High Definition Television Editing and Compositing With Every Feature and Tweaking Tool You Can Think Of

So here we are at the stratospheric high end, and look over there -- it's Discreet Smoke sitting in the catbird seat. Billed as a "creative editing and finishing solution," Smoke is a sophisticated nonlinear digital video editing and compositing software package that won't actually create anything for you, but if you have the talent and editing chops, this monster of a system won't let you down. For this review, it's riding high on an Octane 2 platform, benefiting from its industrial-strength UNIX underpinnings, dual 400 MHz MIPS R12000 processors, 2 GB of RAM and 311 GB of disk space that allow it to reach up into the HDTV heights. This configuration lets you edit an hour-and-a-half's worth of HD without waiting all day to render your effects. That'll all be uncompressed, too, sporting full bandwidth RGB 4:4:4 digital throughput. So, get together your $260,000, because if you're in the market for HD editing and compositing with the utmost in control, this is one system to seriously consider.

[Click for full size image] Here's the edit desk of Smoke, where at the top you can see the source area with clips, and the timeline below.

When you first launch Smoke, you see a timeline with a source area, and the toolbox (see screen shot at left). On the top is the source area that works just like a bin in countless other editing applications. It's a simple matter to place your shots on the timeline, trim them with the first and last frames of your shots displayed, and add effects. The Clip Library is where you do all your importing and exporting. Unfortunately, there's no way to import or export QuickTime movies or mp3s, but maybe I'm just thinking too low-end for this kind of finishing system. But aside from that general layout and the speed at which everything happens in Smoke, this is where the similarity to your average nonlinear editing system ends.

Across the top of the timeline are controls that let you access the DVE, keyer, color corrector, text, paint and stabilizer modules. A nice touch here is that these buttons are in the same place they are in Discreet's Flint, Flame and Inferno, so if you know how to use Smoke, you'll feel right at home with its siblings. This also means you can easily exchange files between these other applications, too. On the right is the library, where you organize all your clips. On the bottom is the timeline, which can be displayed as a timeline or a storyboard. Don't like this layout? Nearly everything is customizable, so if it's not to your liking, tailor it precisely for your style of editing.

[Click for full size image] This is the DVE module, which winds its way throughout the software.

Now let's take a look at the DVE module, the most important part of Smoke and one that is able to work with almost every other aspect of the software. Click the DVE button, and here you're able to move text, video and 3D models around in 3D space. Apply lights, shininess, whatever you please, and move it wherever or however you want because everything can be animated. Even more control is at your fingertips because on every layer, you have a separate keyer and color corrector. Add a garbage matte, and you can animate it over time, and even track it, by pinning the corners of an object and keyframing its movements throughout your shot. There's a time stretch button that can be used both for effects or to, for example, sync 24 frame footage to 30-fps video. The text module also takes advantage of the DVE module along with the 3D power of Smoke. Type your text, and if you want to work in a 3D environment, load it into the DVE. As you can see, more and more, Discreet is pushing the limit of this DVE module, with even more features and power waiting in the wings for version 5.0.

But if this all-encompassing DVE is more than you need for a particular effect, you're able to conveniently add effects from the timeline, too, with a subset of the DVE module called Axis. From within the timeline, click on the Axis button, and you'll be able to create 3D effects right there. Add text, add a thickness, place lights around it, and you have a sophisticated presentation, all created without leaving the timeline. This method isn't as deep as the DVE with its 6 layers, but it's still 3D and highly capable - and ends up being an area where some users do all of their effects, according to Discreet. For example, this is a favorite technique of long-form producers, where there aren't lots of effects necessary. Even so, the key factor that places Smoke squarely in the high end is that when those producers have to repair something, this is where the power of Smoke can fix almost anything. Say your cameraman was drunk. Stabilize it. Like magic, it's now rock solid.

Next Page: Creating Today's Hippest Effects

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