Autodesk launches Flame Premium 2011
Following its Entertainment Creation Suite bundles for 3ds Max and Maya, Autodesk has adopted the same approach with its high-end finishing products.
The new Flame Premium 2011 bundle brings together the current releases of Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre and is (until tomorrow) on show at IBC in Amsterdam.
Key points from the press release follow below. (Note: this is one of the few occasions you’ll ever see the phrases ‘as little as’ and ‘$129,000’ used in the same sentence without irony.)
PRESS RELEASE (EXCERPTS) — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) is introducing Autodesk Flame Premium 2011, a powerful solution for 3D visual effects creation, editorial finishing and real-time color grading. Flame Premium combines the latest 2011 extension 1 releases of Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Smoke Advanced and Autodesk Lustre software into a single offering, designed to help post-production companies expand and diversify their creative services more cost-effectively. Flame Premium is being launched at a price substantially less than the cost of purchasing licenses of these products individually. In addition, new cross-grade pricing* offers some Autodesk creative finishing customers** potential savings of up to 85 percent.
“Flame Premium presents a great opportunity for customers to expand their creative services and better compete in a media industry that craves ever-more-sophisticated visual imagery,” said Marc Petit, Autodesk senior vice president, Media & Entertainment. “The industry is changing fast with HD, stereoscopic 3D and digital distribution. Companies need the flexibility to do more for less. With Flame Premium, customers can now offer a fuller range of services – higher-quality visual effects, editorial finishing, and real-time color grading – all with a single workstation.”
For the last 20 years, Flame has been a leading tool in high-end post-production. Customers have used Autodesk creative finishing tools (Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre) to help create popular television shows (“Lost,” “Bones,” “House”), and blockbuster movies (“Iron Man 2,” “Clash of the Titans,” and “Shutter Island”), and award-winning commercials (E*Trade Super Bowl campaign, The Beatles Rock Band video game and Snickers “Game”). Flame and Lustre have each won an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.
http://vimeo.com/7735303
Created in Flame: Smoke & Mirrors NY’s The Beatles: Rock Band spot
“Many of Autodesk’s customers are the who’s who of post-production around the world,” explained Marc Petit. “And, as their business continues to shift from traditional, per-hour, billing models to project-centric models, client-supervised post-production has expanded in nature, remaining a critical offering. Customers now need to deliver more integrated, high-performance, creative services that span the gamut of post-production. As a result, they are looking for more interactive, higher-quality creative solutions that can help them better meet their clients requirements and timelines. Flame Premium offers them a faster, more affordable and highly creative solution, as well as more efficient workflows with its trusted, production-proven toolset all in one box.”
Flame Premium gives new and existing customers access to Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre – running on a single workstation and at a special price:
New customers can purchase Flame Premium software for as little as $129,000***
Autodesk Flame 2011 customers** can upgrade their licenses to Flame Premium for as little as $10,000*** per Flame license, thereby adding Lustre and Smoke Advanced to their creative capabilities.
Autodesk Smoke Advanced 2011 customers** can upgrade their licenses to Flame Premium for as little as $25,000*** per Smoke Advanced license, thereby adding Flame and Lustre to their creative capabilities.
Similarly, Autodesk Lustre 2011 customers** can upgrade their licenses to Flame Premium for as little as $25,000*** per Lustre license, thereby adding Flame and Smoke Advanced to their creative capabilities.
Flame Premium provides the 2011 Extension 1 releases of Autodesk Flame 2011, Autodesk Lustre 2011 and Autodesk Smoke Advanced 2011, usually only provided to current Autodesk Subscription customers.
New capabilities: improved interoperability between certain applications; one-step cross-product project and user profile creation with automatic linking of project data; and unified project and data management, archiving and format support. Flame Premium also provides cross-format support for ARRIRAW and RED SDK 3.1 update. Flame Premium is certified on the HP z800 and HP 8600 workstations.
Product Availability
Autodesk Flame Premium 2011, the 2011 Extension 1 releases of Flame, Autodesk Flare, Autodesk Flint, Autodesk Inferno, Smoke Advanced will be available today and the Autodesk Smoke 2011 for Mac OS X Subscription Advantage Pack software will be later this month. For further information about Flame Premium features, benefits and specifications, visit www.autodesk.com/flamepremium.
* Autodesk reserves the right to terminate the cross-grade pricing at any time, without prior notice.
** Customers must have a license of the current version of at least one of the following products: Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Smoke Advanced or Autodesk Lustre Creative Finishing solutions prior to cross-grading to the Flame Premium license.
*** US pricing for software only. Pricing does not include hardware. International pricing may vary. Resellers are independent and free to determine their own pricing.