Autodesk Media and Entertainment
Encyclopedia
Autodesk Media and Entertainment, formerly Discreet, is based in Montreal, Quebec as the entertainment
division of Autodesk
. This division produces software used in feature film
s, television commercials and computer games
. It also provides products for management
and distribution
to complement its primary product line. It also resells harddisks and sells certain Linux software which is only with bundled computers.
which provides animation and visual effects products and was formed by the combination of multiple acquisitions.
It originally created a San Francisco multimedia unit in 1996 under the name Kinetix to publish 3D Studio Max, a product develop by The Yost Group.
In August 1998, Autodesk announced plans to acquire Discreet Logic and its intent to combine that operation with Kinetix. At the time, it was its largest acquisition. The new business unit would be named Discreet.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences granted in 1998 an Academy Sci-Tech Award to Gary Tregaskis, Dominique Boisvert, Philippe Panzini and Andre LeBlanc, the original designers and developers of the core Discreet Logic products, Flame and Inferno.
The combined Discreet-branded product catalog then encompassed all the Discreet Logic products, including Flame, Flint, Fire, Smoke, Effect, Edit, and Kinetix's product, including 3D Studio Max, Lightscape, Character Studio.
Montreal-based Discreet Logic Inc had been founded in 1991 by former Softimage, Co. sales director Richard Szalwinski, to commercialize the 2D compositor Eddie, licensed from Australian production company Animal Logic
. Eddie was the brainchild of Australian software engineer Bruno Nicoletti, who later founded well-known sfx software company The Foundry, in London, England. In 1992, Discreet Logic entered into a european distribution agreement with Softimage, and shifted its focus on Flame, one of the first software-only image compositing solution, developed by Australian Gary Tregaskis. Flame, which was originally named Flash, was first shown at NAB in 1992, ran on the Silicon Graphics
platform, and became the company's flagship product.
In March 2005, Autodesk would renamed its business unit Autodesk Media and Entertainment and discontinued the Discreet brand.
Through the years, Autodesk has augmented its Entertainment division with many other acquisitions. One of the most significant one was in October 2005, when Autodesk acquired Toronto-based Alias, and merged its animation business into its Entertainment division. Today, the division's main products are Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage
, Mudbox
, MotionBuilder
, the game middleware Kynapse
, and the creative finishing products Flame, Flare, Lustre, and Smoke.
, Maya
, Softimage
, 3ds Max, Inferno
, Flame, Flare
, Flint
, Smoke
, Lustre, Backdraft.
), Smoke are software for visual effects and non linear editing originally created on the MIPS-Architecture computers from SGI
, running IRIX.
By mid-1995, Flame had become a market leader in visual effects software, with a price around 175,000 USD, or 450,000 USD with a Silicon Graphics workstation. Time with the software was typically rented at a post-production house with an operator.
Flint was a lower-priced version of Flame with removed functions. In 1995, the company introduced Inferno, a version of Flame destined for the film market, with a price of about 225,000 USD without hardware. Flare, a software-only version of Flame, was introduced in 2009.
Autodesk Smoke is a non-linear editing software closely related to Flame. 2009 the first member of the Flame family to make its way onto the Mac.
In September 2010, Autodesk introduced Flame Premium, a suite contains Smoke, Flame and Lustre with a retail price of 125,000 USD.
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
division of Autodesk
Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
. This division produces software used in feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, television commercials and computer games
VideoGames
VideoGames may refer to:*VideoGames, a mid-1990s magazine about video games.*Video games in general....
. It also provides products for management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
and distribution
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...
to complement its primary product line. It also resells harddisks and sells certain Linux software which is only with bundled computers.
History
Autodesk Media and Entertainment is a division of AutodeskAutodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
which provides animation and visual effects products and was formed by the combination of multiple acquisitions.
It originally created a San Francisco multimedia unit in 1996 under the name Kinetix to publish 3D Studio Max, a product develop by The Yost Group.
In August 1998, Autodesk announced plans to acquire Discreet Logic and its intent to combine that operation with Kinetix. At the time, it was its largest acquisition. The new business unit would be named Discreet.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences granted in 1998 an Academy Sci-Tech Award to Gary Tregaskis, Dominique Boisvert, Philippe Panzini and Andre LeBlanc, the original designers and developers of the core Discreet Logic products, Flame and Inferno.
The combined Discreet-branded product catalog then encompassed all the Discreet Logic products, including Flame, Flint, Fire, Smoke, Effect, Edit, and Kinetix's product, including 3D Studio Max, Lightscape, Character Studio.
Montreal-based Discreet Logic Inc had been founded in 1991 by former Softimage, Co. sales director Richard Szalwinski, to commercialize the 2D compositor Eddie, licensed from Australian production company Animal Logic
Animal Logic
Animal Logic is an Australian digital visual effects company based at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia and Santa Monica, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic's core business has traditionally been the design and production of high-end visual effects for commercials and television programs,...
. Eddie was the brainchild of Australian software engineer Bruno Nicoletti, who later founded well-known sfx software company The Foundry, in London, England. In 1992, Discreet Logic entered into a european distribution agreement with Softimage, and shifted its focus on Flame, one of the first software-only image compositing solution, developed by Australian Gary Tregaskis. Flame, which was originally named Flash, was first shown at NAB in 1992, ran on the Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
platform, and became the company's flagship product.
In March 2005, Autodesk would renamed its business unit Autodesk Media and Entertainment and discontinued the Discreet brand.
