LAS VEGAS, Apr 8, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Leveraging a decade of visual effects expertise, Discreet -- a division of Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) -- today announced details of its most powerful versions to date for inferno 5 and version eight of flame and flint systems. Making their debut at NAB 2002, these high-end tools are being enhanced to improve workflow and functionality for digital artists by offering enhanced feature sets, such as mixed resolution support, extended editing capabilities and support for background rendering on Linux. NAB 2002 also marks the 10th anniversary of flame -- Discreet's most highly regarded award-winning visual effects system.

"With the announcement of inferno 5, flame 8 and flint 8, Discreet is clearly demonstrating its continued investment in developing the most innovative tools for film, HD and video post-production," said Paul Lypaczewski, Discreet general manager and executive vice president, Autodesk, Inc. "Ten years ago, we introduced the world to flame and a new standard of excellence in visual effects was born. Building over the past decade and moving forward, Discreet continues to provide innovative and creative tools for our customers who entertain, educate and inspire audiences with truly unique visual experiences."

    New features

Mixed resolution support in the new versions of inferno, flame and flint will give artists the ability to create and manage intricate effects by freely combining, mixing and matching images of different size, aspect ratio and color depth in one unified environment. New extended editing capabilities will be available directly within the products, making the effects and editing process even more streamlined by eliminating the need to exit the Batch mode to add, modify, trim or delete sources related to the composite.

In addition, a unified animation channel greatly increases the artist's versatility to experiment and create animated effects. With support for distributed background rendering capabilities, users can now offload render jobs in the background across multiple distributed systems. The new releases also support the FBX file format from Kaydara, creating improved integration of 2D and 3D workflow and extending the 3D model support across different vendors writing with this industry standard.

    10-Year Milestone

This month, Discreet will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the flame system by kicking-off a year long campaign at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference that will bring together visual effects artists for the unveiling of the upcoming release of flame 8, due later this year. Winning its own Academy(R) Award for Technical Achievement, as well as becoming one of the contributing products behind the Academy Award nominated films for Best Visual Effects since 1996, flame is the preferred choice of many digital artists worldwide.

    Pricing and availability

Version five of inferno and Version eight of flame and flint will be demonstrated in the Discreet booth at NAB in Las Vegas. Once released, pricing will vary based on scalable configurations. For full pricing and configuration details, please contact Discreet Sales at 800/869-3504 or 514/393-1616, or visit www.discreet.com.

    About Discreet

Discreet empowers moving media professionals to realize the visual experience, transforming their most evocative and ambitious visions into reality. Its range of award-winning systems and software is developed for digital media creation, management and delivery -- across all disciplines from visual effects and editing to animation, game development, web and interactive. Discreet is based in Montreal, Quebec and is a division of Autodesk, Inc., the world's leading design and digital media creation, management, and distribution company. Product and corporate information is located on the Internet at www.discreet.com.

Discreet is a division of Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk, inferno, flame, flint and Discreet are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc./ Autodesk Canada Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. (c)Copyright 2002, Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

CONTACT:          Discreet Public Relations
                  Kevin G Clark, 415/547-2457
                  kevin.g.clark@autodesk.com
                  or
                  Access Communications
                  Sarah Bessette, 917/522-3504 or 917/375-5613
                  sarah@accesspr.com

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