Intermediate Smoke 2013

Taught by John Montgomery

Course Number:
SMK208
Software Version:
Smoke 2013 
Original Run Date:
July 2012 
Duration:
7 hours 42 minutes 
vfx
mograph
editing
The upcoming release of Smoke 2013 on OSX is certain to have a big impact on the industry. Bringing tools from the higher end Flame and Smoke Advanced, and packaging in a new, more approachable UI.

Building upon our fxphd fast forward Smoke Fundamentals (http://www.fxphd.com/news/fxphd-fastforward-smoke-fundamentals/) course, SMK208 will demystify the tools and show you how to get the most out of the software. This course is aimed at users who haven't used Autodesk apps in the past and will dive into details about how to accomplish the kind of creative tasks an editor or vfx artist would want to do.
 
Intermediate Smoke 2013
Watch our overview of the course

Class Listing

Class 1

Keying. Introduction to comping on the timeline. This lesson will look at the basics of quick keying and color grading, to be able to pull good keys and move quickly.

Class 2

Editing, Part 1. Brian Mulligan goes through his workflow for broadcast promo editing using Smoke 2013. Promos & Spots often require quick editing and effects, and that is perfect for Smoke. This lesson will briefly go over importing and media management, then dive right in to editing and shows you some of the effects options between the timeline effects and CFX to stylize the promo.

Class 3

Editing, Part 2. Brian puts the finishing touches on the promo with some graphics packaging on the timeline and some quick 3D text work in Action.

Class 4

Importing graphic elements. This lesson will go over the best practices to bringing in Illustrator files and Photoshop files into Smoke. Smoke can import layered PSD files, but you need to makes sure that your artwork is prepared so that you do not have any issues. This lesson will use the Adobe CS5 suite for prepping your files.

Class 5

Keying in Action. This lesson will provide an overview on the normal keying one comes across everyday, with variations in key source quality standard unfortunately, this lesson will cover problem keys.

Class 6

Keyframing using audio sources in Action & Using the Perspective Grid. Action has 2 great tools that are often overlooked. You can analyze audio tracks and use that data to generate keyframes that can be used to animate in a variety of ways. The other is Perspective Grid. With this node, you will learn how simple it is to align elements to integrate into your video footage.

Class 7

Motion Graphics in Smoke. Part 1 of 3. A look at creating custom fonts in order to do 3D logos in Action.

Class 8

Motion Graphics in Smoke. Part 2 of 3. We continue building the open, working on the base animations and setting up best practices and procedures to make things flexbile. We also touch on expressions because, well, you know clients never have changes.

Class 9

Motion Graphics in Smoke. Part 3 of 3. Taking our open to the next level by styling the text, footage frames, adding blooming and glows, and flares.

Class 10

Advanced compositing including keying with the color warper and building elaborate composites in action. This lesson will provide strategies for getting the most out of composites and doing more advanced blending and edge work.