Flame 2018 Update 1 Improves Batch Paint & Conform Workflow

Autodesk’s Flame 2018 Update 1 includes a new scene detection algorithm, 16-bit floating point depth support, Batch Paint improvements to edits and a conform workflow connecting artists to editorial.

New conform tools include the advanced criteria option giving more control over working from timelines provided by editorial. Users can now specify a character length that Flame will use when matching to the search criteria. Even very difficult timelines can be conformed quickly.

The new scene detect algorithm was developed as a fast way to divide up a sequence into individual shots. The threshold for the scene detection is keyframeable at any point, which makes a neat, controllable way to clean up the false positives – that is, false motion detection events - that sometimes occur with extreme lighting changes.

Batch Paint can use tokens to name segments and versions of shots to save time and create groups, and now comes with a custom index token for more flexibility when naming a series of shots or clips. Artists can offset not only the start number but also specify a custom interval number. Users can adjust strokes in the Paint node via a multiple function edit box, animate them, or limit them with user-definable frame ranges. The ability to edit paint strokes in Batch Paint also gains precision from the new 16-bit floating-point depth support.

Once you make an edit to a stroke in the Paint node, you can access the edited area and make further adjustments – move, rescale or change its range and so on – so that individually editing strokes can achieve an invisible result. Many stroke parameters such as absolute position and scaling, size, rotation, opacity, and start and end of a stroke, can be animated as well. Should there be a camera move, it can be tracked and re-animated.

Users can now access a workflow for publishing to Shotgun from inside Flame. After rendering, they choose the option to submit a file to Shotgun for review, including remarks, which uploads the files to the Shotgun server. Once in Shotgun, when reviewers make and upload annotations, the notes and annotations are visible back in Flame. When revisions are complete, a new version is created, rendered and submitted for review. The final approval in Shotgun is also visible in the Flame.

Autodesk has made improvements to its other 3D software including Maya 2017 update 3 and 3ds Max 2018, and Arnold 5.0 for rendering – more news to follow soon. www.autodesk.com