Major Workflow Redesign
This release includes a number of important changes to the workflow, including the introduction of:
- The Workspace, which integrates the timeline, desktop and Batch creative environments.
- The Media panel, which provides persistent media access from all the creative environments.
- Tab-based navigation, simplifying access to the key areas of the application.
See Getting Started with the New Workflow.
MediaHub Tab: New Media Management Workflow
The new MediaHub is an integrated environment that gives you:
Conform Tab: New Conform Workflow
Use the new Conform tab to conform imported sequences, and to import EDL sequences. Or use it to relink to clip to their high
resolution media. See Conform Tab Overview.
Timeline Tab: Many Editorial Enhancements
- As part of the integrated creative workspace environment, the Timeline tab is now in a central location for all your timeline-based
editing needs. You can easily edit clips to the timeline from the Media panel or the desktop.
- You can still perform all of the editing operations that you previously were able to perform in the reels on the desktop,
but the Timeline tab gives you flexibility to create complex multitrack projects, with numerous video and audio clips.
- You can add timeline FX and transitions directly to your timeline clips. The Timeline is also the jumping off point for Batch
FX, with a new, simpler workflow integrated directly with your timeline clips.
See Editing Clips and Sequences.
Batch Tab: Fully-Integrated in Your Creative Environment
- The Batch tab is easily accessible from wherever you are working.
- The Media panel greatly enhances your Batch experience by making it easy for you to manage Batch sources, as well as of all
your project media. Just drag and drop media from the Media panel into the Batch schematic and start working quickly.
- Connecting and selecting nodes in the Batch and BFX schematic has been enhanced to help you work faster and keep organized
through various keyboard shortcuts and right-click contextual menus.
- The new Batch Snapshot feature allows you to save a Batch setup along with the sources used by the setup.
- Use the new Create BFX in Batch or Batch FX to create a BFX clip that can be useful for disk caching, and gives you flexibility
for re-use or versioning of complex pipelines.
See Procedural Compositing with Batch and Batch FX.
New Colour Management Engine and ACES Support
Flame Premium now supports the powerful new Academy/ASC colour transform format. These colour transforms are applied using
a new floating-point colour management engine that has been integrated into the viewer/player, the broadcast monitor, and
the LUT Editor. The LUT Editor also includes the ability to combine multiple colour transforms and export them. There is also
a collection of over 100 colour transforms which includes support for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES).
See Colour Management.
Flame Reactor Rendering Optimisations
- Flame Reactor is the new hybrid CPU/GPU processing pipeline in Batch. Batch has been optimized to make better use of GPU
and CPU rendering capabilities in this pipeline.
- Batch/BFx tools now work in 8-bit or 16-bit floating point. 10-bit and 12-bit media are automatically converted to 16-bit
float.
- The new Clamp node allows you to clamp 16-bit floating point media.
Expanded Support for the Tangent Element Control Surface
The Tangent Element control surface now supports navigation and interaction with the Workspace, the thumbnails, the reels,
the player and the timeline and Timeline FX, as well as the Colour Corrector and the Colour Warper, in Flame Premium.
See Tangent Element Control Surface.
Updates to 3D Interop
- When importing an FBX file into Action, you can now use an Auto Fit in Scene option to automatically set the scale of the
FBX geometry based on Action resolution. Also, when using FBX geometries in Action, AIM and Up Vector Camera settings are
now supported.
- Working with Source nodes in Action has been simplified as crop, blur, and colour correction settings are now automatically
applied to the result of the source.
- When accessed through Batch or Batch FX, adding direct or indirect media to an Action node is easier through the Workspace Media panel. You can drag and drop from the Workspace Media panel directly
to the Action schematic or Media list.
What's New in Flare
The Flare workflow is now based on shared folders, enabling faster and simpler media exchanges, while also making your media
easier to manage. See Setting Up a Flare Workflow.
Miscellaneous Improvements
New Supported Formats
- Support for Sony F65: F65 Raw is now available on Flame Premium HP Z800 and Z820 workstations. See SonyMXF Format Settings - Import.
- Support for Split and Spanned Sony XDCam EX clips: You can now import a series of split and span segments as a single clip.
Additionally, clips recorded as multiple segments on a single SxS card (split) or multiple cards (span) are now supported.
See XDCAM EX Format Settings - Import.
Improvements to Media Management:
- Contextual exports: You can now export from anywhere within the application using the contextual menu. With extensive list
of presets, it is now easier to export, from simple clip output to complex EDL publish. And with background exports, you can
launch an export and return to your work, letting the export run its course. See Exporting Media to Files.
- You now have access to the settings used to import a clip from the timeline. Use Pre-Processing in the FX ribbon in the timeline
to access the settings.
- You can now resize and apply a LUT (even a colour transform) to a clip at import and export.
What's New in the Player
- Controls that apply to the Player are now accessible in panels alongside of the viewer.
What's New with Flame Premium Grading - Lustre
-
The new colour management engine has also been integrated into Flame Premium Grading. You can apply Academy/ASC colour transforms
on import using the Wiretap Gateway. You can also apply them in the viewer, to the broadcast monitor, and on rendering. It
is now possible to share a common scene-linear floating-point viewing transform between Flame Premium and Flame Premium Grading.
See Transcode LUT Options.
- Project & User management: Lustre Project & User options are enabled by default.
- Flame Premium Grading now supports shared folders within the Interoperability workflow. Creating a new project in Flame Premium
automatically creates a shared folder, named Lustre, which Flame Premium Grading renders to by default, making its content
easily accessible from any other Creative Finishing systems on your network.
- From the Transcode menu, you can now apply LUT and resize options to media when importing through the Wiretap Gateway. See
Transcode LUT Options Settings and Transcode Resize Options
- You can now transcode to DPX or OpenEXR in the Transcode/Format menu when working with media imported from Wiretap Gateway
(QuickTime, MXF, etc).
- If your workstation is setup with a Burn configuration, you can now send Media Export jobs without first having to render
your grades in the foreground. Both processes take place in the background. After the grades are rendered, the Media Export
jobs start. This allows you to send multiple jobs for Media Export without having to wait for foreground grade rendering.
See Remote Rendering with Burn and Wiretap
- When defining an Export file name and destination, it is now possible to select tokens from a list, located next to the File
Name/Destination field. This token list is also available in the Project / Render Naming menu.
- It is now possible to generate proxy media for matte clips inside a Multi-Channel clip and Matte Container. When generating
proxies, only the matte defined in the Multi-Channel clip & Matte Container (the S track) is generated. If you enable the
Render/Proxy Generation/All option, all mattes located inside the Multi-Channel clip/Matte Container are generated, including
any shots located on any timeline layers of the primary video track. See Generating Proxy Media for Mattes in Multi-Channel Clips and Matte Containers
- From the User/Tools menu, you can now enable a user preference to preserve the current grading stage of shots (Primary, Secondary,
etc.) as you navigate. This means that when you navigate back to a shot, the last grading stage is automatically recalled.
See Tools Settings.
- You can now define the state of the auto key when the Shot Based AutoKey user option is enabled. See Tools Settings.
