AMSTERDAM, Sep 09, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- At IBC -- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) is introducing Autodesk Flame Premium 2011, a powerful solution for 3D visual effects creation, editorial finishing and real-time color grading. Flame Premium combines the latest 2011 extension 1 releases of Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Smoke Advanced and Autodesk Lustre software into a single offering, designed to help post-production companies expand and diversify their creative services more cost-effectively. Flame Premium is being launched at a price substantially less than the cost of purchasing licenses of these products individually. In addition, new cross-grade pricing* offers some Autodesk creative finishing customers** potential savings of up to 85 percent.

"Flame Premium presents a great opportunity for customers to expand their creative services and better compete in a media industry that craves ever-more-sophisticated visual imagery," said Marc Petit, Autodesk senior vice president, Media & Entertainment. "The industry is changing fast with HD, stereoscopic 3D and digital distribution. Companies need the flexibility to do more for less. With Flame Premium, customers can now offer a fuller range of services -- higher-quality visual effects, editorial finishing, and real-time color grading -- all with a single workstation."

For the last 20 years, Flame has been a leading tool in high-end post-production. Customers have used Autodesk creative finishing tools (Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre) to help create popular television shows ("Lost," "Bones," "House"), and blockbuster movies ("Iron Man 2," "Clash of the Titans," and "Shutter Island"), and award-winning commercials (E*Trade Super Bowl campaign, The Beatles Rock Band video game and Snickers "Game"). Flame and Lustre have each won an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

"Many of Autodesk's customers are the who's who of post-production around the world," explained Marc Petit. "And, as their business continues to shift from traditional, per-hour, billing models to project-centric models, client-supervised post-production has expanded in nature, remaining a critical offering. Customers now need to deliver more integrated, high-performance, creative services that span the gamut of post-production. As a result, they are looking for more interactive, higher-quality creative solutions that can help them better meet their clients' requirements and timelines. Flame Premium offers them a faster, more affordable and highly creative solution, as well as more efficient workflows with its trusted, production-proven toolset all in one box."

Flame Premium gives new and existing customers access to Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre -- running on a single workstation and at a special price:

• New customers can purchase Flame Premium software for as little as $129,000***
• Autodesk Flame 2011 customers** can upgrade their licenses to Flame Premium for as little as $10,000*** per Flame license, thereby adding Lustre and Smoke Advanced to their creative capabilities.
• Autodesk Smoke Advanced 2011 customers** can upgrade their licenses to Flame Premium for as little as $25,000*** per Smoke Advanced license, thereby adding Flame and Lustre to their creative capabilities.
• Similarly, Autodesk Lustre 2011 customers** can upgrade their licenses to Flame Premium for as little as $25,000*** per Lustre license, thereby adding Flame and Smoke Advanced to their creative capabilities.

Flame Premium provides the 2011 Extension 1 releases of Autodesk Flame 2011, Autodesk Lustre 2011 and Autodesk Smoke Advanced 2011, usually only provided to current Autodesk Subscription customers. New capabilities: improved interoperability between certain applications; one-step cross-product project and user profile creation with automatic linking of project data; and unified project and data management, archiving and format support. Flame Premium also provides cross-format support for ARRIRAW and RED SDK 3.1 update. Flame Premium is certified on the HP z800 and HP 8600 workstations.

Autodesk will showcase the 2011 Extension 1 releases of Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre software at the Autodesk booth Hall 7, Stand D25 during the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam Sept. 10-14, 2010. Customer presentations and product demonstrations will be streamed live from the Autodesk booth to Virtual IBC on the AREA -- Autodesk's digital entertainment community.

Product Availability

Autodesk Flame Premium 2011, the 2011 Extension 1 releases of Flame, Autodesk Flare, Autodesk Flint, Autodesk Inferno, and Smoke Advanced will be available tomorrow and the Autodesk Smoke 2011 for Mac OS X Subscription Advantage Pack software will be available later this month. For further information about Flame Premium features, benefits and specifications, visit www.autodesk.com/flamepremium.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries -- including the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects -- use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com/pr-autodesk.

*Autodesk reserves the right to terminate the cross-grade pricing at any time, without prior notice.

**Customers must have a license of the current version of at least one of the following products: Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Smoke Advanced or Autodesk Lustre Creative Finishing solutions prior to cross-grading to the Flame Premium license.

*** US pricing for software only. Pricing does not include hardware. International pricing may vary. Resellers are independent and free to determine their own pricing.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Flame, Flare, Flint, Inferno, Lustre and Smoke are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.,and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Mac OS is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE: Autodesk, Inc.

Autodesk, Inc.
Rama Dunayevich, 415-547-2472
rama.dunayevich@autodesk.com
or
Jenny Tandy, + 44 1252 727-313 x 216
jennyt@whiteoaks.co.uk