Combustion.. a fresh way of thinking...

WARNING: This is a video geek post... Read @ your own risk!
Every once in a while a piece of software comes around that forces me to rethink the way I do video. The last time this happened was when I was first introduced to Avid NLEs. I had been working with Apple Final Cut, but the depth and precision of Avid completely changed the way I worked in both environments. But that was merely the NLE (non-linear editor). The last tool used to put a project together.
For the past two years I've been trying to achieve a level of mastery with AfterEffects (Adobe's compositer software). I liked the precision of the thing, however as my projects got more complicated AE started to show some weakness. Like all things I overlooked these and created work-arounds.
Then I heard about a piece of software called Autodesk Combustion. At first I wrote it off simply because it wasn't AfterEffects. However, my boss would keep on bringing it up. So last weekend out of sheer curiosity I downloaded the demo and started working with it a bit...
It was a steep learning curve to begin with. In AfterEffects the timeline is the centerpiece. and the clips and effects are added to that. In Combustion the clips and effects are the centerpiece and the timeline sort of builds itself. This opens up a whole new level of creativity. Not to mention the that when you use it on a dual monitor system, it gives you two independent playback screens with a total of 8 source/effect windows. It also has the nifty ability to edit alphas channels in real time, and while we are speaking on the topic of alphas, Diamond Keyer is nothing short of amazing!
The node based composting system is taking a little getting used to. But as I learn more about it the more powerful it gets. It's already surpassed AE in flexibility, but there it still one thing I'm not quite sold on.... the way it handles the timelines. Sure it's uber cool that you can edit any timeline from any connected footage or composite, but I have yet to see the kind of precision I'm used to in AE... It would also help if I could have a larger timeline window. But no program is perfect and I'd like to learn more about this sick awesome program.