1088 Part XI Compositing and Post-Production

Introducing Combustion

Discreet offers an end-to-end solution for production houses to complete their work; on the receiving end of Max is a product called Combustion. Combustion is a different animal from Max, but its array of weapons is just as deadly in a slightly different arena. The biggest difference between Combustion and Photoshop is that Combustion can handle animations and Photoshop can work only with static images.

Combustion enables motion graphics, compositing, and visual effects, which doesn’t sound too different from what Max does, except for that funny word — compositing. If you think of the final rendered image produced using Max as just an image that needs to be combined with other elements such as text, logos, other images, or even a DVD menu, then you’re starting to see what post-production teams know. Compositing is the process of combining several different elements into a finished product. Positioning these elements can even be done in 3D by placing images behind or in front of other images or in time by working with animations.

Figure 46-5 shows the Combustion interface. Right off the bat, you should notice how different it is from Max.

Figure 46-5: Combustion has a unique interface, much different from Max.

But hold, you say, this is a book about Max, not about Combustion. Yes, but Combustion is integrated with Max very nicely, and that is what I want to show. Several key integration points include Combustion maps and Render Elements.

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Using Combustion maps

If you apply a Combustion type map to the Diffuse map channel of a material, then the Combustion Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 46-6, appears. Clicking the Edit button in the rollout actually opens Combustion and lets you create a new workspace.

Figure 46-6: Combustion maps work between Max and Combustion.

If you select a Paint type workspace, then you can paint right on the composite object in Combustion, and the painted map shows up in Max. Figure 46-7 shows a simple spiral shape painted in Combustion using its tools. Figure 46-8 shows a magnified sample slot in Max that has the same painted shape.

The Live Edit section of the Combustion Parameters rollout includes features that you can access from Combustion. The Operator button lets you select and update an operator from Combustion to apply to the texture map. The Unwrap button shows an unwrapped mesh in Combustion, allowing you to easily paint precisely. The Paint button lets you paint directly in the viewports using Combustion’s Paint tools.

Using Render Elements with Combustion

At the bottom of the Render Elements rollout found in the Render Elements panel of the Render Scene dialog box is an option to Output to Combustion. If this option is Enabled, then you can specify a file name for the Combustion files that will be generated and the Render button actually creates the Render Elements and saves them in a Combustion Workspace (.CWS) file.

1090 Part XI Compositing and Post-Production

Figure 46-7: Combustion maps that are painted in Combustion show up in Max.

Figure 46-8: Shapes that are painted in Combustion show up in Max.

Using Other Compositing Solutions

In addition to the packages mentioned here, several other compositing solutions are available. Another popular compositing package is Digital Fusion. Most of these products are similar enough, but look through the feature set before buying a solution to make sure that it meets your needs.

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Summary

Using the Combustion interface, you can composite several different images, filters, and effects together. All these different compositing elements are listed as events in a queue. The Combustion interface provides, along with the Render Scene dialog box, another way to create output.

In this chapter, you’ve

Learned about the post-production process

Learned how Photoshop can be used to composite images

Learned how Premiere and After Effects can be used to composite animations

Explored the Combustion interface

The next chapter introduces the Video Post interface, Max’s post-processing environment.