San Rafael, CA (April 4, 2019) – Today Autodesk announced Flame 2020, the latest release of the Flame Family of integrated visual effects (VFX), color grading, look development and finishing system for artists. A new machine learning-powered feature set along with a host of new capabilities bring Flame artists significant creative flexibility and performance boosts. This latest update will be showcased at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 8-11 between 9:00am-5:00pm in a demo suite at the Renaissance Hotel.

Advancements in computer vision, photogrammetry and machine learning have made it possible to extract motion vectors, Z depth and 3D normals based on software analysis of digital stills or image sequences. The Flame 2020 release adds built-in machine learning analysis algorithms to isolate and modify common objects in moving footage, dramatically accelerating VFX and compositing workflows.

“Machine learning has enormous potential for content creators, particularly in the areas of compositing and image manipulation where AI can be used to track and isolate objects in a scene to pull rough mattes quickly,” said Steve McNeill, Director Flame Family Products, Autodesk, Media and Entertainment. “Flame has a reputation as the de facto finishing system of choice in the deadline driven world of professional production, and this latest 2020 release significantly extends creative flexibility and performance for our artists.”

Flame Family 2020 highlights include:

· Z Depth Map Generator— Enables Z depth map extraction analysis using machine learning for live action scene depth reclamation. This allows artists doing color grading or look development to quickly analyze a shot and apply effects accurately based on distance from camera.

· Human face Normal Map Generator— Since all human faces have common recognizable features (relative distance between eyes, nose, location of mouth,) machine learning algorithms can be trained to find these patterns. This tool can be used to simplify accurate color adjustment, relighting and digital cosmetic/beauty retouching.

· Refraction— With this feature, a 3D object can now refract, distorting background objects based on its surface material characteristics. To achieve convincing transparency through glass, ice, windshields and more, the index of refraction can be set to an accurate approximation of real-world material light refraction.

· Automatic Background Reactor— Immediately after modifying a shot, this mode is triggered, sending jobs to process. Accelerated, automated background rendering allows Flame artists to keep projects moving using GPU and system capacity to its fullest. This feature is available on Linux only, and can function on a single GPU.

· Simpler UX in Core Areas— A new expanded full width UX layout for MasterGrade, Image surface, and several Map User interfaces, are now available, allowing for easier discoverability and accessibility to key tools.

· ‘Manager’ for Action, Image, Gmask—A simplified list schematic view, Manager makes it easier to add, organize and adjust video layers and objects in the 3D environment.

· Open FX Support—Flame, Flare and Flame Assist version 2020 now includes comprehensive support for industry standard Open FX creative plugins as Batch/BFX nodes or on the Flame timeline.

· Cryptomatte Support—Available in Flame and Flare, support for the Cryptomatte open source advanced rendering technique offers a new way to pack alpha channels for every object in a 3D rendered scene.

· Single user license offering—Linux customers can now opt for monthly, yearly and three-year single user licensing options. Customers with an existing Mac-only single user license can transfer their license to run Flame on Linux.

Flame, Flare™, Flame Assist and Lustre 2020 will be available on April 16, 2019 at no additional cost to customers with a current Flame Family 2019 subscription. For details and pricing, visit the Autodesk website. Early Flame 2020 adopters on beta have responded with enthusiasm to the latest updates:

“I’m super excited about the new machine learning tools in Flame. Machine learning can be used to automate a lot of processes, letting artists focus on more creative tasks. Z Depth Map Generator is a great tool for making depth-of-field adjustments but it’s also a really useful tool for speeding up selective color correction and beauty clean up too.”

Bryan Bayley, Flame Artist, Treehouse Edit

"Arthur C. Clarke once said 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. The machine learning technology inside of Flame is truly magic. I recently worked on a virtual set comp where they forgot to add depth-of-field on the backgrounds. It took me two hours per shot to roto and add motion blur; I ran the same shots through the Z Depth Map Generator and got results in two seconds. Wow!”

Craig Russo, VFX Supervisor, cr2creative

“Loads of people have talked about machine learning for compositing work, but nobody has delivered anything in an actual product. This is really impressively fast compared to the object labelling/mask approach to getting rough mattes quickly.”

Lewis Saunders, freelance Flame Artist, London

Flame is the core of my personal post boutique, I use it for VFX and compositing, and also as a fully functional NLE. I’ve been in post and VFX for many years, and started using Flame when it became available as a software-only solution. There are several new features in the 2019 release that allow me to complete almost every aspect of post on my commercial and broadcast projects in Flame.

My broadcast work includes many genres and types. I was recently hired to shoot and finish 23 interviews for an international broadcaster that was an in-depth look at the life of a soccer referee. Every interview clip was approximately 2:30 minutes, and was shot in front of a green screen. 

We had about 20 days to edit and finish the 23 clips. Only Flame’s exceptional speed and workflow options made this job possible. The 45 minutes of green screen compositing alone could have been a year-long task. Everything was done in Flame, including sound and broadcast mastering. For another project I had to produce content that had to be delivered across multiple mediums. Flame’s capability to deal with high resolution pictures, and delivery of consistent and predictable results in different color spaces, made this production very easy on the post side.

Before Flame 2019, color grading in Flame was doable and OK but far from what I would consider streamlined. With the Effects Tab and MasterGrade, this changed so much for the better that I now consider Flame as a serious contender in the color correction realm. Because Flame is all about choices, it takes some time to understand how color management is implemented and how to customize it to your needs. Flame’s new color management also allows me to work in ACES. MasterGrade is ACES optimized with log and lin optimized maths. You notice the difference instantly when working with MasterGrade. I get much better results compared to my old workflow in legacy video mode and CC/CW nodes.

The new Timeline to Batch workflow is a huge time saver and the new Connected Conform, an industry first and only, is a god-send to all of us who have to create tons of versions and need a fast way of producing them.

More and more I experience the need to produce high-level video content that must perform consistently across vastly different media platforms. This is a massive challenge for producers, writers and creatives and the postproduction back-end alike. From shooting high-resolution material for HDR productions, to the delivery of square social media in standard-video, to all that must be accomplished and archived for later use in a short time frame.

With the Facebook Logik group, I have access to a very active online community with many seasoned and smart Flame artists who are always helpful and insightful. Newbies are welcome, and the tone is friendly and open-minded. The Autodesk dev. team is also part of this community and has helped navigate how to maximize use of the new 2019 features; Grant Kay’s brilliant tutorials are a gem and a necessity.

The benefit of working with Flame is that you can see it as a fast compositor and finishing tool for client attended sessions that allow conforming timelines and sophisticated project management, or you can see it as an NLE with unbelievable possibilities. I use Flame for both, and I gain a lot with the new features that Flame 2019 is offering.

Hans Von Sonntag has been working as a filmmaker, editor, VFX, compositing and finishing artist for over 20 years. In addition to many awards including the ADE, Spotlight, Eurobest and World Media he has also been a lecturer on the subject of filmmaking. He can be reached at hans@vonsonntag.com