Smoke Learning Channel

In this video, we cover the one-way workflow of creating a Smoke archive and restoring it in smoke 2017. This workflow enables to you to promote any Smoke projects to the Flame 2017 products for further finishing capability. Please note this is not a bi-directional workflow. You can only open Smoke archives in Flame and not Flame Archives in Smoke.

This video covers the redesigned proxy workflow in Smoke 2017. This new proxy workflow is clip-based and allows you to boost interactivity and performances when you need it. Learn about the proxy quality to view everything scaled to a proxy in real-time without generating media. Great for for ConnectFX setups where processing is intense and the media is not an issue. You also go through the process of localised Proxy Generation at the clip, ConnectFX setup and Sequence level. This is great for any situation where the media is bottlenecking your system and you need a performance boost. Work fast and interactively with Proxy Quality and Proxy Media On-Demand!

In this video, we cover the redesigned Output menu in Action which now supports Render Layers and Render Passes. Similar to other Autodesk 3D Applications, you now define a Render Layer and assign multiple render passes to the Render Layer. Managing Render Passes is much more efficient compared to previous versions of Smoke.

This video will cover a major new improvement to Action known as the Live Preview Viewer. This is a pixel-based “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get” viewer and will give you accurate representations with all Action processing effects including lighting, anti-aliasing and motion blur. So even when working in Action, everything you see is actually the final render. This has major implications for all aspects of Action. This also allows for icons in the context view and timeline views. Please note that the old 3D view no longer shows any shader or processing effects, you need to be looking through the Live Preview in Smoke 2017.

This video goes through the new source timeline workflow that allows you to make editorial and VFX decisions at the source clip level within ConnectFX. You can adjust an edit for timings, add transitions between segments or TimelineFX for image manipulation directly with the source clip. You can do all of this while monitoring the context of your VFX composite. So many useful applications in production!

The Context Views have been upgraded in Smoke 2017. The contextual views have now been increased from 2 views to 10 views! This will certainly make life a lot easier for most of you constantly using this tool. In addition to this, the workflows for working with 10 context views have been enhanced to allow you to work as quick and as efficiently as possible with the 10 context views. Contextual Menus, Interface Button and Keyboard shortcuts are covered! Watch the entire video so you don’t miss out!

In this video, we’ll look at the workflow of the new Burn-In Metadata tool in Smoke 2017. This replaces the old Burn-In Timecode which is no longer available in the application. With Burn-In Metadata, you have access to loads more information you can burn into an image and it’s also more customizable the the retired Burn-In Timecode. One final big benefit is that Burn-In Metadata is now available as a TimelineFX, as a node in Batch and BatchFX and as a separate module in the Tools Area of the Desktop. So its accessible every where when you need it.

In this video, we cover the new ability to adjust icons and widgets in the player at the sequence level. So if you like to use gestural actions to adjust setting in the viewer, you no longer need to do it in a VFX editor. Making adjustments at the sequence level is a massive timesaver with fewer menus to navigate.

Sometimes no matter how well we organise things, we just can find what we'd looking for. So in this video we go through the new advanced searching in the Media Panel. You can specify a huge range of criteria and arguements for a search to for a clip or clips. It's very flexible and extremely useful in Smoke 2017.

This video goes through the new sorting workflows for clips and components in the Media Panel. So you can organise your media and folders in ascending, descending or manual order. We also cover localised sorting per component for even greater control in the Media Panel.

This video goes through the Media Panel dual viewer functionality for easier clip organisation. We also cover component creation dates as well as avoiding duplicate name entries in Smoke 2017.

In this video, we take a look at a requested workflow of creating transitions from elements created elsewhere. Take an existing black and white animated clip and use it as a travelling matte between two shots in the sequence. Layers or Nodes.

In this video, we import a Photoshop PSD file into Smoke. You can than position the layers in 3D space and animate them to create a moving 3D environmentment. Great uses for motion graphics, bring stills to life and set extensions.

This video will show you how to patch audio tracks in the sequence. The differences between Mono and Stereo audio tracks are also covered as well as the implications.

This video will show you how to patch video tracks in the sequence for assigned track editing.