To be fair.... Just getting the software redesigned to this point, and the changes made has been quite a feat for Autodesk. It is amazing how much detail and thought goes into some of th most simplest things. I have had quite a few emails wie the design team over things like "snapping". If that much effort is paid to snapping and changes tweaked over several Alpha versions then I am sure that XML interchange is no small task.... Especially on a box and system that has buy past design been an end result finishing solution.
The pre release public beta will be out June 4th, 2012. I am sure that Autodesk will be overwhelmed with feedback.
Even if XML doesn't make the fall release... There will be others release after that. The great thing is that Autodesk is listening and are making huge changes to Smoke. Those changes will be ongoing. There are a lot of exciting things about Smoke as and editor and compositor and effects toolbox that are wonderful for the right user. There is no denying Smoke's quality and mature toolset. The timeline centric effects abilities and node based workflow with ConnectFX is awesome....so much is possible....beyond editorial.
Here is a quick thing i did as an FXPHD.com tutorial, in a current class I taught.. It was all done with jpg stills using ConnextFX.
So this was a bit of 3d compositing, 3d text as a motion graphic element design as part of the overall edit I did with video as part of a :30 sec promo spot
Brian Mulligan
Senior Editor - Autodesk Smoke
WTHR-TV Indianapolis,IN, USA
Twitter:
@bkmeditor
