PROREVIEW
the timeline without entering Batch/ CFX. This gives you the option of working directly in the timeline on your FX work. If at any time you decide you need to promote your work to CFX or Batch, you can easily promote your timeline FX into CFX/ Batch and continue working on them in their Node-based format, offering you even more control and versatility on your final composition. The Axis effect on the timeline has been replaced with a single Layer Action effect, which can be used either as a segment effect or as a Transition effect. This offers a whole host of extra features in the timeline, such as 3D Lens Flares and customisable preset Action transitions between clips. It has been a long time coming for Smoke users but there is now a 3D Camera Tracker available inside Smoke. This offers a great
“The beauty of the new Library and Desktop is that they now appeal to long-term users and new users alike” Alistair Rankine, editor/VFX specialist and workflow consultant deal of scope for both compositing and Motion Graphics. This is also available in Action in the timeline FX, allowing for 3D camera solving to be carried out directly in the timeline. Other major improvements include support for Blackmagic DesignLink card and UltraStudio for Thunderbolt devices, as well as video IO support for AJA Video Systems offering dual stream stereoscopic output. Integration between Smoke and FCP has improved vastly, as Smoke now supports more timeline effects and metadata from FCP as well as being able to output XML
files with accompanying Quicktime files to make for a more seamless round trip between the software. In terms of improved performance, Smoke 2015 has been specifically designed to work hand in hand with the new Mac Pro running Mavericks. When combined with Thunderbolt Storage, the speed and responsiveness is unbelievable, leaps and bounds ahead of the previous version, making the system a joy to work on. Conforming has been vastly improved on both Smoke and Flame and increased support for native files has also been implemented. A few things, however, are missing from the new version of Smoke. Gone is the support for third party plugins. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Smoke still has access to the previous arsenal of Flame FX nodes inside CFX and also has access to Matchbox Shaders, so there are plenty of
September 2014 | www.broadcastprome.com | 75