Autodesk’s new updates to Flame, Flare and Flame Assist address workflows that help artists manage 4K/UltraHD and HDR content. Improvements to tools include new HDR-enabled colour curves in MasterGrade, faster conforms and upgraded video preview options for content of up to 4K/UltraHD via single cable 12G-SDI connectivity. Autodesk says their aim is to speed up delivery of finished editing, colour and VFX work produced for film, television, commercial clients or streaming platforms.
The upgraded hue curves for working with HDR material can be used to to quickly manipulate specific colours in a shot, without requiring any keying, while preserving the fidelity of imagery. Flame’s MasterGrade tools now also include eight new hue modifiers and more curve manipulation modes. MasterGrade is a Matchbox shader for colour correction, based on the grading algorithms in Autodesk Lustre and extended to meet the demands of floating-point media and HDR displays. This update produces smoother transitions in regions where hues are compressed, and simplifies colour correction tasks.
For faster conforms, a new Auto Link Matches function saves time when conforming edits, as well as new speed optimisations when scanning media – specifically when indexing MXF files (Material Exchange format) to help speed up random access and manage diverse essence formats within the file.
Live video previewing is improved due to new 12G-SDI video output support for video I/O cards from Blackmagic Design and AJA, for content up to 4K/UltraHD via a single cable. Compatible video cards include Blackmagic Ultra Studio and Deck Link, and AJA T-TAP Pro. These devices allow artists to use Thunderbolt 3 connectivity for 12G-SDI and HDMI 2.0 monitoring and output to Flame workflows.
The latest update to Flame, Flare, and Flame Assist is available now at no further cost to Flame Family subscribers. www.autodesk.com
