Autodesk Smoke Essentials E-Book

Alexis Van Hurkman

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 447

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Get productive fast with this compelling, unique guide toAutodesk Smoke If you're new to Autodesk Smoke for Mac, this guide will get youup to speed on the key tools in a practical, hands-on way.Featuring approachable, task-based exercises taken from the realworld, this full-color, step-by-step book walks you through aprofessional workflow with the editing, compositing and finishingtool. This Autodesk Official Press title covers everything you need toknow for a solid foundation in the software, including: * The ins and outs of the Smoke interface, including all keytools * Audio, music, and sound effects * Editing and trimming clips for a polished edit * Media management and advanced compositing With professional-quality video footage used for all of thebook's projects, this vibrant full-color guide is engaging as wellas instructive. For those new to Autodesk Smoke, as well asprofessionals, instructors, and trainers, Autodesk SmokeEssentials is the resource you need to get productive,fast.

Leseprobe

Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Technical Editor

Introduction

Chapter 1: Before You Begin

Before You Open Smoke

Opening Autodesk Smoke

Important Preferences

Chapter 2: The Smoke Interface

The Four Tabs

Understanding the MediaHub and Media Library

Working in the Timeline Panel

A Quick Look at Timeline Effects

Using the Tools Panel

Chapter 3: Importing Your Project’s Media

Importing Media into a New Project

Organizing Media within the Media Library

Chapter 4: Editing a Rough Assembly

Creating a Sequence

Editing with Thumbnails

Setting Thumbnail In and Out Points

Creating Subclips

Drag-and-Drop Editing

Dragging and Dropping an Insert Edit

Basic Trimming in the Timeline

Chapter 5: Editing Dialog and Advanced Trimming

Editing Dialog with the Source/Record Viewers

Trimming for Continuity

Trimming to Create Split Edits

Adding Cutaways with Three-Point Editing

Chapter 6: Adding Transitions and Timewarp Effects

Importing the Opening Scene

Adding and Editing Dissolves

Creating and Customizing Wipes

Retiming a Shot Using Timewarp

Chapter 7: Using Timeline Effects

Creating a Picture-in-Picture Effect Using 2D Transform

Editing and Keying a Superimposed Greenscreen Clip

Chapter 8: Introduction to ConnectFX

Applying ConnectFX to a Clip

Understanding the CFX Editor

Looping and Extending Clips Using the MUX Node

Dealing with Log-Encoded Media in CFX

Assembling a Process Tree

Rotoscoping with the GMask Node

Changing the Blend Mode and Adding Blur

Chapter 9: Using the ConnectFX Action Node

Moving Timeline Effects into CFX

Introducing the Action Node

Basic Compositing in Action

Building the Door

Creating ConnectFX Clips

Chapter 10: Working with Audio

Importing the Opening Scene

Refining the Production Audio

Using Audio Effects

Adding Music and Sound Effects

Setting Clip Levels

Mixing with the Audio Desk

Chapter 11: Color Correction

Importing the Hallway Scene

Finishing Log-Encoded Media

Adding Color Correction Effects and Working in the Timeline

Working within the Colour Corrector and Warper Editors

Applying Color Corrections as Gap Effects

Chapter 12: Adding Titles

Adding Text Effects on the Timeline

Saving and Reusing Titles

Arranging and Styling Text

Chapter 13: Exporting from Smoke

Preparing to Export

Exporting Your Project

Archiving Your Project

Appendix: Answers to Additional Exercises

Introduction

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

FIGURE 1.1 The Smoke Setup application

FIGURE 1.2 The Smoke Setup window

FIGURE 1.3 The Media Storage panel

FIGURE 1.4 The Media Storage Folder dialog

FIGURE 1.5 The Project panel

FIGURE 1.6 Project management controls

FIGURE 1.7 The Create New Project dialog

FIGURE 1.8 The updated Setup Directory pop-up menu

FIGURE 1.9 The Resolution controls

FIGURE 1.10 The Cache and Renders tab

FIGURE 1.11 The Project pop-up menu

FIGURE 1.12 The project’s Edit button

FIGURE 1.13 The User pop-up menu

FIGURE 1.14 The Create New User Profile dialog

FIGURE 1.15 The Smoke Preferences window

FIGURE 1.16 The Outputs pop-up menu

FIGURE 1.17 The Broadcast Monitor panel

FIGURE 1.18 Available Broadcast Monitor controls

FIGURE 1.19 The Input Devices tab

FIGURE 1.20 The User Interface tab

FIGURE 2.1 The four panels of functionality

FIGURE 2.2 Browser navigation controls

FIGURE 2.3 Offline clips in the conform list

FIGURE 2.4 The Conform Media list

FIGURE 2.5 The Link Matched Sources command

FIGURE 2.6 The Browse options

FIGURE 2.7 MediaHub display options

FIGURE 2.8 The Local Projects list with a variety of other projects

FIGURE 2.9 The three sections of the Timeline panel: the viewer, the FX Ribbon, and the timeline

FIGURE 2.10 Available viewer modes

FIGURE 2.11 The result of using Fit All to arrange the available thumbnails automatically

FIGURE 2.12 Dragging the bottom of an icon to scrub through the video

FIGURE 2.13 Resizing the viewer

FIGURE 2.14 Transport controls in the Smoke viewer

FIGURE 2.15 Shuttling with the pointer in the viewer

FIGURE 2.16 Opening the Play button’s option menu

FIGURE 2.17 The Viewer Gamma pop-up menu

FIGURE 2.18 The viewer overlay controls

FIGURE 2.19 Multiple timeline tabs

FIGURE 2.20 The Patch Panel controls in the timeline

FIGURE 2.21 Zooming with the scrollbar

FIGURE 2.22 Changing individual track height

FIGURE 2.23 The timeline layout options

FIGURE 2.24 The View Mode pop-up menu lets you choose different ways of displaying the Media Library.

