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What's New in Action

Relighting

Have more creative control over your compositions when working with lights in Action, with these new effects.

| New Light Types Action now supports additional light types. In addition to Point Lights and Spotlights, Action can now generate: Directional Lights Ambient Lights Area Lights All of the light types have a Decay parameter that you can use to adjust the way the light intensity decreases with distance. See Light Menu Settings.
| Shadow Casting Action lights can now cast and receive 2D and 3D shadows, as well as self-shadow. You can also output shadows from Action. See Relighting: Casting Shadows.
| Lens Flares Action lights can now generate procedural lens flares with built-in 3D occlusions. You can add many texture components to your lens flares, such as irises, streaks, rings, and glows. See Relighting: Lens Flares.
| Rays Action lights can now simulate volumetric effects with the new Rays object. Rays can also use the same texture components as the new Lens Flare and it is also possible to generate rays that use the colour of an object in your Action scene. See Relighting: Rays.
| Image-Based Lighting Action now supports IBL (Image-Based Lighting) maps. IBL maps are a type of high dynamic range image that can be used like lights in a scene. Using an IBL Map in Action open up many creative possibilities, such as being able to light 3D objects from every direction using the colours in the environment. See Relighting: Image-Based Lighting (IBL).

Analyzer & GMask Object

Action's 3D environment is now easier to work in, with the improved Analyzer, and new GMask object.

| Analyzer Action's 3D Tracker has been updated with an improved workflow. 3D tracking is now attached to an Analyzer node that links to specific media. There can be multiple Analyzer nodes referencing the same media in the Action scene. This allows different analyses to coexist within the same Action scene. Each analyzer node has an FBX camera attached to it and a child surface perfectly framed by the camera. See Action Analyzer.
| Point Cloud Object The Point Cloud is a new object which can be generated from a selection of trackers in an Analyzer node. It is a more effective way to position added objects in space than separate axes. Objects can be snapped directly to the Point Cloud object in the schematic. See Using the Point Cloud Object.
| GMask Object in Action The GMask is a new object that can create regions of transparency in the Action scene. The mask supports open splines with a thickness parameter, making it an effective tool for outlining wires or rigs. It also includes new gradient controls that no longer tie the shape and form of the gradient to the vertices of the garbage mask. Multiple points can be selected and moved or translated as a around a pivot as a group. See Masks.

Geometries & 3D Text

Working with FBX and other geometries in Action is more manageable with the following improvements and new features.

| Improved FBX Support in Action Flame supports the 2012 FBX SDK, in sync with all Autodesk 3D applications. To ensure compatibility, all applications must use the same version of the FBX SDK. The following FBX features are now preserved in Action:. Point lights, spotlights, area lights, ambient lights, directional lights. Shadow casting. Object ID and material assignments: they appear explicitly in the Action schematic.See Object Group and Material Nodes. Sub-materials are now exposed explicitly in the Action schematic whenever possible. Textures can be changed by any Action media. See Using Materials. Bezier animation curves. Geometry caching (mesh animation). See About Mesh Animation.
| New FBX Models The FBX models provided with Flame have been updated with new primitives; available in /usr/discreet/flame_2012/models/FBX.
| Material Node The Material node creates a central hub to control the specular, ambient, diffuse, transparency, and shininess of a geometry's children maps and substances. See Material Node.
| Multi-Material Options for 3D Text You can now apply different textures to the front, back, and extruded faces of an extruded 3D Text or GMask using the Multi Material button. Even if you are not using the multi-material option, the UV mapping on extruded faces has improved.
| Delaunay and Medial Axis Tessellation Is it now possible to use Delaunay or Medial axis tessellation in 3D Text and Gmask. See Changing Tessellation Properties.

Navigating in Action

The following updates help you move around in Action quicker.

| New Action Node Bin Menu with Dynamic Tabs The Action node bin is now located in a dedicated menu, and offers similar dynamic functionality as the Batch Node bin. It is possible to Add, Delete, Rename tabs and move nodes between them. It is also possible to Save and Load a Bin Layout. See Using the Node Bin.
| Changes to the Action Media List Workflow Work more efficiently in the Action Media List with the following changes: The New Media button (or New Input in Batch) has been moved from the Media List and replaces the Add Media button. You can manage Media List items with the new Extract (to externalize a selected media in Batch) and Replace (to replace the media in a Media List entry) buttons. You can now use the Ctrl+N hotkey directly from the Batch schematic to add an Action Layer node (the Action node has to be selected).
| Adaptive Degradation Settings are now available in the Preferences tab of the Action Setup menu to temporarily deactivate taxing operations during interactive manipulations. Full quality is restored upon pen up. The settings do not affect the final renders. See Adaptive Degradation Settings.

Miscellaneous Action

Finally, these Action updates do not fit into the above categories, but are no less helpful in creating great effects.

| Lens Distort Image surfaces (including Stereo images) now features a Lens Distort submenu. Differences in camera lenses or perspective irregularities cause lens distortion that results in skewed angles. Use the Lens Distort settings to rectify or simulate these types of distortions in your images. See Lens Distort Settings.
| Photoshop Blend Modes Photoshop blend modes are now available in Action when working with surfaces and geometries.
| Camera Displacement Camera Displace is a new option available in the Direction settings of the Displace Map object. This option forces the displacement to occur along the frustum of the camera you select. Surface polygons are extruded. The extrusion effect is only visible when seen through any camera but the displacement camera.
| Projection Textures You can now use a Projection mapping type to project textures on the following maps (Diffuse, Normal, Specular, and Emissive). When you apply a texture to one of these maps, the texture behaves as if it were projected by the selected camera. Projection mapping can be used as an alternative to Projector nodes, especially when it is necessary to project while preserving a specific camera POV.
| Keystone Correction in Stereo Objects A new option in the Stereo Object menu allows you to apply keystone correction settings manually, use the automatic settings derived from an analyzer, or inherit settings from a stereo camera.
| Improved Support for Third Party Substances You can use third-party Substance textures available in Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, or created with the Substance Designer from Allegorithmic.