Adam Garstone at Definition Magazine gives a quick overview of these 3 powerful 3D Compositing Programs. Work a read.
After learning Shake years back I would love to get into one of these, but can’t afford either Nuke or Smoke, but once a free Mac version is released of Fusion by BlackMagic Designs I will probably spend the time to learn it, and hopefully they will have added a good 3D camera tracker by then.
It all started with Adobe and Creative Cloud which is $49.99 a month with a yearly subscription, and $79.99 for a per month basis. And with no other versions available, it means you need it if you need the latest and greatest.
Now they have been great with rapid upgrades, and with the full suite so necessary for most video post work this is basically a necessity.
Not sure how it will work for Media Composer with the same pricing. Most places buy a version and keep them on non-upgraded machines so they can just stick with the same version. Not only that, with Creative Cloud you get the full suite of apps, including Premiere Pro, and with Media Composer you just get Media Composer. Sure you get more options, like Symphony, NewBlue Titler Pro 2, Sorenson Squeeze Lite, and Boris Continuum Complete Lite, but it is still basically just an editing and finishing system, so seems like buying it is a better idea (at least while they still offer the ability to purchase) at least unless you just need it on a month to month basis and can bill a client for it.
And now Smoke 2015 is getting it, though it is a $3500 program that is $195 a month or $1750 a year. Or $3500 every 2 years, which makes sense if they continue to do an upgrade every 2 years, which they have done once now.
Still it is depressing for us independent post guys, as more monthly expenses does not seem like a good thing overall.
High Definition Magazine has a review of Smoke for Mac 2013. Sounds to be almost an editor, but mostly for finishing and compositing, though the editing tools are getting better, but lack of export options means you couldn’t kick it back to your NLE of choice.
I gave the beta a play, but couldn’t get imports to work right, so gave up and the beta ran out, though I still think this is a great idea, and would love to play with it’s high end compositing features.
Neptune Salad has a good look at FCP X 2 years after the demise of FCP 7 and the alternatives out there (he too preferes Premiere Pro as his editing choice for a FCP 7 replacement).
Autodesk has released the full version of Smoke 2013 and you can download a free trial. It is $3495 per user license.
Damn, I wish I had played more with the earlier beta to get used to it, as I would really like to get proficient as the node based graphics tools (like the earlier Shake) are so powerful.
I still wish it was $1000, so it was more affordable to a normal user like me, but still it has dropped a great amount and looks to be a powerful editing and graphics tool.
I have played with the preview a bit (at least the first one), though had issues with importing an old FCP 7 sequence (everything was strangely scaled and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it) so gave up, though was hoping to have time to come back.
Nice to know it is still not the fastest editor, and I didn’t realize it doesn’t have a trim mode. Still it is pretty exciting with it’s node based effects editor, so if they make the editor more fully featured I think it could have a place (especially with FCP 7 Being EOL).
You can now download the Smoke 2013 Free Trial. I am downloading now, and looking forward to trying it out.
You can check out the online Smoke Documentation. And you can go to the YouTube Smoke Learning Channel to get tutorials.
Sign up at Autodesk, i know I have. Looking forward to giving it a try, just wish it was a little cheaper so us editors not affiliated with a post house could afford it.