Flame 2017 Extension 1 announced at IBC

Autodesk has taken the wraps off of its upcoming Flame release, Flame 2017 Extension 1. We have an interview with Product Manager Will Harris and he also answers questions submitted by artists.

Interview with Will Harris covering the new features

As Harris mentions in the interview, the new release has some dramatically improved manipulation tools for objects in the Action viewport, bringing a more modern interaction model to the scene. They are effectively Maya-like manipulators such as Move, Scale, Rotate and Center(Pivot) that replace the old axis widgets and are only visible for the current selection.

manipulators1
The new Rotate manipulator in Action.
The new Rotate manipulator in Action.
Flame 2017×1 brings huge improvements to interacting with objects in Action.

The batch schematic improvements includes a new Compass node, which is quite similar to Nuke’s Backdrop. A new Elbow node replaces break link and allows a single input to be distributed to multiple nodes (and picks up the color of the Front/Back/Matte item feeding it).

New Batch organizational features include the Elbow Node (left) and Connect Node (right).
New Batch organizational features include the Elbow Node (left) and Connect Node (right).

Other new features include:

  • New “Maya inspired” 3D scene navigation and manipulators to make action more fluid for modeling, selecting geometries and modifying complex scenes.
  • Improved compatibility with Autodesk Maya and third party 3D animation software through a new .FBX scene export feature. Flame artists can now export complex projects – including geometries, deformed surfaces and textures as well as object animation and timing – facilitating more collaborative workflows.
  • Enhanced pipeline integration for color management, pipeline compositing and multi-channel clips, simplifying the user experience and strengthening the versatility of Flame products.
  • Upgraded action render quality enables artists to texture and light 3D scenes with creative flair and technical accuracy. Extension 1 combines the latest techniques in physically based rendering (PBR) with core lighting and texturing tools and includes a new package of 60 algorithmic substance textures.
  • Improved EXR handling for upgraded pipeline compositing. Multi EXRs can now be imported, conformed, cached and archived – while maintained as a single clip.
  • Connected color workflow improvements for finishing artists. Batch effects applied in Autodesk Lustre can now be rendered through the background reactor, and tangent ELEMENT panels are now automatically switched to the focused application.
  • Batch setups are now “project independent” and contain all metadata to re-import content or transfer assets from remote workstations.

 

Questions submitted by the Logik Facebook group

Before interviewing Will Harris, John Montgomery asked the popular Flame Logik Facebook group for questions any artists wanted asked. Here’s that part of the interview…

 

Autodesk videos covering the new release