Starting Up a Production/Post Prod Department

[Anonymous]

I am doing research into setting up a video production/post production "studio" for the company I work for, and I have a few questions about Smoke, if anyone can answer.

I have experience using Adobe Premeire and Avid Media Composer software, but I haven't used either in some time, and I really haven't done anything editing related in probably 10 years.

My questions:

1.) How difficult is the Smoke 2013 interface to learn for someone with outdated experience?
2.) Other than the computer needing to be up to running the software, is there any additional hardware that would need to be purchased in order to run Smoke and what might it be called so I can start looking up costs?
3.) Obviously, this is a Smoke forum, but I am looking for opinions on Smoke Vs Final Cut Pro X vs Avid Media Composer vs Adobe Premeire. . .
4.) Are there any decent basic training courses to getting started available online that are low cost or free?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

It's definitely a little more difficult to learn than say final cut x, but the rewards for learning are far greater! Fxphd.com has great beginner/intermediate smoke training classes, and Grant kay's free smoke learning channel videos are great too.

[Anonymous]

1 the reality is smoke is harder to use than the other edit systems you listed because it does much more, with power comes a certain level of complexity. However in all systems the greater learning curve is the video knowledge required to deliver masters.
This is akin to saying its harder to drive a Porsche 911 than it is to drive an automatic ford. If all you need is to pop to the shops then there are less stressful ways of driving around. BUT of course anyone can learn to drive and so it is with smoke - if you are willing to out the time and effort in you will get good at it. The human mind can learn anything, but its easier to learn things you are interested in... So decide, do you like fx work, do you have the pAtience to rotoscope 1000 frames over a week to get what you want out of a scene? If yes then smoke maybe for you.

2 obviously people have differing hardware needs iMac laptop etc. I think if you are building a business based edit sust you just make it the best it can be on purchase day so it stays viable a little longer.
I have on my smoke setup
Mac Pro with quadro 4800 and maxed out ram
Kona 3G
Accusys 8 disk raid
Dell 30inch display
I7 2600 pc running ultrascope
Sony grade 1 monitor
Client plasma fed via hd link with matching lut
Monitoring audio mixer and Yamaha speakers
Avid euphonix color (not as useful as hoped)
Avid mc transport (greatest purchase ever)
Smoke keyboard
Wacom intuos 4
I7 2600k red hat burn unit
Cisco router
Rack
Hubble probe and light illusion
Also when buying your main smoke allow an extra 10k for sparks - if you do it all at once it doesn't hurt and its always harder to ask for extras later.
I added
Genarts sapphire and monsters got
Revision real smart and twixtor
O-gi
But you could get by just with sapphire or none depending on the type of work you do

Then there's a raft of software you can't escape from
You have to have CS6 plus a pile of after effects plugins - basically just get all the red giant stuff and people seem happy
I also use a lot of small apps to make life nice ranging from nuke and render managers to re-edit to create shot change detect edls from client off-lines and a bunch of software I wrote to fix XML and edl problems. I can list that stuff separately if you want.

3 smoke v others isn't fair yet as the others are not in beta. Smoke is different some things will be only possible in smoke and as a result some other things you are used to Wong be in smoke (multicam etc) and other tasks that are easy in other systems will be harder in smoke. You need to look carefully at the type if work you do and evaluate against that requirement. Again back to cars - what's the 'best' car to buy? Depends if you're driving your wife 2 kids and 2 dogs to the beach or taking a supermodel to the opera. (Only a jag can do both but the dogs scratch the leather seats and the car smells much better after the opera)

4 training. It's been a long time since I learnt an edit system from scratch as they are all a variation on a theme and so is smoke. You won't be starting from zero. Grant is too modest to say it but his online video is I believe the best system tutorial you will find on any system anywhere. My only criticism it's too results focused showing how to do things but not explaining why you might want to - ie it assumes you know the mechanics of editing. Fxphd and this forums Brian mulligan go that step extra with a lot of support detail - you won't struggle to find training for smoke.

In summary smoke and vfx is a lifestyle choice. Once you get sucked into compositing for fun and profit days become shorter - I was once the youngest online editor in every place I worked, wandered into an edit suite for 28 years and now I'm the oldest. Be careful what you wish for 🙂

[Anonymous]

Nice post Mike.

I would like to see that list of software you spoke of.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would like to see it too. As always nice post Mike.