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combustion 2.1^® Now only $995

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combustion 2.1, is the latest version of Discreet's award-winning unified paint, animation and 3D compositing software application for motion graphic designers, animators and visual effects artists. combustion 2 is a powerful, resolution-independent, vector paint, animation and compositing solution for multi-format work, from the web to video and HDTV to feature film.

combustion 2.1 is available for both Macintosh® and Windows® systems and features an advanced object-oriented architecture with extensive caching, multiple views and real-time loop playback setting a new standard for interactive performance on the desktop.

combustion 2 PDF (89k) combustion 2.1 Service Pack 1 - get it here.

Features :

Schematic view
High color resolution
Film tools
Integrated 2D particle system
Character generation (text)
Garbage masks
Powerful performance
Network rendering
Cross platform support

Schematic view:

multiple-layer, multi-effected composites are easier to create and modify

The new schematic view in combustion 2 makes building complex effects incredibly easy. In addition to the original workspace view, you can now visualize and organize your special effects work by means of a highly intuitive and visual flowchart. Multiple-layer, multi-effected composites are easier to create and modify and you are given total control of the organization and rendering of an effect.

The schematic view goes beyond a simple representation of the project structure to provide a truly interactive interface to the power and flexibility of the combustion 2 production environment. All the functionality found in the workspace and timeline view is also provided in the schematic view. The schematic view is fully editable. Operators (filters and effects) can be added, deleted and re-ordered, the hierarchy of a composite’s layers can be changed and multiple versions created -- you can even use the schematic view as your exclusive method of building all your effects.

One powerful feature of the schematic is the ability to branch outputs at any stage. As a result, a single process tree can be used to render multiple formats, resolutions or versions simultaneously. Branches can also be recombined at a later stage in the composite.

combustion 2 allows you to work with whatever method is better suited to you and the project at hand: schematic view or workspace view. When using the workspace view to build an effect, a schematic flowchart is automatically constructed, and vice-versa. At any time, you can work within both the workspace and schematic views, using either for its strengths. Changes to one are automatically reflected in the other. This unique ability to work with both views of your project simultaneously when creating an effect is a powerful first on the desktop.

High color resolution:

Dual viewports showing color-correction of a foreground element (moon image) with simultaneous update in the composite

Whether you need to create images for the Internet, video, HDTV or film, combustion 2 ensures that there is never any compromise in image quality. New support for higher color resolutions allows you to import and render images at up to 16bits/channel (64bit RGBA). High color resolution allows you to reproduce film scans and HDTV images with greater fidelity as well as eliminate banding and other undesirable artifacts that occur when processing high-resolution images at 8bits.

The ability to handle multiple bit depths allows combustion 2 to collaborate more efficiently with other applications. Whether you are exporting images from inferno® , 3ds max™ or Adobe® Photoshop® , you can import them directly into combustion without having to convert them first, avoiding a process that can reduce the dynamic range of your images.

film tools:

In addition to higher color resolution, combustion 2 comes with new film tools including color look-up-table (LUT) support and grain tools.

These tools are fully compatible with Discreet’s real-time systems flame® and inferno® and allow artists to collaborate more efficiently on a wider range of projects.

film grain management for matching composited elements.

Film add grain and remove grain combustion 2 provides powerful grain management tools that are fully compatible with Discreet’s other effects systems including inferno. Tools for removing and adding grain are core to the compositing process and enable the realistic combination of image elements from multiple sources including various film stocks, video formats and synthetic computer-generated images. With the increasing use of computer-generated imagery in visual effects projects, grain tools are indispensable to eliminating the characteristically clean, artificial look of rendered elements such as 3D animation. The combustion 2 add grain tools include settings for most common Kodak ™ film stocks, as well as full parameter control for automatically matching to any film type used in production. combustion 2’s remove grain tools include sophisticated algorithms to reduce grain in an image without sacrificing image clarity.

Lookup table (LUT) The LUT is an essential feature of any system working with images of greater than 8bits/per channel. It allows such images to be displayed correctly on 8bit displays such as computer monitors and is also used to convert images between formats. A LUT describes exactly how a 16bit color value should be represented in 8bits and allows non-procedural, user-defined image conversions. It is particularly useful in converting logarithmic images (such as a film image in Cineon) to a linear image format. It also allows you to correctly display high-bit depth images on 8bit computer monitors without altering the original high bit-depth color information of the original film scan – a prerequisite for most high-quality film effect work.

