Boris FX Sapphire, the industry-standard visual effects plugin collection for editors and artists, expands its blend of cinematic realism and stylized motion design with the 2026.5 release. New features include a physically accurate lens blur effect, an improved glare effect, new ridge textures, bold lens flares, and faster custom effect creation.
“Advanced Defocus captures the subtle imperfections, texture, and optical character that make real lenses feel cinematic,” states Brian Fox, Chief Marketing Officer and Sapphire Product Manager. “From pristine modern glass to dirty vintage optics, it gives artists an incredible level of control while still feeling natural, organic, and beautifully photographic.”
Featured Highlights
S_AdvancedDefocus lets artists quickly replicate the unmistakable handcrafted quality of real-world camera lenses. It recreates the character, delicate imperfections, and cinematic defocus of physical lenses. The effect offers powerful customization options, including bokeh shape, cat’s eye highlights, custom lens kernels, organic lens textures (dirt, noise, and scratches), chromatic aberration, and matte box simulation. Advanced Defocus is a versatile effect that highlights the cinematic beauty of glass lenses, making it ideal for highly stylized motion graphics and transitions.
S_TextureRidges is inspired by classic multi-fractal rendering techniques, which invert and reshape procedural noise patterns. It transforms sharp noise into smooth ridges using layered patterns filled with organic surface detail to create flowing peaks, animating formations, and rich textures that feel mathematical and natural. Artists can fine-tune octave scaling, speed, frequency, and contrast to design endlessly different surface details, advanced abstract designs, and much more.
A reimagined S_Glare effect breathes new life into one of Sapphire’s most beloved effects. Smoother rendering, richer spectral color, and enhanced parameters (such as highlight isolation, cleaner rays, and more natural falloff) help artists create cinematic light blooms, streaks, and halos more quickly and easily. S_Glare also adds new styles that expand the creative range far beyond traditional glare effects.
The updated Effect Builder delivers a streamlined, more intuitive interface that allows artists to create complex, layered effects and transitions faster and more easily. Builder’s dynamic workflow also adds greater artistic flexibility with new built-in Dots and Noise tools.
Sapphire boosts its renowned cinematic Pro Lens Flares collection with five presets from bold anamorphic streaks to cinematic haze. The Flare Designer, which allows artists to build lens flares from scratch or customize presets, includes new offset modes (Horizontal Follow, Vertical Follow, and Custom Follow). The modes, built for high-speed anamorphic streaks, give artists total control over scientifically accurate lenses and stylized cinematic looks.
Additionally, Sapphire 2026.5 adds 100+ new and improved presets, including anime, sci-fi, and abstract fractal motion graphics looks.
Pricing
Sapphire is available as a plugin collection with subscriptions, upgrade & support plans, and perpetual licenses. Subscriptions start at $545/year or $80/month. See pricing for more details.
Host support includes Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, and OFX hosts, such as Autodesk Flame, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, and Vegas Pro.
Customers with current Sapphire or Boris FX Suite subscriptions, or with Sapphire upgrade & support plans, receive the 2026.5 release as a free update. Learn more about Sapphire.
Media Assets
- Sapphire 2026.5: Branding toolkit (logos & images)
- Sapphire 2026.5: Recreate Any Lens with Advanced Defocus (video)
- Sapphire 2026.5: Cinematic Sparkle with S_Glare (video)
- Sapphire 2026.5: Advanced S_LensFlare Tips (video)
- Sapphire 2026.5: Make Magic in Builder (video)
- Sapphire 2026.5: Tech Tunnel Preset Primer (video)
About Boris FX
Boris FX creates award-winning video editing, visual effects, motion graphics, audio, and photography plugins used by over one million broadcast, streaming, and feature film professionals worldwide.
The product line includes Sapphire, the high-end visual effects and motion graphics plugin suite; Continuum, the AI-driven plugin collection for editors and content creators; Mocha Pro, unparalleled planar motion tracking and masking; Silhouette, advanced paint and rotoscoping tools; SynthEyes, cutting-edge 3D camera solving; Optics, cinematic effects for photographers and digital artists; CrumplePop, AI-driven audio plugins and standalone SoundApp; Sequoia, a high-end post-production, mastering, and broadcast DAW; Samplitude, music production for audio professionals; and Music Studio, a beginner-friendly recording, editing, and mixing DAW.
The company’s success lies in its ability to tightly integrate and leverage technologies through strong partnerships with Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Apple Final Cut Pro, Foundry Nuke, Vegas Pro, and other leading software developers. Founded in 1995.
