In part 8 of the Machine Learning series, we examine a series of performance enhancements for Machine Learning and internally generated Motion Vectors in the Timeline in the Flame 2021.2 Update. When using Machine Learning Models and generated Motion Vectors Maps, Flame will now cache the frames to disk to enhanced performance. This removes the need to recalculate the data analysis each time you visit the TimelineFX. Since this type of caching is now part of the project, it can now be managed as...
Oct 28, 2020•6 min
In this part of the Machine Learning series, a new machine learning model called the Salient Semantic Keyer has been added to Flame! As part of our continued development of machine learning technology, This amazing tool can identify objects within a bounding box based on its shape. So you can now create isolation mattes for objects based on the machine learning training and the picture quality (buildings, cars, boats, animals, people and more!) and use them within Image or Action for various gra...
Oct 28, 2020•10 min
This video introduces a brand new workflow in Flame to build node flow graphs quickly and efficiently, even if you don't know the names of the nodes!!! The new "Search..." functionality can be used with the node bins or you could bypass the node bins entirely to build any type of node flow graph. Set your favourite tools and hide the ones you don't need. Flame is also smart enough to show you the tools you use the most when using "Search..." This welcome feature will accelerate your productivity...
Oct 28, 2020•15 min
In this video, you'll learn about a big enhancement to the user interface in terms of VFX and Grading. The new Single Panel View allows you to focus on the tool you have selected in an uncluttered display. Tools become easily accessible with fewer sub-menus and it also makes Flame easier to learn for new users. This is a global setting in your user profile for Action, Image and the Gmask Tracer, allowing you to work the way you want. The original Dual Panel View is still available for long time ...
Oct 28, 2020•6 min
In this video, you’ll learn how to compare images when performing VFX and Grading in the Flame 2021.1 products. This is quite an essential function if you’re comparing the progression of an effect, one look to another look or simply comparing the current frame to a still reference. Perform comparisons in the Effects Environment and Batch Environments with one set of controls!
Jun 25, 2020•11 min
In this video, you’ll learn how to compare images when working in the timeline of the Flame 2021.1 products. This has many practical functions such as on-line to off-line comparison, video track comparison and comparison to reference images. This is an essential task during most post-production and we’ll cover the functionality in depth with various examples.
Jun 25, 2020•11 min
In the first three videos of this series, you’ve learnt how the Explorer can manage your TimelineFX setups for VFX and Grading within the context of the Effects Environment. In this video, you’ll look at how the Explorer has been implemented in all the environments of Flame 2021.1. We’ll look at MediaHub, Conform, Timeline and finally how the Explorer works with Batch.
Jun 25, 2020•9 min
In parts 1 & 2 in this series, you learnt how to create, organise and apply TimelineFX via the Explorer. This is great for any VFX or grading workflows and I am sure that you’ll put it to good use! In Part 3, we are going to focus particularly on an isolation tool known as a Selective. This tool is available in the Image and Action toolsets and it creates some very interesting opportunities when it comes to TimelineFX Setups and the Explorer. For example, you can have an Image TimelineFX whi...
Jun 25, 2020•13 min
In the first video on working with TimelineFX Setups in the Flame 2021 products, we introduced the workflows and showed you how to create and apply TimelineFX Setups in combination with the Explorer. They are all quick and intuitive methods but in order to keep your growing TimelineFX Setups under control, we do recommend organising and filtering your setups where necessary. So in part 2, we’ll dig deep into the Explorer to help you manage and understand what you see. And then we’ll move onto fi...
Jun 25, 2020•10 min
In the Flame 2021.1 products, a new TimelineFX management workflow has been introduced in order to give you the most flexibility when performing any VFX, grading or finishing work. This allows you to create, organise and apply TimelineFX setups in a very interactive and user-friendly way. So you now have a system where you can store multiple grades, manage multiple VFX setups and even a still store for grabbed references. There is so much potential with the Explorer! So this video will focus on ...
