Autodesk Media and Entertainment
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation and visual effects software |
| Predecessor | Discreet Logic, Kinetix |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Montreal , Canada |
| Products | Maya, 3ds Max, Mudbox, MotionBuilder, Kynapse, Flame, Flare, Lustre, Smoke, Stingray (discontinued) |
| Parent | Autodesk |
| Website | www |
Autodesk Media and Entertainment represents a sector within Autodesk that specializes in animation and visual effects software, established through a series of acquisitions. Since 2018, it has functioned as a unified reporting entity.
Discreet Logic
Founded in 1991 in Montreal by Richard Szalwinski, formerly the sales director at Softimage, Discreet Logic aimed to commercialize the 2D compositing software Eddie, licensed from Australian studio Animal Logic. Eddie was associated with software engineer Bruno Nicoletti, who later founded the London-based visual effects software company The Foundry.
In 1992, Discreet Logic entered a partnership with Softimage for distribution across Europe and shifted its focus to Flame, one of the earliest purely software-based image compositing tools created by Australian developer Gary Tregaskis. Initially called Flash, Flame was unveiled at NAB in 1992 running on the Silicon Graphics platform and quickly became the company's leading product.
Discreet Logic went public in July 1995, raising approximately US$40 million. That same year, it acquired assets from Brughetti Corporation for roughly CDN$1 million, along with Computer-und Serviceverwaltungs AG in Austria and software from Innovative Medientechnik-und Planungs-GmbH in Germany. After a 2-for-1 stock split in October 1995, a secondary offering in December secured an additional $28 million. In April 1996, Discreet invested $2.5 million into Essential Communications Corporation.
Kinetix
In 1996, Autodesk launched a multimedia division based in San Francisco called Kinetix to publish 3D Studio Max, developed by The Yost Group. In August 1998, Autodesk revealed plans to acquire Discreet Logic and merge it with Kinetix. This acquisition, the largest for Autodesk at that time, was finalized in March 1999 for around $410 million, forming the Discreet division.
The merged product lineup included Flame, Flint, Fire, Smoke, Effect, Edit from Discreet alongside Kinetix’s titles such as 3D Studio Max, Lightscape, and Character Studio.
Media and Entertainment
In March 2005, Autodesk renamed this division Autodesk Media and Entertainment, retiring the Discreet brand but keeping its headquarters located in Montreal.
The division grew further through acquisitions; notably, Autodesk purchased Alias Systems Corporation based in Toronto in October 2005 for about $182 million. Alias’s animation operations were integrated into Autodesk’s entertainment segment; prior to this, Alias had been part of SGI until 2004.
In 2008, Autodesk acquired Softimage technology from Avid Technology. Subsequently, in 2011, it added Pixlr—a cloud-based image editing service—to its digital media offerings.
Industry usage
By 2011, Autodesk’s software had contributed to films that won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for sixteen consecutive years. A significant portion of Avatar's visual effects were produced using Autodesk tools, enabling director James Cameron to visualize motion-capture performers as characters within Pandora. Other notable films utilizing Autodesk products include Alice in Wonderland, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Inception, Iron Man 2, King Kong, Gladiator, Titanic, Life of Pi, Hugo, and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. In November 2010, Ubisoft announced that Autodesk’s 3D gaming technology was utilized in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.
Products
Core offerings include Maya, 3ds Max, Mudbox, MotionBuilder, game middleware Kynapse, along with creative finishing tools such as Flame, Flare, Lustre, Smoke, and the now-discontinued Stingray game engine (supported until subscription expiration).
Historical
- Discreet Frost (1996), an SGI-based on-air graphics solution tailored for news and sports broadcasting.
- Matchmover, bundled with 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage; acquired from RealViz.
- Media Cleaner and Edit software obtained from Media 100 in 2001.
- Lightscape real-time radiosity rendering software acquired in 1997 and fully integrated into 3ds Max by 2003.
- Discreet Plasma (2002), a simplified version of 3ds Max designed for Adobe Flash content creation.
- Discreet GMax, a streamlined iteration of 3ds Max targeting game mod developers.
- Autodesk Toxik (2007), compositing software emphasizing collaborative workflows; later renamed "Composite" and included with Maya, 3ds Max, and Softimage.
- Autodesk Softimage, acquired from Avid Technology in 2008; discontinued after its final release in 2015; extensively used across film production, gaming development, and advertising for CG character and environment creation.
- Combustion, a desktop compositor and motion graphics application evolved from Illuminaire Paint and Composition.
- SketchBook Pro
- Autodesk Smoke—a non-linear video editing platform integrated with Flame; initial turnkey system pricing started at US$68,000 in 2004; a Mac OS X version was introduced in 2009 priced at US$14,995.
Creative finishing
- IFF
Inferno, Flame, and Flint (IFF) are visual effects and compositing programs initially developed for Silicon Graphics (SGI) MIPS-based machines operating on Irix. Flame premiered in January 1993 and had become a market leader by 1995 with pricing near US$175,000 (rising to US$450,000 when bundled with SGI hardware). Flint serves as a cost-effective variant of Flame with reduced features. Inferno debuted in 1995 targeting film production workflows at approximately US$225,000 excluding hardware costs. Traditionally running on SGI Onyx systems while Flame and Flint operated on SGI Indigo² and Octane workstations. In 2006, Flame/Inferno transitioned onto Linux platforms delivering performance enhancements exceeding twenty times those of previous SGI systems.
Flame was first employed during its beta phase on the film Super Mario Bros. At the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony in 1998, principal developers were honored for their work on Inferno and Flame.
- Flare
Launched in 2009 as a software-only subset of Flame aimed at creative assistants with pricing around one-fifth that of full Flame licenses.
- Lustre
Lustre is color grading software originally created by Colorfront in Hungary. Initially introduced as the "Colorstar" plugin for Flame—simulating film color grading through printer light controls—it evolved into standalone software. It was showcased at IBC Amsterdam in 2001 under the name Colossus running on Windows XP and IRIX platforms. Following Colorfront's acquisition by Autodesk after its original distributor ceased operations, Lustre received a Scientific and Engineering Award at the Academy Awards in 2009.
- Flame Premium
Released in September 2010, Flame Premium consolidated licenses for Flame, Smoke Advanced, and Lustre into one workstation bundle designed to optimize creative finishing workflows.