An introduction to Autodesk Smoke as taught by Professor Sam Edall using clips from FCP7 Quest media files. This first lecture shows the Media Hub and Timeline interface.

1. Smoke I
Tour of the Interface

2. Getting Smoke Installed
 Setting up Smoke with a stand-alone license
 Click here to open YouTube video

3. Tour of the Interface
Video
 Tour of the interface
 Click here to open
YouTube video

4. Firing Up Smoke
 Student version
 When Smoke starts a
welcome screen that
says this is a student
version of Smoke
 Lucky you, you
don’t have to buy
it!
 Just click Continue

5. Title Screen
 On the bottom
 Set who the user is
 You!
 Set your storage
volume
 Set what project you
are working one or
create a new one

6. Title Screen
 To the left
 Access to the Smoke
Learning Channel on
YouTube
 That’s where these
videos come from
 Smoke forum for
questions and answers
 Smoke on Facebook

7. Getting Started
 Set who’s project
you will work on
 Under User choose
New

8. Getting Started
 In the name box
enter your name
 Under Keyboard
shortcuts choose
FCP7
 Leave the other
settings the same
and choose
Create

9. Getting Started
 In the welcome
screen under
Project
 -- Click New

10. Getting Started
 In the Create New
Project screen by
Name
 Let’s name this project
‘BC 420 Practice’
 Click on the Config
Template pop-up
 Choose ‘1920 x 1080’
 This sets the recording
format for your project

11. Getting Started
 Click the Create
button in the bottom
right
 Then click Start on
the Welcome screen
 That’s how we make
or load projects when
Smoke starts

12. Getting Started

13. Different Tabs for
Different Jobs
 On the bottom
 MediaHub
 Where your media is
kept
 Conform
 Troubleshoot imported
timelines and to relink
segments
 Timeline
 Where you do your
editing
 Tools
 Special effects
Select
Timeline

14. Panels
 The workspace is
where you
accomplish all of
your project tasks.
 Three main panels:
 The Media panel
 The Viewing panel
 The Editing panel

15. Media Panel
 Where you manage the
media in your current
project.
 Any media listed in the
Media panel is saved
inside the project.

16. Media Panel
 Libraries
 All media and folders reside in a Library.
 You can create as many Libraries as you
want, enabling you to better organize your
project media.
 Folders
 Create folders to organize your media.
 You can create as many folders as you
want.
 Folders can be expanded and collapsed in
the Media panel.

17. Media Panel
 Source Clips:
 A source clip has only one video segment.
 It contains no edits and all its audio segments
have the same tape name, source timecode
and duration as the video.
 Sequences:
 A sequence is the same as in FCP7 or a project
in FCPX.
 It contains multiple clips.
 Effect Clips:
 An effect clip is a metadata-only clip.
 You can use this type of clip to copy timeline
effects from one clip to another.

18. Media Panel
 Load in some
content
 Right click or control
click on the Default
Library and choose
New > Folder
 Name the new folder
Video

19. Media Panel
 Two more times
 Make two more
folders by right
clicking on the
default library and
name the 2 news
folders Music and
Sound Effects
 Good idea to put your
stuff into separate
folders so you can
find it easier later

20. Viewer Panel
 Load them up
 Click on the Bookmarks
button and select User
Home
 Double-click on the
Documents folder to
open it
 Double-click on the BC
420 folder to open that
folder
 Double-click on the
Smoke Content folder
to open it

21. Viewer Panel
 Save that directory
 While the Smoke
Content folder is
open, click on the
Bookmark button
again.
 This time select Add
Bookmark

22. Viewer Panel
 Load them up
 Double-click on the Quest Clips folder to open them
in the Media Hub

23. Viewer Panel
 Checking out your
stuff
 Different views
 Thumbnails only
 Thumbnails with a
preview screen
 List view only
 List view with a
preview screen

24. Viewer Panel
 Move your cursor
left and right inside
the lower third of a
clip to scrub
through the
thumbnail
 Double-click the clip
to open the viewer
and load the clip

25. Viewer Panel
 Check them out
 Change the view to Thumbnail with Preview
 Select the Began clip and use the playback controls to
check it out

26. Viewer Panel
 Scrubbing your
footage
 Go to beginning
 Go to In point
 Back 1 frame
 Play/pause
 Forward 1 frame
 Go to Out point
 Go to end

27. Viewer Panel
 Get around
 Select a clip and use
the controls to scrub
though a clip
 Pause playback, then
put your cursor in the
video clip and drag left
and right to scrub
though your clip

28. Media Panel &
Viewer Panel
 Load up your media
panel
 Select the video folder
in the media panel
 Select any clip in the
media hub, then press
Command A to select
all of the clips

29. Media Panel &
Viewer Panel
 Load up your media
panel
 By the Media Hub
button in the lower left
click the Import button
 Open your Video folder
 You should see all
the clips now inside

30. Getting Around
 Backing up
 Use the directory tree
on top of the media
hub
 Click on the folder
you wish to look at
 Press the Up button to
back up to its parent
directory

31. Media Panel &
Viewer Panel
 Load up the music
 Click on the Smoke
Content folder to step
back to the parent
directory
 Then double-click on the
Music folder to open its
contents

32. Media Panel &
Viewer Panel
 Load up the music
 Make sure the
Music folder in the
Media Panel is
selected
 Select all three
music clips
 Press the Import
button

33. Media Panel &
Viewer Panel
 Load up the SFX
 Use this same procedure to load the sound effects
clips into the Sound Effects folder in the Media
Panel

34. Timeline
 Click on the
Timeline tab on the
bottom to switch to
the timeline view.
 Click on the Viewer
Mode box and
select Player

35. Timeline
 Double-click on the
‘immersed’ clip in
the Video folder to
load it into the
viewer.

36. The Viewing Panel
 About the Viewing Panel
 The Viewing panel gives
you different visual
representations of the clips
in the Media panel.
 From the View mode
box, you can select from
the following views:
 Thumbnail
 Player
 Source – Sequence
 Triptych Player

37. The Viewing Panel
 Thumbnail View
 Displays the clips within
the selected Media panel
folder as thumbnails.
 Player View
 Displays and plays back
the selected clip in a
player.

38. Viewing Pane
 Click on the
View button
and change the
view to
Thumbnail (if
necessary).
 Click on the
Thumbnail Task
menu and
choose Arrange
> Fit All
 This will show

39. Viewing Pane
 Now you can see all the clips inside the Video
folder.

40. Viewing Pane
 Click on the View button and change the view
from Thumbnail to Player.

41. Viewing Pane
 Click on the View button and change the view
from Thumbnail to Player.
 Select the immersed clip

42. Getting Around
 While immersed is
still selected, change
the view to Triptych
Player
 See the same clip in
three players
 Default view
 Media start
 Middle of clip
 Media end

43. Homework
Assignment:
 Using the Grab application take a
snapshot of the media panel
 Make sure you have the
Music, Sound Effects, and Video
folders open to show the contents
 Save the image and post to
Western Online in the Smoke I
dropbox folder.

44. Smoke I
Tour of the Interface