Lustre on Mac

[Dave Blackham]

I spoke to he Autodesk rep yesterday about Smoke. They say they are porting lustre to run on Mac also and other applications. I Don't know that the others are. Completion is expected soon. Smoke Software still is expensive though. I think the Lustre port can only be good news.

[MichaelHalsell]

Are you kidding? That would be huge news!

[ayarbro]

I believe that filmlight has had a product out for mac (baselight), and has for maybe a year or so.

If memory serves me right, filmlight got the linux/unix development rights and discreet got the windows development rights to the same piece of software sometime back and made their current products from it.

So in conclusion, there should be something similar to lustre that filmlight makes for os x.

[MichaelHalsell]

I believe that filmlight has had a product out for mac (baselight), and has for maybe a year or so.

If memory serves me right, filmlight got the linux/unix development rights and discreet got the windows development rights to the same piece of software sometime back and made their current products from it.

So in conclusion, there should be something similar to lustre that filmlight makes for os x.


Ah. Didn't know that bit of info. Thanks.

[M Most]

I believe that filmlight has had a product out for mac (baselight), and has for maybe a year or so.

If memory serves me right, filmlight got the linux/unix development rights and discreet got the windows development rights to the same piece of software sometime back and made their current products from it.

So in conclusion, there should be something similar to lustre that filmlight makes for os x.

There was an experimental, cut-down version of Baselight that was originally intended to be an on-set tool (much like Speedgrade On-Set) but was never really used or marketed. Some of the work done for that product did result in the current Baselight Kompressor module that allows a Mac on the network to appear as a Baselight directory for simple input and output of things like Quicktime ProRes files.

Colorfront was the originator of the basic color correction software that was used by 5D for their Colossus product and later purchased by Discreet and used to create Lustre. Filmlight owns the Truelight technology which is a color management system that produces very accurate 3D lookup tables and is very widely used in the DI industry, regardless of the actual color correction system being used. Filmlight's Baselight product was written by some former MPC and CFC guys in London and as far as I know has nothing to do with Colorfront's technology.

In other words, the only similarity I know of between Lustre and Baselight is that they are often both used with Truelight color management.

[Greg M]

I spoke to he Autodesk rep yesterday about Smoke. They say they are porting lustre to run on Mac also and other applications. I Don't know that the others are. Completion is expected soon. Smoke Software still is expensive though. I think the Lustre port can only be good news.

Since Autodesk is a publicly traded company, it seems odd that any "rep" would divulge this info.

That being said, I dont doubt this is true but I believe its highly unlikely that an Autodesk employee would reveal this info.

[Dave Blackham]

Since Autodesk is a publicly traded company, it seems odd that any "rep" would divulge this info.

That being said, I dont doubt this is true but I believe its highly unlikely that an Autodesk employee would reveal this info.

Well its true. I downloaded a Smoke evaluation, I got a call from Auto desk and expressed interest in Smoke. I asked if there were any other products being ported, the rep was helpful and offered Maya, Combustion and Smoke. I asked about Lustre and the answer was its being done now and hoped to be available shortly. I just passed on the info as I was told it.

Perhaps some one else could call Autodesk to verify.

[Martin Tlaskal]

I believe that filmlight has had a product out for mac (baselight), and has for maybe a year or so.

If memory serves me right, filmlight got the linux/unix development rights and discreet got the windows development rights to the same piece of software sometime back and made their current products from it.

So in conclusion, there should be something similar to lustre that filmlight makes for os x.

Hi,

We offer a fully featured Mac version of Baselight which runs on MacBook Pro laptops for existing users of Baselight - price is £1000. People normally use it for training of new staff, bidding for jobs and working from home etc. The same code base is used in Kompressor, as Mike said.

There is no connection whatsoever between the Lustre and Baselight code bases. Lustre was written by Colorfront in Hungary - it started off as SACC (Stand Alone Colour Corrector), got used in LOTR, become 5D Colossus got bought by Autodesk and become Lustre.

Baselight is the result of commercialising internal tools originally written at Framestore CFC in London for Chicken Run etc.

