What's New in Flame Premium 2016 Extension 2

Welcome to the 2016 Extension 2 release of Flame Premium. Follow the links below to read about new features and enhancements in various areas. In some instances, links are provided within the What's New sections to more information within the User Guide.

Note: Follow these links for other What's New information from the 2016 release:

New Flame Family Updates

Autodesk is pleased to announce the following changes – the Autodesk Flame family is now more accessible than ever before:

What's New in Flame Premium

Colour Management

Five new or updated Colour Transforms are available for HDR, based on the most recent update of ACES 1.0.1, enabling the display of pure black on Sony X300 HDR monitors:
  • RRT+ODT/ACES_to_P3-D60_PQ_1000nits_1.0.ctf
  • RRT+ODT/ACES_to_P3-D60_PQ_2000nits_1.0.ctf
  • RRT+ODT/ACES_to_P3-D60_PQ_4000nits_1.0.ctf
  • RRT+ODT/ACES_to_HDR_r709-g2.6_1000nits_1.0.ctf
  • RRT+ODT/ACES_to_HDR_r2020-g2.4_1000nits_1.0.ctf (new)
A new levels transform to improve precision when importing lens rectification maps and a transform for applying the 52.37/48 DCI headroom scaling are also available:
  • levels/offset/subtract_0.5.ctf (new)
  • levels/dci_headroom.ctf (new)

SDI Preview

  • The following functionality is now available when using Blackmagic Design SDI I/O and Preview cards (Mac OS X). The functionality is available based on hardware capabilities. See Blackmagic Design website for more details:
    • Support for Single Link 4:4:4 RGB 3G for all HD timings;
    • Support for 2K DCI (2048x1080) 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 & 30;
    • Support for UHD (3840x2160) 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 & 30;
    • Support for 4k (4096x2160) 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 & 30;
    • Support for HFR timings for AJA IOXT4K on OS X - UHDTV/4K 50p, 59,94 and 60p.
  • It is now possible to monitor 8 audio tracks over HDMI, using AJA cards.
  • Blackmagic Design HDMI audio monitoring is limited to two tracks.

Media Import

Updated Support for Pixspan

  • Support for Pixspan SDK 2.0.5 enables thumbnails generation for media encoded with Autodesk products. These thumbnails can be seen under the Mac OS X Finder, making media browsing easier. This update requires an OS X QuickTime component available from Pixspan.

Updated Support for MediaReactor

  • This release requires an updated version of Drastic Technology's MediaReactor (build 165). This version fixes the following:
    • Issues with Jpeg2000 MXF on OSX.
    • Issues with CinemaDNG files from Adobe DNG Converter not being read properly.

Updated Support for RED R3D Files

  • Support for the new RED SDK version 6.0.4, which includes support for the new Dragon 6K sensor, a new colour space (Rec. 2020), as well as for the upcoming RED Weapon (8K) and RED Raven (4K) cameras.
  • When importing R3D media files from the MediaHub, it is now possible to use the file header information for various settings. This addition makes importing multi-selection of R3D files easier since you can define manual settings for some parameters while preserving camera original settings for non-modified options. You can set it up in the MediaHub, in the R3D format options.
  • The following boxes from the Colour menu now have a From File option:
    • Colour Science
    • Colour Space
    • Gamma Curve
    • HDRx Offset
  • The following toggles, located in the Image menu, set the behavior of associated fields:
    • Image Settings From File: Enable to use information from the imported R3D file to set the options displayed in the the Image menu. Disable to use the MediaHub values.
    • Advanced Settings From File: Enable to use information from the imported R3D file to set the options displayed in the the Advanced Colour menu. Disable to use the MediaHub values.
    • The 'Save As User Settings' option is now enabled by default and allows you to use the camera settings as a starting point in the Pre Processing Options.
  • Multi-Channel OpenEXR files with multiple alpha channels / matte are now imported as Matte Containers with all available mattes.

Updated Support for Panasonic Varicam35

  • Support for MXF AVC-Intra 4:2:2 HD (available with Varicam35 V5.0 camera firmware, being released in December 2015).

Updated Support for DNxHR

  • You can now import Avid DNxHR media, using either QuickTime or MXF containers. The whole DNxHR family is supported:
    • DNxHR 444
    • DNxHR HQX
    • DNxHR HQ
    • DNxHR SQ
    • DNxHR LB

Media Export

  • You can now export using Sony MPEG-4 Part 2 Simple Studio Profile (SStP) encoding, in an MXF wrapper. This is the compression used in HDCAM-SR VTRs.
  • The encoder supports the following formats:
    SR-Lite 4:2:2 10-bit (220Mbps):
    1280x720 (50p, 59.94p), 1920x1080 (23.97p, 24p, 25p, 25i, 29.97p, 29,97i, 50p, 59,94p)
    SR-SQ 4:2:2 10-bit (440Mbps):
    1280x720 (50p, 59.94p), 1920x1080 (23.97p, 24p, 25p, 25i, 29.97p, 29,97i, 50p, 59,94p)
    SR-SQ 4:4:4 12-bit (440Mbps):
    1920x1080 (23.97p, 24p, 25p, 25i, 29.97p, 29,97i, 50p, 59,94p), 2048x1080 (23,97p, 24p, 25p)
    SR-HQ 4:4:4 12-bit (880 Mbps):
    1920x1080 (23.97p, 24p, 25p, 25i, 29.97p, 29,97i, 50p, 59,94p), 2048x1080 (23,97p, 24p, 25p)
Four SStP export presets are available.

