AutoDesk Smoke :: Changing Parameters Of Several Nodes All At Once
Apr 12, 2013
Scenario: You need to make a film strip with 30 stills from the same clip. Then you take a clip, creates 30 Mux nodes, freezes the frames that you need and feeds into Action.
Problem: You have to manually go into each Mux node and puts them to repeat the last frame.
Solution: It should be possible to select multiple equal nodes, and change any parameter contextually, all at once, like any other graphic soft that i know. Another thing, these values must accept simple mathematical functions, i.e. : +10, -15, * 20...
How do i move a keyframe in time without changing any of its x,y,z parameters?
and Can i have different interpolations for individual keyframes on the same parameter? (so i can ramp a move into a keyframe, then continue out at a linear interpolation)?
2) The Burn for Mac OSX 2012 that comes with the installer disk?
3) or Burn for Mac OSX 2012 SP2 that I can't seem to find anywhere?
I've tried the first two and can't get them running properly. The systems are a mixed lot of XW9400s and XW8600s all with QFX3800 cards and 8GB of ram running the ADSK Redhat 5.3 Burn install and generic 6.0 DKU install.
What is the ability to add multiple output nodes in CFX as same as the way you can in flame.
The default / primary CFX output would link back to the timeline as usual, and then other outputs would render back to a selectable folder in your project library.
OR
Quite often you are creating alternate versions for your edit, so I thought a reasonably elegant solution to route the various version outputs back to the timeline would be to place them into a container.
So on your timeline, the outputs you processed in CFX appears as a container, with the default / primary output visible - inside the container are the various outputs you just rendered. Depending on focus in the container will give you your different version back in the timeline.
But I guess the only snag with this idea is that you can't edit CFX once they are inside of a container. So you would "Uncontain" - modify one of the outputs and then "Make Container" again for the sake of keeping the timeline clean and manageable.
I have a project where I have a high res of an astronaut on the moon.
The elements are:
Foreground: Mid shot of Astronaut Mid: Moon (as in the ground he is standing on behind him) Background: Space
I've managed to separate out the elements, position them in actions' 3d space and even add a nice little lens flair in the reflection of his helmet as the camera slowly tracks from left to right. The effect (well we've all seen it before) is that it adds 3d depth via parallax scrolling to the photo.
What I can't achieve is a realistic reflection of the moon surface (i.e. the ground in front of him) reflecting in his helmets mirror-like visor.
In order to fake the reflection I essentially want the motion in the reflection of the moons surface to be opposite to that of the mid ground behind him.
My plan was to re-use the mid ground moon surface flipped horizontally and view it through a matte/alpha describing the visors shape and then animate it moving in the opposite direction with a couple of simple keyframes.
How I tried to achieve this was:
Prepare the layered file in photoshop including helmet visors alpha layer (a simple coloured layer with a hole in it)
Bring into action and separate out all the layers in 3d ensuring the helmet matte remains in the same position as the astronaut layer
Animate camera tracking
Come out in to connect fx
Dupe the action node twice and rename the new ones 'helmet alpha' and 'moon reflection'
Go into 'helmet alpha' and delete everything except the camera and the helmet alpha
Go into the 'moon reflection' and delete all except the camera and the moon surface
Go back into cfx and use some compositing node to flip the moon surface (and plug the moon surface action node into that..?)
Then create a new node which allows me to plug the helmet alpha into the alpha channel and the moon surface into the fill channel
Create another new node which allows me to combine the result of this previous node with the original node and layer it on top.
I've got a window to hammer the machine for a day! In an action schematic I know I can save selected nodes and media. I now want to load those saved nodes into another action but the load tab won't open to give me the options of load all, add nodes, add nodes & media.
How to bypass/disable multiple nodes without have to do it one by one ?
The other strange thing is when i think i can do it by define a new hotkey for disable/enable the bypass button, i found that everytime i change a hotkey for the bypass button, it will apply only to current node. So do i have to set hotkey for every single node ?? and of course everytime i create new cfx , the hotkey will be reset.
I seem to recall that it is possible to call up a large grey box with info regarding the clip that you hover the mouse above? I have tried to use”/” (key next to shift), but it seems to relate to contextual stuff in ConnectFX. I tried to change the hotkey, but the result is the same..?
Framerates: When I import a DPX, ProRes etc. sequence I can change the different parameters through “resize” which works really great, but I can’t change the framerate. Often I just want to playback a DPX sequence @ 25 frames/sec. instead of 24. Is this possible without using “TmeWarp”?
How do I set the animation graph in Axis FX to show only those parameters that have been modified ? Currently takes me a while to locate the parameters that I want to tweak.
I have a sequence that's 2 and a half minutes long, but my final edit is 2 minutes. I want to change the duration to 2:05 so I can export out various versions.
How can I change the playback and still player resolution for my timeline or for a clip?
I would like to be able to switch between full-resolution, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16ths etc... (with one setting for playback and another, separate setting for still image/paused frames) e.g. via a right click on a clip/player.
PS Just like in Redcine-X or Adobe Premiere or AE...
