Discreet plans to make it big with combustion

Circuit EC/Bangalore

Discreet, a division of Autodesk has launched ‘combustion 2’, a unified paint, animation and composting software solution targeted at motion graphic designers, animators and visual effects artists on Windows and Macintosh systems. The Indian customers for combustion include NDTV, CNBC and post-production houses like Pentafour and Western Outdoor. According to the company, compared to its predecessors, combustion 2 addresses a different market altogether.

Kedia says combustion offers more advanced features than any other product and will emerge a winner for the company

Combustion 2 offers the tools, speed and visual interactivity needed to create images. It is resolution-independent and comes with multi-format capabilities for film and video post-production. “Combustion 2 incorporates Discreet’s Academy award winning technology for motion tracking, keying and colour correction,” says Pankaj Kedia, regional manager-South Asia, Discreet. He further adds that the tool allows users to work with independent resolution, which they can paint, composite and add visual effects with combustion but finalise the project using ‘flame’ or ‘inferno’.

Additional new features in the combustion 2 package include a fully integrated 2D particle system, an interactive text and motion graphics module and garbage masking technology that provides parallel workflow integration with Discreet’s latest versions of its online visual effects systems. Combustion 2 is also designed to work with many of the world’s best selling graphics applications. The product is priced at $5,000 and the upgrade version comes at $1,000 and it has an installed base of around 300 seats. The company has also launched Edit 6.5, a desktop editing software priced at $8,000. It is a complete solution and includes ‘Targa-3000-Board and a workstation. Discreet has partnered with Compaq to offer desktop. The solution can handle uncompressed video and works with Pentium 3 and Pentium 4.

Discreet was established as a division of Autodesk after it was acquired by the latter. The company develops systems and software for visual effects, 3D animation, editing and broadcast. Discreet’s tools are used to create digital motion pictures for video, feature films, broadcast graphics, interactive games and the Web.