Flame 2008 has gone through a major re-design. There is now 100% compatibility with action and DVE setups and a standardized UI for many of the Smoke and Flame modules. Courtesy of Autodesk.

I have been a Flame user since 1999 and still think it is the best system for compositing and design work. I was lucky enough to be part of the Flame 2008 beta team from March to September of 2007 and was able to provide feedback to the beta team during the entire time. At my current company, Click 3x, we are running three Flame Linux systems, one Smoke on Tezro and a couple of Burn render nodes. Two of the Flames ran the beta software, but I was the only one to give the software some real world workouts with client sessions. Crazy, I know, but there was a method to my madness. Flame 2008 has gone through a major re-design and I found that going back and forth between 2007 and 2008 annoying. It was better to quit using 2007 "cold turkey" and just get used to using 2008.

With the 2008 release there is now 100% compatibility with action and DVE setups and a standardized UI for many of the Smoke and Flame modules. Flame now has a Multi-Layer and Multi-Track Timeline that is essentially the Smoke timeline. It is accessible off the desktop but also in Batch. I was very excited about this feature. I come from an editorial background and to finally have the ability to scrub through a proper timeline and add multiple layers of audio is a huge bonus for us Flame artists since we have to cut on a daily basis. I used this feature almost immediately for a comical MTV broadcast job that featured the rock band Foo Fighters. I was able to cut together my scenes easily, layer various audio files and even add a flanger effect to audio. That is something I thought I would never do with the Flame! Having a fully functional timeline (as opposed to the Batch timeline in previous versions), I was able to explore using Segment FX, which allows me to have uncommitted vfx shots into an edited timeline. I used this for the music video Stop Me... for Mark Ronson and director Matt Lenski. We had to deliver more than 100 shots in less than two weeks and having the ability to work scene to scene and revise vfx shots in a long form piece with the director was invaluable. For my next big project I will be using Segment FX much more.

For an MTV job that featured the Foo Fighters, Flame artists finally had the ability to scrub through a proper timeline and add multiple layers of audio. Unless noted, all images courtesy of Mark Szumski and Click 3x.

The other big change is the UI. The UI is now a 16:9 layout and many buttons and functions have been moved around. Several of the everyday or universal functions are in the same areas but are unified for all modules. That being said, there are enough changes that you will have to re-familiarize yourself to get around in the Batch and Action modules. It is so different that we are offering to our freelancers a chance to come in to try out the software before they are booked on jobs. The changes are not simply cosmetic. There are many improvements such as the new node bin that provides much faster access to everyday tools and the tabbed menu parameters that enable users to access Object and Axis features much faster. From my experience, the node bin is a big time saver: allowing me to drag and drop nodes within the Action schematic instead of bringing up a sub-menu.

There a couple of new features in action as well: DVE objects and a new Duplicate feature. The Duplicate feature is very handy. I used this for a beauty job when I was doing skin retouches and deformations to a popular tv actress. I needed the same extended bicubic for multiple layers that would change simultaneously as I animated. DVE objects are interesting and make swapping setups between Smoke and Flame easier but, to be honest, I don't see myself using this feature too often.