FIGURE 2.25 The Media Library in Details mode

FIGURE 2.26 The FX tab that opens the FX Ribbon

FIGURE 2.27 The Video Effects pop-out menu

FIGURE 2.28 The 2D Transform effect’s “On” light

FIGURE 2.29 The Zoom menu

FIGURE 2.30 Deleting an effect at the bottom of the screen

FIGURE 2.31 The initial three parts of the CFX editor

FIGURE 2.32 Connecting a node to create an effect

FIGURE 2.33 Turning on options in the Damage node

FIGURE 2.34 The Pick Clip cursor

FIGURE 2.35 The Render Here cursor

FIGURE 3.1 New project settings

FIGURE 3.2 Creating a new library

FIGURE 3.3 Turn Cache Source Media off.

FIGURE 3.4 The Media Library showing the Notes column at the right, covering the clip name column

FIGURE 3.5 The slate of the first clip in the Unsorted Media library

FIGURE 3.6 Entering a name for a new folder

FIGURE 3.7 All clips organized into folders according to scene

FIGURE 3.8 Rearranging the clip thumbnails to reorder them

FIGURE 3.9 The Visitation Scene library is closed, and it appears disabled.

FIGURE 4.1 New Sequence Creation dialog

FIGURE 4.2 The three clips for this scene in the thumbnail viewer

FIGURE 4.3 Finding the first frame

FIGURE 4.4 In and out points marked for each of the three clips

FIGURE 4.5 Clips and subclips arranged according to scene order

FIGURE 4.6 Drag-and-drop overwrite editing

FIGURE 4.7 Moving the positioner in the timeline

FIGURE 4.8 Matching the in point of the second clip to the frame in the timeline

FIGURE 4.9 Your four-clip sequence so far

FIGURE 4.10 Finding the woman’s gesture in the timeline

FIGURE 4.11 Drag-and-drop insert editing with the Ripple button turned on

FIGURE 4.12 The result of an insert edit

FIGURE 4.13 Placing a segment mark on a clip

FIGURE 4.14 Resizing the out point of the last clip using Trim mode

FIGURE 4.15 Overwriting one clip with another in the timeline

FIGURE 4.16 Accidentally rippling the video track but not the audio tracks

FIGURE 4.17 Turning on sync lock

FIGURE 4.18 Rolling an edit

FIGURE 4.19 Rippling the incoming frame of the fourth clip

FIGURE 5.1 Creating a new sequence for the Visitation scene

FIGURE 5.2 The Source-Sequence viewer mode

FIGURE 5.3 Marks in the source viewer scrubber bar

FIGURE 5.4 The Insert Edit button (left), the Overwrite Edit button (center), and the Replace Edit button (right), which is customizable

FIGURE 5.5 Matching the action of the two women hugging in preparation for editing a medium/close shot into the sequence

FIGURE 5.6 The record viewer displays both the record timecode of the timeline and the source timecode of the clip intersecting the positioner.

FIGURE 5.7 The roughly edited Visitation sequence

FIGURE 5.8 Trim View mode

FIGURE 5.9 Yellow indicators show whether you’re rippling the outgoing half (left), rolling the whole edit (center), or rippling the incoming half (right).

FIGURE 5.10 The Trim View play button loops the edit point to let you see how the edit plays from one clip to the next.

FIGURE 5.11 Sliding with Ripple turned on ripples the sequence forward, before, and after.

FIGURE 5.12 Sliding with Ripple turned off leaves the overall sequence duration unchanged, before and after.

FIGURE 5.13 The trim view, showing (from left to right) the outgoing and incoming frames of the first edit side by side and the outgoing and incoming frames of the second edit side by side

FIGURE 5.14 Matching the position of the woman’s hand at the outgoing edit using a slide operation and the trim view

FIGURE 5.15 Rippling to cut out a line of dialog

FIGURE 5.16 Rolling the video separately from the audio by disabling Link and Ripple

FIGURE 5.17 Overwriting the end of a clip in the timeline

FIGURE 5.18 Marking in and out points around a clip to make a selection

FIGURE 5.19 Selecting incoming audio edit points in preparation for a trim operation

FIGURE 5.20 Using the Trim To Positioner command (E)

FIGURE 5.21 Defining in and out points in the timeline for the incoming clip

FIGURE 5.22 Disconnecting the audio source/destination controls so that only video is edited into the timeline

FIGURE 5.23 Slipping the clip to match the arm motion at the incoming frame

FIGURE 6.1 The imported Opening Scene timeline

FIGURE 6.2 The Dissolve transition button in the FX Ribbon

FIGURE 6.3 Transition controls in the FX Ribbon, excluding the Delete button

FIGURE 6.4 Using a subtract calculation to enter a number, rather than an absolute value

FIGURE 6.5 Extending a transition in the timeline using the Trim tool

FIGURE 6.6 Sliding a transition in the timeline using the Trim tool

FIGURE 6.7 Adjusting the transition curve in the dissolve editor

FIGURE 6.8 Buttons to save and recall dissolve curves

FIGURE 6.9 The Colour Picker dialog

FIGURE 6.10 Dual dissolve transitions for a dissolve-to-color effect

FIGURE 6.11 Dissolve curve with gradual in and abrupt out

FIGURE 6.12 Dissolve curve with an abrupt in and a gradual out

FIGURE 6.13 Wipe pattern proxies

FIGURE 6.14 Adding two control points to the Gmask being used to create the wipe effect

FIGURE 6.15 Altering the shape of the Gmask changes the shape of the wipe.

