Basic Training
Now that I steeled myself to learn Smoke, I was ready and determined to get down to business. Fortunately, Autodesk has provided several step by step tutorials which through the most basic aspects of her in the software which helped me on my way. Again, Smoke doesn’t look or feel like any other OS app I’ve ever used, so I started from the beginning: importing clips into the project. Start by loading the folder that contains your clips. Select clips you want to import into the project window. Then you just highlight a clip and using the ‘Source Layout’ and select the ‘standard screen’.
Then a player shows up. Simply hit the play button to play the clip in the timeline.
Hints To Help
The first thing to noticed when utilizing Smoke was to make sure I was not running any other programs in the background. For this reason I would stay away from Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari and especially Google Chrome. This is tough in the beginning because the tutorials which Autodesk provides are actually streamed online from the Autodesk website. To counteract this, I recommend loading these tutorials into a laptop of secondary workstation. This will also allow you to take advantage of the Smoke wiki, forums and other support on the Autodesk website. Also, when Smoke is engaged, you’ll notice that Dock no matter where it’s placed at the bottom, sides or top will not be available. You’ll have to get out of Smoke to take advantage of any of the Dock functions.
Try Before You Buy
As amazing as Smoke is, the cost and learning curve might prove to be a deterrent. However, Autodesk is making it easy for you to try Smoke risk free. Right now, you can try a full version of Autodesk Smoke for thirty days. With that you’ll get all of the online tutorials as well as access to Autodesk’s support community and wiki to help you along your way. It’s true, this self contained post workflow may be tough at first, but once you spend just a few hours with it, I bet you’ll fall in love as your fears go up in Smoke.
For more information about Autodesk Smoke 2012 for Mac OS X go to their website at: http://www.autodesk.com/smoke
