Powerful Creative Features Provide Digital Content Creators with Sophisticated New Tools and Workflow for Visual Effects

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), today announced it has begun shipping Autodesk (R) Combustion(R) 4 software for Windows(R), the highly anticipated upgrade to its visual effects desktop software solution. Autodesk Combustion 4 software features a complete set of sophisticated tools for visual effects creation, including vector paint, particles, effects, animation and 3D compositing tools. Version 4 delivers the company's most exciting Combustion software feature upgrade to date, and provides motion graphics and compositing artists new creative capabilities, interface improvements, new paint tools and enhanced interoperability with third-party applications.

Key new features in Combustion 4 software include:

-- Diamond Keyer -- the second generation of sophisticated keying algorithms derived from Discreet(R) Flame(R), Autodesk's online visual effects system. The Diamond Keyer adds a new level of advanced keying technology to the capabilities already available to Combustion users via the Discreet Systems Keyer.
-- Time-Warp -- a fully key-frameable, time-remapping operator for quickly creating slow motion and speed-up effects
-- B-spline vector shapes and new point-grouping for faster, more efficient rotoscoping
-- Custom capsules -- create and save encapsulated single or grouped operator nodes
-- Gbuffer builder -- enables custom building of Rich Pixel Format (RPF) data structures from bitmap files for more extensive use of Combustion's RPF nodes
-- New optimized 'Fast Gaussian Blur'
-- Merge operator -- new optimized operator to quickly merge 2 layers of the same size using any of the transfer nodes in Combustion software
-- Numerous UI enhancements including edit-operator, navigation, filtering and compare tool improvements
-- New file import/export options -- imports images into color mixer, import ASE (ASCII Scene Export) camera targets from Autodesk 3ds Max(R) software, import Windows Media, Open EXR compatible output
-- Enhanced paint -- new paint tools, grids & rulers, Bspline in paint and new customized brushes

"With plenty of workflow enhancements, Autodesk Combustion 4 software works better within your facility, making workflow throughput faster and more versatile. Not to mention, it includes the kind of cool new features that make you go 'wow'," commented Chris Williamson, Effects Artist, Martin Square Productions.

Pricing and Availability

Autodesk Combustion 4 software for Windows(R) is available now for US $995; upgrade pricing from Combustion 3 to Combustion 4 software is US $249.00. Combustion 4 software for Mac(R) is expected to ship May 2005. For more information, visit www.autodesk.com or call 1-800-869-3504.

About Combustion

Combustion 4 software is an all-in-one professional digital visual effects software application for Mac and Windows PCs featuring industry-leading visual effects tools, fully integrated paint, and support for other popular desktop animation, imaging and illustration, media mastering and nonlinear editing applications. With Combustion 4 software, artists have access to 3D compositing, comprehensive motion graphics capabilities, numerous filter and particle effects, advanced color correction, tracking and image stabilization technology, powerful vector paint, warping and morphing, text effects, simple editing, advanced animation and expressions, Flash output and more, all within a specially designed, unified and easy-to-use interface.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is wholly focused on ensuring that great ideas are turned into reality. With six million users, Autodesk is the world's leading software and services company for the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields. Autodesk's solutions help customers create, manage, and share their data and digital assets more effectively. As a result, customers turn ideas into competitive advantage by becoming more productive, streamlining project efficiency, and maximizing profits.

Founded in 1982, Autodesk is headquartered in San Rafael, California. For additional information about Autodesk, please visit www.autodesk.com.

NOTE: Autodesk, Discreet, Combustion, 3ds Max, and Flame are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

CONTACT:
Kevin G Clark
Autodesk, Inc.
+1-415-547-2457
kevin.g.clark@autodesk.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.
03/29/2005