Flame was first demonstrated by Discreet Logic at NAB in 1992, and officially launched at SIGGRAPH in the same year. Its impact on 3D compositing was significant due to its 3D Effects module, which allowed artists to composite a single layer in 3D that included lights, displacement mapping and a 3D camera.

The 1998 Scientific and Technical Academy Award went to Gary Tregaskis, Dominique Boisvert, Phillippe Panzini and Andre LeBlanc for their design and development of Flame and Inferno. Autodesk acquired Discreet Logic in 1999, and during the years that followed, the software has continued to evolve.

Uncompressed Video
Flame was also important as a system supporting real-time uncompressed video I/O, and later was an early supporter of HD uncompressed video. It gained a fast 2D tracker and through the mid-1990s, the Action compositor was developed in Flame by integrating the Compositor and the 3D Effects Module and merging single-layer 2D and 3D compositing in a multi-layer 3D compositing environment. Action also imports 3D OBJ geometry, and integrates displacement mapping and tracking. Projection mapping was developed in Action to project textures and images onto surfaces and geometry.

The Batch rendering module was first developed in 1995 to allow users to work on multiple setups and render them together, and later became a procedural compositor. Flame was one of the first compositors with a 3D particle system integrated into the 3D compositing environment.

The Modular Keyer and Color Warper appeared in 1999, with 3D flow-graph-based keying and selective colour correction. Tracer and advanced gradients were introduced to enable using GMask vertices.

Extended bicubics were introduced in Action, and when the 3D tracker was also added, Flame was unusual as a compositing application with 3D tracking integrate directly into its 3D compositing environment. Mixed resolution project support allows the import of different resolution shots into a project and converts from one resolution to another.

Background Renderer
Burn background rendering appeared in 2003, enabling artists to offload rendering tasks to a render farm. Flame also gained proxy-based workflows and 3D LUT support. Transitioning from SGI to the Linux operating system in 2006 allowed Flame to render complex 3D composites much faster.

Autodesk began developing Interoperability between Flame, Lustre and Smoke to allow round-tripping between the applications about six years ago. An integrated multi-layer timeline was added to Batch for timeline compatibility between Flame and Smoke, and then Batch was integrated into the Flame timeline with BFX. Flare was launched at NAB 2009 and multi-layer timeline exchange between Flame and Lustre was added.

The stereoscopic 3D finishing workflow came in 2010 with a stereo timeline, compositing and effects tools. Recent updates to Action have been a pixel shader rendering pipeline and procedural texture presets. Lighting and photorealistic texturing of surfaces, or map support, can now be handled in Flame as well. Eventually, relighting tools let artists change the look of images using light types, shading, shadow casting, rays, lens flares, blooming and ambient occlusion.

Flame Premium was released at about the same time to address the convergence of colour grading and visual effects in post. Flame FX also appeared in an extension release, before tools such as Pixel Spread, Depth of Field, Denoise, Damage and Stylize were added.

New Career
Caroline Journo works as a Flame artist at Digital District in France. She started her career as a post producer in advertising. “I remember the first time I saw someone working on a Flame,” she said. “I couldn’t be anything but impressed. Like many people, although I didn't understand anything about it at that time, it seemed powerful and interesting and I decided to become a flame artist. From that moment, I put my effort into learning how to use it and becoming as good as possible. It was a new start in my career and I really enjoyed it.

“I started to train five years ago at a special workshop at Post Logic in Paris. But my biggest opportunity was having talented friends working in different studios in Paris who let me practice on their flame systems at the weekends.

In advertising, she finds one of the most effective functions is the desktop and how easy it is to manipulate, changing and editing so many different sources. Also, the Action node, which is unique among compositing applications, allows flame artists to use a number of useful tools without creating overly complicated node trees. She said, “The way it is designed makes it easy to modify the setup at any step, which is really helpful. There is a kind of ‘universal way of working’ in flame - everywhere you go you can rework a setup even if you didn't start it yourself.”

Skills with a Difference
Caroline reflected on why, even when studios have dedicated compositing, lighting, grading, effects and animating software in their pipeline, many also maintain a Flame suite and at least one artist. “This may be because flame allows you to be more creative. It is often used now at the very end of a production, and is still the only software that can concentrate all tasks in the VFX pipeline in the one application. This is an advantage especially when working with a client because it is possible to respond immediately to their demands.

“Of course, because it's not easy to learn, the fact that I can use Flame in addition to other software is a bonus for companies. But I would say that being a good flame artist is all about what you can offer from your personal point of view on a project. Your vision can count and, at some point, make a difference on what the final product will be. Having a vision and bringing passion into whatever project you work on can make a big difference in the end. You can learn how to use the software but what will make you special is all about what you are able to deliver as an artist.”

Caroline added that people are often still surprised when they discover that the flame artist on their project will not be a man but a woman. So far, I've never had any bad reactions,” she said. “But when the person asking is also a woman, I think she’s pleased to know that women can also be flame artists. I think it's cool to be an exception in a very special job.” www.digital-district.fr  www.autodesk.com