The combustion 2 LUT is a set of controls that describes specific pixel values to be used in image display or conversion. It provides controls on a per-footage level (histogram, separate RGB controls), as well as tools to preview results of LUT operations on the monitor without having to use external utilities. The LUT files are compatible with flame and inferno and support similar editing, import and export functions to generic ASCII LUT files. However, combustion 2 utilizes a user-selected active view area instead of the calibrated monitor view mode found in inferno.

Integrated 2D particle system:

combustion 2 offers a fully-integrated, powerful new 2D particle system. The combustion WYSIWYG particle system combines ease of use and real-time interactive visualization to provide you with a powerful tool for the creation of effects, from explosions and smoke to a raging snowstorm. The fully customizable sprites also allow you to experiment freely, creating uniquely artistic looks and animations

The combustion particle system functions as a fully integrated effects operator and is capable of generating a broad range of visual effects. All effects can be accelerated using OpenGL hardware, providing you with a highly interactive on-screen experience. The system uses images (sprites) and intuitive controls, allowing you to easily create and manipulate an endless variety of visual effects. Complex particle effects can be precisely animated along a path via the combustion timeline and keyframe controls and motion blur applied. Although the particle system is 2D it provides you with various tools to create a realistic impression of 3D.

In addition to creating your own particle effects, combustion 2 also includes a library of hundreds of particle presets for a wide variety of common effects, from realistic simulations of smoke, fire, explosions, water, snow, grass, and others, to unusual “organic” particle effects unlike any you’ve seen before.

Character generation (text):

In combustion 2, you can create sophisticated text animations with the utmost ease. Whether you need to create a simple title roll or text crawl, animate text along a path, apply an eye-catching effect to a text element, create title cards and slates or simply generate timecode burn-in, combustion provides you with a rich set of creative tools to meet even the most demanding of creative tasks.

combustion 2 offers you international text capabilities including double-byte character support for Asian and Arabic characters, right-left and vertical typesetting and support for both TrueType ® and Adobe Postscript ® fonts. combustion 2 text elements are also fully integrated paint objects. Painterly effects can be applied to them including cloning, brush sets, color and texture mapping. You can even edit the individual vector shapes of each character prior to rendering to create custom font looks of your own. You can set independent attributes for text properties such as face, outline, glow, shadow and background.

combustion 2 offers you interactive on-screen manipulation of text elements with WYSIWYG display and individual characters and words or phrases can be animated independently, including all text properties such as alignment and typography settings (centered, justified, kerning, leading etc.). You can re-edit the text at any time: change a letter, the font, the font attribute or add new text elements. You can even cut and paste text from your favorite word processing applications – saving you time and reducing the risk of typographical errors.

combustion 2 provides a vast array of advanced text capabilities including different animation types for rolls and crawls, “type-on” effects and special meta-data character support (random numbers, timecode creation, time and date input). Special meta-data characters can be inserted anywhere in a text phrase and update automatically.

The real-time caching capabilities in combustion allow you to play a text loop such as a credit roll in a viewport while editing the text itself in the text editor window. You can see the changes update while the text is playing providing interactive visual feedback of you edits.

garbage masks:

New in combustion 2 is Discreet’s advanced garbage-masking technology. Garbage masks are special vector shapes used for rotoscoping, a technique used to carry out tasks such as the removal of unwanted elements (rigging, sound booms etc.) from green/blue screen shots or for creating stencils (cutouts) of objects from live footage. So if you need to isolate a tiger from stock footage of the Indian rainforest to use in an SUV commercial, Discreet’s rotoscoping technology will make the job a whole lot easier.

Remove unwanted elements

The Discreet garbage mask is more than a simple vector-based shape. It has been specifically designed with rotoscoping in mind and includes advanced features such as per-shape and per-point animation controls, motion blur compensation, priority and activeness (the ability to turn points off when not required). Objects rotoscoped in combustion 2 can be played in real-time with their vector shapes as an overlay, a powerful means of checking animated shapes in reference to their source footage.