FIGURE 6.16 Adding a Timewarp effect using the FX Ribbon

FIGURE 6.17 Timewarp controls in the FX Ribbon, excluding the Reset and Delete buttons

FIGURE 6.18 Lining up eye blinks for continuity

FIGURE 6.19 Mix (left) and Motion (right) slow-motion processing compared

FIGURE 7.1 The Add Track buttons under the timeline patch panel

FIGURE 7.2 Reassigning the positioner and video source control to track V1.2 (timeline shown zoomed in)

FIGURE 7.3 Reassigning audio source control A1 to timeline track A3

FIGURE 7.4 Editing a superimposed clip into the sequence

FIGURE 7.5 The Comp effect must be turned on for a superimposed clip to be composited against other clips underneath it in the timeline.

FIGURE 7.6 The repositioned and rescaled superimposition

FIGURE 7.7 The viewer controls in the 2D Transform editor contain the Zoom control, the Tool pop-up, and access to the Grid, View, and Pan/Tilt controls.

FIGURE 7.8 The transformed picture-in-picture effect

FIGURE 7.9 Adding an edit to a clip using Control+V

FIGURE 7.10 Taller timeline tracks reveal the 2D Transform effect proxy that lets you copy and delete timeline effects.

FIGURE 7.11 Deleting an effects proxy from the timeline

FIGURE 7.12 The FX Ribbon after replacing the 2D Transform effect with the Action effect

FIGURE 7.13 The top level controls of the Action editor

FIGURE 7.14 The View controls let you adjust how the Viewport is configured.

FIGURE 7.15 The axis1 node in the Action Schematic corresponds to the axis1 tab of the Object controls in the Action editor.

FIGURE 7.16 Connecting a second Axis node to the first one in the schematic

FIGURE 7.17 The Stabilizer button

FIGURE 7.18 Positioning the tracking box

FIGURE 7.19 Positioning the tracking box for tracking in reverse

FIGURE 7.20 Using the Offset Reference control to change the feature you’re tracking mid-track when a feature becomes obscured

FIGURE 7.21 The almost-final floating window effect

FIGURE 7.22 The new out point of the last clip

FIGURE 7.23 Patching the source-destination controls for multiple audio tracks

FIGURE 7.24 No video clips above the focus of the positioner are shown during playback.

FIGURE 7.25 The Use Back button enables compositing using the Action effect.

FIGURE 7.26 Clicking the K cell to open the Modular Keyer editor

FIGURE 7.27 Screenshot of Modular Keyer setup

FIGURE 7.28 The primary and secondary color pots

FIGURE 7.29 Sampling the first region of the greenscreen

FIGURE 7.30 Sample adjustment sliders for fine-tuning the matte

FIGURE 7.31 First refinements of the greenscreen key

FIGURE 7.32 Adding to the matte using the Patch controls

FIGURE 7.33 The matte after refinement using the Patch1 controls

FIGURE 7.34 The Matte Edge controls

FIGURE 7.35 The finished temporary composite

FIGURE 8.1 The EyeInterface clip that you’ll be using to create an animated contact lens effect

FIGURE 8.2 Creating a ConnectFX effect using two selected clips in the timeline

FIGURE 8.3 The ConnectFX Schematic and CFX output viewer in a 2-Up view

FIGURE 8.4 Different options available for the Viewport

FIGURE 8.5 The ConnectFX nodes

FIGURE 8.6 The I/O node bin

FIGURE 8.7 The Parameter editor

FIGURE 8.8 Buttons that let you open additional CFX editors

FIGURE 8.9 Connecting the MUX node to a Clip node

FIGURE 8.10 The MUX node’s parameters

FIGURE 8.11 Using the RGB LUT options in a Clip node to normalize a log-encoded clip for CFX compositing

FIGURE 8.12 The current state of your ConnectFX process tree, rearranged for clarity

FIGURE 8.13 Severing link lines to disconnect nodes by drawing a line across them

FIGURE 8.14 Highlighting nodes starting with the letter B by pressing the B key

FIGURE 8.15 Inputs and outputs of the Blend & Comp node

FIGURE 8.16 Clicking two tabs to create a link, before and after

FIGURE 8.17 Dragging a link from one tab to another

FIGURE 8.18 “Kissing” two nodes while holding the Option key to create a link

FIGURE 8.19 The EyeInterface graphic composited against the woman’s close-up using the Blend & Comp node

FIGURE 8.20 The motion path formed by the tracking points created by stabilization

FIGURE 8.21 The Shift parameter in the Animation editor lets you see the tracker’s results.

