Smoke

[ulisses]

Hello,

How about a sub-topic for AUTODESK SMOKE ?
Looks like a major player with the new price reduction and MAC support.

Ulisses

[bclighting]

I'm going to bump this topic instead of creating a new one. Is there anyone out there using Smoke? I'm thinking about downloading the demo but I wanted to know if there are any other thoughts on it.

[Starscream]

i am a smoke operator worked on the original version form 2010-2012 and was in the beta for the 2013.

what do you want to know?

[Starscream]

Since i've just got a RenderJob in the pipeline i have some time to tell my story with SMOKE.


My Background in editing and 3D is skatevides (there are more of them in the industry than you think ;) )
No filmschool, no degree just filming, editing, try and error.
I did my first 3D in CorelDream 3D, and had various cracked licences of any possible 3D and editing app. (I was young and did not make any money with that)
I've got hired as a 3D artist and editor by a friend from school who founded a Media agency (dunno if thats the right word in english)
who does Web and imagemovies and 3D.
We had the usual Software: Cinema 4D and Maya for 3D, Final Cut and Aftereffects/Motion for Editing and compositing.
After a few years the Owners of the company had different ideas about the future and split up. The new company wanted to be a High-end Compositing and 3D company and invested in a Smoke.
Naturally i was given 2 Days to learn before we had the first (underpaid) job: a 93 min Movie shot on the 5D in 30fps should be convertet into 24 fps and graded and all the finishing stuff.
Weeellll lets just say that i was able to learn the basics fast enough not not let it show that i had no idea what i was actually doing. And after a lot of sleepless nights the Movie made it and was even show at the Berlinale.
Since then i was hooked with smoke. I did use it for every little job (even my skatevideos)
The editing part was a bit tricky coming from FCP, al the different shortkeys and the complete different approach with the tabled and the gestural editing.
The Data handling was a big shock and a stron feeling of beeing lost till i got the locig behind it. Saving all the files in a library, bringing it to the editdesk, work on it, save it back into the library.
But it was save, you had soo many options to organise your media, and the thumbnail-based editdesk is perfect for my style of work.
The compositing part was a bit tricky since it had no Batch and you had to to most of your compositing either in the timeline AE-style, or in Action, the nodebased 3D compositing Module.
As a third option you had the chance to abuse the modular keyer to have a "Batch Light" for simple 2D compositing, but it lacked a lot of important nodes.
When i entered the Beta programm for 2013 i was shocked again. The Library was gone, and the software was looking like a premiere, the FCP hotkeys were the default and all the magic of the mighty and mysterious SMOKE was gone. What was left was a mighty and powerfull tool with (almost) all the powers of the other apps and Suites, combined in one tool.
The first few versions were...uh...work in progress but ADSK listend to us testers and esp. the old SMOKE operators and managed to bring back a couple of our beloved features into the 2013 version.
Personally i still miss a couple of features (and the Library) but the times are moving fast...and we have to run or get left behind.

tl;dr

long story short:

Smoke 2013 is like a (almost) complete CS suite (except projectors and a 3D tracker) redesigned to make it easy to get used to for todays editors/compers who used to work with FCP, Premiere and AE