What's New in Flame Family 2020.2 Update

Welcome to the 2020.2 Update release of the Flame Family applications!

Using machine learning algorithms, this new semantic keyer provides a way to isolate human bodies and heads.

Use the Human Body and Human Head semantic keyers in an Image node in the Effects tab for a fast, iterative Color Grading and light FX treatments on many shots. Or use them for compositing in a full procedural Batch.

See Action & Image.

Flame, Flame Assist, and Flare now support Blackmagic Design UltraStudio and DeckLink SDI & HDMI Preview cards on CentOS.

See AVIO.

You can now store unlimited reference stills, in a new, improved compare tool.

See Comparing to References.

Additional information:

Many new feature videos workflow videos are available on the Flame Learning Channel. This channel is updated frequently, make sure to subscribe.
This icon indicates links to videos:
In this What's New topic, indicates a new feature or enhancement that was suggested and voted up by Flame Family users on the Feedback portal (also accessible directly from Product menu > Help).
Make sure to check out Flame Central, the hub for all your Flame family links.
Looking for the Release Notes for Flame Family 2020.2 Update? Click here: Flame Family 2020.2 Update Release Notes.

Welcome Screen

Want to get only the highlights of the release? The Welcome Screen shows what's new, and opens the first time you launch a Flame Family product.

Or access it anytime from Product menu > Help.

For details on all the new features and enhancements in this release, follow these links:

Action

From object to geom. You can now convert 3D Text and 3D Shape objects into regular geometries. You can then export these geometries to the FBX format. For more details, see 3D Shape to Geometries and 3D Text to Geometries.

Import and Replace. You can now replace an imported FBX or Alembic geometry with another one without losing the current connections: use the new option Import and Replace in the contextual menu. For more details, see Replacing a 3D Model with another.

From Working to Perspective. The Action Working Camera changes name for Perspective Camera. The newly named Perspective Camera is now displayed in the Action Manager (under Camera). Use the Manager to see and edit its parameters. You cannot animate the Perspective Camera, nor delete it. To animate the Perspective camera, or to preserve its current settings, create a Camera node by duplicating the Perspective Camera node.

Updated FBX and PBR models updates. The FBX models included with Action are now sorted and grouped into folders. This organization makes for shorter file names, making it easier to browse and identify each model. Similarly, the included PBS assets are now grouped into a Quads and a Triangles folder. In this case, each model exists in both format, allowing you to pick the best model for your situation. Finally, we've refreshed some models' UV layout, and added Pole and NoPole versions of some models.

More nodes with expanded UI. The following nodes can now use the expanded UI. Some had their UI updated to standardize some terms.

3D Text
3D Shape
Geometry
Particle Generator
FBX Scene
ABC Scene

Substance PBR. Now with cataphote. We added the following 20 Substance PBR presets to the texture library.

Ground

asphalt_fine_cracked
cement_grout
concrete_raw_soft
concrete_worn_scratched
cracked_asphalt
moon_crater
powdery_snow_marks

Man-made

carbon_fiber_plain_weave
crackling_lime
oled_dashboard_screen
tire_rubber_ridged

Metal

car_iridescent_paint
car_solid_paint_wet
metal_perforated_triangles
painted_metal_chipped

Organic

eye_blue_bulbar_conjonctiva
female_40yo_cheek_skin_1
male_30yo_cheek_skin_1

Translucent

cataphote_rear_reflector_wave
mirror_dirty

Action Shader: Thin Film

Use the new Thin Film controls to create iridescence effects. Use it with plain colours or a material like multitone car paint. For more details, see Thin Film settings.

Action & Image

Human Body and Head Semantic Keyers

The Selective node has two new semantic keyers and new widgets for the 3D AOV Primitive mode.

Semantic keyers. The Human Body keyer isolates human bodies in a clip, while the Human Head keyer isolates heads. Use the Selected mode together with the Object View to isolate a specific body or head. For more details, see Semantic keyers settings.
Primitive. The 3D AOV Primitive mode now displays, in the Object View, an interactive widget. Use this widget to segment specific volumes in the z-depth. For more details, see Using primitives.