Through the years, Autodesk has augmented its Entertainment division with many other acquisitions. One of the most significant one was in October 2005, when Autodesk acquired Toronto-based Alias, and merged its animation business into its Entertainment division. Today, the division's main products are Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage
Softimage
Softimage, Co. was a company located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that produced 3D animation software. Their flagship products, Softimage 3D and Softimage XSI, are used in the creation of computer animation for films, television advertisement, and video games...
, Mudbox
Mudbox
Mudbox is a computer-based 3D sculpting and painting tool. developed by Autodesk, Mudbox was created by Skymatter, founded by former artists of Weta Digital, where it was first used to produce the 2005 Peter Jackson remake of King Kong...
, MotionBuilder
Motionbuilder
MotionBuilder is professional 3D character animation software. It is used for Motion capture and traditional keyframe animation. MotionBuilder is produced by Autodesk in Montreal...
, the game middleware Kynapse
Kynapse
Kynapse is the artificial intelligence middleware product developed by Kynogon, which was bought by Autodesk in 2008, and is since called Autodesk Kynapse.-Kynapse main functionalities:Kynapse includes:*An automatic AI data generation tool...
, and the creative finishing products Flame, Flare, Lustre, and Smoke.
Current Products
Software currently produced by the division includes combustionCombustion (software)
Combustion 2008 is the newest version of Autodesk's visual effects and compositing software tool.Combustion is a computer program "for motion graphics, compositing and visual effects" . The software retails for US$995...
, Maya
Maya (software)
Autodesk Maya , commonly shortened to Maya, is 3D computer graphics software that runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux, originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications, including video...
, Softimage
Softimage
Softimage, Co. was a company located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that produced 3D animation software. Their flagship products, Softimage 3D and Softimage XSI, are used in the creation of computer animation for films, television advertisement, and video games...
, 3ds Max, Inferno
IFF (software)
Inferno, Flame and Flint is a series of compositing and visual effects applications made by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. They share the same software base, but differ mainly in hardware configuration. Traditionally Inferno ran on the SGI Onyx series, while Flame and Flint ran on the SGI...
, Flame, Flare
IFF (software)
Inferno, Flame and Flint is a series of compositing and visual effects applications made by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. They share the same software base, but differ mainly in hardware configuration. Traditionally Inferno ran on the SGI Onyx series, while Flame and Flint ran on the SGI...
, Flint
IFF (software)
Inferno, Flame and Flint is a series of compositing and visual effects applications made by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. They share the same software base, but differ mainly in hardware configuration. Traditionally Inferno ran on the SGI Onyx series, while Flame and Flint ran on the SGI...
, Smoke
Smoke (software)
Autodesk Smoke is a professional grade online editing and finishing system for visual media aimed at television production.Originally sold on SGI hardware, it was later ported as a turnkey solution on Linux, Autodesk now offers Smoke as a software only option for Mac OSX as of December 2009.----...
, Lustre, Backdraft.
Historical Products
- Discreet Frost, introduced in 1996, a SGI-based template-based on-air graphics system for news, weather and sports
- Matchmover, now bundled with 3DS Max, Maya and Softimage, Retimer and VTour. All acquired from RealViz
- Media Cleaner, a video-encoder for the Mac, and Edit, acquired from Media 100Media 100Media 100 is a manufacturer of video editing software and non-linear editing systems designed for professional cutting and editing. The editing systems are currently all based on OEM AJA Kona boards, with the exception of the Software-only Producer and Producer Suite, and run exclusively on Macs...
in 2001 - Lightscape, a windows-based real-time radiosity solution acquired in 1997, now incorporated in 3DS Max
- Discreet Plasma, released in 2002, a simplified version of 3DSMax for Adobe Flash authoring
- Discreet GMaxGmaxGmax is a 3D modeling application based on Autodesk's 3ds Max application used by professional computer graphics artists. Whereas 3ds Max is a comprehensive modeling, animation, and rendering package with some secondary post-production and compositing features, Gmax is much more limited due to its...
, a simplified version of 3DS Max customized for game modders - Autodesk ToxikAutodesk ToxikAutodesk Toxik is an interactive node based, film composing solution developed by Autodesk Media and Entertainment, a subsidiary of Autodesk, Inc. - Features :...
, introduced in 2007, a compositing software that allowed users to coordinate work on a production. The software could only be bought for a minimum of 3 PCs, underlining its focus on collaborative, database-driven workflow. With its collaborative functions and databases removed, and renamed "Composite", it is now bundled with Maya 3ds Max, and Softimage.
Creative Finishing Products
Flame, Flare, Flint and Inferno (IFFIFF (software)
Inferno, Flame and Flint is a series of compositing and visual effects applications made by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. They share the same software base, but differ mainly in hardware configuration. Traditionally Inferno ran on the SGI Onyx series, while Flame and Flint ran on the SGI...
), Smoke are software for visual effects and non linear editing originally created on the MIPS-Architecture computers from SGI
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
, running IRIX.
By mid-1995, Flame had become a market leader in visual effects software, with a price around 175,000 USD, or 450,000 USD with a Silicon Graphics workstation. Time with the software was typically rented at a post-production house with an operator.
Flint was a lower-priced version of Flame with removed functions. In 1995, the company introduced Inferno, a version of Flame destined for the film market, with a price of about 225,000 USD without hardware. Flare, a software-only version of Flame, was introduced in 2009.
Autodesk Smoke is a non-linear editing software closely related to Flame. 2009 the first member of the Flame family to make its way onto the Mac.
In September 2010, Autodesk introduced Flame Premium, a suite contains Smoke, Flame and Lustre with a retail price of 125,000 USD.