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XML question
I have a TON of tiny edits I have to do with some footage. Shifting it around almost on a frame by frame basis. It’s a strict mathematical shuffle, so I was hoping I could save a huge amount of time if I could take the data from the XML file of the footage with basic cuts and then have a program do all the work of editing the file and algorithmically setting the shuffled edit points. Has anybody already tried this? Is this feasible? I looked at the XML code today for a sample 5-min file, and there’s a huge amount of code there, so it looks pretty daunting.
Might it be easier to do this with EDLs or in FXScript? I
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6 Replies
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if you export an xml file from an fcp edit there is certainly a lot of data in there, but the trick is only bothering with the bits you actually need.
try exporting an xml file from a single clip (not an edit) … have a good look at that. then do the same with a very simple edit, maybe one, two or three shots on a single layer …. increase the complexity of your examples gradually, don’t just jump in to a complex 5 minute edit. try and get a feel for the structure of the apple xml, what’s identical every time, what changes, what parts seem to be irrelevant?download the documentaion from the apple developers website and take a look at their examples. theres lots of useful info in there, including how to set up clip id’s so as to avoid replicating identical code …and also note that not all the info in the xml file is mandatory.
it is a bit daunting, but at the end of the day its a simple matter of how comfortable you are with coding, how much time you can devote to the process and whether this is code you will use and reuse again and again … otherwise it may just be quicker to wade into the edit and get it over with.
hope it helps
Andy -
If you already know Perl or PHP you’re in luck. I’d recommend pushing out simple EDLs and stealing the TC-to-frames and frames-to-tc functions from this site:
https://www.ridiculopathy.com/projects/flunky
cheers
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Thanks, I’ll look into it. I was thinking of using Perl to generate the XML code from scratch (or a basic template) anyway, so maybe this will save me time.
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Thanks, I’ll look into it. I was thinking of using Perl to generate the XML code from scratch (or a basic template) anyway, so maybe this will save me time.
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Thanks, I’ll look into it. I was thinking of using Perl to generate the XML code from scratch (or a basic template) anyway, so maybe this will save me time.
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Yeah, I would MUCH prefer to work with the EDL, since the info that is set up there is so much simpler and is basically all that I need. But I guess XML is what it will have to be.
(Sorry for the multiple postings!)
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