AVIO

AJA and Blackmagic Design Support

AJA Support

Flame Family 2020.2 Update supports the AJA 15.2 drivers.

CentOS: Installing the DKU 14.2.0 automatically installs the AJA 15.2 drivers.
macOS: Download the AJA Software Installer v15.2.5 - Mac from the AJA website.

Blackmagic Design Support

macOS. On macOS, you can now update the Blackmagic Design Desktop Video to version 11.4.1.

This update is required to use a Blackmagic Design DeckLink and UltraStudio card.
Download the Desktop Video 11.4.1 macOS package from Blackmagic Design Support Center.
Desktop Video 11.4.1 is compatible with previous version of Flame Family on macOS.

CentOS. On CentOS, you can now use Blackmagic Design cards with Flame, Flame Assist, and Flare on CentOS 7.2 and 7.4.

We've certified the Blackmagic Design UltraStudio 4K Extreme (with the PCI Express Cable Kit) and the DeckLink 4K Extreme. Other UltraStudio and DeckLink cards should work but are not certified.

Important: Thunderbolt cards are not supported.

For installation instructions, see the Configuration guide.

For supported timings, see Broadcast Monitor Supported Timings: Blackmagic Design.

Batch

GMask Tracer update. You now have access to the Deform Mesh node and the Magnet Tool in the GMask Tracer.

Burn-In Metadata

Burn-in Metadata - Part 1

Burn-in Metadata - Part 2

Designate any one track to be the source of metadata information used by every Burn-In Metadata present in that version.

Use the new Duration layer to display the duration of different objects.

Propagate the Clip and Segment colours to the Text and Background of a layer in the Timeline FX and module.

In the Frame layer, start the frame count from the head frame instead of the segment start with the new Consider Head button.

In the Resolution layer, control the decimal precision of the aspect ratio with the new Precision field.

Editing the ribbon. You can now use the Timeline Tab's TimelineFX Ribbon to edit the Burn-In Metadata settings.

Looking past the gap. The Timeline FX placed over a gap now reads the information from the background layer instead of itself when there is nothing below the gap.

For more details, see Burn-In Metadata.

Comparing to References

Comparing Images

How you compare a frame to a reference image changes in 2020.2 Update.

Permanent references. Grabbed references are now stored in the Grabbed References library, a new library in the Media Panel. This library is hidden, unless you enable Preferences > General > Media Panel > Show Grabbed References.

You can rename, sort, delete references from the Grabbed References library.

UI Update. The Compare Modes box replaces the Compare toggle in Batch, Effects, and Tools' viewing area. It offers the following modes:

Angle Split
Blend
Difference
Grid

Screen Grab and Rename. You can now name a reference as you're grabbing it, or let the software do the naming for you.

Select References. You now select the reference to compare to from the Reference box.

Edit Compare Modes. Use the new Edit Compares Modes window to edit the settings of the different compare modes.

Keyboard shortcuts. You can edit some of the compare modes directly from the viewport using keyboard shortcuts. Use keyboard shortcuts to edit the different compare modes, or to cycle through them.

Compare Modes Updates. The Difference mode in the Player and Viewports is updated.

The Difference mode unifies the old Diff and Diff Clamped modes.
The Difference mode provides Gain and Lift settings.

For more details, see Comparing to References.

Additional improvements

Compare full screen. The Compare / Stereo buttons available in the Player's Viewing Settings panel are now available in the Fullscreen Player.
Primary and Secondary from context. You now set the primary and secondary tracks from the Timeline track's contextual menu.

Conform

Support for AAF sequence from Avid Media Composer 2019. Media Composer 2019 can generate MXF OpAtom and Op1a cached media. You can now import these media files in Flame Family products.

Effects Tab

Going to the Effects tab is now faster when no Viewport is set to a context view. The drawback is that selecting a context view for the first time within the Effects tab now takes longer than before.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Slow Drag Increment and Fast Drag Increment keyboard shortcuts are changing. Instead of changing only the speed at which the value inside a numeric field is modified, they now also change the stepping of the decrement / increment.

