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Autodesk® Flame® 2011

Questa di Flame 2011 è la più grande relase degli ultimi anni. Autodesk ha introdotto tantissime nuove funzionalità e tools che rendono ancora più potente questo famosissimo prodotto. Tra le novità più importanti il supporto per la stereoscopia, tanto in voga in quest'ultimo periodo, un completamente nuovo motore di rendering per l'Action e un flusso di lavoro migliorato per l'import che adesso include anche una "import history".

Stereoscopic 3D Workflow
Prima di descrivere nel dettaglio le novità del prodotto è importante sottolineare come le release 2011 dei software Flame, Flare, Smoke, Smoke Adv. e Lustre offrono tutte funzionalità di finishing 3D stereoscopico. Sono stati realizzati ed integrati in questi prodotti nuovi tool per la stereoscopia partendo dai solidi e consolidati strumenti S3D di Maya per mantenere un workflow familiare e compatibile al 100%. Le nuove funzionalità stereoscopiche sono state progettate per contribuire al finishing S3D senza il minimo disturbo per gli attuali flussi di lavoro. Le caratteristiche chiave del workflow 3D in Autodesk:

• Compatibilità trasversale tra i prodotti per Autodesk FBX 2011 la piattaforma software della camera stereoscopica 3D
• Nuova camera S3D e supporto degli oggetti stereoscopici nell'Action
• Workflow S3D contemporaneo tra editing, finishing e color grading
• Monitoring stereoscopico con diverse modalità di anteprima

Video realizzati da fxguide sulle novità Autodesk

Ecco nel dettaglio tutte le novità introdotte in questa nuova release:

Pixel Shader Rendering
This release introduces a new GPU-based processing pipeline in Action to replace
the OpenGL fixed-pipeline. This new shading pipeline opens up creative
possibilities with quality and interoperability improvements.

• A new shader node allows you to selectively apply shading per object in Action, with different shading algorithms, such as Cook-Torrance, Fresnel, and Car Paint.
• New texture map nodes are introduced to add realistic 3D details to your surfaces and geometries: Parallax, Specular, and Emissive maps.
• The Texture node is now split into two map nodes with more user settings:
  • Diffuse Map: A new mapping type is added: Perspective, allowing for a transformation based on a camera’s field of view (FOV).
  • Reflection Map: Allows you to simulate a mirrored surface. The Reflection
    Map results can be combined to the Diffuse Map results.
• Surface and map menus now allow you to select advanced filtering options, such as anisotropic or EWA (Elliptical Weighted Average) filtering.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

Substance Procedural Texture Tools
You can use the new Substance Texture node in Action to quickly create photorealistic procedural textures using a library of organic, fabric, and material presets. Substance Textures take full advantage of the new pixel shading pipeline to open up your creative compositing possibilities. Over 130 presets are available to choose from.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

Stereoscopic 3D Tools
This release introduces new tools and workflows for 3D stereoscopic projects.
Using the Flame stereoscopic workflow, you can edit, conform, visualize, and
composite stereo material.
You can edit stereo material directly on the Desktop and by accessing a clip’s
stereo tracks. To do any stereo compositing work, you must go into Batch or
Action.
The new FBX Camera is a full-featured animatable camera in Action that allows
you to build 3D compositing scenes, mixing 3D objects and stereo objects.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

3D Compositing
In Action, changes for this release to support shading and stereoscopic
workflows have also opened up the architecture to allow the following feature
enhancements.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

Action Multiple Outputs
A new Output menu in Action allows you to organize, fine-tune, and process
multiple outputs from the same scene. For example, you can output different
matte passes from the same scene, as well as special passes such as the Z-Depth and Normal.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

Action Light Improvements
The new shader architecture allows for better light integration — you can now
have up to 64 functioning lights in your Action scene.
You can also use the new light bevel curve to add a specific light profile, and
create unique lighting effects.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

Axis Look-At Connections
In Action, you can create interesting effects by attaching the new look-at
connection between an axis and another object in your scene. The axis then
rotates to face the look-at object, no matter where it is positioned.

Surface Blending Curves
With the new Blending tab in the Action Surface menu, you can adjust the
blending curves of each surface separately. The Action blending curve is similar
to the Keyer luminance blending curve, but you can adjust it per surface in
Action, and see the results instantly.

