Autodesk Flare

Autodesk® Flare™ visual effects software is a creative companion to Autodesk® Flame® and Autodesk® Inferno® visual effects software.

Featuring the same creative capabilities and Batch functionality as Flame and Inferno, Autodesk Flare allows you to work with the best 3D compositing and visual effects tools in the business, while allowing you to scale your creative business incrementally.
You can use Flare software for 3D compositing and advanced graphic design without tying up your Flame or Inferno suite.

Autodesk Flare 2010 features include:

• Batch procedural compositing environment, Action 3D compositing with support for third-party plug-ins and Autodesk® Burn® background rendering solution
• Creative tools for keying, paint, tracking, 3D text, color correction, warping, and morphing
• Multiple Flare stations can be connected to Flame systems in a facility, allowing several projects to be worked on concurrently with no impact on the Flame artist
• Flare can be used as a stand-alone assistant station
• As a software-only offering, Flare supports floating licenses to provide flexibility within your facility
• Can be used for performing supportive tasks such as rotoscoping, file I/O, retouching, dust removal, project setup, and key extraction

Detailed Features

Action

• Intuitive and interactive 3D visual effects design environment. Ideal for in-context, creative decision-making and brainstorming.
  16 x 9 user interface enhances workflow. Object node bin and Object menu make it easier to add and control elements in the scene.
• Supports media layers at many image resolutions or aspect ratios. Layer effects can be quickly copied from one layer to another.
  3D particle systems for realistic effects ranging from rain and snow to smoke and explosions.
• 3D deformation, meshes, and extended bicubics for control and manipulation of 2D surfaces and 3D models.
  Control of the Displacement Maps tool allows you to manipulate the position, scale, rotation, and animation parameters of a displacement map.
• Apply normal and displacement mapping to 3D geometries such as 3D text and objects created with 3D applications.
  Duplication of animations by applying settings to other objects.
• Multiple cameras with true-to-life, user-definable lens and camera properties such as depth-of-field. Animate and switch between camera views. Each layer offers independent camera placement and animation for sophisticated effects.
• Import 3D geometry, including NURBS objects, lights, and camera data from 3D animation packages using Autodesk® FBX® interchange format. Export camera data, axis positions, and 3D point clouds via FBX.
• Export camera data and import 3D geometry, light, and camera data from 3D animation packages using FBX interchange format.
• Floating-point processing extends the OpenEXR® workflow. Composite high dynamic range image (HDRI) files directly in Action and composite CG elements from applications such as Autodesk® Maya® or Autodesk® Toxik^TM software.
• Multiple animatable light sources.
• Integrated 2D and 3D tracking and stabilization.
• Texture mapping with material property and shading controls. Map or project textures onto objects.
• Normal Map Tool uses 3D-generated render passes to simulate lighting and shadow detail on flat images and relight 3D scenes.
• Integrated 3D character generator for advanced text creation.
• Import Adobe® Photoshop® PSD files directly into Action while maintaining layers, blend modes, and transparency.
• Interoperable with DVE setups from Autodesk® Smoke® editing and finishing systems.
• Multitrack clip support builds an Action setup from the video tracks of the clip.

Keying and Rotoscoping

• Keyer-fast, accurate RGB, YUV, HLS, RGBCMYL, and custom keying: linear and user-definable keying capabilities with luminance remapping, softness, shrink, and erode; advanced spill suppression and edge color replacement capabilities.
• Modular Keyer-customizable pipeline for advanced keying capability and control over the final result. Algorithms such as RGB, YUV, RGBCMYL, HLS, and Channel, are available in the Modular Keyer, which also supports 16-bit floating point processing.
• GMasks quickly remove or extract elements from live footage with advanced three-spline vector technology. Customize softness at each point on the spline. Motion blur may be applied selectively to multiple shapes.
• Import free-form GMask geometries into Action and extrude them to create 3D objects to more effectively create the illusion of depth and design graphical looks.
• GMask geometries imported into Action can be animated.
• Tracer-the accurate edge-keying tool. Based on GMasks, it is ideal for keying hair, fur, and other finely detailed object boundaries that aren't necessarily shot on green or blue screen.

Paint

• High-quality, integrated paint system for advanced motion graphics, digital matte painting, rotoscoping, wire removal, and image retouching.
• Customizable, user-definable brushes.
• Record and animate brush strokes.
• Create and animate color gradients, vector shapes, and cutouts.
• Load mattes to protect areas of the clip during painting.
• Paint node integrated in Batch for easy painting or touch-up of any element in a complex scene. Paint, blur, reveal, or clone layers or mattes, and feed the result to downstream nodes while viewing in context. Change source clips without having to repaint strokes.

Tracking and Stabilization

• Motion analysis for 2D tracking of position, scale, and rotation-track up to 1,000 points in a single pass.
  Advanced tracking features include editable tracking data, reverse tracking, keyframe locking, field-based analysis, and curve smoothing functions.
• Tracked data can be applied to image layers, GMask shapes, Warper meshes, Distort splines, and Paint brush strokes.
• 3D tracking extracts original, real-world camera information from a 2D clip. Recalibration options and reference plane display for refining accuracy.
• Object tracking in the 3D tracker helps you isolate moving objects in a complex scene.
• View results of a 3D track inside of Action for easier identification of correct anchor positions when inserting objects into a 3D space.
• Auto-stabilization node to counteract shakes or bumps in a camera's motion while retaining the overall camera move.
  Track an object based on the region of interest.

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