Slow Drag Increment: The default decrement is divided by 10. For example, a decrement of 0.1 becomes 0.01 using the keyboard shortcut. It is now easier to make fine adjustments.
Fast Drag Increment: The default increment is multiplied by 10. For example, an increment of 0.1 becomes 1.0 using the keyboard shortcut. It is now easier to make coarse adjustments.

License Manager

You can now easily change your license server information using Flame Setup. For more details, see Changing the license server information.

Matchbox

Two new Matchboxes are now available, one for extracting human bodies from a clip, another for human heads.

MLHumanBodyExtraction to extract whole human body shapes.
MLHumanHeadExtraction to extract human heads.

Both Matchboxes are similar to the two new Semantic Keyers now available in the Action/Image section.

Media Export

Colour spaces in more formats. PQ and HLG colour spaces are now supported when exporting content as H.264 (.mov) and Sony XAVC (.mxf) formats.

IMF Update - Dual Sound fields Audio Track Mapping Options

You can now create an IMF package with dual sound fields audio tracks and produce 5.1 and 2.0 (stereo) deliverables.

The IMF for Netflix built-in presets have been updated to produce 5.1 and 2.0 audio media. For more details on IMF, see Publishing a Distribution Package Using IMF.

New AVC HD 2.0 and Panasonic Professional H.264/AVC Export Presets

The following presets are now available in 2020.2 Update.

Note: Since the following codecs use high-quality H.264 encoding, Apple Pro Video Format codecs pack is required on macOS (included with Final Cut Pro X). Without this codecs pack, files using the following presets might not open in third-party products.

QuickTime Codec
Preset Description	Export Preset
AVC HD 2.0: encode AVCHD 50 p and 59.94 p content.	QuickTime (AVC HD 2.0 1080p)

Panasonic Codec
Preset Description	Export Preset
AVC Ultra: High quality 10-bit encoding for HD (1080i/p and 720p), 2K, UHDTV, and 4K formats (23.98 fps, 25 fps, 29.97 fps, 50 fps, and 59.94 fps).	Panasonic AVC-Ultra (1080p) Panasonic AVC-Ultra (2160p) Panasonic AVC-Ultra (2K) Panasonic AVC-Ultra (4K)
LongG: 8-bit LonG (LongGOP) Panasonic HD formats (1080i/p and 720p) (23.98 fps, 25 fps, 29.97 fps, 50 fps, and 59.94 fps)	Panasonic LongG ClassG6 (1080i) Panasonic LongG ClassG6 (1080p) Panasonic LongG ClassG6 (720p) Panasonic LongG ClassG12 (1080i) Panasonic LongG ClassG12 (1080p) Panasonic LongG ClassG12 (720p) Panasonic LongG ClassG25 (1080i) Panasonic LongG ClassG25 (1080p) Panasonic LongG ClassG25 (720p) Panasonic LongG ClassG50 (1080i) Panasonic LongG ClassG50 (1080p) Panasonic LongG ClassG50 (720p)
Panasonic P2 HD formats (1080i/p and 720p) (23.98 fps, 25 fps, 29.97 fps, 50 fps, and 59.94 fps).	Panasonic P2 Class50 (1080i) Panasonic P2 Class50 (1080p) Panasonic P2 Class50 (720p) Panasonic P2 Class100 (1080i) Panasonic P2 Class100 (1080p) Panasonic P2 Class100 (720p) Panasonic P2 Class200 (1080i) Panasonic P2 Class200 (1080p) Panasonic P2 Class200 (720p)
Panasonic RP 2027 HD formats (1080i/p and 720p) (23.98 fps, 25 fps, 29.97 fps, 50 fps, and 59.94 fps).	Panasonic RP2027 Class100 (1080i) Panasonic RP2027 Class100 (1080p) Panasonic RP2027 Class100 (720p) Panasonic RP2027 Class200 (1080i) Panasonic RP2027 Class200 (1080p) Panasonic RP2027 Class200 (720p) Panasonic RP2027 Class50 (1080i) Panasonic RP2027 Class50 (1080p) Panasonic RP2027 Class50 (720p)

Media Import

Faster pattern browsing. Improved performance when using Pattern Browsing with long content. In previous releases, changing version could take a long time.