FIGURE 8.22 Deleting tracking points from each selected Shift graph using the Delete tool

FIGURE 8.23 A smoother motion path after deleting unwanted tracking data

FIGURE 8.24 Moving the 2D Transform node into the CFX Schematic.

FIGURE 8.25 Adding a second 2D Transform node to reposition and scale the EyeInterface graphic

FIGURE 8.26 Transforming the EyeInterface animation

FIGURE 8.27 Attaching the GMask node

FIGURE 8.28 The GMask object controls appear only when a viewer is selected in the Viewport.

FIGURE 8.29 The initial mask

FIGURE 8.30 The Outside and Colour parameters let you invert the mask when necessary, and the Offset parameter lets you feather the edge.

FIGURE 8.31 Creating two mask keyframes at the beginning and end of each blink

FIGURE 8.32 Adjusting the mask to follow the blink

FIGURE 8.33 Placing the fewest number of keyframes you can to animate the mask to match each blink

FIGURE 8.34 The state of the image when viewing the CFX Result

FIGURE 8.35 The Blend Mode pop-up menu corresponding to the mix of Input 1 and Input 2

FIGURE 8.36 The contact lens effect after using the Overlay, Transparency, and Color-Correction features of the Blend & Comp node to customize the composite

FIGURE 8.37 Connecting the Blur node between the 2D Transform and Blend & Comp nodes

FIGURE 9.1 Selecting the last two composited clips to create a ConnectFX effect

FIGURE 9.2 The ConnectFX Schematic of your two-clip composite

FIGURE 9.3 The Action node with two media inputs

FIGURE 9.4 A red dot on an Action input shows that the two images connected to it have different resolutions or bit depths.

FIGURE 9.5 The viewport set to (clockwise) ConnectFX Schematic, Action Schematic, CFX Result, Action Output1: DefaultCam

FIGURE 9.6 The Media list showing a row for every image that’s connected to an input of the currently selected Action node

FIGURE 9.7 The Priority list in the Action node

FIGURE 9.8 Controls for reorganizing input objects in the Priority list

FIGURE 9.9 The Action Schematic, cleaned up

FIGURE 9.10 The automatically created node tree in the Modular Keyer Schematic

FIGURE 9.11 The Node preferences of an Action node

FIGURE 9.12 Connecting a new clip to the new media input of the Action node to add it to the composite

FIGURE 9.13 Turning off the Matte input to substitute a solid white matte for the unwanted luma channel matte

FIGURE 9.14 Cropping and resizing the graphic to fit into the composite using the clip node’s Resize controls

FIGURE 9.15 Double-click the MK cell to open the Master Keyer Schematic.

FIGURE 9.16 Relinking the Front tab from the source image while still using the Matte tab from the MasterK node

FIGURE 9.17 Using the GMask node to create two masks to repair both the transparent and solid areas of the matte

FIGURE 9.18 Refining the Master Keyer matte to retrieve hair detail

FIGURE 9.19 Viewing the layer you’re about to color correct in context

FIGURE 9.20 Color-correction settings used to match the fake wall to the real one

FIGURE 9.21 The color-corrected wall

FIGURE 9.22 Using a 2D Transform node to create a simple rectangular matte to use with a Coloured Frame

FIGURE 9.23 Creating three additional instances of the warpline_alpha animation to use as edges for the doorway

FIGURE 9.24 The doorway after layering the warpline_alpha graphic along the edges and using the Media list’s blur function

FIGURE 9.25 Creating three instances of the

IonSpark_alpha

layer with only one imported clip

FIGURE 9.26 Arranging the three “burning holes” that will open up to form the doorway

FIGURE 9.27 The scale of each instance of the hole graphics animated at different times to appear as if they’re opening up

FIGURE 9.28 Putting the whole doorway effect together using a Logic Op node

FIGURE 9.29 The doorway effect

FIGURE 9.30 The overall ConnectFX node tree for the doorway effect

FIGURE 9.31 The CFX Result view of the finally positioned doorway cutting through the fake wall, toward the end of the shot, with the CFX Result viewport pane set to Log

FIGURE 9.32 The main Action Schematic with all layers being composited together

FIGURE 9.33 The final effect

FIGURE 9.34 The current state of the ConnectFX schematic, with the doorway effect nodes selected

FIGURE 9.35 The newly consolidated node tree

FIGURE 10.1 The timeline after eliminating unwanted audio

FIGURE 10.2 The source timeline tab always appears to the left of all the timeline tabs

FIGURE 10.3 The timeline after editing room tone to fill the gaps and adding fades to each edit

FIGURE 10.4 Summoning the floating FX Ribbon using Control+Tab

FIGURE 10.5 Adjusting EQ for a tinny “on the phone” sound

FIGURE 10.6 Adding stereo ambience to tracks A4.L and .R

FIGURE 10.7 Using Aligned Edit to edit a source clip into the timeline so that the frame at the source positioner is aligned with the sequence positioner

FIGURE 10.8 Dragging an entire track to reorganize your sound effects

FIGURE 10.9 The edited audio cues for this scene

FIGURE 10.10 Track names are revealed by dragging the timeline patch panel divider to the right.

FIGURE 10.11 Individual clip Gain Animation audio controls

FIGURE 10.12 The Audio Desk is a track-level mixer for your sequence.

FIGURE 10.13 The Gain Fader Lock buttons, which lock the volume controls of each pair of faders together

FIGURE 11.1 The last clip doesn’t relink automatically because of an inconsistency in the media.

