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Integrate Review — Discreet Combustion 3

Mar 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Frank McMahon

New features justify the program's upgrade price.

The new Expressions browser in Combustion 3 allows you to preview complex pre-made motion paths and alter them easily via sliding parameters and numerical input.

The latest update to Discreet's Combustion — version 3.0 for those following along — offers some tasty new features that handily justify its reasonable $200 upgrade price. But I wasn't blown away — any version of Combustion is a tough act to follow.

This desktop compositing program is certainly tops when it comes to razzle-dazzle. Sure, there are the timeline functions and you can spin around text, images, and video and output to various video formats, but the program's superior rotoscoping paint tools and drop-dead gorgeous particle effects provide the sizzle for its dedicated legion of fans. Combustion also has one of the most sensible, if not exactly sexy, interfaces around.

Almost everything that does anything in Combustion is called an operator. Filters are operators; 3D effects, masking, keying, and so on — all operators. And all of these can be stacked onto your timeline to make things happen to your footage and stills. You can adjust the stacking, too, so a filter can affect only a certain object in your composite. Or slide the operator over to affect the entire composite itself — not unlike Photoshop's Adjustment Layers.

The new Edit operator is one of the most notable features of the new version. Now you can actually edit your video footage inside the program. It's an important component that a lot of desktop compositing programs leave out. Developers assume you are going to edit in another application and then move the final movie into a program (such as this one) to work some more mojo. And they are right; that is generally what you do. However, it sure would be nice to do some basic cuts and dissolves from within a compositing program, and now you can. Granted, it's not meant to replace your NLE but if you want to chop an extra-long sequence element here or there, you now have the tools. Splice, dissolve, ripple, and trim away, and then immediately add special effects to the footage when you are done. It's perhaps one of those features you never really yearned for, but may soon find indispensable.

Another new addition is the Expressions browser. What are Expressions? I don't really know! I know they are Java-based scripts and that via a programming language you can create them mathematically to map out movement. Then you can apply these movements to an object in your scene. I am not that interested in scripting (I am a visual artist, of course), so I was less interested in this part of the program. What the Expressions browser does, at any rate, is create a visual representation of the script so you can see the movement loops it represents. Then select one and move its sliders to alter it. Once you find one you like, or tweak one to your liking, just bring it in and the program converts it to keyframes.

Hey, maybe this scripting stuff isn't so bad after all! Some of these movements are amazingly intricate and would take forever to develop by using traditional keyframe compositing tools. I played around with many of the built-in Expressions, and they are very cool. And if you want to dig deep and produce some original Java-based scripts, go for it! The necessary tools are now here.

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 also for a $200 upgrade price! The morphing and warping is spline-based and very powerful. It's tied in to the program's advanced tracking functions for aligning source and target images.

This new version of Combustion supports Flash output. Once you explore all the powerful vector paint features, you'll see how much sense this makes. Of course, not all of Combustion's paint tools work for designing Flash animations or produce results that can be seen after a Flash export. For this reason, there is a Flash mode toggle in the paint mode that makes the program show only tools that are 100% Flash-compatible. Most of the tools work fine. This is quite an advance for the desktop compositor who wants to extend his or her business plan to offer web visual effects and animations. Certainly worth exploring also if you want to repurpose your own desktop productions for the Internet.

Rounding out the new feature highlights, custom brushes can be made from just about anything. Grab a frame or object or really any element, and instantly turn it into a brush and start painting. Keep in mind that this works with vector brushes, adding even more fuel to the experimentation fire. Now you can actually paint effects such as emboss, sharpen, blur, smear, and others. Another cool feature: the new stained glass effects, which you might think of as high-tech gels. Create some amazing lighting effects by casting different types of lights through these layers of color.

Also worth mentioning, though not new, is the program's most amazing feature: its dynamite particle toolset. Seriously, you won't find a better, cooler, or more feature-rich set of particle tools in any other compositing program. Combustion is almost worth the price of admission just for these. Stars, smoke, explosions, flames, twisters, clouds, liquids — all in dazzling, multicolored hues. It is as exciting as it sounds.

Combustion 3 is a solid update, and whether it's for you really depends on how badly you need the features described here. I will say that the morphing tools are first-rate and the Edit operator comes in handier than you might immediately realize. The Flash output is essential for web repurposing.

As for the program itself, it's very powerful but does not work like other compositing programs. In fact, After Effects users may have an especially tough time wrapping their heads around the way Combustion works. It does many of the same things as AE, just in different ways. I actually like the interface of Combustion better. It keeps everything on one screen, and options pop up as they are needed. Very efficient.

You can also extend Combustion's power by purchasing an OpenGL card for faster screen redraws and/or a frame buffer. This way you can view your compositing projects on a monitor. The program also now works with OHCI FireWire cards, so you can capture and output through those inexpensive cards.

Oh, and I almost forgot the most welcome new feature: no more dongle!

With its fairly recent drop in price, Combustion is finally competitive with programs such as Adobe After Effects. Discreet has made it a serious option for any producer's toolbox.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.