February 15, 2001
 

combustion 1.0 is a extraordinary application to say the least. In the time that I have worked with it the more I have grown fond of using it. combustion not only surpasses such applications as Adobe After Effects it even allows you to use almost any 3rd party plugins (including After Effects and Photoshop) as well take advantage of 3d studio maxs workflow. To the staff this means a great deal as we have invested heavily in plugins and were happy to be able to use them in combustion. combustion departs from the normal paint, animation and compositing tool because of its extensive 3D capabilities and large cross platform format compatibility. combustion receives several of its features from another discreet product called flame, which is a high-end broadcast type tool. Among them is: motion tracking and stabilization, keying, color correction to name a few.
 

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combustion is a unique tool as it fits into several types of workflows. It fits right into postproduction, broadcast motion graphics, desktop (small studios and specialty companies) production and visual effects for 3D and animation.

Desktop Production
DT Production takes quite a boost from combustion as part of the workflow. It is a low cost and time saving tool that can replace a good many tools and offer scalable performance. As I said earlier After Effects plugins and Photoshop plugins work in combustion, it even has an audio scratch track for creating precise synching with video. No more extra applications just for audio/video synchronization.

Post Production
combustion offers a seamless production environment, with unified paint, animation and visual effects. combustion has a resolution independent workspace that allows a perfect match between paint, animation and compositing. The software UI (user interface) uses Discreets famous Artist interface as well as tools borrowed from flame. Visual feedback is perfect in combustion especially real-time manipulation of the image or video. combustion provides multiple simultaneous views of a composition, another words you can choose a layer and see it in three different perspective, angles or perspective views. Another fantastic feature is the REAL-TIME ROTO that allows a user to paint in one window while viewing the clip at full resolution; you can actually watch the effects as they are painted on.

3D Animation & Visual Effects
combustion supports a true Z-space compositing environment with animate-able cameras and lights. combustion provides the right tools to design, animate and composite effects in real 3D space. In discreet 3ds max 4 you can actually send renders straight to combustion for tweaking, post-production or visual effects. combustion could be considered a finishing station of 3D graphics and animations. There is true workflow integration between combustion and 3ds max 4. combustion can use the interactive paint link and post processing found in 3ds max rendered RPF files. Even when importing 3ds max models into combustion you can paint, flatten and send back to max with the UV coordinates intact.

Broadcast Motion Graphics
combustion has a non-destructive vector based technology that provides fast editing of images, graphics and type. The combustion workspace file (CWF) allows creation of templates and also allows the user to quickly add/remove or change a graphic, footage or other element. combustion can import Illustrator and Photoshop native formats. Illustrator files are handled as resolution independent vector files in the paint operator layers. Photoshop files can be imported with the layers intact, so that layers and attributes can be manipulated after being brought into combustion.

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Final Words
Fast, smart, usable and timesaving are four words that come to my mind as I think about the many good features of combustion. It is an artists, small production studio, broadcast motion creators dream. It is definitely and asset to any digital workflow. Overall combustion is the best application in that we have tested and used to date in the composting/paint/animation/3D effects/video area.
combustion simply does what discreet claims, and in todays world of lousy software and empty promises discreet really shines!

System Requirements

Software
Microsoft Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000
Macintosh OS 81,8.5 or 9.0

Hardware
PC - Intel-Compatible processor (200mhz minimum), Dual Pentium 3 recommended, 512MB RAM recommended; 2GB hard drive, Video Display Card with at least 4MB VRAM (1024x768 @ 24 bit color depth); CD-ROM Drive
Optional: Sound card, speakers, 3-button mouse

Mac PowerPC processor, G3 or G4 at 200mhz minimum, QuickTime 3.0 or 4.0; 512mb RAM recommended, 2GB hard drive; video display card with at least 4MB VRAM (1024x768 @ 24 bit color depth); CD-ROM Drive
Optional: Sound card, speakers, multi-button mouse

You can visit the combustion website here

Copyright 2001, Allen Harkleroad, All Rights Reserved