Autodesk has reduced the price of its Flare package (the software-only version of Flame) to £4k to “bring it in line with other compositing systems,” Stig-Erik Gruman, vp, Digital Entertainment Group, Autodesk, told Televisual at IBC.

Gruman also said Flare is increasingly being used for 2d to 3d conversions, in combination with Autodesk's Maya, a process he described as “redimentionalisation” rather than conversion.

He added that MPC recently bought 20 Flare seats, which are global licenses that can be moved around its different international offices.

Autodesk also announced it has agreed a licensing deal with Disney to take its in-house procedural texture tool XGen and bring it to market as a commercial product. Rather than marketing it as a standalone product, Gruman says it is more likely to be incorporated into Autodesk’s existing animated products.

XGen centres on the creation of cg textures, such as fur, features and foliage, hair, trees, leaves, rocks and so on, and was recently used in the making of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Tangled.

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