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Smoke 2013 Changes Everything
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Here’s my “first look” article:
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/tags/autodesk-smoke-2013/autodesk-smoke-2013-first-look/59172
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Chris Harlan] “I’m curious what you think of the Symphony cross-grade in the light of this.”
I’m also curious about this. I know a comparison can’t truly be made until a hands opportunity with Smoke i available but if anyone out there has really dug into the features (I just haven’t had the time yet and won’t for the foreseeable future) and also knows Symphony your thoughts would be appreciated. Especially as I suspect the Symphony crossgrade will be gone before Smoke 2013 is released.
Tim
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[Walter Soyka] “Personally, I think there’s a lot of value in learning an app’s native hotkeys. When functionality doesn’t match 100% from app to app, I find close-but-no-cigar key bindings to be absolutely maddening. In my opinion, it’s better to go through the pain of learning the new shortcuts once and make new muscle memory than discovering over and over again that a particular key doesn’t work quite the way you expect every time you hit it.”
I couldn’t agree more! The biggest mistake I made transitioning from Avid to FCP was creating an “Avidesque” keyboard layout, instead of learning how FCP did things first. Because i used a completely different keyboard layout (which works great for me) I was reluctant to test for my FCp certification because I simply didn’t know the keyboard as Apple had designed it.
I have made a few changes on FCP X, ( moving transition key from cmd T to the ` key etc, and I have a Contour design Shuttle Pro that I use, but I will keep the keyboard as close to original as I can.
don walker
texarkana, texasJohn 3:16
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[Oliver Peters] “Here’s my “first look” article:
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/tags/autodesk-smoke-2013/autodesk-smok...
– Oliver
“Nice bit, man. I’m forwarding it to some folks.
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[Chris Harlan] “I’m curious what you think of the Symphony cross-grade in the light of this.”
What do I think of Symphony versus Smoke? I guess it depends on your workflow and needs. I don’t think they really compete as they don’t really have overlapping feature sets.
Symphony is a steal at $999 if you have an Avid workflow and want to color in the context of your edit, or want if you want to get the bundled Boris Continuum effects for less than the Boris bundle’s standalone price, but other finishing tasks like paint and compositing would clearly go to Smoke.
DS would be Avid’s competitor to Smoke, and Dermot could talk a lot more about that. From my outsider’s perspective on DS, I’d be nervous about investing in it today. Avid doesn’t seem to be paying it a whole lot of attention.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] “[Chris Harlan] “I’m curious what you think of the Symphony cross-grade in the light of this.”
What do I think of Symphony versus Smoke? I guess it depends on your workflow and needs. I don’t think they really compete as they don’t really have overlapping feature sets.”
I guess, Walter, what I’m really asking about is where they do overlap–say, in color correction, and whether Symphony’s would be–to your knowledge– superior to the new Smoke for Mac’s.
[Walter Soyka] “Symphony is a steal at $999 if you have an Avid workflow and want to color in the context of your edit, or want if you want to get the bundled Boris Continuum effects for less than the Boris bundle’s standalone price, but other finishing tasks like paint and compositing would clearly go to Smoke.”
My understanding–and I could be quite wrong about this–is that Smoke fits fairly well into the Avid workflow, PLUS it has the other finishing and composite tools. So, I guess I’m back to wondering if Symphony’s 100% compatibility with MC projects and its Color tools have enough of an edge to makeup for not gaining the compositing tools? I’m also wondering the degree to which Smoke for Mac will always be Smoke-lite because of the potential lack of Sizzle core beasts. I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t part of Autodesk’s pricing strategy as well. As for the Boris bundle, I do like it and plan to upgrade, but the upgrade price–unless I am misunderstanding something–is much cheeper than the price of Symphony.
[Walter Soyka] “DS would be Avid’s competitor to Smoke, and Dermot could talk a lot more about that. From my outsider’s perspective on DS, I’d be nervous about investing in it today. Avid doesn’t seem to be paying it a whole lot of attention.”
I have no interest in DS; I think its the walking Dead. My quandary, as I look at these things arrayed, is that I can reasonably budget this year for, say, Symphony and CS6, or Smoke for Mac, but not for all three, without just being stupid about it. The Symphony upgrade ends about the time the Smoke for Mac trial is set to begin. So, I’m trying to juggle this all in my head–Smoke has tools I crave, and may be the NLE I’ve been looking for, but will also maybe/probably be limited/hobbled to iMac and and Macbook Pro use. Both Symphony and CS6 can be put on future workstations that will have the guts to do some of the compositing I like, but without the neat-o tools I’ve been dreaming of for some time. Oh, for a new Mac Pro, which the coming of 2013 Smoke for Mac has convinced me–oddly–we shall not see.
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With regard to the keyboard layout, Smoke 2012 allows you use FCP shortcuts. I’d imagine 2013 has a preference for this too.
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I played around with the trial of 2012 a lot. I loved it, if only because I’ve always been jealous of Flame operators and never had a chance to use one :-). I know that Smoke is more of a “Porsche Boxter” compared to a “Proper Porsche” Flame, but many of the modules are identical. What is missing is Batch (the procedural compositing module) which is a shame.
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[katherine taylor] “What is missing is Batch (the procedural compositing module) which is a shame.”
You might be interested in this video from Autodesk on ConnectFX [link].
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Chris Harlan] “I guess, Walter, what I’m really asking about is where they do overlap–say, in color correction, and whether Symphony’s would be–to your knowledge– superior to the new Smoke for Mac’s.”
Chris, I’ve spent some time training on Smoke over the last couple years, but I have absolutely zero seat time on Symphony. I just don’t know enough about Symphony to be able to draw a good comparison.
And superior is really hard to define. Are you talking about ease of use? Workflow? Performance? Depth or breadth of tool set?
From the demos I’ve seen, Smoke 2013 still has essentially the same two modules for color as it has always had on the Mac: the Color Corrector (CC) and the Color Warper (CW). I think that you’ll be able to get a pretty general idea of the capabilities from some of the learning videos by Autodesk’s Grant Kay, although I would add that using some of Smoke’s more advanced features (like the Modular Keyer and the new ConnectFX) in conjunction with the color warper will allow you to achieve much more complex grades than what you could do with a single instance of the color warper by itself.
All that said, if this is a conversation about color, I’d be remiss in not mentioning Resolve and SpeedGrade CS6.
[Chris Harlan] “My quandary, as I look at these things arrayed, is that I can reasonably budget this year for, say, Symphony and CS6, or Smoke for Mac, but not for all three, without just being stupid about it.”
What are your workflows like today?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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