Regards,

-Martin

[Dave Blackham]

Having done a few searches there seem to be a few postings on other boards about this possibility. Our interest in both Lustre and Baselight at two possible tools to improve our facilites is principally about tight integration within our workflow. Most of it is QT driven and inevitably we are Apple based. Most of our current work is for High end Television though we do offer other file based deliverables. We use Color and use control surfaces such as Tangent's CP100 due to its satisfactory integration with the usual Apple and Adobe applications. I say satisfactory as it could be better but is workable and seems to be improving all be it slowly. Mostly the QT and codec support is fine but it is essential for our workflow. If we are to upgrade then new tools must be affordable and also offer at least as good integration to other applications and QT media as we have at present.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

A few Autodesk minions started saying that Max was being discontinued a few months ago. I think the old rule "if they know they aren't talking and if they're talking they don't know" applies to any future Autodesk releases.

They can't even acknowledge future versions of Max or Maya beyond the current quarter.

[Gabriele Turchi]

LUSTRE on a Mac Would AMazing , but guys......what would make it incredible is if they Cut the price as they didi for Smoke....I mean ...does anyone care if it run on their turnkey system or on a mac Pro?
i guess that people care that should cost 180.000 USD....!
If they price it something around 50.000 USD would be amazing....
But not sure that they will....(even if they didi for smoke...)


Hope so...

g

[Gavin Greenwalt]

They did cut the price. But they also limited it to 1080p. I don't know if they still offer that version though.

Considering Lustre already runs on Windows I doubt a price drop would be attached to the apple version. They could just as easily drop the windows versions price.

[Gabriele Turchi]

What is the price of the HD version?
G

[MichaelHalsell]

LUSTRE on a Mac Would AMazing , but guys......what would make it incredible is if they Cut the price as they didi for Smoke....I mean ...does anyone care if it run on their turnkey system or on a mac Pro?
i guess that people care that should cost 180.000 USD....!
If they price it something around 50.000 USD would be amazing....
But not sure that they will....(even if they didi for smoke...)


Hope so...

g

Wouldn't hold my breathe that a Lustre would come to the Mac quickly or cheaply. Lustre a is facilty oriented system and really designed to work amongst the other flagship tools on Autodesks' roster. Not a casual tool but requires a serious ownership commitment.

With Autodesk it's always the up-sale, which is not cheap.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

What is the price of the HD version?
G

I don't know what it's going for now but when it was originally announced I think it had an MSRP of $100k or so. (+Stone +Control Surface +Burn Nodes)

[Chris Parker]

almost one year later....any update?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

They were talking about it at NAB last year -- porting Lustre and others. Autodesk seems fully committed to the Mac platform these days. Hopefully NAB '11 will bring some more goodies to actually see. I think the price point will start coming down... Look what's happening with DaVinci Resolve on the Mac.

[M Most]

They were talking about it at NAB last year -- porting Lustre and others. Autodesk seems fully committed to the Mac platform these days. Hopefully NAB '11 will bring some more goodies to actually see. I think the price point will start coming down... Look what's happening with DaVinci Resolve on the Mac.

Companies don't have to follow Blackmagic to the bottom of the pricing ladder if their products offer good value and good ROI. Smoke on the Mac has been pretty successful at a reasonable price point (reasonable for Autodesk, and reasonable for its customers), and based on Autodesk's packaging of Flame, Smoke, and Lustre into Flame Premium on Linux, I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar offering involving Smoke and Lustre on the Mac for only a little more than the Smoke standalone pricing. Maybe around $18-20K would be about right. At that price point, Autodesk can afford to keep developing and supporting it, and customers - primarily small post companies, but also editorial boutiques, larger post facilities, and the broadcast industry - can make money with it in a rather short time frame. And, I have to say, I would find it a pretty compelling package. Blackmagic took the approach that essentially giving away the software would create a new market that never existed before - i.e., the individual artists and personal project purveyors that couldn't really afford professional tools. I've always believed that lowing the pricing on something that requires a real learning commitment based on real work is not particularly sensible, because many of those that try the product will likely abandon it when they discover that it a bit complex for a casual user, and they don't really want to be professional colorists anyway. So although there might be a short term sales bubble, it is not likely to last, which makes the viability of future support and development a bit questionable. It is already clear that in the professional end of the industry, DaVinci is not going to corner the market (and neither is anyone else). It will coexist with the same players that have been its competitors for some time now - Lustre, Baselight, Digital Vision, Pablo, and the rest. But without a much larger user base, selling the software for a paltry $1000 simply isn't going to net them significant revenues. As an example, Red released the Red One at a price point that was essentially a similar discount from existing cameras (17K as opposed to 170K), and has to be considered pretty successful - but they have only sold (to our knowledge) about 7000-8000 units worldwide. Those kind of numbers likely cannot justify a $1000 product that requires a serious R&D effort to maintain. We can revisit this in another year or so and see how deep their commitment to that really is, but to me, Autodesk is taking a much saner approach to bringing their flagship products to a wider market.

