Autodesk Combustion 2008

Features & Specifications
The definitive creative solution for desktop paint, color correction, compositing, and visual effects. Autodesk Combustion software is the all-in-one professional compositing application designed to enable the full creative potential of digital video artists. With its easy-to-use interface, nondestructive workflow, and extensive toolset, Combustion delivers incredible power at an economical price and instantly augments the creative potential of any serious desktop video artist.
Key Combustion Features
· Single integrated application for vector paint, motion graphics design, animation, and compositing
· Full 3D compositing environment
· Advanced visual effects tools—keying, color correction, tracking, grain management, and masking tools inherited from the Flame visual effects system
· Edit Operator—break free from your NLE and assemble clips complete with transitions right in Combustion
· Rich set of effects tools, including a fully integrated, interactive particle system, warping and morphing, and 3D Post filters
· Comprehensive paint and rotoscoping tools, including fully customizable brushes
· Comprehensive animation tools, animation curve editor, keyframing, and expressions
· Intuitive schematic view to simplify visualization and organization of complex effects
· OpenGL application programming interface acceleration, multiprocessor support, and extensive caching for improved system performance
· Multiple simultaneous viewports with real-time RAM looped playback
· Resolution-independence with 8-, 10-, 12-, 16-, and 32-bit (float) per component image processing
· Composite
· Colour Warper (NEW)
· Color Correction
· Paint
· Capsules
· Edit Operator
· Character Generation and Text Effects
· Particle System
· Timewarp
· Expressions
· Selections and Masks
· Keying
· Motion Tracking
· Advanced Film Tools
· Audio
· Filters and Plug-Ins
· Keyframe and Timeline Controls
· Schematic View
Composite
· Merge operator to quickly composite two inputs using any one of a variety of transfer modes
· True 3D perspective positioning and animation
· True 3D animatable camera with real-world camera attributes
· Unlimited color light sources, with attributes like spot, point, and distant light
· Realistic ray-traced shadows and reflections
· Layer projection to create stained glass–type lighting effects
· High-quality motion blur with multiple transfer modes
· Multiple object parenting, hinging, and path alignment for advanced motion path hierarchies
· Unlimited layers per composite—nest multiple layers inside a composite for greater efficiency
· Ability to import Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator files
Colour Warper (NEW)
· Performs primary and selective color correction allowing for precise fine-tuning with multiple levels of adjustment in a single pass
· Interactive adjustment of gamma, gain, offset, hue, saturation, and contrast; apply animatable settings to all channels or independently to R, G, and B
· Intuitive hue shift and tint color wheel for fast, accurate color balancing; visual color sampling palette for precise color matching
· Interactive Histogram and Curves editing modes for subtle, precision tweaking of color components
· Independent controls for color correcting shadow, midtone, and highlight regions—features user-definable luminance ranges
· “Match” feature for fast scene-to-scene color correction
· “Selective” feature for sampling up to three different color regions for isolated correction
· User interface features a high-quality RGB vector scope, and a 3D histogram for precise color monitoring
Color Correction
· Comprehensive color correction tools, including Color Balance, Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Gamma, Equalize, Tint, Curves, Shadow/Midtone/Highlight adjustment, and more
· NTSC and PAL color limiting and RGB and HSV color space models
· Precise and automatic color matching of footage from different sources
Paint
· B-splines with edge softness for greater control when defining shapes
· Control point grouping to facilitate roto work and shape animation
· Blend colors in the color mixer using an image as a source
· Corner Radius specifies corner curvature when creating rectangles
· Integrated pivot point adjustment and rotation directly in vector object
· Real-Time Roto—paint in one viewport while watching the result loop playback in another
· Vector-based—all paint strokes and objects are resolution-independent vectors and fully editable
· Pressure-sensitive painting and drawing tools
· 30+ real-time draw modes, including smooth, brightness, blur, emboss, and more
· Cloning and reveal controls for interactive painting between video clips and frames
· Custom brushes help you create unique tools for advanced effects and textures
· Flash .swf output offers expanded web design capabilities
Capsules
· Create custom Capsule operators by combining multiple operators in the schematic
· Configurable user interface exposes only the operator parameters you require
· Accepts multiple inputs for quickly creating frequently used effects; inputs can be named to clearly define source elements expected by the Capsule
· Capsule Notes enable you to explain Capsule functions to facilitate collaboration
· Save Capsules to import them as operators in other workspaces
Edit Operator
· Simultaneously trim head and tail (maintains duration)
· Current and total duration displayed in the timeline segment
· Create duplicate segments in the timeline
· Assemble clips, and render them or use them as layers in a composite
· Trim, slip, slide, and ripple clips with transitions
· In-context editing between the edit operator and your composites
· Use multiple edit operators to easily create complex effects
· Full support for multiple resolutions—mix and match clips as needed
Character Generation and Text Effects
