Smoke 2015 Extension 1 Coming Soon

[BKM]

Well this is good news....

http://www.autodesk.com/products/smoke/features/new/gallery-view

Matchbox, LUTS per Clip, and Sparks are back on the timeline effects.

[mpixls]

Wonderful.

[hansvons]

Just got word that there will not be an extension release for perp licenses...this from a reliable source. fwiw.

Unfortunately I suppose you are right. This is the first time in my relationship to AD that I feel myself as their businsess partner ungratefully treated .

I startet my friendship with Discreet in the 90ies as a DoP and director and loved Flame for its revolutionary tools and coolness. Flame has been in the last 15 years the finishing tool of choice for most of my projects. Every time the producers wanted to put me into the Henry room I complained and went with my friend Flame. Even today, against all odds, when I shot a commercial I manage always to end up in a Flame suite. 

Then in 2009 I bought Smoke on the Mac for my own projects. Over time I invested quite a bit into AD and bought a second seat, this time Smoke 2013. With my Smokes I had great times and really bad times (library growth bug, licensing errors...). In these 4 years Smoke went from a mid/high-end application (15k software only) to a mid/low-end application tailored for mainstream postproduction facilities (3.5k). My investment got not halved, it got quartered.

I see how the business is evolving, how markets change, and it's been not the first time for me that expensive software investments run down te drains because the business is changing fast, technology and market set new rules (Shake, Silicon Colour, Combustion...).

But - I would have appreciated it a lot if AD had the generousity to let the the 2015 pertual licences owner participate on the 2015 Ext.1 goodies. Somehow this feels like a greedy decision at least for me.

Smoke 2016 is another story, I will move to the renting model anyway some time but planned to do so with 2016 in 2015. My annual subscription fees were due in March, this would have been a good fit. New Version, new year, new payments.

Ok. As long as AD keeps Smoke running and is investing into R&D I'll won't change the horse. Love the GUI (still), love the toolset, love the culture behind. I'm positively surprised how Smoke 2015 Ext1 ist going to be upgraded. MB on the TL and Sparks back are important features. Looking forward to Smoke 2016 and the enhancements then.

Hans

[jason]

I agree with everything Hans wrote.

I too bought in at 15K, 5K worth of sparks and have dutifully paid my subscription every year...being told that I'm now going to have to rent it in the future and I'm not eligible for the current upgrades (even though I have a current subscription) feels like another kick in the a$$ to this former Edit/paint/effect/combusion user.

Seriously, I love the interface but sometimes question why I bother...