Autodesk, Inc. has announced the Autodesk Lustre 2009 digital color grading system and Autodesk Incinerator 2009, the real-time system accelerator for Lustre. The Lustre system has helped shape the look of hundreds of films and TV series, including: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, IRON MAN, CASUALTY, PLANET EARTH and GALAPAGOS. Lustre 2009 will be showcased at Autodesk booth #7-D21 during the International Broadcasters Convention 2008 in Amsterdam's RAI Convention Center, September 12-16.
"We are very excited about the powerful functionality Lustre 2009 has to offer," said Stig Gruman, Digital Entertainment Group vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. "Lustre 2009 makes the grading process much more efficient. And for the first time ever, we are simultaneously releasing new versions of Lustre and Incinerator. Now all Lustre customers can take advantage of the latest developments."
Running on a new high-performance platform, Lustre 2009 offers numerous features that improve the color grading workflow, including: stereoscopic grading; intuitive project management; integrated audio input, output and playback; multi-layer timeline shot prioritization; timeline A/C mode sorting; customizable sensitivity settings for the Autodesk Control Surface; and enhanced interoperability with the Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Inferno, Autodesk Flint and Autodesk Smoke visual effects and finishing systems.
"Our colorists can now easily define multiple projects, manage configuration options, and establish user-preferences through the Project Management tool. By streamlining data management and allowing us to focus on grading, Autodesk Lustre has become indispensable," said Ivar Beer, who beta tested Lustre 2009 and is head of digital post-production at CinePostproduction.
Highlights of Autodesk Lustre 2009
Automated Stereoscopic Tools--Lustre 2009 offers advanced tools for color grading stereoscopic content from live-action or computer-generated productions. It is a key component in Autodesk's holistic stereoscopic film pipeline, which spans 3D modeling and animation, compositing and color grading.--Lustre 2009 gives colorists automated stereoscopic tools that accelerate the process of grading, previewing and rendering left- and right-eye media. The entire creative toolset in Lustre can now be used to grade stereoscopic material.
Workflow Enhancements--Project and User Management: Lustre 2009 includes an intuitive interface for managing projects. It enables colorists to quickly define projects, set render paths, manage configuration options and establish user preferences. Colorists can also create templates to instantly apply common project and user parameters to new projects; this is highly beneficial for short-form projects.--Timeline Sort Mode: This new feature helps colorists rearrange the shots of an assembled edit decision list (EDL), grade the sorted shots in Source order and then return them to their edited EDL order.--Audio Input/Output (I/O) and Playback: Lustre 2009 provides integrated audio I/O with eight channels of synchronized playback, making it easy for colorists to capture audio directly from a video source and use sound as an element of look design.--Timeline Shot Prioritization: These new capabilities in Lustre 2009 facilitate rapid brainstorming and testing of ideas in a client-attended session. Colorists can define exactly which shots in a multi-layer stack are displayed during playback, laid out to tape or rendered to disk. They can stack multiple versions in a timeline and then quickly select which version gets used.--Customizable Control Panel Sensitivity: Lustre 2009 offers the ability to adjust the response sensitivity of the control panel to suit each colorist's individual preferences.
Common Platform with Autodesk Visual Effects and Finishing Systems--The Lustre 2009 system runs on the same platform as the current releases of the Autodesk Smoke finishing system, as well as the Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Inferno and Autodesk Flint visual effects systems. This common platform will allow finishing and visual effects artists to increase their creative potential by more easily adding Lustre to post-production workflows.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Acceleration--Lustre 2009 offers extensive GPU capabilities for high-performance grading. Hue, lightness and saturation (HLS) curves in secondary grading and noise reduction are GPU-accelerated, as well as several of the Lustre effects plug-ins.
Highlights of Autodesk Incinerator 2009
Autodesk Incinerator 2009 offers the same creative toolset as Lustre, with enhanced performance that is made possible through state-of-the-art parallel processing technology. Based on the latest server and networking technology, Incinerator 2009 enables real-time color grading for the most demanding digital-intermediate feature film projects.
Autodesk anticipates that Lustre 2009 will be available in October 2008 for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows XP operating systems and that Incinerator 2009 will be available simultaneously for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For further information, visit www.autodesk.com/lustre or contact Autodesk by phone at 800-869-3504.
