe part of the reason Blackmagic is releasing free versions of their software is to get smaller companies, like the one I work for, to jump on board to these previously cost inhibitive programs. However, by severely limiting the software, as this version seems to be, the process of convincing the people who actually hold the purse strings is (needlessly) difficult. I believe that if you take a lot of these restrictions off the software (as they are in the free version of 7) more companies would be able to properly test the software and see if it would actually work for their needs.
My boss is never going to sign up for paid software on just my word that I'd be able to pull a clean key once all the restrictions are removed. Thank you for your time.

But is the solution making the free version less limited, or is it in providing reasonable trials of the full version?

You can rent AE or Nuke for a couple months to reduce risk, or get timebombed demo copies. Can your BMD reseller get you a dongle rental for a couple weeks? But ideally, BMD would be able to issue you a dongle along with a copy of the software that is timebombed to that dongle, or a fully independent demo.

yeah a full version 30 day trail (like AE, I can't speak to NUKE) would probably be more than enough to test the product to see if it fits our company needs/workflow - I'd be game for any reasonable solution... some companies put a watermark on the free versions of their software or limit the final render resolution, etc. I just dont think the limited free version works as a method of really demoing the product

If you wanted to test out it's stereoscopic toolset, or the Avid integration, or Generation, or the SDK, or using it as an externally controlled pipeline engine... Any of those you'd be out of luck evaluating with the free version. So yeah, somehow you would need to get a full version with some sort of time based limitation.

But in the very short term, I wonder if some better resellers wouldn't let you borrow a dongle with a deposit.

And what functions do you miss between fu7 and fu8?

Maybe it's a difference between win and osx but for me the primatte is the same in 7.7 and 8 beta

yeah not sure what is missing w/Primatte other than the fact it's still a beta. I am not testing it in OSX, but I believe Primatte was just introduced on that platform with this beta 3 so some things may still need to be sorted out.

Here's a comparison between FU8 and FU8 Studio.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... on/compare

Chad sort of mentioned this in another post but, I wouldn't base the decision to use/purchase FU8 solely on a beta, especially on a new platform as they're still working through dev. FU v8.02 may even be the sweet spot for that decision. Essentially there isn't any rush at the moment. Keep learning.

Good point. Fusion 8 is still lacking functionality compared to Fusion 7.7. So using 8 to base purchase decisions on isn't a good idea.

hmm, perhaps that is where the confusion is happening. Most, if of the functions I was trying to use in Primatte were labeled as 'Not included in the free version' and I was directed to purchase the full version. However, if it had been labeled as still a WIP or not yet implemented in this version, that would have made a lot more sense.

I was very surprised when all this happened since, like you mentioned, these limitations were not listed on BM's website as a difference between the two versions of the program.

The list of differences applies to the current version of Fusion, not the beta.

It's expected that over time the differences will increase.

hmm, perhaps that is where the confusion is happening. Most, if of the functions I was trying to use in Primatte were labeled as 'Not included in the free version' and I was directed to purchase the full version. However, if it had been labeled as still a WIP or not yet implemented in this version, that would have made a lot more sense.

I was very surprised when all this happened since, like you mentioned, these limitations were not listed on BM's website as a difference between the two versions of the program.

ohh, now i know what you meant. just tried the beta3 with primatte and YES there are now a lot of limitations in primatte which wherent there in FU7!

thanks for the clarification. It may be a sad eye opener what features are neutered/omitted from the free version once the dust actually settles. Until then.. the nodes have me!