smoke and photoshop? (general workflow of smoke kinda long)

[Ido]

Hello all, I have a question regarding the use of Photoshop with smoke.
There is a new feature in 6.5 allowing import of psd Photoshop files.
What is the advantage of using Photoshop over smoke when working with images because smoke seems to offer superior tools then Photoshop either way does it not?

I know the question might seem a bit foolish, the reason I am asking is because
The other day I was told to mask out a bunch of buildings out of still images to be used in a composite in DVE. They required some masking duplicating of cretin elements within the image and so etc.
I told my boss I thought it would be easier to do in Photoshop.
For example when, a cretin visual element looked out of balance n required me to duplicate half of it n paste it to create a more visually pleasing element I had to go through DVE create another composite processes the image bring it back to the other scene.
While in Photoshop I would think I could do this much easier.
Also as far as masking goes wouldnÂ’t Photoshop masking tools be better then using smokes through the keyer?

Thanks in advance

P.S.
Maybe I am mistaken about all this. I just feel that my boss expect smoke to be some kind of magic realtime solution that its not. I donÂ’t think itÂ’s proper to go into it further. But if someone with some experience wouldnÂ’t mind sending me a privet massage or email. I could use some advice from someone with some experience.

[Anonymous]

There are always many ways to approach the same task, deciding which tool to use is a big part of what we do.

In your example I could see doing either way, from what you describe I probably would have done it in Photoshop and then imported as layers… really depends how much work was involved, your setup, and your skill level in Photoshop vs. Smoke.

Jeff

[Keyser_Soze]

GHSU3D wrote:

Hello all, I have a question regarding the use of Photoshop with smoke.
There is a new feature in 6.5 allowing import of psd Photoshop files.
What is the advantage of using Photoshop over smoke when working with images because smoke seems to offer superior tools then Photoshop either way does it not?

I know the question might seem a bit foolish, the reason I am asking is because
The other day I was told to mask out a bunch of buildings out of still images to be used in a composite in DVE. They required some masking duplicating of cretin elements within the image and so etc.
I told my boss I thought it would be easier to do in Photoshop.
For example when, a cretin visual element looked out of balance n required me to duplicate half of it n paste it to create a more visually pleasing element I had to go through DVE create another composite processes the image bring it back to the other scene.
While in Photoshop I would think I could do this much easier.
Also as far as masking goes wouldnÂ’t Photoshop masking tools be better then using smokes through the keyer?

Thanks in advance

P.S.
Maybe I am mistaken about all this. I just feel that my boss expect smoke to be some kind of magic realtime solution that its not. I donÂ’t think itÂ’s proper to go into it further. But if someone with some experience wouldnÂ’t mind sending me a privet massage or email. I could use some advice from someone with some experience.

Like Jeff says, it all depends on what you want to do. Photoshop has nice tools that discreet systems lack (for example I really like the healing brush tool). So photoshop might be the way to go if you’re working on a still image with a lot of layers and a bit of retouching. And as we know photoshop is a must when going from vector graphics to a discreet system.
But as soon as you are working with sequences or you predict that you will have to do a lot of changes later on, think twice before you choose photoshop. Switching between systems is not always that fast and it might get complicated with a lot of layers that you have to import and update. Especially when sitting with a client that wants to make changes. Now!

[Ido]

those are some very vaild points, thanks alot.
could you expline why using photoshop is a must when dealing with vector graphics?

[Keyser_Soze]

GHSU3D wrote:

those are some very vaild points, thanks alot.
could you expline why using photoshop is a must when dealing with vector graphics?

Well, simply because FFI can’t import vector graphics so you have to rasterize them first to a format that discreet soft understands, tiff or whatever. And I prefer photoshop for that. Of course you can export directly from illustrator but you have more control in photoshop.

[Author]

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