· Fast, interactive text editor for resolution-independent, nondestructive text animation
· Direct WYSIWYG manipulation of text within the context of the overall composite
· Font attributes (face, outline, shadow) have individual color, gradient, and texture controls
· Individual control of phrases, words, and even single characters for precise editing and animation
· Animate text along a path, with full onscreen editing of path control points
· Edit and animate vector outlines of text characters
· Support for Adobe PostScript and TrueType fonts; international right-left, vertical text entry; double-byte (Asian, Arabic fonts)
· Generators for creating frame counters, timecode burn-in, sequential and random numbers
Particle System
· Real-time particle system for creating smoke, fire, explosions, water, and other effects
· Includes a library of hundreds of preset effects, each one fully customizable
· Create your own particle effects using sprites created from custom bitmaps, or use any element in the Combustion workspace—such as text or paint objects—as a particle
· Use deflectors to bounce particles during animations
· Motion-track emitters to lock particle effects to moving objects in an image sequence
· Control the color, emission, and behavior properties of the particles, including direction, life, number, spin, bounce, velocity, randomness, and more
Timewarp
· Time-remapping operator for creating slow-motion and speed-up effects
· Timing, speed, and duration controls for advanced manipulation of speed changes
· User-definable between-frame interpolation to create smooth blends or trails
Expressions
· Quick Pick for specifying relative paths when linking expressions
· Use JavaScript expressions to create complex animations without keyframing each value
· Expression Browser makes it easy to visualize, explore, and modify expressions from more than 30 preset expression classes
· Quick Pick functions to easily link behavior of different parameters together
· Convert expressions to keyframes for fine-tuning your animations
Selections and Masks
· B-spline shapes for smoother control of edges when creating masks
· Create animatable, trackable shapes using Bézier, B-Spline, Freehand, Rectangle, and Ellipse tools
· Animatable magic wand—keyframe or track the magic wand selection point
· Keyer-based selection for advanced color-based extraction and rotoscoping
· Edge gradient—a powerful three-spline rotoscoping technology for variable-edge softness; inner and outer mask or selection softness for motion blur compensation
· Boolean operations for combining masks and selections, including add, subtract, intersect, and replace
· Create multiple and articulated shapes in a single pass for faster rotoscoping
Keying
· Diamond Keyer—an advanced proprietary keying algorithm for pulling precise keys fast
· High-quality, professional bluescreen/greenscreen keying with advanced matte control tools
· Intuitive Keyer—RGB, YUV, HLS, Channel, Luminance, RGB-CMYL, and custom
· Matte edge and softness controls, including levels, shrink and erode, and Gaussian blur
· Advanced spill and color-suppression controls
Motion Tracking
· High-performance, high-precision tracking technology
· Four-corner pinning and image stabilization to remove unwanted camera roll, shake, and jitter
· Unlimited number of track points for complex changes in position, scale, and rotation
· Animate any keyframeable parameter using the tracker in context
· Export tracking data to other compositing systems as ASCII data
Advanced Film Tools
· Export OpenEXR file sequences for easy integration into film pipelines
· Look-up Tables (LUTs) enable artists to accurately display digital film scans on computer monitors
· Add Grain and Remove Grain filters include automatic grain matching with presets for popular film stocks
· Native 10-bit Cineon support—paint or rotoscope directly in 10-bit log without conversion
· Supports 32-bit (float) per component for full floating-point accuracy
Audio
· Supports Apple QuickTime, AVI, WAV, and AIFF files
· Synchronize audio to any operator in the process tree, or use as a global reference track
· Display the audio waveform over the timeline for accurate synchronization
· Simultaneously play audio in real time with cached animation
· Volume controls and VU/Peak meters
Filters and Plug-Ins
· Fast GBlur, an optimized, high-quality blur filter with constant-speed rendering independent of blur radius
· GBuffer Builder can custom-combine your image bitmaps into RPF files for use with Combustion software’s 3D Post operators
· RE:Vision Effects’ RE:Flex plug-in fully integrated for superior warping and morphing capabilities
· 3D Post effects for RPF/RLA images, including 3D depth of field, 3D fog, 3D glow, 3D lens flare, and 3D motion blur
· De- and re-interlace, 3:2 pull-down removal/addition, reverse dominance, and broadcast-safe
· Save effect operator presets to create a library and share effects
· Compatible with most Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects plug-ins
Keyframe and Timeline Controls
· Customizable channel filtering in the timeline
· Layer-based timeline and animation curve editor
· Markers provide ability to add notes and visual cues to your timeline
· Clip trimming, advanced keyframe, and object control
· Perform copy/paste and math operations on channels or groups of keyframes
· Automatic ease in/out control over single or multiple keyframes
· Define curve interpolation per keyframe, and define extrapolation per channel
Schematic View
· Interactive representation of the entire process/workflow used to create a composite
· Work simultaneously within the schematic, timeline, or workspace view
· Flowchart is automatically constructed as you build a composition
· Add, delete, move, cut/copy/paste, or add operators
· Fast navigation with pan, zoom, and center functions