TECH TIPS
Smokin'!
Gaining First-Hand Exposure to Autodesk's High-End Finishing Tool
by Rainer Standke
 Smoke's user interface in the editing mode, with timline showing the structure of the cut. Image courtesy of Liquid Light |
These are interesting times in post-production; editing and finishing solutions are changing constantly, as are video formats and final delivery requirements. High-definition (HD) video should become a more important factor in our lives in the near future, be it as an offline format for features or a more or less uncompressed video finish. As Digital Intermediate (DI) processes mature, we should see the line between film and video finishing blur more and more, eventually merging into a data-based workflow and final delivery.
Editing systems tend to cost less, but are becoming more powerful at the same time. Currently, the new frontier seems to be handling 2K and 4K workflows, offline and online. This writer believes that, unless you are firmly set to retire from the post industry within the next three years, you cannot ignore these trends and emerging new workflows, limiting yourself to the tools you know now. It is in this spirit that this article takes a look at a tool that has been around for quite some time, and seems ready for the challenges ahead.
 The colour warper allows for sophisticated primary and secondary corrections. Image courtesy of Buzz Image Group |
Smoke is a product of the Montreal-based company Discreet, which was acquired about six years ago by Autodesk, a company specializing in computer-aided design (CAD) software. Discreet introduced nonlinear video finishing very early on in 1996 and has developed a reputation as the Rolls Royce of high-end video finishing. There is one Discreet product line focused on editing, and another mainly for compositing. Project files as well as media can be shared among all those applications. Smoke, an editing system, has a bigger, more powerful brother called Fire with which it shares a user interface. Smoke’s companion on the compositing side is called Flame, which runs on the same hardware. That hardware is either an SGI computer with a Unix operating system or a PC with Linux.
By the time you read this, Discreet Smoke software version 7, introducing 64-bit processing, motion estimation and a timeline-based text module, should have been released. Fire, from which Smoke was derived later on, was developed to replace linear edit suites using edit controllers like Grass Valley. Initially, Smoke was primarily used for high-end, short-form, uncompressed video finishing, like commercials and music videos. With faster technology, it also became popular in digital film work, like effects compositing and dust and scratch removal. Today, Smoke is also used for long-form conforming, and handles standard-definition (SD) video as well as 4:4:4 HD in 8- or 10-bit and 2K or 4K film scans. Internally, video is always in RGB, and renders can use 12 bits.
 Smoke's colour warper's color correction tools can be accessed directly from the timeline. Images courtesy of Colorado FX |
Smoke’s roots as a replacement for linear online suites still show today. The tools for organizing and saving clips are quite different from other applications I have come across, but did make sense to me eventually. The default keyboard is a lot different from what you might be used to from programs like Avid or Final Cut Pro (FCP). There are no Windows-style menus in the application, as most everything is button-based. Some of those buttons are labeled with abbreviations, and may appear again in several totally different contexts. Since there are few distinguishable windows, it is sometimes difficult to figure out in which module one might currently be, and there are no mouse-point-based tool tips.
Smoke is about to overcome an idiosyncrasy going back to the days of linear editing with its latest software. In early versions, in order to manipulate a clip in the timeline, one had to move it out of the timeline and apply the desired treatment to the clip separately. This could be color corrections, keys, added text, etc. After those manipulations were complete, the clip would have to be cut back into the sequence in the timeline. Many readers of this magazine are probably used to applying effects right in the timeline, which certainly makes further revisions of any applied effects easier. Currently, most effects can be applied right in the Smoke timeline. With the new History feature, announced for version 7, effects parameters should be fully editable without restrictions.
The Smoke timeline has video tracks which can have several layers each that work in a way somewhat comparable to Avid nests. A very nifty feature allows you to make a lower track fully opaque while working on effects on higher tracks. There is a full set of editing features, like trimming, slip-and-slide and snap-to moving of clips in the timeline. Toggling the Ripple button on and off controls how edits affect the rest of the sequence, and there are several options for preserving sync between picture and sound. Also available are timewarps and freezes.
 Smoke's source record area featuring a group of source clips with different resolutions. Images courtesy of Cutting Edge and Matchbox |
The main effects––keyer, primary and secondary color
corrections, paint/text, tracking and transformations in 3-D space––are
organized in modules, which are accessible and applicable in many
configurations. For example, you can apply color correction to a green
screen shot, key the foreground out and paint a garbage mask that
you affix to a certain part of the image with the tracker. All aspects
of this can be fully animated, and all animation parameters can be
tweaked in comprehensive ways. Smoke sports a 3-D environment with
lights, camera, 3-D model import, assignable textures and 3-D deformations.
One obviously would expect the system’s overall responsiveness
to be affected by frame sizes and frame rates. But even with multiple
effects applied in a complex SD configuration, the system I test-drove
did not slow down in a noticeable way. Dragging through the composition,
Smoke was extremely responsive, and rendering was very fast.
Most projects will not be offlined on Smoke. For conforming, Smoke accepts EDLs, OMF compositions and, excitingly, XML exports out of FCP. If necessitated by bigger or longer projects, footage could be captured in a lower proxy resolution for a “pre-online,” and all editing and effects work would then be applied to the full resolution media later on. Different resolution media can be mixed in the same timeline, and the same timeline can be used for outputs in different resolutions. Entire projects, including media and meta-data, can be archived to digital videotape or data file.
Discreet Smoke is a very complex and powerful tool, and working on it should be both a challenge and a joy. However, the underlying concepts are the same in all higher-end nonlinear finishing systems, so that I seemed to get the hang of it quite easily during a five-day Smoke introductory class I had the opportunity to take this May. In my experience, learning your second editing system is the hardest, because you need to let go of a lot of things you’ve learned before. But grasping the third and all subsequent systems seems a lot easier since, ultimately, all roads lead to Rome anyway.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a finishing or online editor, it is well worth your while to take a closer look at Smoke. This may open a whole new world of possibilities for finishing your offline projects, and should help you work more efficiently and talk more intelligently to the person who will finish it for you on Smoke.
Guild members will have an opportunity to get some first-hand Smoke exposure at a training seminar scheduled for August 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Guild headquarters in Hollywood. And if you get hooked on Smoke, you can sign up for a class subsidized through Contract Services.
Guild member Rainer Standke last wrote about Avid DS Nitris in the NOV-DEC 04 issue of Editors Guild Magazine. He can be reached at rainer@standke.com.
Smoke Classes
Editors Guild members receive a 20 percent discount off the regular fee of
$2,500 for the five-day Discreet Smoke class. Contract Services will pay for
two-thirds of the remaining $2,000. Besides the introductory course, there
is also a more advanced class. For more information on the classes and the
Guild’s training seminar, contact Guild training coordinator Dieter
Rozek (323-876-4770, ext. 246) or Autodesk Media and Entertainment senior
trainer Sibille Cooney (310-314-6640).
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