By Carolyn Giardina

LAS VEGAS --

For many commercialmakers, the biggest change at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention may be the absence of a Discreet-branded booth. The Montreal-based Autodesk subsidiary and developer of the popular Flame has been renamed and rebranded Autodesk Media and Entertainment (SHOOT, 3/25, p. 7). The question is, will this feel like the same Discreet–the wildly popular company whose giveaways have included rolling paper and condoms, and whose demos have included compositing the faces of their management team to the bodies of farm animals?

    To find out, remember to seek the Autodesk logo–then get ready for some radically new technology.

After more than five years in development, the company is unveiling Toxik, a software-based creative work environment designed to facilitate the collaborative process with a productivity boost. Toxik is designed to enable simultaneous multi-user access to centralized media and metadata, data management, versioning management, and a creative toolset.

“It’s a brand new architecture,” explained Martin Vann, Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s VP, worldwide sales and marketing. “It was, from the ground up, designed to address creative tools used concurrently by multiple people–from small groups to literally hundreds of people. It was focused initially on features, but expanded for features to commercials to broadcast.”

The company believes Toxik–a modular and customizable system–would co-exist with its advanced products including Discreet Inferno for compositing and Discreet Lustre for color grading/digital intermediate work. “Flame is the hero station for client supervised work; Toxik runs on generally low cost hardware, we supply software,” Vann explained to differentiate the application of each. “When working on Flame and Inferno, they’re often working on tight deadlines. Toxik is for people working on a pipeline and are more interested in the productivity of multiple artists.”

Toxik’s creative capabilities include Reaction (the company’s next generation 3-D composting environment), tracking, keying, and color correction (based on Discreet development, not the Colorfront technology found in Lustre). The software operates on Windows and Linux operating systems; it is resolution independent, and can work with any third-party storage.

Built into the workflow are advanced media management tools, which maintain a database of shots and related metadata; this offers a standard system of naming, managing, and storing all versions of shots–a key element when multiple artists are working on a single shot.

Also designed to improve workflow are automated overnight rendering capabilities. And, since the company expects interaction between Toxik and the advanced Discreet systems, the “glue” is highly important. So the company reported that its SAN (Storage Area Network) could be used to move shots between the Toxik environment and advanced systems such as Discreet Inferno or Lustre.

To make Toxik customizable, Autodesk Media & Entertainment reported that it will have an API that allow facilities to develop custom tools, and a library of scripts and support documentation that can be used to develop scripts to automate customer processes.

The core Toxik technology was originally unveiled at NAB 2002, incorporated in two prototype systems called Strata and Mezzo, which never shipped. Instead, then-Discreet sought much customer feedback and went back to work on a new system.

In recent months, the beta program expanded to 28 sites, including Santa Monica-based companies such as Asylum, R!OT, and Radium; London-based The Moving Picture Company and Framestore-CFC (which also maintain an office in New York); Sydney-based Animal Logic and Digital Pictures; and Montreal-based Buzz Image Group.

The new Toxik system is expected to ship in the summer; on site and classroom training will be available. Autodesk Media & Entertainment has deployed a Web portal so customers can seek additional information and interact with other users; Autodesk Consulting Services will be available to help implement the Toxik environment.

 

AVID AND APPLE

As for the rest of the editing and compositing space, attendees can expect to see continued movement toward high definition, with more robust and cost effective HD tools; they will also see some young technologies to support the new HDV format.

Companies making news in this space will in all likelihood include Tewksbury, Mass.-based Avid Technology and Cupertino, Calif.-based competitor Apple, both of which are maintaining their silence as NAB approaches. This has prompted much speculation and rumors about the plans in these camps, but for the real story, we may have to until April 18. On that day at NAB, Apple is scheduled to make its announcements at 11 a.m. PST; and Avid will follow at 5 p.m.

Recently, Avid announced an agreement to acquire Mountain View, Calif.-based Pinnacle Systems for $462 million–a deal that is expected to close in the second or third quarter of this year. As a result, Pinnacle will have its separate NAB booth, and the two companies will have to act as competitors. But since the deal seems to primarily involve broadcast and consumer tools, don’t expect this element to have much impact on the post market at this show.

 

HD MOVEMENT

Additional companies that will be touting HD usage include Secaucus, N.J. based Panasonic, which will be promoting its popular D-5 HD format. Recent sales included delivery to Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Grace & Wild of eight Panasonic AJ-HD3700B D-5 HD mastering VTRs to be used for various HD production and postproduction tasks by two of its operating divisions, Postique and hdstudios.

This is one of many sales that NAB goers will hear about that signal HD movement in advertising production. “Regardless of whether their work originates in film or HD, we’re encouraging clients to move to HD post,” explained Postique senior editor Jeff Fleck. “Not only is the quality better, but they will also have an HD master available for any subsequent release–and they’ll be familiar with the process.

 “The Panasonic VTR is operating seamlessly with our film transfer (Spirit Datacine) and online (Quantel’s eQ) systems and is compatible with standard-definition tapes, a critical consideration as Grace & Wild has been working with Panasonic D-5 equipment for years, ” he said, adding that the AJ-HD3700Bs has already been used on several national advertising campaigns for Doner (Southfield, Mich.) clients, including Minute Maid (the Simply Orange brand) and Circuit City.

 

ADDITIONAL NEWS

• Lightworks, which was used by Academy Award winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE to cut The Aviator, will be on display with version 2.0 software–its second upgrade since Gee Broadcast purchased the Lightworks system in May 2004. New workflow features include direct transfer of a Lightworks Touch timeline into a Digital Fusion or Combustion workspace for effects work.
• Cambridge, Mass.-based GenArts,, will be featuring its entire range of plug-ins, including Sapphire plug-ins on Avid Xpress Pro HD, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, and Apple Final Cut Pro.
• Artbeats, the Myrtle Creek, Ore.-based provider of royalty-free stock footage, will showcase many new High Definition (HD) international lifestyles collections, including: Central American Culture, Andes Culture, East Africa Culture, Holy Land, Middle East Culture, Southeast Asia, South Pacific, Faces of the World and Children of the World. Artbeats will also feature its new adolescent lifestyles collections, including: College Life, School Days, Going Out, Teen Life, Teens on the Edge and Portraits – Teens.
• Red Giant Software will exhibit Magic Bullet Suite version 2.0, comprised of 18 After Effects plug-ins, delivering a complete production pipeline for processing digital video footage for output to DVD, TV, or film; Film Fix restoration software; and a new version of Knoll Light Factory.

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