Boris FX Sapphire Plug-ins 2025.5 continues to stand as the undisputed industry standard for high-end visual effects, offering editors and compositors an expansive toolkit for creating cinematic visuals. Used extensively in blockbuster films and broadcast television, this comprehensive suite allows professionals to generate photorealistic elements like lightning, smoke, and distortion without leaving their primary editing timeline. With the latest 2025.5 update, the software introduces sophisticated machine learning tools that significantly speed up the masking process, allowing artists to focus more on creativity and less on tedious rotoscoping tasks.
Key Features
- Object Brush ML: Utilizes advanced machine learning to isolate objects in a single frame and automatically propagate that mask across the footage, dramatically reducing manual rotoscoping time.
- S_VHSDamage: Delivers authentically degraded analog aesthetics by simulating tracking errors, color bleeding, and noise found in vintage 1980s videotapes.
- S_DissolveLightLeaks: Adds organic, light-based transitions that blend clips using realistic flares and soft glows, perfect for dream sequences or energetic edits.
- Integrated Mocha Tracking: Includes the Academy Award-winning Mocha planar tracking engine directly within effects, allowing you to pin graphics or masks to moving surfaces with rock-solid stability.
- Sapphire Builder: Enables node-based custom effect creation, letting you combine multiple Sapphire filters into a single, complex tool that can be saved and shared across teams.
- Pro Lens Flares: Features a newly expanded library of cinematic flare presets that mimic real-world camera lenses, complete with customizable elements for anamorphic streaks and chromatic aberration.
Use Cases
Visual effects artists working on narrative films utilize Sapphire to composite invisible effects and environmental phenomena, while motion graphics designers rely on its fast rendering for creating stylized title sequences and broadcast packages. Video editors in fast-paced commercial environments also benefit by applying studio-quality polish to raw footage directly inside hosts like Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
For professionals demanding uncompromising visual quality and speed on Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems, Boris FX Sapphire remains the premier choice for elevating video projects beyond stock capabilities.
Version 2026 — November 2025
- Added S_FilmBurn, a new effect and transition that simulates authentic analogue film aesthetics using high-resolution scans of physical film stock, complete with customizable controls for light leaks, grain, and sprocket artifacts.
- Introduced S_MochaWhip, a dynamic AI-powered transition that utilizes Mocha tracking to isolate a subject and seamlessly whip it into the next scene.
- Expanded S_LensFlare with a new "Pro Lens Flare Pack" containing 8 cinematic presets inspired by real-world optical characteristics like anamorphic streaks and diffusion.
- Updated S_Grunge with over 80 new high-resolution texture stamps, including oil paint, chalk, ink, and splatter patterns.
- Improved Effect Builder workflow by adding visual parameter linking, allowing users to easily inspect driver and driven connections directly within the node graph.
- Included 11 new professionally curated presets for the Effect Builder to showcase advanced multi-layered looks.
