Press | Boris FX

AI-Driven Object Detection and Masking Arrives in Boris FX Silhouette

Written by Jessie Electa Petrov | Sep 25, 2025 12:26:40 PM

Miami, Florida, U.S.A. — September 25, 2025 — Boris FX Silhouette, the leading rotoscoping and digital paint software favored by top artists, continues its commitment to developing ethically trained AI tools that aid artists. The 2025.5 release introduces two new, powerful AI-driven nodes that drastically reduce the time spent on intricate manual, repetitive tasks, along with updated AI models and integrated SynthEyes 3D camera tracking. The additions effortlessly and accurately speed up daily rotoscoping, digital paint, and VFX workflows. 

Boris FX Silhouette 2025.5 (download image)

“Silhouette 2025.5 takes a lot of the grind out of roto and masking. Automated Object Detection and Face ML cut down the manual work, while Cryptomatte gives artists fine control over complex composites”, says Marco Paolini, Product Manager and Designer of Silhouette. “With the ability to prompt, segment, propagate, and render all in one place, it delivers a true end-to-end workflow that saves hours of repetitive work and keeps results consistent across frames.”

“As a long-time Silhouette user, I’ve witnessed the toolkit’s evolution first-hand. The team constantly prioritizes the needs of artists, harnessing the latest technologies to develop features we need most,” remarks Josh Barham, Paint & Roto Supervisor at Framestore (Fantastic Four: First Steps, How to Train Your Dragon, Wicked). “The Silhouette 2025.5 release brings smarter machine learning power into the hands of artists, to assist in streamlining workflows and delivering the precision needed for high-end paint and roto.”

Boris FX Silhouette 2025.5: New text-based object detection and masking (download image)

AI Tools

Silhouette 2025.5 introduces a cutting-edge AI tool that instantly detects and segments arbitrary objects in images based on simple text prompts. Artists can specify a category name (ex., car, person, tree) or use more descriptive phrases. Masks are then generated with Mask ML and seamlessly propagated using Matte Assist ML. The results are precise and reliably consistent across all frames.

The workflow is fully flexible. It can be used through the user interface or integrated into studio pipelines for large-scale automation via the command line. Automatic object detection and masking drastically reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks with a true end-to-end automated workflow: prompt, segment, propagate, and render. 

Boris FX Silhouette 2025.5: New AI face segmentation tool (download image)

The Face ML node utilizes AI to detect and separate key facial regions automatically. The tool creates high-quality, tracked mattes for areas such as the eyes, lips, mouth, and the surrounding skin. This detailed separation lets artists target specific facial features independently for beauty work or creative effects. Face ML offers massive time savings and effort by eliminating the need for manual rotoscoping and tracking.

Additionally, Matte Assist ML, Denoise ML, and UpRes ML nodes feature next-generation AI models that deliver faster and even more accurate results.

Boris FX Silhouette 2025.5: New integrated SynthEyes 3D tracking (download image)

3D Tracking

The 3D Scene node receives a significant boost, powered by Boris FX SynthEyes. The speedy camera tracking and solving system analyzes 2D features in footage and accurately calculates the camera’s 3D position and orientation. It generates both a point cloud of the scene and a reliable camera solve. Artists can use the powerful new integration in an Unproject/Reproject workflow, which allows them to paint or composite directly onto a locked-down sequence with precision and ease. 

Boris FX Silhouette 2025.5: Enhanced Cryptomatte node (download image)

Improved Nodes

Mask ML and Matte Assist ML nodes enable the output of objects as Cryptomatte data via the data port. Mask ML also includes AI text-based object detection and multiple object support in an Object List. Matte Assist ML also provides seamless playback without recomputation after the initial compute cache.

Silhouette’s Cryptomatte node now applies available mattes as overlays to the optional image input, which makes it easier to select the desired objects in context.  It also supports selective matte activation directly within the viewer. Once enabled, the mattes are available to use in other nodes and are added to the Selection list. 

The Tracker adds an Occlusion Matte input, which automatically ignores user-marked areas that may interfere with the tracking process, resulting in cleaner tracks and fewer manual refinements. Additionally, if a 3D Scene node is connected to a Tracker-capable node’s data port, the Point Tracker generates a tracked layer from selected 3D track points. This new functionality enables tracking of previously untrackable points and provides an additional way to reuse existing tracking data.

Silhouette 2025.5 also includes new versions of its sister products, with Mocha Pro 2025.5, Particle Illusion 2025.5, and Sapphire 2025.5 nodes, which offer artists greater compositing flexibility and expanded creative visual effects options.  

Pricing 

Silhouette is available as a standalone application and/or plugin, with monthly and annual subscriptions, upgrade & support plans, and permanent licenses. Host application support includes Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Resolve and Fusion, and Autodesk Flame. Subscriptions start at $545/year or $103/month. View pricing

Silhouette 2025.5 is a free upgrade for customers on an active subscription or upgrade and support plan. It is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems with node-locked or floating license options. Learn more about Silhouette.

Assets

Silhouette 2025.5 Branding Toolkit
Silhouette 2025.5: What’s New (video)
Silhouette 2025.5: The Fastest Way to Create Mattes: AI Prompting (video)
Silhouette 2025.5: Automatic Face Masking with Face ML and Cryptomatte (video)
Silhouette 2025.5: 3D Camera Tracking for Easy Paint and Roto (video)

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Media Contact

Jessie Electa Petrov
Director of Marketing, Boris FX
jessiep@borisfx.com
617-451-9900