FIGURE 11.2 The original, ungraded look of the basement hallway scene

FIGURE 11.3 Customizing the Log To Lin settings you’re adjusting to normalize the image before grading

FIGURE 11.4 A normalized image with lower contrast that will be a good starting point for grading

FIGURE 11.5 The Smoke vectorscope set to Colour 2D

FIGURE 11.6 The video scope set to Waveforms - Luminance

FIGURE 11.7 The first clip with adjusted contrast

FIGURE 11.8 The Tryptych viewer showing the three clips at and surrounding the positioner in the timeline

FIGURE 11.9 Color-correction controls in Overlay mode

FIGURE 11.10 Adding two control points to the luminance curve

FIGURE 11.11 A shaded region of the timeline shows the position of the current clip you’re color correcting.

FIGURE 11.12 The vectorscope in the Colour Warper editor

FIGURE 11.13 Adjusting the White parameter of the image using the histogram for reference

FIGURE 11.14 Matching the contrast of two neighboring clips

FIGURE 11.15 The three color balance controls in the Colour Warper

FIGURE 11.16 A vectorscope analysis of the range of hues and saturation in the image

FIGURE 11.17 Adjusting the Midtones color balance control to neutralize the yellow spill in the image

FIGURE 11.18 Before and after the Colour Warper adjustments made in this exercise

FIGURE 11.19 The Triptych display used for shot matching

FIGURE 11.20 Sampling a highlight in the image you want to adjust (a) and then sampling an analogous highlight in the image to which you want to match the image (b)

FIGURE 11.21 Sampling a shadow on the door in the image you’re adjusting (a) and then sampling an analogous shadow in the same door within the image to which you’re matching it (b)

FIGURE 11.22 The hallway clip after automatic matching to the lab clip

FIGURE 11.23 Manually getting the green out of the midtones

FIGURE 11.24 Adding control points and then adjusting them to darken the shadows and lighten the midtones

FIGURE 11.25 The final adjustment to achieve a plausible match between the hallway and the lab, versus the original shot

FIGURE 11.26 Copying a color-correction effect from the second clip to the first by dragging the effect box in the timeline

FIGURE 11.27 The first hallway shot has too much yellow in the elevator.

FIGURE 11.28 The desaturated and matte views of the selective isolation you’re creating

FIGURE 11.29 The Luma Softness and Tolerance parameters for adjusting the region of the image being isolated

FIGURE 11.30 The initial matte created by sampling the woman’s face

FIGURE 11.31 The Diamond Keyer control

FIGURE 11.32 Fine-tuning the Diamond Keyer controls to isolate the woman’s face

FIGURE 11.33 One possible skin-tone matte

FIGURE 11.34 Before and after a selective color adjustment to lighten the woman’s face and hair highlights, exaggerated for print

FIGURE 11.35 Creating a cut — a selected piece of gap in the timeline — in preparation for applying an effect to it

FIGURE 11.36 Creating a luma key matte of just the midtones of the image

FIGURE 11.37 Limiting a green adjustment to the image using the matte created with selective 1

FIGURE 11.38 Doing an extend edit to resize the Hallway Grade clip to the entire length of the sequence

FIGURE 11.39 Creating a GMask to vignette the frame

FIGURE 11.40 Creating an oval using the timeline wipe effect to limit a color correction

FIGURE 12.1 Text layer-creation and management buttons

FIGURE 12.2 The Axis controls, set to alter the entire layer

FIGURE 12.3 Text options can be turned on and off via buttons with accompanying options

FIGURE 12.4 The lower-third title that you’ve created

FIGURE 12.5 Timing a title to the second bar of music

FIGURE 12.6 The first title card

FIGURE 12.7 The Tabulation controls

FIGURE 12.8 Horizontally arranged titles using tabulation

FIGURE 12.9 Vertically arranged text layers

FIGURE 13.1 The basic Export options

FIGURE 13.2 Available options when creating a new archive

FIGURE 13.3 The archival options, with Cache Media On Archive inactive (top) and active (bottom).

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Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

AUTODESK® SMOKE®

ESSENTIALS

Alexis Van Hurkman

Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo

Development Editor: Pete Gaughan

Production Editor: Christine O’Connor

Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley

Associate Publisher: Chris Webb

Book Designer: Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Louise Watson, Word One New York

Indexer: Robert Swanson

Project Coordinator, Cover: Todd Klemme

Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed

Cover Image: Alexis Van Hurkman

Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-86728-0

ISBN: 978-1-118-87693-0 (ebk.)

ISBN: 978-1-118-87685-5 (ebk.)

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Autodesk Smoke Essentials. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

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Associate Publisher, Sybex

Acknowledgments

There are always so many people to thank with projects like these. First and foremost, I want to thank Marc Hamaker and Steve Vasko at Autodesk, who were impressed enough with my idea of creating a how-to book that was integrated with the making of an original movie that they greenlit this, the first third-party book about the Autodesk Smoke platform. As I was writing and revisiting all that I had learned from working on the movie in the course of creating these lessons, Marc-Andre Ferguson, Ken LaRue, and Brian Mulligan were instrumental in explaining and deciphering many of Smoke’s less-obvious capabilities. I also need to thank Aaron Vasquez, Brian Mulligan (again), Joel Osis, and Christopher Benitah, the compositing artists who used Smoke for the effects in my science fiction short, The Place Where You Live, some of which functioned in simplified form as exercises in this book. I also must thank the staff at Wiley who helped produce this book; it’s a long road from an author’s scribblings to a bound volume on a shelf. Lastly, I want to thank my friend and colleague Michael Sandness for the Smoke tips and tricks he volunteered and my wife, Kaylynn Raschke, for her support and patience as I labored dutifully in the world mine.

