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  Best practise interaction between NLE and compositing/ grading software

  Posted by Duca Simone luchini on November 6, 2014 at 7:39 am

  Hallo everybody,
  actually, almost all editing projects are exported to VFX, Compositing and grading software.
  But I meet more and more problems to manage the various video formats used to shot, to edit and to elaborate in compositing and grading.
  I mean, in our actually projects (Fiction , Docs or commercial) we have in input many difference video formats and we have to decide , FIRST, how to encode them for a great editing Pro Res, XD CAM? etcetera…).
  When we have uniformed all our footage in input with a unique codec (as Pro Res, for example), we have to make a rough cut.

  Then we need to process the clips with external compositing and grading sw (as AE, Motion, Nuke, DaVinci…). The best practise to work in compositing and grading sw is to transform our clips in sequences (as .PNG. TGA, or EXR).
  Well, at the end of the compositing and grading process we have to import these sequences again in our NLE sw as a Pro Res clips, according with the decision to edit in Pro res (as my example).

  1 – Is it a correct workflow, the best practise, I mean, working between NLE and compositing/ grading software?

  2 – But I ask also…: why don’t transform directly all footage in input in sequences (as .PNG. TGA, or EXR), avoiding encoding (in Pro Res and others…) and working in NLE and in external compositing and grading sw with the same identical sequences?

  Many thanks for a reply.

  Grinner Hester replied 11 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Mark Suszko

  November 6, 2014 at 2:46 pm

  It is possible to edit in motion JPEG, ( I used that often when editing on my old Discreet Edit*6 ) for example, but I think ultimately, the answer is that the other codecs we use are more efficient in the trade-off between smooth playback, small storage volume, and image quality.
• 

  Duca Simone luchini

  November 6, 2014 at 2:58 pm

  So, you mean…
  Encode in Pro Res to editi in NLE;
  Make Sequences (TGA, EXR…) for VFX purpose
  Convert again your elaborated Sequences in a Pro Res
  Finalize editing and Export

  Shortly, it is correct?
• 

  Mark Suszko

  November 6, 2014 at 4:32 pm

  Personally I haven’t had to transcode to a different format for compositing or color correction. But if your hardware or software limitations require you to, then that’s what you should probably keep doing.
• 

  Grinner Hester

  November 29, 2014 at 3:29 am

  I just hit minimize on one app and maximize the other. then vice versa.

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