Anyone else utterly disappointed by Flame 2025? I mean - nice to have a proper grain tool and lens distortion tool, but is that worth ushering in the new year version! Where is auto relink. where is all the exciting AI stuff you see in other software announcements. 2 nodes and some preference stuff. Or have I missed a bunch of things.
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I feel like with AI stuff, they gave us a couple of things awhile back and as with most things, it will never be developed any further.
Surely with everybody clamouring for it, a new text node should have been high up on their priority list.
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@Jonhollis
I agree with you, I’ve just opened the 2025 for the first time and I was hoping for a bit more.
i read the feature list and couldn’t be bothered to download it!
I was hoping that in this new version of Flame there would already be support for USD files. I see that even DaVinci/Fusion already has it.
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yes same here. resolve also has loads of great AI tracking stuff.
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Last night at Logik after Dark we had a long and healthy discussion about the AI features as part of their presentation. And a good cross section of Logik members where there.
Not my place to repeat it here or knowing how much can be said in larger forums, only saying that your criticism while logical if you watch the news train from the Wild West of AI may be misplaced. It’s a very complicated landscape and I believe that ADSK is taking a sensible approach that also has our interests in mind.
Not every short cut is worth taking, even if it seems tempting.
I’ve seen a demo of an upcoming version of Baselight yesterday. It’s a color only tool of much smaller scope and more unique audience, but in my mind one of the products that truly leads in innovation in its space. It comes with new AI based features (not the headline ones though). Filmlight is taking a different approach with those features. I think the end result remains the same, and you can have split opinions on the wisdom of it.
As to the overall release, if you watch the news of the annual announcements of Resolve, it’s easy to feel left out. There too has been much debate in various forums. I would not take Resolve as the bar of comparison here, but look at the broader market and release activity from Nuke, BorisFX, Filmlight, Adobe, etc. 2025 is inline there.
Blackmagic has a different business model and different motivations. And while it too feels tempting, and wanting to have all the cool kid toys, when you look in detail some of these features aren’t all that well conceived, and the long-term impact on the industry will lead to less choice and less quality. I’ve said much about that in various places. I give credit Resolve for some of their accomplishment, but I’m very skeptical of the bigger picture and not at all a fan. I’d rather not live in a low choice and captive mining town in the future.
Meanwhile, Resolve 19 is available in beta and essentially free. A lot of paths we all can chart.
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Ok. Take resolve out of the equation. This is still a terrible release. 3 nodes and some prefs.
Not for nothin’ but . . . . . .
When AD went to he subscription model one of the caveats was that “Big Release” would be a thing of the past and that new features and updates would be rolled out throughout the year as they became ready.
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I deal with grain and lens distortion regularly, so I’m pleased with what they’ve put into 2025.
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There are a ton of bug fixes and improvements to existing features too. Which can sometimes be even more helpful than new features.
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Actually, I’m really excited about the new grain and lens tools. From what I’ve seen of the Flame Learning Channel vids, the grain tool is very well thought out and it will be nice to not have to go into Silhouette when I have to use Das Grain!
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Working with a robust grain tool in Flame has been awesome. There also doesn’t appear to be any regressions/weird reworks so its a pleasant release!
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Use LéGrain from now on…
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Well played sir.
I must admit both new nodes are very well done!
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is there a list of bug fixes and improvements?
As someone who pushed hard to get Lens distortion and a modern regrain tool into Flame, I’m stoked! We will be using these tools every day and I’m really grateful for them.
The previous move to Vulkan and Metal were also huge and the performance improvements are excellent too. As are all the bug fixes.
I’ve had success in the Flame Camera Tracker where others have failed too.
As someone else mentioned, I am seeing feature improvement throughout each year’s rolling release cycle that I am sure are all worthwhile. The main thing I see though is the dev team responding to Flame community requests. What are the features you are so desperate to see and where is your feature request for them?
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Haha, particles. We’re into the fourth month of the year and it hadn’t been said yet, so…
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