Sorting Surfaces
A new Sort button is present for bilinear and bicubic surfaces in Action,
allowing you to sort non-flat surfaces in the particular instances when
overlapping transparent regions are causing artefacts.

Action Node Bin Redesign
The Action node bin is redesigned to simplify your workflow. Nodes are now
displayed in alphabetical order, and divided into groups classified by tabs
(Objects, Surfaces, and Maps).

Hardware Anti-Aliasing
In the setup menu in Text, Batch, Gmask, and Action, use the new hardware
anti-aliasing option to accelerate edge anti-aliasing with no performance
penalty. When you use hardware anti-aliasing, the graphics hardware
automatically renders the image at full speed with approximately the
equivalent of up to 32 samples of anti-aliasing (depending on your graphics
card and project graphic bit depth). Hardware anti-aliasing also gives
anti-aliasing during normal interaction instead of only while rendering.
You can also combine the hardware anti-aliasing option with the normal
software anti-aliasing controls in Text and Action to obtain the desired level
of image quality.

Clip Library
This release introduces a simplified clip import process, which gives you,
among other things, RED® import directly within the clip library.
This release also introduces a new preview panel, as well as reorganized clip
library functions.

New Import Codec
You can now import clips encoded with H.264 in Quicktime.

Gateway Library Import
This new feature simplifies the import process. Import clips and sequences from any connected volume using a new type of library, the Gateway library. See Accessing Gateway Libraries on page 175. From a Gateway library, you can import almost any media by simple drag and drop. You can:

• Drag and drop to import clips and timelines; just drag a clip from any
  location and drop it in a local clip library.
• Define rules for each clip and timeline which note how the media is to be
  imported or relinked. You can manage your rules at a project or user level.
• Import RED® and Multi-Channel OpenEXR directly to the clip library.
• Use import history to update a previously imported clip.
• Leverage the new features in version 3.0 of the R3D SDK version 3.0, such
  as the new ISO / FLUT / Shadow / Color Space and Gamma Curve.
• Leverage a RED ROCKET™ card installed on a Mac Wiretap Gateway system
  to improve the speed of decoding and debayering R3D files.

Image courtesy of McRay Corporation

Preview Panel
Use the new preview panel in the clip library to view clips. It is essentially a
mini Player. The preview panel also displays information about the clip, including any clip notes added to the clip.
The preview panel is especially useful when used in conjunction with the new Gateway library feature; it shows how a remote clip will look once imported with the selected import options. Use the preview panel to set in and out markers for clips to import.

Reorganized Library Functions
In the clip library, the library functions have been reorganized for easier access:

• The Resize menu contains all the Resize options.
• The I/O menu contains the buttons to access Input/Output clip, Import/Export image.
• A new Background Tasks button gives you direct access to the Backburner queue menu.
• The Tools, Archive, and Search buttons no longer open an independent menu, but rather a flatter structure which simplifies the navigation across the different items.

Batch

• Clip nodes now support dual output.
• You can now keep nodes in sync so that changes made to one node are automatically duplicated to the other node.
• The interface item for enabling bypass mode has changed slightly.
• A new Select Output box has been added to the Master Keyer, Modular Keyer, and Keyer nodes, allowing you to select an output to process.
• Action nodes now support multiple outputs. You can expand an Action node to see all available outputs as well as display a proxy of a specific output on the expanded node. You can now also set a context on an output in an Action node.
• If a node in a group contains multiple outputs, you can now press
  Ctrl+Shift+up arrow or Ctrl+Shift+down arrow as you navigate the Group List to display a proxy of all the node’s outputs. As well, when you select a node in the group, all associated views are displayed in the View box.
• The group icon is now dark blue.
• You can now set a context on an output in a group node.
• You can now generate an alpha from a clip inside a BFX level as well as explicitly generate a black or white alpha from a clip.
• The Batch node bins have been improved with more functionality.
  The following nodes have been added to the Comp/FX bin:
  • 3D Blur
  • Distort
  • Substance Noise
  • Substance Splatter
• The following nodes have been added to the Format bin:
  
  • Stereo Anaglyph
  • Stereo Interlace