With the latest version of Autodesk Smoke for Mac OS X the Essentials project and media is automatically installed with the software.

If you are using a different version of Smoke or have accidently deleted the media, you won't see the Essentials project at start up.
Instructions are provided in this exercise so that you may download and install the media manually.

1. Locate the Smoke startup icon and start Smoke.

Note that the Smoke application can be found in /Applications/Autodesk.



2. Stop at the start-up screen.

The Smoke Welcome screen that opens at start up contains interface overviews that are excerpts of the current tutorials; therefore you can close it at this time.

IMPORTANT
First verify if the Essentials project was installed with your Smoke software:

1. Click on the Project popup and look for the project “Smoke_Essentials_(smoke version)”


If the project is installed, you don’t need to create a new project and restore the archive for these tutorials.
Please go directly to the exercise Start the Smoke Essentials Project.

A Smoke project contains the clip libraries as well as the setups saved with your project.
We will now create a new Smoke project.

1. Click the Project popup menu and choose .
2. Click in the project Name field and type a name for your new project.
Here we call it “My_Smoke_Project”.
3. Press ENTER.
4. Choose the project default resolution:
For the purpose of this example, we choose 1920 x 1080 HD 1080.
Note that Smoke ingests any resolution images.
The project resolution is the default for the modules and tools but you can still change that resolution inside Smoke.
5. We will keep the default reference timing for HD resolution.
6. You can choose to generate a smaller version of your original files by using proxies.
You can toggle between full resolution and proxy size at any time if you need to increase the system interactivity.
This is useful when you are working with intense effects on a shot.
7. Choose Proxy OFF under the Proxy Options if you don’t want proxies.
8. Choose Proxies On or Proxies Conditional if you want to use proxies.
Keep the default size option Frame Percentage – Scale 0.50.
9. Press Create Project.
Your project is created and you are back at the login screen

The User retains the application and modules preferences that are selected with your user as well as the hotkeys.

1. Click the User popup menu and choose .
2. Click in the user Name field and type your name.
3. Choose the Hotkey Preset.
You have the choice between the Smoke profile and the Final Cut Pro profile, which will give you Final Cut Pro editing hotkeys.
In this case, we will use the Final Cut Pro profile.
4. Press Create User.

1. When you are ready to start Smoke, press Start.

If you get a message about the sync not being valid, it just means that your system is not fed by a valid video signal; bypass the message by pressing "ESC".

2. When the startup is completed, you will see the Smoke logo.
Click anywhere on the splash screen to access the Smoke EditDesk.

Switching project: you can switch project inside Smoke without having to exit the application. Go in the EditDesk Preferences menu located on the right side of the EditDesk. Choose the project you want to access and press Load.

To exit Smoke you have to go in the Preferences menu and press EXIT SMOKE.

If you want to know more about the interface and the functionalities covered in this exercise, watch the following interface overview:


To continue with the exercises, click on the following link.