2017

To check for new versions of clips:
NOTE The Check for Updated Versions button is only available if at least one Read File clip in the schematic has
been updated.
1 Open the ConnectFX Preferences menu.
2 Under Read File Nodes in the Batch Prefs menu, click Check for Updated Versions.
Every Read File clip in the schematic is checked for updated versions of their clip.
About the Read File Node
Why Use a Read File Node?
While you can import many types of media files using a Read File node, its primary use is to facilitate
integration of Smoke in render pass workflows.
Using the Read File Node With Render Passes
The Read File node is more than just another way to import into the ConnectFX schematic. It actually allows
you to integrate Smoke inside a render pass pipeline very efficiently.
While you can use the Read File node to import almost any file format, the following are of interest for
multi-channel render pass workflows:
■ open .clip
■ multi-channel OpenEXR
And while they differ in their basic structures, they all provide access to a powerful CG concept: Read File
Nodes and Autodesk Maya. The render pass allows you to composite within Smoke the many components,
or passes, making up the scene. By working directly with the render passes, you end up performing tasks
quicker, such as colour correcting, that are much more time-consuming in the 3D application. The fact is
that Smoke only needs to compute the value of pixels in a scene, while the 3D application needs to recompute
the lighting of whole geometries: Smoke is just better for these tasks.
How to Use Smoke With Render Passes?
Working with render passes is not difficult, especially if you use the Read File node and one of the following
file types: Open .clip and multi-channel OpenEXR.
Consider the following example of an image generated in Maya.
Working with Clips in the Process Tree | 411