FCP to Autodesk Smoke Workflow

[Aaron Bernakevitch]

Hello

I am trying to help a non savvy Red Editor with his workflow for FCP -> Smoke finnish

We shot on the new build 30 in 4.5K and shot the sound in dual system

The editor would like to sync the sound clips in FCP and rough edit and then send EDL to finnish in Smoke.

Is this the correct workflow, or should he do his syncing in smoke? Are we adding an extra step here with FCP? We are up to suggestions and would appreciate any insight

Ideally i would like to be able to grade with the meta data still attached as i will be overseeing the grade and working with the colorist or should we just go for pro res 4x4. (If this si the case should I do my one light in red cine x?)

Thank you for any insight

 

[Bruce Allen]

Is your editor non-RED savvy or non-savvy in general? If it's the second, you may have a problem

The workflow you outlined is the standard one. Very rarely, people will do a whole project in an online system such Smoke, but usually it's too expensive - do the offline on a cheap system while the Smoke is making money doing other onlines.

If you have a Smoke lying idle, yeah you could do the whole thing in Smoke. It does take away the extra step. But I suspect its cutting tools are not quite as good as FCP / Avid.

How long is your project?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[MichaelHalsell]

It may be Smoke on Mac

 

[Aaron Bernakevitch]

The smoke will be idle during the edit, it's all in-house, And no the editor is experienced in FCP and smoke but not with R3d or proxies.

If we do go with the proxy workflow should we use the _m files or does it even matter. I think his concern is not wasting time on the offline.

What is his best bet to sync the sound? And create the new clips with both picture and sound

Yes it is smoke on mac.

Thanks any for any input.

Got to love reduser

 

[Tom.Wong]

is your sound timecode accurate to the footage, or are you doing manually? again it's about how long this project is too, i don't recommend proxies for long form editing as it can get a big buggy sometimes. I would do a quick batch render through red rushes at a nice offline setting and low debayer so you can get your footage ingested quickly, cut and synced to finish in smoke with your EDL or XML. If it's very short form, the proxies shouldn't be an issue.

if it's timecode accurate you can just do your usual merge clips and sync via timecode, and it should be a very quick process.

 

[Aaron Bernakevitch]

Tom

We had a timecode slate on set but the sound man didn't have the cable, So alas we must sync manually.

The project is 20 pages. We are doing some FX's in smoke and are considering grading it there as well. Do we we have more options to grade in Smoke? or should i stick to color. If so how do I grade the metadata in Smoke? Or is there another thread i should be looking at

Thanks

 

[Tom.Wong]

Round tripping through color might be adding an extra step for you if time is a major issue. What file formats does smoke typically deal with ideally? DPX? TIFF? Direct R3D? You can round trip through color/clipfinder and export dpx for final FX shots on your graded footage, or just sync/edit in FCP via log transfer or redrushes and get your xml or edl out to SMOKE, and do everything there.

I have never personally worked on a Smoke suite so you'll have to bare with me, if you want to grade RAW, color is a excellent option. If Smoke doesn't have direct r3d support I would suggest grading in Color first.