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Frameflex settings for 2k workflow from Sony F5
I’m new to working with FrameFlex and 2K and so forth, and could really use confirmation of my methods, as well as some advice on how to get the clips out of Avid for VFX work.
We are working on a feature shot with the Sony F5, in 2K at a frame size of 2048×1080. Cutting in MC 7.0.3, in a 1920×1080 project.
I AMA’d the footage using the Sony plugin, and then transcoded to DNxHD 115. I did not apply any frameflex to the footage when I transcoded it, because the director wants to be able to move the frame a bit from side to side. Here’s what that window looks like, in case it makes any difference.
Once the footage was all transcoded, it looked stretched/squashed, as expected. So then we messed around with Frameflex a bit and have been setting the “Frame aspect ratio” to 16:9, and setting the Reformat option to “center crop,” which seems to make the footage look right:
So my first question is simple: did I do this right?
I have another question about how to get the full res footage to a VFX house, which I’ll put into a reply to this one, just for clarity.
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5 Replies
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So now we need to send some footage to a VFX house. I had expected to do this part later, after doing the online/conform in Resolve, so I’m trying to figure out how to use an offline tool (Avid) to do an online job. Fun fun!
My plan is this:
1. put the clips I need into a single sequence
2. relink to the AMA source
3. use FrameFlex to set the Frame aspect ratio to 16:9, Reformat set to “Center Crop.”
4. change project color space to RGB 709,
5. transcode to Apple ProRes 4444 MXF, use the “Apply reformatting option” box to bake in the crop
6. consolidate sequence with 4 second handles
7. export resulting new clips as Same As Source.My questions:
A. Will this result in the highest possible resolution that Avid can give me?
B. Is that the best codec to use?
C. Is that the best Frameflex settings for this? They always planned to crop the sides of the image (no idea why they bothered to shoot 2k at all…)
D. Do I need to render my timeline before I export?
E. If there’s some other better way to do this, I would really be very grateful to know it!Thank you all so much for your time and your expertise!
– Josh
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Media Composer still does this wrong for Sony material arrrghhh…
In your first screenshot you can see that Avid knows it’s 1.9:1 aspect ratio yet it defaults to “stretch” below rather than a default letterbox to let you know that it is NOT a 16:9 aspect ratio. If you transcoded as stretched, then everything will be off by 1.9/1.78.
What you want to do in this case is in the FrameFlex area click the “size matches project raster” and this will give you a center 16:9 pixel for pixel extraction. Now “stretch”is the right thing despite it not stretching (they need a NONE setting in there!!!).
When you transcode, do not bake in the transforms. This way you have the extra pixels when you use FrameFlex in the timeline to move things around a bit. You won’t have that many pixels available as it is not that much bigger than 1920×1080.
Michael
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You need to render the timeline after you relink back to camera originals in order to get proper FrameFlex applied if any were done in the timeline (as with a move etc).
Render as DNxHD 444 or ProRes 444 if you want (provided the sources were 444?). Then do an export Same as Source.
Michael
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Michael, thank you so much for your help! I see your replies all over this forum and I really appreciate all the time and knowledge.
I’m sorry I’m still not totally clear on what to do for the full-res footage I’m sending to the VFX house.
I relinked to the camera originals via AMA, and then I set the FrameFlex aspect ratio to be 16:9, and Reformat to Center Crop, and transcoded to ProRes 444 with the compatibility option turned on for reformatting, so it would bake in.
Then I just exported those clips via SaS, since they didn’t have any frameflex moves or whatever done in the timeline, so don’t need rendering, right?
I’m trying to get the VFX people 1920×1080 files with the correct aspect ratio, and as little resolution-loss as possible. Did I do things right for that?
Thanks again for your time and expertise!
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That should work fine as long as FrameFlex was applied on the source clips and not in the timeline. If it in the timeline, then you need to render sequence in order for the re-framing to take effect.
Michael
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