Autodesk Smoke 2013 - Unable to read media and co...

[eveofdistraction]

Hello,

I'm reaching out to you guys today because I've encountered a couple of headache with Smoke 2013 on the media re-linking business.

Allow me set up the situation short. I'm totally new at Smoke or Autodesk software as a matter of fact, in my current workplace previous editors have used this software to edit demo reels and ever since I picked up the job, I've been encountering issues with the project.

1. Unable to read media message. I'm able to playback most of the work, but unable to move clips to new sequences, I try to get information on the clip segment never shows up, clips never get revealed. I'm lost.

2. I had to hide of the track containing the studio watermark, as a result I get checkerboard images, I went to the smoke storage media folder and what I see are actual checkerboard frames, not from the video clip. I'm not sure what this is all about...
3. I thought it was a Cache/Render problem at first, but every time I try to render anything on the timeline I get the message that it failed and unable to read Input 0 and frame 0. 

I tried to conform the sequence I need, by setting a new location (what I assume are the source folders, I know we only have one Atto drive, nothing was archived from it or so was I told when I arrived) it took awhile, let it run quietly on it's on but didn't know what to do next and unfortunatelySmoke crashed when I tried to explore what was the next step, so I'm wondering if I'm doing this totally wrong. Earlier this week I also tried a recovery (software crashed so I abandoned the idea), tried flushing cache and rerender but it failed).  And today I tried to unlink and relink media following the only tutorial I found on relinking media (by Brian Mulligan) but couldn't manage to succeed as the user interface is really different from Smoke 2012 to 2013. 

No one at work knows or uses Smoke other than the previous editor(s), I've spent the entire afternoon yesterday and morning seeking for step to step guide for Smoke 2013 to get the info I need (source path, where the clip came from) and I have no idea where I should go.

Know that I'm a FCP/Avid/Premier user and often encounter offline/unlinked media issues in the past, but never did I rely on forums and tutorial to find a way to get the media back, it tends to be user-friendly and often the problem is obvious (corrupt file/wrong/disconnected drive/file moved in the wrong folder/folder moved in wrong folder), now, I'm not even sure what the problem is or when it comes from so I'm hoping you have an easy trick to sort this situation out, it is a showstopper on out demo reel 'updates' project, I'm very much on my own at my workplace and for instance all ears/open to a lending hand to walk me through the process.

I also apologise if its all over the place, feel free to ask questions.

Cheers,

[eveofdistraction]

Little update.

I managed to unlink and relink one clip, but when I relinked it, the clip is only a black screen, I checked the source file and playback, there is no black frame at any moment. What am I doing wrong ? 

EDIT. After looking further I found a quicktime with the same name, that this time worked (same drive, same folder, found another sub folder with the clip and it work this time). New questions arises.

But that is one clip out of an entire sequence, am I meant to do the same process but for all the clips? (I assume there is a possibility).
What happens to Smoke Media Management folder we are meant to set up before opening a project and to which the files were link at the beginning?

What happens if I fall in the same issue previously stated where two (or more) clips have the same name but are in different folder, is it a guessing game of which one was the original version that was used or there is a way to track such information...

The best would be to walk me through the process step by step to unsure that I don't have to do it always and if I leave the person after me doesn't have to do it again.

Cheers,

[sonstegard · Accepted solution]

Ken LaRue's demo will help you.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyDi0xaCFIA

With your sequence selected, enter Conform tab and see which media files are missing/unlinked.  They have an red exclamation or similar mark by them.

Because you didn't create this project, I would go to the Mac finder and search for the files by name and find out where they are.  Because you have checker-board clips, they won't be in the Autodesk Media folder (that's where Smoke caches/stores media) those clips were probably linked (not cached) and I'm hoping you can find them on your system.  You mentioned that some of the clips play on the timeline but, you can't use them for edit...that means something with that clip was rendered  (resized etc.) and Smoke it playing back the rendered media (not the original clip).  I know Ken's demo is for bringing in an sequence from Avid/FCP but, he also mentions how to re-link by setting your search location.

Hope this helps.

[eveofdistraction]

Hi ! Thank you for your reply and the link.

I ended up finding a couple of solutions and the link you gave me helped me a little as well. As for the render files, some are indeed rendered others are not anymore, anyway, I managed to sort most of the issues and it works, so I'll go with it.

I'll always be open to better workflow. 

Thanks again for your help and insight.