| New Releases Blaze the Trail for a New Genre of Visual Effects |
NEW
ORLEANS, LA (July 25,2000) -- Discreet announced worldwide shipment
of inferno 4 and version 7 of flame, flint and effect, the company's
most pivotal releases of its visual effects and finishing solutions
since the introduction of flame in 1993. The new versions of the Discreet
effects were demonstrated at Siggraph 2000 in the 2D/3D integration
and film and video effects theatres at the Discreet Booth (#1037) of
the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, July 25-28, 2000.
The new versions reflect artist-driven enhancements and new innovative advancements including an industry-first Colour Warper, integrated Motion Estimation Timewarp and 3D Tracker, and expanded 2D/3D integration with Discreet's award-winning animation software, 3D Studio Max. Significant speed acceleration and interactivity are achieved with new caching mechanisms, offering even greater responsiveness for time-sensitive projects in broadcast design and post-production. The new versions also offer an exciting new cross-platform effects production pipeline through integration with combustion, Discreet's recent Macintosh and PC/NT-based effects desktop software.
"The graphics and visual effects community originally embraced Discreet's effects solutions for their revolutionary artistic interface, interactivity, and return on investment," said John Miller, vice president of sales and marketing, Discreet. "With these new versions, Discreet continues to give visual effects and graphic artists an exciting new rich palette of industry-first tools".
"The new Colour Warper brings incredibly fast color correction and color matching tools to inferno -- including selective color correction," said John Montgomery, senior inferno artist, Avenue Chicago. "I recently completed a spot which in the past would have required re-transferring multiple scenes in the telecine suite. We really didn't have the time to do this, but with the new Color Warper I easily and quickly made the changes and blew the clients away. Once again, Discreet has shown a great job of listening to its customer base and providing the features that we ask for -- from day to day workflow issues to new features in the software."
Discreet inferno 4 and version 7 of flame, flint and effect include advanced features designed to inspire a new genre of film and video visual effects. Discreet's industry-first integrated Colour Warper is a unique software color corrector that provides fast, flexible master controls for interactive color manipulation, scene-to-scene color matching, selective color correction, as well as the ability to warp RGB space to produce unparalleled effects. The new versions also include 2D/3D integration with 3d studio max, where realistic animations are imported and integrated into live action sequences seamlessly. New Batch Scripting capabilities are available to perform highly specialized tasks such as remote render previews via email notification, or automate daily jobs such as background rendering. Also new to the Discreet effects systems is a new Texture Projector where 2D images are projected on 3D models to simulate 3D for fast realistic effects.
In addition, inferno 4 includes the new 3D Tracker, new technology following an object's movement through a scene from a 3D "camera's eye" perspective while extracting original camera path and camera parameters. With the accurate 3D tracking results, artists can integrate 3D models in live-action scenes with greater realism and predictability, simplifying the complex, iterative process of integrating 3D and 2D. inferno 4 also includes a Motion Estimation Timewarp module for precision control over camera speed selection, giving the artists expanded options for designing or modifying motion effects. With the 3D Tracker and Motion Estimation Timewarp, inferno artists can create never-before-seen motion effects and realistic CG integration with greater control, flexibility and speed.
Pricing and Availability
Version 4 of inferno and version 7 of flame, flint and effect are available for worldwide shipment. Customers and interested parties can contact their regional Discreet Sales office (http://www.discreet.com/), or call 800-869-3504 or 514-393-1616 for more information.
About Discreet
Discreet, a division of Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in digital content creation, management, and distribution tools. Discreet develops systems and software for visual effects, 3D animation, editing, and production used in the creation of digital moving pictures for feature films, video, HDTV, broadcast graphics, interactive games, and the web. Discreet products are used extensively in film and video post-production, games and multimedia, broadcast graphics, programming, and on-air event coverage. For more information, contact any Authorized Discreet Reseller, call Discreet at 800-869-3504, or visit http://www.discreet.com/.
