Comments on: smoke on mac: yes, it’s for real

By: Jean-Marc Laurin

Jean-Marc Laurin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:59:59 +0000

I am currently testing smoke on a 2.93GHz macBookPro It seems to be working fine, but when I upgraded my finalcutstudio to version 3, conflicts seem to arise. I have an eSATA ProAvio 4x diskdrive running with an addonics XpressCard/34, and I can get 24fps HD playback if cropped at 2:35. FullRez HD drops frames after a few seconds. Will upgrade to sonnet xpresscard soon. They claim I can get 200Mbs out of the expresscard slot so I will give this a try since 24fps8bitHD requires between 180/190 Mbs.

I can access a remote stone on a ip network so that when working in my linux suite, i can actually use my laptop as a remote working station side-by-side, or on any table with an ethernet connection nearby. Sort of like a killer backdraft/burn/precomp station. I actually completed a whole national commercial spot with comp/tracking/paint using media on a remote stone running another live session with clients while I was upstairs in another room. When those clients left, my clients walked right in and i did my presentation as if I had been in my suite all day.

You can actually use any GUID partitioned disk as a stone. Archiving material to USB disk is easy, and I actually finished my HD session on the train with a 350G usb drive. I did everything in 720×405 proxy rez since no HD RTplayback and refresh was slow, but still managed to get an hours’ work done without power supply. Almost missed my stop. Tweaked everything after my kids went to bed and presented to clients the next morning in studio.

Seemed to render soft FX just fine, but again, updating FinalCutStudio2 to FinalCutStudio3 may create some conflicts. 10bit HD multilayered SoftFX renders crash after a few minutes. (Remote stone via Ethernet) Probably has to do with the NVIDIA 9600G memory allocation limits. Local stone renders through eSATA seem fine. SmokeMac Crashes when i load an action with several different resolutions in the source clips, but had no problem with my old FinalCutStudio2 setup. Console now gives me an adobelivetype conflict message.

After testing extensively with actual HD production footage in a real studio environment, I would’nt recommend using smoke/mac on a laptop as a main production tool, unless you have FinalCutStudio for IO and audio playback and presentation using the publish/DPXtoQT workflow. But for precomps, rotos, keys, paint, dusting, stabilising, archiving, RED XML conforming and parallel session work, it is a fabulous idea, and has saved me from doing any overtime (!). Can’t wait for CORE Audio support.

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[...] smoke on mac: yes, it

By: Alan Maiden

Alan Maiden — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:25:14 +0000

I’m a Smoke operator who was made redundant18months ago. I’m now freelancing and making a living. I think smoke on MAC will just increase the amount of companies I am able to work for, which is a good thing. Like everyone keeps saying, “if you’re good at your job then you will only get more work from more machines being available” alanmaiden”hotmail.com

By: Daddy

Daddy — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:23:34 +0000

Word. I don’t know how to use Smoke… Yet. But I know a lot of software and techniques. This will just be a new, more powerfull set of buttons to press. Hell yes I will use a crack, to learn it, to get more gigs. People writing that “they won’t know how to use it” guff are deluded. It’s like all the Avid editors who talk about how FCP isn’t professional. Yes it is and I cut on both and make more money. Software = buttons; that’s it. You have to know how you want the project to look, know techniques to achieve the desired look, and then how to get your software to do it: in that order. Don’t be scared Smoke artists.

By: danny dare

danny dare — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:29:07 +0000

Having a finishing system is like having a printing press. it does not make you a good writer. Its a specialty industry.
Smoke needs to be able to use mac ofx and photoshop plugins, now that would be a game changer.

By: Greg Leuenberger

Greg Leuenberger — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:51:49 +0000

The smoke artists whining about their job being in jeopardy really crack me up. Have some confidence people, if you think the only reason you’re working is that more competent and talented people simply haven’t been able to get their hands on your systems then you need to get better at what you do. Welcome to the real world, welcome to what every Maya, MAX and After FX user has to deal with. Long story short, if you’re good you will be working. I still have a hard time finding available *talented* After FX people for projects at my company. While talented people have to deal with layoffs and downturns…at the end of the day talent always wins out. If you’re talented you will find work – a lot of it. If there’s more smoke systems out there (and people are investing tens of thousands in them) then you can bet they would *love* to have a talented smoke artist available and working on their projects. It takes a couple of years to truly master these systems, think of the head start you have. This is a good thing for everybody.

-Greg

By: danny dare

danny dare — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:41:24 +0000

Regardless of the price, talent is everything, shake is $495, so is combustion, everybody still uses After effects which is $795. The talented users are still making all the big money simple as that. At the end of the day creativity remains king. Smoke will change compositors perceptions initially but when they realize Nuke, shake and AE are easier to use they will realize how important the original smoke users are and why they shelled out $120,000 to buy the system. Using the current version of smoke is like piloting a fighter plane. Smoke on a mac would be like flying a twin engine.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:52:14 +0000

Autodesk can not prevent cracked software anymore than Bush can read a newspaper. Cracked versions of Flame have existed since the early days of SGI hardware. It is a fact of life, and like a leaked version of Wolverine, they don’t have much impact on the bottom line. Any company doing real business will not get away with using cracked software for long (this town really is quite small). If Autodesk is smart, they will have a EDU version with limited I/O capabilty and plenty of tutorials online.

As far as more Smoke artists, I’ve heard this often from other Smoke artists. They all think that that if one more person learns Smoke, they will be out of work. While the laws of supply and demand are correct, it is the demand that will increase with the introduction of more Smoke seats. The Smoke artists who are talented will usually rise to the top. They may even make good money. The rest will make less.

Wishing away the realities of the new economy won’t make it go away. Change is innevitable, and no, life is not fair. If you are a Smoke artist because you think you can make a lot of money, then you are in it for the wrong reasons. Your reality check is in the mail.

@SMOKER – Stop yelling and buy some vowels.

By: Dimensi

Dimensi — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:50:26 +0000