Updated ARRIRAW decoding. Flame Family products now support ARRIRAW SDK 6.2. This SDK provides:

Faster GPU debayering for native and resized resolutions (CentOS only).
Fast resizing when resize options do not change the aspect ratio of the resulting image.
Support for ARRI ALEXA Mini LF

Support for Apple ProRes MXF (OpAtom) generated by Avid Media Composer. Content transcoded and consolidated to MXF in Avid Media Composer using the following Apple ProRes compressions can now be imported in Flame Family products:

Apple ProRes 422 Proxy
Apple ProRes 422 LT
Apple ProRes 422
Apple ProRes 422 HQ
Apple ProRes 4444
Apple ProRes 4444 HQ

Updated codec profiles. The following H.264 encoding/decoding profiles were updated:

AVCHD 2.0
Intra High 10
Intra RP2027 Class50
Intra RP2027 Class100
Intra RP2027 Class200
P2 2K Intra 422
P2 4K Intra 422
P2 HD Intra 422
P2 LONG GOP 420 Class G6
P2 LONG GOP 420 Class G12
P2 LONG GOP 422 G25
P2 LONG GOP 422 G50

Better playback. You should see improved performance when playing back Panasonic Varicam LT (.mxf) clips.

Memory Management. Flame Family products are now more efficient at managing available memory when working with ARRIRAW and R3D files.

GPU Import Pipeline. GPU processing is now available for the following operations when importing media (MediaHub and Import/Read File nodes)

Resizing
Colour Management

The GPU import pipeline improves playback performance when reading uncached media files with Resizing and Colour Management options.

Essence Mode has moved. The Essence Mode button is now at the root of MediaHub, in the General Options tab. Essence Mode used to be located in the Browsing section of each format. The new location at the root of MediaHub makes it easy to enable essence mode when browsing folders containing media files of different formats.

CODEX HDE Support

You can now use Flame Family products to decode CODEX High Density Encoding (HDE) for the ARRIRAW format. With this new format support, you can:

Import CODEX HDE encoded ARRIRAW media files (.arx). These encoded files are seen as ARRIRAW media files when decoded.
Experience better playback performance since compressed media files are read faster from storage.

For more information about CODEX HDE, see CODEX FAQ.

Sony MXF Improvements

Support for Colour Space data from Sony XAVC and SStP MXF content.
- In previous version, Sony MXFColour Space data was seen as Unknown. Now, when MediaHub Colour Management option is set to Use File or Rules, the content colour space matches the colour space of the file.
Camera metadata is now available in MediaHub > Preview > Metadata panel.
A card containing multiple formats (SStP with XAVC) is now supported.

Player

The Compare / Stereo tools and the In / Out / Duration controls are now available in the Full screen Player.

Python API

Improvements to the Python API:

New attributes

Attributes for the Comp and Burn-In Letterbox Timeline FX can now be modified on a timeline segment.

New Timeline FX functions:

<PyTimelineFx>.save_setup(): Used to save a Timeline FX setup.
<PyTimelineFx>.load_setup(): Used to load a Timeline FX setup.

Python functions can now be executed asynchronously at an undetermined time in Flame's idle loop using the flame.schedule_idle_event() method.

For more details, see the Python API.

Tangent Control Panels

CentOS: Installing Flame Family 2020.2 Update on CentOS automatically updates the Tangent Control Panels to version 1.5.2-2.

macOS: You need to manually download and install the updated Tangent control panel software directly from the Tangent website.

Timeline

You can now create a Batch Group from the Timeline without also creating the matching destination timeline segment. To stop creating a batch group, enable Preferences > Batch / BFX > Create Batch Group > Add Destination Segment.

Enable Add Destination Segment to add a destination segment to the timeline for each Batch Group you create. The behaviour seen in previous releases.
Disable Add Destination Segment to create a Batch Group without the matching destination segment; the new option.

If you disable Add Destination Segment:

Smart Replace becomes unavailable in the Render node: you insert manually the rendered clip back into the timeline.
You can now create a Batch Group from any clip: the clip doesn't have to be in a Reel Group.