With combustion 2, complex articulated mattes can be created using multiple shapes. Each shape can be animated independently and displayed using a different vector color for easy identification. Shapes can be hierarchically combined into groups and subgroups and animated together. Mask shapes have global softness using an offset linked to the original vector shape, or each control point can have its own independent inner and outer softness control points to define a variable blur amount around the edges of the matte. This can be used to simulate motion blur, among other uses.

combustion 2 garbage masks are compatible with the vector-based garbage masks of Discreet systems (inferno, flame, flint® , fire® , smoke®), enabling a parallel creative workflow. Articulated mattes created by one or many artists working on combustion 2 can be immediately used within inferno or flame without rendering. The workflow is bi-directional, so that complex mattes started on inferno or flame can be finished in combustion, freeing up the system for other uses within the facility.

Powerful performance:

combustion 2 brings new power to the desktop. From the moment it was first released, combustion set new standards in terms of desktop performance and interactivity. This tradition continues just as strongly with version 2. combustion 2 combines the power of optimized rendering, OpenGL, advanced caching, background processing and a multi-threaded user-interface to ensure unparalleled performance on the desktop.

2D and 3D rendering The combustion 2 popular 3D composting and rendering environment has been augmented with a new optimized 2D renderer to further speed the processing of layered composites. The 3D compositing environment in combustion 2 gives you greater flexibility and control -- but not all projects require full 3D rendering. In combustion 2 you can choose exactly how you want to render the composition by simply toggling an option to select either 2D or 3D processing. The new 2D renderer in combustion 2 is fast and powerful, giving you significant speed advantages with a high level of functionality. For those projects where robust or full 3D calculations are necessary (such as ray-traced shadows), the 3D renderer can be activated to provide highly realistic 3D compositions with excellent performance.

OpenGL support The combustion 2 support for OpenGL, combined with a wide range of support for industry-leading graphics and video acceleration cards, gives you the ability to you to interact with your composites in true 3D space with real-time feedback. This speeds up the creative process and allows you to manipulate images in 3D space without lag. The addition of OpenGL rendering allows quick processing and further increases the software’s performance when rendering.

Disk caching and asynchronous file I/O “Commit to disk” and asynchronous file I/O augment the sophisticated RAM player in combustion 2 so that more pre-calculated effects and collections of vector graphics are retained and the creative workflow enhanced. By committing intermediate layers and using disk space to augment the amount of data retained, you can make changes and try out different versions more quickly and efficiently without traditional overhead of re-rendering complex, layered effects every time.

network rendering:

combustion 2 can render directly to the file system, in the background or across a network. This powerful feature means you do not have to sit waiting for a render to complete but can carry on working. Projects can be rendered at any resolution and bit depth in a variety of file formats including Tiff, Targa, Photoshop, SGI, Cineon, BMP and JPEG.

combustion 2’s powerful network rendering solution uses the CPUs of other systems on the network to carry out the processing. One advantage of network rendering is that it does not consume the resources of the combustion 2 system, allowing you to continue to use combustion 2 without any impact on performance. As each image is rendered it is returned to your system and stored on disk. Once a network job is complete you are notified (including via email) and can preview the result.

Another key advantage to network rendering is that project workloads to be distributed efficiently and processed in parallel across a large number of workstations. This can significantly reduce the time required to complete a project. Network rendering is also extremely cost effective. You can configure special “render stations” – systems with multiple CPUs that are only used only for rendering and therefore do not need to be “fully loaded”. These systems can also be used for 3D rendering, and since both 3ds max and combustion 2 provide network render capabilities for free, the price/performance ratio of network rendering can be a significant advantage.

combustion 2 features a full TCP-IP based client-server network rendering environment that can be controlled and monitored via a central system, providing more efficient usage of network resources and allowing the user to have a much more “hands-off” experience with a render farm. It is based on the 3ds max system making it extremely easy to integrate in companies already using 3ds max render farms. The central manager “polices” the network and manages your resources. One or more combustion 2 systems submit their render requests to the manager which then distributes them to the render station clients. Features include the ability to set priorities, chose render stations, start stop and pause jobs.

Cross platform support:

combustion 2 offers full functionality for both Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows workstations including Macintosh OS X and Windows 2000 operating systems.