Jun 25, 2020•16 min
This video takes a deep dive into some of the flexible tools you get with Physical Defocus. The three main areas you’ll cover are depth slicing, Focus Distance and Focus Model. Each one of these aspects can help you refine Physical Defocus to give you the desired depth of field blurring. If you’ve never used Physical Defocus then please watch the earlier videos in this series.
Jun 18, 2020•15 min
This video shows you how to take your own bokeh sample and use it as part of your depth of field blurring. This allows you to be even more creative with the bokeh as well as match real world lens. All you need to do is to lift a small lens bokeh sample from an image or even paint your own one and this works very well with Physical Defocus. One final note is that you can only customise your bokeh with the Physical Defocus Matchbox node and not using Action or Image....
May 29, 2020•7 min
This video will take you through the workflow of remapping a Z-depth render pass from absolute values to normalized values in order to make use of it in a compositing situation. Using a normalised Z-depth render pass is a requirement for all the various workflows of adding depth of field blurring using physical defocus and any other 3D post effects. We'll discuss the Z-depth information in detail as well as demonstrate the Depth Normalizer for the main purpose of remapping Z-depth data. This is ...
May 21, 2020•7 min
With the release of Flame 2021, the machine learning models have been enhanced yet again to give you more choice and flexibility When working on your productions. So previously, the machine learning models were able to recognise and isolate the human body and human head for various finishing tasks. With this new release of Flame, you can now segment various parts of the human face for any compositing, grading and beauty work. So you can isolate the skin, eyes, the mouth, nose, ears and much more...
Apr 15, 2020•15 min
In parts 1 and 2 of the Physical Defocus series, you learnt how to create depth of field blurring in an Action 3D composite as well as with CG render passes for final look development. In both cases, the 3D depth was already provided since all the examples originated in a virtual 3D environment and the camera depth was provided in the form of Z-depth map. In part 3, the situation is somewhat different when it comes to live action footage. Unless the shooting camera is able to capture the depth o...
Apr 15, 2020•7 min
In parts 1 and 2 of the Physical Defocus series, you learnt how to create depth of field blurring in an Action 3D composite as well as with CG render passes for final look development. In both cases, the 3D depth was already provided since all the examples originated in a virtual 3D environment and the camera depth was provided in the form of Z-depth map. In part 3, the situation is somewhat different when it comes to live action footage. Unless the shooting camera is able to capture the depth o...
Apr 15, 2020•7 min
In part 1 of the Physical Defocus series, you learnt how to create depth of field blurring in an Action 3D composite that consisted of 3D objects. So if you were building your compositions within Flame’s 3D environment, The controls are really easy and quick to use. In part 2 of this series, You’ll examine another scenario where you could have been provided with CG render passes from a 3D application and you need to add depth of field blurring. In this situation, we’ll discuss two potential work...
Apr 15, 2020•17 min
In this video, you’ll learn about a new look development tool which allows you to create depth of field blurring in a variety of compositing scenarios. This tool is known as Physical Blur and it is a continuation of the convolution shaders such as Convolve, Physical Bokeh and Physical Glare. So whether you’re working on a 3D composite in Action, performing post operations on CG render passes or even look development with Flame’s finishing tools, Physical Blur allows you to create realistic depth...
Apr 15, 2020•10 min
In this series, we are going to cover how to master Dolby Vision™ deliverables which has been introduced in the Flame 2021 products. There is support for Dolby Vision™ 2.9 and Dolby Visio™n 4.0 and this is available in the timeline as well as Batch enabling you to have HDR workflows ranging from simple mastering tasks all the way up to complex conform workflows. Now Dolby Laboratories developed this HDR format to make the most of High Dynamic Range and wide colour gamut technology. So its main p...
Apr 15, 2020•15 min
In part 8 of the animation series, You’ll learn how to manage your animation beyond the keyframes and the curve. So before and after your keyframes, you can control the extrapolation of your curve to determine whether keyframe values remain constant, the animations loops, ping pongs or continues in a linear fashion. Makes easy work of repetitive animation for graphics etc. As an added bonus, you'll also learn to convert the extrapolation into editable keyframes to further tweak an animation. Als...