About the Author

Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Alexis Van Hurkman worked previously as a freelance editor and composing artist, but he currently divides his time working as a writer, director, and colorist. He has grated features and shorts that have played at the Telluride and Sundance Film Festivals; programs that have aired on The History Channel, The Learning Channel, and BBC Four; and video art pieces that have been exhibited at the NYC Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

He has written and taught widely on the subject of video post-production in columns and blogs, authored books that include The Color Correction Handbook (Peachpit Press, 2013) and The Color Correction Look Book (Peachpit Press, 2013), created video courses for Ripple Training, and written for the DaVinci Resolve, Apple Color, Apple Shake, and Final Cut Pro user manuals.

When not otherwise occupied, he writes and directs works of fiction, most recently the short The Place Where You Live. His feature Four Weeks, Four Hours was screened at festivals internationally in 2006.

Website: www.alexisvanhurkman.com

Twitter: @hurkman

About the Technical Editor

Brian Mulligan is a multi-award-winning editor and has a strong commitment to his craft and to broadcast television. Local broadcast television reflects and influences the ideals of a community and, for the past 20 years, Brian has helped shape the on-air television culture at WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, where his work is seen by 1.2 million households every day. Being a broadcast editor often means you are an editor, producer, writer, and graphic designer. Brian has been an Autodesk Smoke editor since 2006. He is active in the Autodesk community, with his Autodesk “Expert Elite” position on the forums and as a beta-tester for Smoke. Brian also blogs about Smoke for Premiumbeat.com.

Twitter: @bkmeditor

Introduction

When I started pre-production on the movie that served as the inspiration for this book, I was, like you, vaguely familiar with Autodesk® Smoke® and curious about what its integrated capabilities could bring to my workflow. And like you, I was new to its ways — just a raw recruit. Over the course of editing my film and participating in its compositing (alongside vastly more experienced Smoke artists than myself), and within the span of four versions of the software, I was in a position to know which aspects of Smoke were easy to pick up and which would require more in-depth explanation. In essence, I was the very first student of this book.

Autodesk has been making huge strides in making Smoke a friendlier application than previous versions. It’s no secret that Smoke has a unique interface; reworking it for wider accessibility is a challenge in that the very power that Smoke brings to the post-production experience is what makes it more complex to learn. Fortunately, Autodesk has done a great job of moving the user interface forward in a way that enhances usability without sacrificing functionality.

This book distills my experiences editing and compositing my movie using Smoke, providing you with a fun series of real-world lessons that teach you this application’s many layers as an editor, a compositing environment, and a finishing tool that let you incorporate sophisticated effects at the very earliest stages of your edit. It also extends your workflow by adding high-quality greenscreen keying, 3D compositing, color correction, and text effects to help you complete even the most sophisticated of projects in one integrated application.

It’s often said, but truly I hope this book is as fun to read as it was to write.

Who Should Read This Book

If you’re an editor, a compositing artist, or a filmmaker who’s looking to mix the chocolate of editing with the peanut butter of compositing — all within one environment — then this book is for you. More to the point, if you’re new to Autodesk Smoke and want to learn it in a practical, hands-on fashion, this book is designed to walk you through the various tools available in Smoke while working through real-world examples from an effects-intensive short film.

As you begin to learn about Smoke, you’ll have the best experience if you already have some familiarity with other editing and compositing applications. This book is designed to give you a quick start by familiarizing you with Smoke basics, but it’s not meant as a primer on post-production fundamentals. However, Smoke’s more advanced editing and compositing tools may be new even to experienced users, so these operations are explained in detail.

What You Will Learn

Autodesk® Smoke® Essentials walks you through a beginning-to-end workflow using Smoke. Beginning with a lesson on setting up Smoke for the first time, you move on to the basics of learning the Smoke interface and importing media. Then a series of lessons covers basic through advanced editing and trimming techniques, culminating in the various timeline effects that you can add, including transitions, timewarps, and Action effects. Next, the powerful ConnectFX compositing environment is covered, as you walk through the creation of some pretty sophisticated effects. Lastly, finishing tasks are covered, including audio basics, color-correction techniques, and the process of adding titles, culminating in a lesson on how to export from Smoke.

What You Need

This book was written for Autodesk® Smoke® 2015. If you don’t already own Smoke, you can download a fully functional trial version at www.autodesk.com/products/smoke/free-trial.

Autodesk Smoke is currently available only for the Mac.

Autodesk Smoke 2015 has the following system requirements:

Apple® Mac OS® X version 10.7.5 or later, 10.8.x and 10.9.x

64-bit Intel® multicore processor

4 GB of RAM (8 GB or more recommended)

3 GB free disk space for download and installation

Minimum 1440 x 900 display (1920 x 1200 or higher recommended)

U.S. keyboard (required to map hotkeys properly)

Wacom® Intuos Tablet (Intuos2, Intuos3, Intuos4, and Intuos5 USB models are supported.)

