The Smoke Community Continues to Grow as New Users Adopt the Easy-to-Use
Workflow of Editing and Effects Together
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 8, 2013--
Since Autodesk,
Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) announced the radical redesign of Autodesk
Smoke professional video editing software at the 2012 National
Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB), video editors have
enthusiastically embraced uniting editorial and effects together to
create compelling stories.
Watch Jeremy Hunt's "Fix It In Post" http://autode.sk/10CdmRk, made with Autodesk Smoke video editing software (Photo: Business Wire)
The extended trial period gave users time to experiment with the
software, provide feedback and actively take part in its evolution; in
fact, between the first free trial and its December 2012 release, Smoke
underwent five iterations. An Autodesk survey of North American Smoke
trial downloaders found that 57 percent were new to Smoke: 39 percent
were new to Autodesk software; 13 percent were Autodesk animation
customers; and another 5 percent have used other Autodesk software.
“YouTube generates a reported 1.3 million video views per minute.*
That’s a staggering number of views, but also highlights the demand for
creating great looking content whether for corporate, broadcast or
institutional video,” said Mark Strassman, vice president, Media &
Entertainment Industry Strategy and Marketing at Autodesk. “Community
engagement has been crucial to the ongoing development of Autodesk
Smoke, and our goal is to continue to work with the editorial community
to meet the growing need for quality content by creating an efficient
and flexible all-in-one professional video editing toolset.”
Access to a high-end effects toolset in an editorial workflow is making
it possible for artists to tell stories in a new way. The following
three filmmakers have created compelling short films with Smoke 2013 and
all credit the software for helping to realize their visions by offering
a unified desktop environment that includes both editing and effects.
On December 10, 2012, Anthony Brownmoore, a UK-based freelance filmmaker
tweeted: “Just finished the online of my short film using @autodesk
#smoke2013 many aspects improved over 2012!” Within two weeks, Anthony
purchased a license of Smoke 2013 to finish “REP
5091,” designing visual effects, creating titles and credits, laying
back final sound and using Smoke for the entire online editing process.
REP 5091 tells the story of an ambitious workaholic who is visited by a
nefarious salesman selling the promise of a new life. Brownmoore said,
“I was very keen to try out Smoke 2013 to see if it was up to the job of
onlining and providing visual effects on our short film. Having shot on
RED, I found that Smoke's workflow for conforming and finishing at 2K
resolution was perfect for us. 2013 makes it very easy to tailor the
individual shots the way we needed them.”
On July 2, 2012, Jeremy Hunt, from Screaming Death Monkey in Los Angeles
tweeted, “Loving @autodesk
#smoke2013.
Fast, elegant and versatile. Learned the basics by cutting a new reel. http://www.sdmfx.com.”
This tweet led Autodesk to commission Jeremy to create “Fix
It In Post,” a short film now with 75,000 YouTube views, about one
man’s life being continually edited, enhanced and endangered by a
hardworking editor/VFX artist. “This was a dream gig,” said Jeremy Hunt,
a filmmaker best known for co-creating “405,” in the year 2000,
generally considered to be the first viral video on the Internet.
“Autodesk Smoke is the first software that truly enables me to work the
way I want to work…Smoke is fantastic because with the timeline effects,
you can do color correction, a recomposition or whatever you need, and
you can play them back the second you lay them in. To see your changes
that interactively is extremely important when you’re trying to tell
your story.”
Filmmaker, post-production specialist and technical writer, Alexis Van
Hurkman attended a “Montreal Creative Front” meeting last year that
featured a Smoke presentation, and it was a fortuitous encounter. Alexis
is now in the process of writing a book about getting started with Smoke
for Wiley and is in post-production on “The
Place Where You Live,” an effects-intensive sci-fi short film about
a physics professor who’s abducted by her doppleganger from another
dimension. “I have modest visual effects experience, and while editing
the entire 12-minute piece within Smoke, I could quickly assemble
credible effects which made it easier to get meaningful feedback from
test viewers. Later, the compositing artists could bring considerably
more art to the details. That to me is a huge efficiency. The challenge
in filmmaking is to find ways to tell a story visually and Smoke allowed
me to do that – it’s a fantastic storytelling tool.”
Join the Smoke Community
Customer presentations and product demonstrations will be streamed live
from the Autodesk NAB booth to Virtual
NAB on AREA. For product features and video tutorials, see the Smoke
product center, join the Smoke
community, visit the Smoke
Learning Channel, follow #AutodeskSmoke on Twitter and like Smoke on Facebook.
About Autodesk
Autodesk helps people imagine, design and create a better world.
Everyone—from design professionals, engineers and architects to digital
artists, students and hobbyists—uses Autodesk software to unlock their
creativity and solve important challenges. For more information visit autodesk.com or
follow @autodesk.
* Sandvine, Global Internet Phenomenon Report: 2H 2012
Autodesk and Smoke are registered trademarks or trademarks of
Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA
and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or
trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk is not
responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in
this document. © 2013 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130408005500/en/
Source: Autodesk, Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
Rama Dunayevich, 415-547-2472
rama.dunayevich@autodesk.com