AVID Xpress DV to After FX

[Wes Plate]

If you need your Avid timeline rebuilt in AE, take a look at Automatic Duck’s Pro Import AE.

If you’re just dealing with single clips, export out of Xpress DV as a QuickTime Reference movie.

— Wes Plate
Automatic Duck

[Christopher Dutton]

Hey thanks.

And yes, I am exporting individual files. Can I use Quicktime Reference files even if I’m using a different PC for After FX compositing? In other words, I have to physically transport files from my work Avid to my home PC to work in After FX.

[Wes Plate]

In that case export using the “Fast-Export QuickTime” option.

— Wes Plate
Automatic Duck

[Christopher Dutton]

Great, I’ll try that next. Thanks!!

[Tae]

Forgive me, but why on earth would you want to export Avid titles to After Effects?

[Christopher Dutton]

Actually, I mis-wrote… What I really would like to do is export AVID video and composite just titles over that video in After FX. Then, re-import back into AVID. The AVID title tool has always been pretty weak.

[Tae]

Ahhh… that makes MUCH more sense.

I would export as a QT, Animation codec, no compression. Looks great.

[Dave Schweitzer]

I would export from Avid to a self-contained Quicktime, Same as Source, 601 with Avid codec checked.
Do fun things in AE (you may need to interpret the file as lower field first if 6.0 doesn’t automatically) and export as Animation Lower field first. This will give your text a better chance of looking good – especially if the font is thin.

[Christopher Dutton]

Cool. Thanks. I’ll try that, too.

Hey, here’s another question: Let’s say I want to do the opposite; create titles in After FX, without having video from AVID. What’s the best way to export titles with alpha channels so that I can cleanly, simply key them in AVID?

(I’ve already tried a few tests, rendering titles as Quicktime animations, RGB + alpha, but the titles look crappy. I’ve seen better and I’m wondering how to get there.)

Thanks again for any and all help.

[Dave Schweitzer]

If I’m creating content in AE for Avid, I do all my work in a 720×540 Sq pixel comp (so it looks exactly like what it’ll look like on a TV) then before rendering create a new comp at D1 size (720×486) and drop my work comp in there, hitting alt-option-f (mac) to autofit the 540 layer to the 486 comp. Then if filesize is not an issue, I’ll render to Animation w/alpha UNMATTED and import that into Avid. If space is tight, then I’ll render an Avid 2:1 of the full color comp and also render out an ALPHA only, using Avid’s Matte Key filter to do the composite in the Avid Sequence.
This combo should give you excellent results.