Jan 17, 2020•6 min
In part 7 of the animation series, you’ll look at the various uses of the INSERT KEY function. This is a very handy but under used tool that enables you to insert keyframes into an animation curve as well as insert extra timing into curve where needed. This will hopefully become a lot clearer as you progress through the video. Lots of interesting possible uses.
Jan 17, 2020•6 min
In part 6 of the animation series, you are going to cover the concepts of copying and pasting animation. The reason for making a video on this universal subject is that you can copy and paste curves, copy and paste keyframes as well as copy and paste with an offset. Understanding these methods will help you achieve the expected results when moving animation between the channels.
Jan 17, 2020•6 min
In part 2 of the 3D Interoperability series, you went through the workflow of exchanging 3D data between Flame and Mudbox. This allows you to take 3D geometry in Flame and push it over to Mudbox for sculpting and painting. Once you were happy with your model, tt gets sent back to Flame with an updated 3D geometry and a new diffuse texture map that was processed in Mudbox. In part 3, you’ll learn to troubleshoot some mesh issues, when sending 3D geometry to Mudbox. This is actually quite easy to ...
Dec 10, 2019•12 min
In the first part of this series, you learnt the fundamental basics of how to instantly exchange 3D data between the Flame 2020.3 Update, Maya 2020 and Mudbox 2020. In part 2 of the 3D Interoperability series, you'll recap some of the topics from part 1 as well as start looking at the interoperability between Flame and Mudbox. Mudbox is a 3D sculpting and 3D painting application compared to Maya which is a more general 3D application. So their toolsets are different and because of that, their 3D...
Dec 10, 2019•14 min
With the release of Flame 2020.3, Maya 2020 and Mudbox 2020, it is now possible to instantly exchange 3d scenes between Flame and Mudbox or Maya, running on the same workstation (Mac or Linux). This is known as the 'Send To' workflow which offers 3D data exchange without the need for manual importing and exporting. In part 1, you'll go through the fundamentals of setting up the workflow as well as the potential for tons of creative and technical capabilities for any Flame Artists working with 3D...
Dec 10, 2019•13 min
With the Flame 2020.2 update, two new machine learning models have been introduced into the Flame products. So part 5 in the Machine Learning Series introduces Human Body Extraction and Human Head Extraction. Both machine learning models allow Flame to look at an image and identify parts of the human body. So Human Body Extraction attempts to identify the entire human structure whereas Human Head Extraction concentrates purely on the human head. In both cases, you can then use the extraction as ...
Nov 13, 2019•13 min
In parts 5,6 and 8 of the Image Toolset series, we looked at the 3D AOV capability where you could produce a selective matte for your image based on supplied 3D information. So you could create isolation mattes based on the z-depth of the image, the normals of a 3D object as well as the movement of an image based on motion vectors. In part 11 of the series, you’ll learn about a new tool to refine your 3D AOVs known as “Primitives”. This allows you to constrain the effect of a 3D AOV by placing v...
Nov 13, 2019•19 min
In the Flame 2020.2 update, Flame supports a variety of AJA and Blackmagic Design hardware configurations. With this release, there have been a number of driver upgrades on Mac and Linux as well as additions to hardware support for Flame products running on Linux.
Nov 13, 2019•6 min
In this set of videos, we’ll look at the workflow of the Burn-In Metadata tool in the 2020.2 update of the Flame Products. This allows you to access loads of metadata from your media and the sequence that you can burn onto your images. Burn-In Metadata is accessible in all areas of the Flame Products where you need it. So you’ll find it as a TimelineFX, as a node in Batch and BatchFX and as a separate module in the Tools Area of the Desktop.
Nov 13, 2019•10 min
In the previous video on Burn-In Metadata, you looked at the basic workflow of using the tool in the timeline with source timecode, record time code and duration. You also learnt how you could define what video tracks influence the metadata as well as drive the colour scheme of the metadata. This was all done in the Timeline view and you could save this as a preset. In part 2, you’ll take a look at some of the other metadata tags as well as customisations through the Effects editors. You’ll also...
Nov 13, 2019•12 min
