Introduction to Autodesk Smoke

Course Setup
This course consists of 10 video-based lessons. Each lesson is approximately 30 minutes in duration and most include supplementary files and footage.
This course can be taken at any time - for instance every day for 10 days, or once a week for 10 weeks.

The release of Smoke on Mac has opened up the software to a much wider variety of users than any other Autodesk systems product. This course will provide an advanced introduction to Autodesk Smoke on Mac. Focusing on real-world finishing, colour correction and visual effects tasks, you'll be working through several projects and tasks, taking footage and turning it into a finished piece, exploring the breadth of Smoke's toolset along the way. Particular consideration in this course will be paid to transitioning users familiar with desktop applications into the Smoke on Mac mindset.

Course Outline

Lesson 1: User Interface + Conforming
Launching the first time - For editors who haven't worked in Smoke or Flame before, the UI will be a new experience. Here's what you need to know and what to ignore (for now!)...covering the UI, Projects, Users, and diving right into a conform using Final Cut Pro 7 XMLs.

Lesson 2: XML Conforming
Picking up where lesson 1 left off, you'll continue with the process of conforming a spot.

Lesson 3: The Timeline
The Smoke timeline is where everything happens. In this lesson you'll cover Soft Effects and develop your timeline skills to finish the conform and start the cleanup.

Lesson 4: GMasks, Color Correction and Tracking
The foundations of compositing. In this lesson you will cover roto, tracking, and the Color Corrector and Color Warper

Lesson 5: Action I
In this lesson you'll tackle your first composite and explore Smoke's 3D compositing tools.

Lesson 6: Action II
A continuation of the last lesson. Replace the textures in the scene and show how Clip History and the Modular Keyer can be used to string together composites in Smoke.

Lesson 7: Action III
Surfaces, blending modes, filtering, and a tour of the Action's Node Bin.

Lesson 8: Action IV and Paint
In this lesson you will cover the Desktop Paint and Batch Paint modules, as well as Smoke's variety of keyers.

Lesson 9: Reflection and Displacement Maps
Finishing up the Action lessons with Reflection and Displacement Maps for clever 2D solutions. A bit of Lens Flares, typing and setting legals, and starting our look at Flame FX tools.

Lesson 10: FBX Cameras, Lens Flare Objects
A preview at all the clever stuff you can do within Action.