In Flame (including Flame Assist and Flare):

  • MXF (SStP SR-Lite 4:2:2 1080p 10-bit)
  • MXF (SStP SR-SQ 4:2:2 1080p 10-bit)
  • MXF (SStP SR-SQ 4:4:4 1080p 12-bit)
  • MXF (SStP SR-HQ 4:4:4 1080p 12-bit)

In Lustre:

  • MXF_SStP_SR_Lite_422_1080p
  • MXF_SStP_SR_SQ_422_1080p
  • MXF_SStP_SR_SQ_444_1080p
  • MXF_SStP_SR_HQ_444_1080p
    • Note: Headroom options are available for the 4:2:2 encoders.

Updated Control Surface Support

Avid Artist Series Color & Transport panels are now supported on all Mac OSX Flame Family products.

New Hardware Validation Tool

A Hardware Validation tool is now bundled with the Flame Family Products when installed in Linux workstations. The tool runs a series of checks on the workstation's current hardware configuration to make sure the application can run properly. A Summary tab displays the general status of all the different hardware checks. Other tab provide details on the different hardware checks.

There are three ways to access the Hardware Validation Tool:
  1. When launching the Flame Family application for the first time, the Hardware Validation Tool is automatically run and displayed on the screen. This only happens the first time you run the Flame Family application, unless your hardware changes.
  2. When logged in as a Flame Family User, a Hardware Validation tool icon is displayed on the Desktop as well as inside the Program Bar. You can launch the Tool from either of these locations.
  3. From the Flame Family Menu (at the bottom right of the screen), by selecting Help > Hardware Validation.

What's New in Lustre

Lustre GPU

Introducing Lustre Reactor, a brand new GPU accelerated playback and rendering pipeline for color correction, blur, keying and softness, enabling significantly faster and more precise processing.

Before Lustre 2016 Extension 2

After Lustre 2016 Extension 2

Lustre Reactor can also be used for local rendering and with Shot Reactor, Burn and command-line rendering. Type render -h for the Command Line Help file. See Autodesk Burn documentation for recommended GPUs.

More Precise GPU Pipeline

  • Matte extraction with the HLS and the Diamond Keyers provide better results;
  • Blur and Softness have been optimized;
  • Banding issues, when using the above tools, have been resolved and should not be visible anymore.
    • Note: CPU rendering is currently still available, making it possible to render grades created in previous versions of Lustre and to obtain a matching result. However, bear in mind that future versions will probably exclusively use Lustre Reactor.

Lustre Reactor

  • The GPU can now be used for both interactive and grade rendering. This is a high fidelity solution, meaning that decisions made in the grading suite now correspond to what is rendered on disk.
  • To use Lustre Reactor, make sure the GPU button is enabled (it is enabled by default). If disabled, the CPU pipeline is used for both interactive and rendering.
  • Shot Reactor has been configured to use the GPU. If you are running Shot Reactor on a remote rack mounted 1U server, the NVidia Q6000 is required.

CPU Plugins

CPU-only plugins are now available when the GPU is enabled. They are still processed by the CPU, but are no longer incompatible when in GPU mode.

Matte Rendering

It is now possible to render the currently selected Matte when rendering the grade.

To render a Matte, do the following:

  1. Enable Matte view.
  2. Select the Secondary containing the Matte you want to render.
  3. Render the scene or shot.

    The Matte media is rendered, using the current Render Naming convention of the Render node used.

External Mattes

This release also optimizes decoding performance when working with OpenEXR Single Channel Matte(s).

Installation & Configuration

Supported Configurations

The following hardware configurations are currently supported:

  • HP 8600 / NVidia FX5800
  • HP Z800 / NVidia FX5800
  • HP Z800 / NVidia Q6000
  • HP Z820 / NVidia Q6000
  • HP Z820 / NVidia K6000
  • HP Z840 / NVidia K6000
  • HP Z840 / NVidia M6000
Performance may vary based on resolution, frame rate and media format.
Note:
  • For workflows using GPU Decoding of RED or ARRIRAW content, configurations with K6000 or M6000 should be privileged.
  • In order to improve playback performance with high resolution content, you can set the Matte Resolution to Half Resolution. If you intend to add a Blur effect to the matte, Half Resolution should be used.
  • It is also recommended that you select ‘Center’, in the Project Settings / Engineering tab, next to the Graphic SDI heading, to avoid resizing issues when enabling / disabling GPU while AJA SDI Preview is enabled.

Installation and Compatibility

This release can be installed on systems running the following Flame Family or Lustre versions:

  • 2015 Extension 3
  • 2016
  • 2016 Extension 1

    • Flame & Lustre projects, users and data are fully compatible with the 2016 Extension 1 release.

Miscellaneous Lustre Enhancements

HiDPI Display Support in Lustre:

  • The user interface for Lustre has been updated to support HiDPI monitors (4K), so that the entire Flame Premium suite now supports 4K monitors.

Print View and Print LUT support:

  • It is now possible to view the Print LUT on AJA SDI Output when looking at the Print view. GPU option has to be enabled.

Lustre Interoperability with Flame:

  • Sequences, that contain Matte Containers comprised of OpenEXR single channel Mattes, are now correctly displayed in Lustre.