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In the previous video,
you saw how you could import various formats as well as multi-channel files
containing an embedded alpha channel.
Depending on your background, you might want to edit in your other NLE
and complete your programme in Autodesk Smoke.
If this is the case,
then keep watching and I’ll show you to do a standard conform of your sequences.
If you intend to do all your editing in Autodesk Smoke
than please skip to the next video about media organization in the Media Library.
Whether you are working with Apple Final Cut Pro 7 or Apple Final Cut Pro 10,
first you need to export an XML.
If you are using Avid Media Composer, you need to export an AAF.
Smoke supports both these formats and is able to rebuild the sequences
from the other editing applications.
With regards to media such as video sources, you may choose to work with the native media
or cached intermediates coming from your other NLE.
For example, you could have edited using Apple ProRes and now you want to edit with native R3D files.
Or perhaps, you consolidated and transcoded your original media to DNxHD
and you want the choice to either use your original media or the DNxHD intermediates.
The conforming tools in Smoke will give you all these choices when conforming your sequence.
Let’s focus on a basic conform example.
You have been working in your other NLE and you have simply exported an AAF or XML.
You’ve imported media from various locations on your drives
and your network but none of the media has been moved around.
So this would be a typical job where everything is done on one workstation.
In Smoke, you’ll start off by switching to the Conform tab.
This interface will eventually display your sequence at the bottom of the screen
and it will also display an ‘Event List’ containing every source clip used in the active sequence.
To begin the process of importing your AAF or XML, go to the media library
and choose a folder that you want your sequence to be located as it is imported.
You can always move the sequence clip to another folder at a later time if desired.
Right-click over the event list and you can choose to load a new XML or AAF file.
In the browser, you can navigate to the folder location where you exported your AAF or XML.
In my case I exported a XML into a folder and the media is located in the surrounding sub-folders.
Double-clicking on the XML file will bring up the preview player with relevant clip information
such as format, resolution and frame-rate.
Just as a side note,
when you importing media into Smoke, you can choose to work with the native files
or tell Smoke to create its own-cached versions of the media.
This step also applies to the conform process where you can choose how your footage
is managed by Smoke as you rebuild your sequence.
Just switch to the General tab and if “Cache Source Media” is disabled,
Smoke will work with the native media.
If you enable this option, Smoke will transcode the imported media
for the sequence for optimised performance.
In this case, I want to work with the native media so I’ll ensure the option is turned off.
Now switch to the “Sequence Import Options” tab.
There are two search mechanisms that Smoke uses to find media when you import an AAF or XML.
“Absolute Searching” and “Relative Searching”.
The “Absolute Search” performs a scan inside the XML or AAF.
The XML and AAF formats store the imported location of the media file on your system.
So absolute scans always refer back to the original paths of the media as per the XML or AAF.
The “Relative Search” makes Smoke look at the other folders and sub-folders close to the AAF or XML location.
So relative scans the surrounding folders for potential media to match the conform.
So if you are on a different computer and the media is moved, the file paths will be different.
This invalidates the absolute file paths in the XML or AAF,
therefore you need to use the relative search to find the media.
Just know that smoke will always perform an absolute search
but you can disable relative searching if you want.
However it doesn’t hurt to leave all the search options on,
in order to find the media in the initial search.
The “Link to Media Files” is always enabled by default as it builds the sequence that references the original media.
The “Preferred Media” option is more specific to Avid Media Composer.
Using “Original Sources” connects the AAF to the original files.
Using the “Off-Line Intermediates” connects the AAF to the transcoded DNxHD files from the Avid Media Composer.
Once your settings are ready, you can start the conform process
and Smoke will rebuild the sequence and start looking for the media.
You can monitor this process at the bottom left of your screen.
Once the process is complete, you will see the sequence clip
in the library folder and there will also be a sub-folder
with all the sources used in the conformed sequence.
If the sequence is not already open, double click it to open it as the active sequence.
The ‘Event List’ will populate itself with all the entries from the open sequence.
You will notice that the status of each clip is “linked” indicated by the chain icon.
When you click on each entry, the positioner in the sequence
will jump to that particular segment matching its source’s entry.
So you can verify each source has been found and the conform has been successful.
Now you can switch to the Timeline tab and begin your work in Smoke.
Please consult the Autodesk help resources for the list of supported effects coming from AAF and XML sequences.
In the next video, you will begin to organise your media and sequences
in the Media Library to prepare for your edit.