[Aleksandar Colancevski]

Red and BMD are companies made by very clever guys who prooved that they know how to make money. I would be carefull with conclusions about their pricing strategy.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I wish Autodesk would release a SD limited smoke for Mac as a PLE. We don't have a smoke in house but we get smoke questions a lot and having a free version just to pull up and walk other studios through correct importing would be very useful.

After all... nobody is still working in SD are they? :D

[M Most]

Red and BMD are companies made by very clever guys who prooved that they know how to make money. I would be carefull with conclusions about their pricing strategy.

To my recollection, Blackmagic has never released a software only product prior to Resolve, and that would include Ultrascope, which requires their hardware. Nor do they have products that are as specific in purpose, and not necessarily used in all facilities, as the DaVinci line. I know Grant and I know he's a smart guy, but my point was that it's not necessarily imperative to play their game to their level in order to compete with them. Thats been proven by AJA, it's currently being proven in higher end facilities by companies like Filmlight, and my opinion is that it could be proven again by Autodesk. But as I said, that's just my opinion.

[Gabriele Turchi]

doe anyone have any news on this ?
NAB is close ...so if is going to happen maybe some heard something...

thanks

g

[jake blackstone]

I also would love to see Lustre packaged with Smoke on a Mac, just like in the Flame Premium package. This would be win/win for everyone, as this would eliminate the biggest weakness in Smoke- CC and CW. Add to that Euphonics support and you've got a world class package at an attractive price ($20K or so, hopefully). And while we're at it, full Prores and DnxHD support needs to be included as well.
Keeping my fingers crossed for NAB...

[Hans von Sonntag]

I also would love to see Lustre packaged with Smoke on a Mac, just like in the Flame Premium package. This would be win/win for everyone, as this would eliminate the biggest weakness in Smoke- CC and CW. Add to that Euphonics support and you've got a world class package at an attractive price ($20K or so, hopefully). And while we're at it, full Prores and DnxHD support needs to be included as well.
Keeping my fingers crossed for NAB...

Autodesk's announcements are out. Flame Premium consists of Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre. All are Linux based. Flame and Lustre can be purchased alone, Smoke Advanced only in the Flame Premium package.

Flame has now an upgraded Action module that incorporates a new extensive lighting effects tool set. Also a new Flame FX module is included that basically consists of plugins that before had to be purchased separately as Sparks from third party manufacturers. All these new goodies are also included in Smoke (on Mac).

Smoke on Mac is now Smoke. No Lustre on OSX. Makes sense, there is no Nvidida SDI on the Mac. You need that for Lustre.

Hans

[Gabriele Turchi]

well... Are you sure that they are not reserving a surprise for the NAB ?...
I mean i have no idea but wouldn't be possible?

We know that autodesk was working on Lustre on a MAC even over 12 months ago ...the success of Davinci i think should have pushed them on this ...


Also : Missing SDI ? well that is not a big deal Because Davinci /Smoke ?color they all use the SDI out for the Aja/decklink cards....

g

[jake blackstone]

Autodesk's announcements are out. Flame Premium consists of Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre. All are Linux based. Flame and Lustre can be purchased alone, Smoke Advanced only in the Flame Premium package.

Flame has now an upgraded Action module that incorporates a new extensive lighting effects tool set. Also a new Flame FX module is included that basically consists of plugins that before had to be purchased separately as Sparks from third party manufacturers. All these new goodies are also included in Smoke (on Mac).

Smoke on Mac is now Smoke. No Lustre on OSX. Makes sense, there is no Nvidida SDI on the Mac. You need that for Lustre.

Hans
It looks like that is the deal for this year, unfortunately. Autodesk continues along the path of upgrading interoperability between myriad software packages acquired over the years. It's not necessarily bad thing, but while Autodesk does this, everyone else continues to innovate not burdened by legacy issues.
Keeping cloud tracking only on Flame, while Smoke still has to import the data from Mocha is lame.
And most disappointing- still no full support for Prores and MFX wrapped DnxHD on Smoke on a Mac. I find this really strange.

[Sven Seynaeve]

Flame premium got certainly my interest and seems incredible. Just the dpx only side , get's me a little worried. They should support all codecs by now.