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Home » Smoke No Longer on the Horizon

Smoke No Longer on the Horizon

There are many good reasons why lots of folks have been waiting for the release of Smoke 2013 for Mac, and now the wait is finally over. On December 17, Autodesk started shipping Smoke to professionals eager for an single creative environment that promises to free them from having to switch or round trip between different various applications.

In Smoke 2013, Autodesk has combined previously separate disciplines such as editing, effects, motion graphics and 3D into one unified application. Last week I attended a demo of the product at Autodesk’s New York offices and, in my opinion, Smoke 2013 looks truly impressive.

Smoke 2013 for Mac contains an advanced and professional NLE that is designed to meet the needs of professional editors. But, of course, Smoke is much more than an editing system. Want to add high-end effects, chroma keying, color correction, rotoscoping and 3D motion graphics to your production? Right from the timeline you can go into Smoke’s various component areas, get creative and move on.

One of the first things you’ll remark about Smoke 2013 is its intuitive and sleek-looking interface. According to Autodesk, extensive customer research and feedback received during the pre-release trial was critical during the development of the product. This has resulted in things like drag and drop functionality, the ability to expand and collapse various sections such as the timeline FX pipeline area, and a major redesigning and streamlining of the user interface.

ConnectFX, Smoke’s node-based workflow for visual effects, keying, tracking and compositing

If you’re doing effects, you’ll be impressed with ConnectFX, Smoke’s node based compositor which allows you to create high-end effects and advanced compositing without leaving the editorial environment. A nice touch is that the nodes’ inputs and outputs are color coded which helps make things quite intuitive (and I might add attractive).

Other key features of Smoke 2013 include Creative Tools, a robust toolset with high end finishing tools, Action which allows you to do true 3D compositing, the Color Warper for professional grading and color matching, the Master Keyer for chroma keying and a host of stereoscopic 3D editing features and effects.

Create 3D VFX in Smoke for titles, motion graphics, 3D text and logos

While Smoke 2013 does not have the power of a dedicated 3D program like Maya or Cinema 4D, it has an advanced range of 3D features. Besides making 3D text, you can import 3D models, light them, texture them and merge them with footage.

Aaron Vasquez is a senior VFX artist at Poetica, a creative house in New York whose recent work includes this music video for the Rolling Stones. Aside from being a Flame artist, Vasquez uses Smoke for Mac and recently posted the following video on Vimeo where he explored some of Smoke’s advanced 3D and compositing abilities.

To make the video, Vasquez brought a pre-made model of a car into Maxon’s CINEMA 4D and rendered out some base color renders, specular passes, depth maps, buffers and an occlusion pass. Note that Smoke 2013 also has the ability to render out occlusion passes. He then exported an FBX file which contained the polygonal geometry, camera and lights and imported it into Smoke 2013.

Vasquez then generated additional specular and reflection maps inside of Smoke and mixed it with the CINEMA 4D renders into the master composite. He also used the depth maps that were generated by the 3D program to pull selective focus using Smoke’s Depth node, part of ConnectFX.

One thing that Vasquez is enthusiastic about is Smoke’s 3D lens flare options which he says are more than simple 2D post effects. Regarding Smoke’s lens flares, he said, “Using the imported FBX model I was able to attach 3D lens flares to areas of the model. One really great aspect of 3D lens flares in the action compositing environment was the fact that they exist in true 3D space. This gave me the flexibility to rotate around the model visually seeing, and making sure the lens flares were behaving how I would imagine they should be”.

In addition, Vasquez points out “I believe the new version of Smoke Mac gives users access to an amazing toolset that were previously only available to the high end. To me it’s amazing how Autodesk is providing users an amazing editorial experience as well as a solid compositing environment. As an experienced Flame artist I love the fact that I can have the ability to not only do a conform but also perform complex effects all in one place.”

There is no question that Smoke 2013 is a serious contender in the world of integrated editing and effects solutions. Not only can you do high end effects and finishing, but you can use it to edit together entire productions.

Smoke 2013 runs on Mac OS and is shipping at a price of $3,495 SRP per license. For more detail, visit http://www.autodesk.com/smoke.

About Joe Herman

Joe Herman is a filmmaker, artist and post production specialist and writes often about the industry. You can reach him at joe[at]legendmultimedia[dot]com. Or reach and follow him on Twitter @JoeHermanTweets.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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