Combustion overview in lamens terms

#1

Hi all!

I’m a web developer / programmer but have started intergrating 3ds max into my imagery in these last 2 or 3 years. I noticed Combustion is a lot cheaper than it used to be and now affordable to someone with my budget. I just wanted to clarify what it is fundamentally used for. I had a dabble with the 30 day trial of version 3 of Combustion but sadly never had the time to explore it fully.

In a nutshell, would I be right in saying Combustion is like Photoshop but for video? That is, fundametnally it is to correct, enhance and composite video? I’m looking to branch out into using Flash for interactive multimedia standalone and web-based solutions and Combustion could be just the thing I’ve been looking for to enhance my 3ds max animations.

I’ve read lots of Combustion overviews but they seem a bit a little over my head sometimes. If you could sum it up to suit someone of my background I would be most grateful :).

Thanks in advance.

#2

You’re right. Every time I try to explain to someone what exactly you do with a compositing app, I always say that it’s like Photoshop for videos.

There’s a lot more you can do with it, though. You can create full 2d animations, or add special effects to your scenes quickly and painlessly with 2d-based particle effects, among other things. But if you’re only looking to enhance your 3ds max pipeline, you’ll probably mostly just use it to composite your animations; piece together different rendered passes, create transitions, or combine separately rendered layers. But all of the other features can still become very very handy if you learn how to use them.

On the surface, if you haven’t done much compositing, compositors don’t always sound very useful. But once you’ve learned how to work with one, it quickly becomes one of those tools that you really can’t live without.

#3

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