It seems that you can only decide on your intermediary at the point of first setting up the project? Is this true? Wouldn't it be a good (very good?) idea to be able to change this once you have embarked upon the project? It seems to me that you might want to use the ProRes codec when you are cutting and messing about with your project and then switch to DPX when you want to be careful about the quality of the render files?
Thus you may want to be creative in the render-room saving ProRes format when you can build up lots of decisions, but then switch finally over to the DPX format when you are closing in upon the final project. The current system (unless I have missed something) means that one you have chosen your intermediary render format, you are stuck in that project in that format?
TO mention Liquid for the second time today, you used to be able to right click in the timeline and switch the timeline render format (everything from dv to uncompressed). It could take any codec, frame rate and frame size but then you could decide and change your mind on the render format that you wished to use.
Smoke 2012/2013 on MacBookPro 2.6ghz i7 (mid 2012) with Nvidia650M, 16gb RAM, 768GB internal SSD, Thunderbolt Promise R6, AvidArtist MC-Color & MC-Transport, Intuos4 medium, 24in Apple Mon. Ageing 2009 Mac Pro with ATI5870, but want a 2013 one ;(
I have a timeline that is 16:9 and I'd like to crop it to 2:33.1. So going from 2048 x 1152 to 2048 x 878. How can I do this and maintain my edits and it let me pan and scan each clip so I have the best frame?
I can apply a resize in the timeline but this doesn't change the resolution of the timeline itself so I'm left with a letterbox in a 16:9 frame.
Is there any way to dig through the discreet folders and possible find the new cursor icon and replace it with the old one? I found a flame artist who could change his batch and action nodes, If he could do this it shouldn't be to hard to change just the cursor, right?
I am having issues with the color warper in Autodesk Smoke Prerelease 6. As soon as you change any values (ie changing the saturation to 99.9%) in the color warper the image glitches out and you see weird inverted colours and other artifacts. It is completely unusable.
The workstation I am currently using is a 12 Core Mac Pro 5,1, 16GB Ram, GTX285.
I do not have the issue with the latest version Smoke 2012.
While changing the media drive in Smoke setup via commenting out the current drive isn't a complicated process, I personally would find a more streamlined option useful. Something on the startup screen would be great: select project, user, media drive. When using FW800 drives, I typically try to have a discreet project drive that has everything on there for the current project. With the larger Thunderbolt raids, I am going back a little to the old system of having active storage and archive storage. However, when thunderbolt prices come down, I'll most likely have a separate drive for each project again.
If there is an easier way to outline a JPEG image instead of changing the nodes. I am looking at a lot of pictures to do this with and can not possibly change the nodes with all of them.
I know that the AJA Kona 3 card has 2 outputs. Can Smoke send one eye to one channel and the other eye to the other of the Kona 3 card? Dual Stream output is what I am really getting at.
Is there any way that Smoke can see/output sub-blacks and super whites? Can't find any way of seeing them on my scope, Smoke just clamps everything. It won't even see anything below zero in order for me to make a correction on it, everything seems to be clamped on import. I'm using ProRes HQ footage.
What is the best plugin to do spline warps in smoke?(need something like the distort in flame) I notice revisionfx don't make a warper for smoke on mac.
I am experimenting with Smoke 2013 pre-trial and I am having issues with importing images and video with alpha channels.
1. If I have a layered Photoshop file or png with an alpha channel (a still frame lower third), I see that I can import it as a multi layered clip, but what is the best way to have it in the sequence to show up properly?
2. If I have a QuickTime in animation format or Pro Res4444 format with an embedded alpha, how can I import that file to show and cut it on a top layer to animate above my video?
Does Smoke have selection functionality similar to that of Combustion? As an example, you might want to selectively blur part of an image. In Combustion, you would draw a selection and then apply an operator above the selection to achieve this. I don't see a similar selection tool function in Smoke, but I imagine you could achieve the same effect by duplicating a layer and using a Gmask via the Wipe timeline FX.does Smoke not have a selection tool similar to Combustion?
My problem is when I insert an object like box and start to change the parameters values form modify menu. Whenever I change one of the parameters and click again on the other value to change it, it will change automatically and without entering any value once again double click on the widht value and all goes wrong same for the other parameters .
In Autocad there are these parameters you can set, like HPDRAWORDER, HPNAME,..etc. Every time I open my autocad (2012), these values are set to default again. How do I manage to keep these variables registered so i don't need to change them every time I start up?
Whats the dealing with importing TWs to Smoke? I have a show that's 70% keyframed with timewarps and need a way other then baking the effect to bring it into Smoke. It's comming from FCP7 and we have Automatic Duck but neither the XMLs or AAF bring anything other then the first speed of the clip. Any way to retain the keyframes?
I have no problem adding a shared parameter, but if I assign it the wrong type and it appears impossible to change it without adding a new parameter under a different name. I then deleted the old one, but Revit doesn't like that. They appear difficult to purge or delete without a hiccup relating to the original label the parameter was assigned to.
Example: I made a parameter for my clients occupied area (Footprint) and used the integer type by mistake. Apparently integers are only supposed to go up to 999. It refused to recognize the "Digital Grouping" so I had to convert over to the Area type.
If I try to change the type the field is grayed out.