A detailed list of recommended systems and graphics cards for Smoke can be found at www.autodesk.com/graphics-hardware.

For playback performance, it’s recommended to install Smoke on a system with a separate storage volume/partition for the media storage location (such as on an external Thunderbolt drive or array).

Free Autodesk Software for Students and Educators

The Autodesk Education Community is an online resource with more than 5 million members that enables educators and students to download — for free (see the website for terms and conditions) — the same software used by professionals worldwide. You can also access additional tools and materials to help you design, visualize, and simulate ideas. Connect with other learners to stay current with the latest industry trends and get the most out of your designs. Get started today at www.autodesk.com/joinedu.

What Is Covered in This Book

Autodesk® Smoke® Essentials is organized to give you a grand tour of the capabilities of this integrated editing, compositing, and finishing tool. Since Smoke can appear to be somewhat unorthodox to the new user, the lessons are organized to make it easy for you to get started, even if you have no prior experience using Smoke.

Chapter 1: Before You Begin Walks you through the very first things you need to do to configure Smoke after you’ve installed it but before you’ve actually started working on your first project.

Chapter 2: The Smoke Interface Guides you through the different parts of the Smoke user interface, touring the dedicated controls for media management, editing, and compositing and showing you the basics of getting around and controlling program playback.

Chapter 3: Importing Your Project’s Media Covers how you import media using the MediaHub and how you organize it in the Media Library.

Chapter 4: Editing a Rough Assembly Shows you how to create a new sequence and edit together your first simple scene of shots using the thumbnail viewer, drag and drop editing, cue marks, and simple trimming.

Chapter 5: Editing Dialog and Advanced Trimming Takes you through the process of editing a more complicated dialog scene using three-point editing and advanced trimming techniques in order to maintain continuity, create split edits, and add cutaway shots.

Chapter 6: Adding Transitions and Timewarp Effects Teaches you how to add and edit dissolves between two clips, how to create dissolve-to-color effects, and how to add and customize wipes, and ends with a lesson on creating timewarp effects for fast-forward or slow-motion effects.

Chapter 7: Using Timeline Effects Walks you through the numerous timeline effects, including picture-in-picture compositing, motion tracking, and greenscreen keying.

Chapter 8: Introduction to ConnectFX Gives you your first look at using ConnectFX to create powerful compositing effects in Smoke, starting with how to apply ConnectFX to a clip and how the CFX editor is organized, then moves on to how to loop clips and deal with log-encoded media, match moving, rotoscoping, and simple compositing using blend modes.

Chapter 9: Using the ConnectFX Action Node Shows you how to use the Action node inside of ConnectFX to create even more sophisticated composites, including multilayered keying and multilayered compositing.

Chapter 10: Working with Audio Teaches you how to refine your production audio in Smoke using audio effects, editing in music and sound effects with precision, and how to mix audio using timeline controls and the mixing desk.

Chapter 11: Color Correction Covers color-correction techniques in Smoke, including how to use the Colour Corrector and Colour Warper effects to make primary and secondary adjustments, how to add color corrections as gap effects to a scene of clips all at once, and how to limit color-correction effects using a mask.

Chapter 12: Adding Titles Teaches you how to add text effects on the timeline as well as how to create styled pages of text and how to save and reuse text styles.

Chapter 13: Exporting from Smoke Discusses how to prepare a sequence for export and the different options that are available for exporting projects and media from Smoke.

Companion Files

Solutions are provided, online, for all of the “Additional Exercises” found at the end of each chapter. Also, I’ve built sample movie files for you to use as you follow along with the book’s tutorial exercises. All these supporting files can be downloaded from the book’s companion web page at www.sybex.com/go/smokeessentials.

The Essentials Series

The Essentials series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers who are just beginning to develop their professional skills. Every Essentials book includes these features:

Skill-based instruction, with chapters organized around projects rather than abstract concepts or subjects.

Suggestions for additional exercises at the end of each chapter, where you can practice and extend your skills.

Digital files (available via download) so that you can work through the project tutorials yourself. Please check the book’s web page at

www.sybex.com/go/smokeessentials

for these companion downloads.

Chapter 1Before You Begin

This chapter discusses the very first things you need to do to configure Autodesk® Smoke® software after you’ve installed it, prior to working on your first project. In the process, you’ll learn how to set up your working environment and how to create and organize your projects.

Topics in this chapter include the following:

Opening Autodesk SmokeChoosing your storage volumeCreating and managing usersCreating and managing projectsSmoke preferences for audio playback and broadcast monitoringOther important preferences

Before You Open Smoke

In this first chapter, you’ll be guided through the process of opening Autodesk Smoke for the first time. You should already have Smoke installed on your system, along with any drivers that are required for the external video interfaces you’re using; if not, please refer to the installation instructions that accompanied your disk image or installation disc.

If you’ve updated from previous versions of Autodesk Smoke, you will have multiple folders in the Applications/Autodesk folder, one for each version you’ve installed. For example, you might have four folders, one each for Smoke 2013, Smoke 2013 SP2, Smoke 2013 Ext1, and Smoke 2015. This is normal, but you want to be sure to open the Smoke Setup application for the version you’re using.

Because of its underlying architecture, there are certain aspects of your Smoke application environment that you need to configure using a separate application, Smoke Setup, as shown in Figure 1.1, located in the Utilities folder of the Smoke 2015 folder.

