Discreet Combustion 3.0: a powerful set of compositing tools for post boutiques

Post, Jan, 2005 by Tor Rolf Seemann

From the get-go, I want to be real straight forward about this--I don't see Combustion in any direct competition with Adobe After Effects. Not that one is better than the other. It's more like they serve different purposes. AE is more of a detailed design tool--more aligned with the heavily composited, highly key-framed comp. Combustion 3 delivers a powerful set of tools for the boutique post market--for folks that do daily greenscreen work, roto-scoping, motion tracking and finite color correction. Yes, there is a lot of crossover between the two, but I think most would agree: these days you need both in your bag of tricks.

The "Edit" operator is one of the most notable features in the new version. Now you can actually edit your video footage inside the program. It's an important component that hasn't been addressed in other desktop compositing programs. Now within C3 you can trim back an extra-long clip, splice, dissolve, ripple, slip/slide and then immediately add special effects to the footage when you are done. I could easily see my C3 becoming my short format NLE du jour.

Up until now, Combustion has had very little to no capture capabilities. With the new Quick Capture feature, users can capture from any DV-compatible Firewire device. With such a device, you can capture both audio and video in NTSC and PAL. Your capture is only limited to the stream coming out of your device. Multiple devices can be hooked up to one computer and the user can choose between these devices for their capture source. The media will then be saved as a DV AVI Type 2 file.

Now included are RE:Vision Effects operators that do morphing and warping. Very powerful tools, these are available for other compositing programs as plug-ins that cost about $500. It's nice to have them built into Combustion, and for just a $200 upgrade price! Morphing and warping are spline-based and are very powerful. It's tied into the program's advanced tracking functions for aligning source and target images. All the work you do is spline-based using Combustion's paint tools. The real power of having a morphing and warping tool inside Combustion goes far beyond transforming Michael Jackson's face into an African-American face. This tool can be used to help automate all sorts of jobs, such as generating transitions.

Rounding out the new feature highlights are custom brushes, which can be made from just about anything. Grab a frame or object, or really any element, and instantly turn it into a brush. Now you can actually paint effects such as emboss, sharpen, blur and smear. Another cool feature: the new stained glass effects, which are really nothing more than cine-type gels a DP would use on a film set. Create some amazing lighting effects by casting different types of lights through these layers of color.

DUCK, DUCK ...

By far, the best workflow improvement I've experienced with this version of Combustion is when it's combined with Automatic Duck's Pro Import C3. Now I can instantly translate an Avid, Final Cut or Premiere Pro timeline into C3 for further processing. Importing an AAF or OMF composition takes just seconds, importing all your media and clips in one step. Supported effects are translated and recreated for you. Your timeline is recreated as a composition in Combustion 3. Pro Import C3 intelligently reconstructs your timeline, accounting for layer placement and effects. But there's more, think of all the flexibility you'll have in your effects composition now by having all the media handles you had in your editing system! Pro Import C3 even translates the keyframes of the most commonly-used effects.

The translation power of Pro Import C3 is really stunning. Whether you're creating very complex multi-layered media in your Avid, Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro system for composition in Combustion or simply need to treat a single shot, there is no better way to carry on in Combustion 3 where you left off in your NLE. In a matter of seconds your edited timeline appears in Combustion. When you import your sequence, the layers in Combustion are named after the clips you had in your NLE timeline. You know immediately what shot is what. No dealing with odd media file names. Amazingly, your collapsed layers and nested effects are turned into nested composites. No need to first explode your nests before you export.

You can also extend Combustion's power by purchasing an OpenGL card for faster screen redraws and/or a frame buffer.

If you are an After Effects user, you will not be disappointed once you take the time to familiarize yourself with Combustion's interface. Combustion is something I once feared and thought was well beyond my capabilities. Now I consider it to be an indispensable part of my repertoire.

RELATED ARTICLE: VITAL STATS

MANUFACTURER: Discreet

PRODUCT: Combustion 3.0

WEB SITE: www.discreet.com

PRICE: $995.00; upgrade to V.3: $200

* now supports Flash output

* Java-Script based Expression

* amazing particle systems

* includes RE:Flex plug-in for morphing