Autodesk Inc. subsidiary Discreet announced Monday the release of Combustion 3 for Mac OS X. The software began shipping on January 21st, a few weeks after its debut at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Calif. Combustion 3 is the newest release of Discreet’s motion graphics and 3D compositing software for the Mac.
Combustion 3 is used by video and film creative professionals for developing effects for motion graphics. It’s also used in DVD and Web site creative development. The new version sports myriad new features, including the Editing Operator, which allows users to perform frequently accessed editing tasks without resorting to other applications.
Other new features include JavaScript-based “Expressions,” which help to create complex animations without creating repetition for the user. The new version of Combustion can output directly to Macromedia Flash format, too. And RE:Vision Effects’ RE:Flex warper and morpher plug-in is now included; the software is integrated with Combustion 3’s rotoscoping tools. It was previously available as a $600 add-on.
Customizable brushes, savable presets, timeline markers and other new features have been added as well.
Combustion 3 is available for US$995; upgrades from Combustion 2.x are $199.