FIGURE 1.1The Smoke Setup application

Most crucially, Smoke Setup lets you configure the video and audio devices that you’ll be using while you work, as well as the media storage devices you want to use with Smoke.

The following procedure will walk you through the process of setting these things up:

Open Smoke Setup. The Smoke Setup application window appears, with seven panels of configuration options to choose from, as shown in

Figure 1.2

. At the moment, there are two you care about, starting with the General panel.

FIGURE 1.2The Smoke Setup window

If you have an AJA or Blackmagic Design (BMD) video interface connected to or installed on your computer, you can choose it from the Video Device pop-up menu. Make sure that you have the correct drivers installed for the Blackmagic Design or AJA interface you have. If you don’t have a third-party video interface, you should choose None.

If you choose an AJA or BMD video device, you may also want to make the same selection from the Audio Device pop-up menu. If Video Device is set to None, then you should choose CoreAudio in order to play audio out of your computer’s audio interface or from any third-party audio interface that you’re using.

Open the Media Storage panel, as shown in

Figure 1.3

.

FIGURE 1.3The Media Storage panel

The Media Storage panel is a list where you can add all of the storage volumes that you want to use with Smoke. You were prompted to choose a disk location to add a Media Storage folder upon installing Smoke, but you can add as many volumes as you like and switch among them as you please. Be aware, however, that when you create a project that’s linked to media that was imported or transcoded to a particular storage location, the media needs to stay where it is.

To add an additional disk location, click Add. The Media Storage Folder dialog appears, as shown in

Figure 1.4

.

FIGURE 1.4The Media Storage Folder dialog

Click Select, pick a fast volume connected to your computer, and click Choose. You can choose any volume you like—an internal hard drive or SSD, an external RAID, or a removable disk. Keep in mind that the performance of Smoke depends highly on the performance of the storage volume on which your project and media are stored, so you want to use a fast volume whenever possible.

Type a plain English name into the Media Storage Name field, which is how you’ll refer to that volume in the list, and then click OK. Your new volume appears in the Smoke Setup list, and a directory is created that corresponds to the path in the Location column.

It helps to choose a Media Storage Name that corresponds to the physical drive (for example, OWC Drive or Promise Array) to make it easier to keep track of which Media Storage folder is on which hard drive.

When you’re finished adding directories, click Apply, and then click Quit.

Smoke is now configured and ready for use. Whenever you need to change AV interfaces or volumes, quit Smoke, open Smoke Setup, and make the necessary changes.

Smoke directories contain all project data and media created by Smoke, and they must never be deleted or manually altered. This cannot be stressed enough—deleting or altering a Smoke directory may result in a catastrophic loss of project data. In all cases, you want to interact with project data and media from within Smoke. These directories are, for all intents and purposes, a black box that you should not open.

Opening Autodesk Smoke

Once you’ve configured your environment using Smoke Setup, you’re ready to open Smoke and start working. However, Smoke is a database-managed application, so there is a little more setup required when you first open Smoke to make sure that your projects and media end up where you want them.

Smoke is a one-window application that always takes up the whole screen. You can always hide it using ~CM+H, or use application switching or Mission Control commands to jump to different applications. Generally speaking, however, once you open Smoke, you’ll be working within the Smoke environment, which has dedicated controls for media import, export, and file management.

The Startup Screen

When you first open Smoke, the Project panel appears, which presents you with the name of the host computer and a set of three pop-up menus for setting up a project in Smoke. The Project panel is shown at the bottom of Figure 1.5.

FIGURE 1.5The Project panel

These pop up menus let you choose, create, and edit projects. You can select the Workspace, which is used for multiple system workflows. Finally, it’s where you define and choose a user. You’ll also notice a series of four links at the upper right of the Project panel that take you to some invaluable resources for learning more about Smoke:

Smoke Learning Channel This is a constantly updated and expanded set of video tutorials covering all manner of Smoke functionality.

Smoke Forum This is a user-driven forum focused on issues related to Smoke.

Smoke on Facebook This page provides a way to get updates on what’s happening with Smoke over time.

Creating and Managing Projects

The group of controls on the Project panel is for choosing, creating, editing, and deleting Smoke projects, as shown in Figure 1.6.

FIGURE 1.6Project management controls

If this is your first time using Smoke, there won’t be any projects available in the list. You’ll need to create one.

Click New (in the Project group). The Create New Project dialog appears, as shown in

Figure 1.7

.

FIGURE 1.7The Create New Project dialog

Type

Introductory Project

into the Name field (Smoke automatically adds underscores to replace any spaces you type).

Click anywhere outside the Name field to force the Setup Directory pop-up menu to update with the project name, which will be used to create that project’s directory inside the automatically managed Smoke directory at

/usr/discreet/project/

, as shown in

Figure 1.8

.

FIGURE 1.8The updated Setup Directory pop-up menu

You’ll ignore the Setup Mode button for now. Later, however, when you have multiple projects using different settings, this pop-up menu will let you copy the saved setup used by another project to use as the starting point for a new project that you’re creating.

Choosing Your Storage Volume

When you open the Storage Volume pop-up menu, every storage volume that you added using the Smoke Setup application appears within.

Choose another volume from the Storage Volume pop-up menu. For maximum performance, this should be the fastest and largest volume attached to your computer.

Click Open.