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MC5 newby questions
I’ve been evaluating MC5 to see if I should switch from PPro and I have some questions I’m hoping experienced AVID editors could help me with. I went through the online tutorials and I ran into some things that they don’t cover.
1. How well does MC5 integrate with Photoshop, After Effects and Encore? I did try bringing in a native PSD and it seemed to handle it quite well.
2. I’m a bit confused about the file system. Say I encode my footage onto my RAID. In PPro I would usually make a folder and put everything in there and PPro would always know where to find it. But AVID has an Avidmediafiles folder and it looks like it copies everything there and they are bigger than the original files. Are these copies and if so, why are they bigger? What exactly is going on and should I just be storing everything to begin with in that one folder?
3. In my playing around, I imported some HDV footage and was trying to use the QT reference export and I get an error saying Long GOP cannot be exported using QT reference. How can I export this without adding an extra step? It seems working in HDV is kind of pain but we’re not able to go tape less at this time.
4. I use firewire to capture my footage and I found that if I am working in a HDV setting and my deck is switched to DVCAM, the timeline won’t play. I can scrub but just not play. I’m sure there is some sort of setting for this but can’t find it. I know if I just turn off the deck things work just fine. Anywhere I can look to change settings?
5. When you export anything besides to tape, is there a way to see a preview of what the final will look like?
Overall I think MC5 offers all kinds of control. Some of it I think is good but some I think is a bit overkill unless you are working on something really big. After using only PPro pretty much forever, change can be difficult but knowing how to edit using an AVID system opens up a whole new realm of career opportunities. Some of controls just don’t seem to be as intuitive but I’m hoping that’s just inexperienced. One last question, if there is anyone out there that made the switch from PPro to MC5, how long would you say it took you to feel comfortable during the production process and is there anything you miss about PPro once you made the switch?
Thanks in advance for any responses.
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2 Replies
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1. How well does MC5 integrate with Photoshop?…
Avid and Adobe work well together, just don’t espect to be able to “roundtrip” your workflow (edit in one program and have it update automatically).
2. I’m a bit confused about the file system….
Let the Avid worry about where it puts footage; that’s what it excels at. It’s actually a very good database manager. You tell it what drive to store media files on and it does the rest… by the way, if you switch, never defrag your media drive! There are several media management tools in Avid so you can sort your footage out from within a project, even though it all dumps into one folder. Avid “imports” media which converts it to its own MXF format.
3. In my playing around, I imported some HDV footage and was trying to use the QT reference export…
I haven’t worked with HDV a lot, but from memory you just choose to import it using another codec. When you capture from tape you have several codec and compression options to choose from. The Avid really wants to work with “I” frame only footage. Others can chime in here.
4. I use firewire to capture my footage and I found that if I am working in a HDV setting and my deck is switched to DVCAM, the timeline won’t play…
Again, not an HDV expert. But Avid can be a little finicky about working with HDV. We consult with a municipality that uses HDV cams and a Sony deck. As long as they choose the right project type, ingesting and playback/editing happen just fine. Search the boards for problems related to HDV.
5. When you export anything besides to tape, is there a way to see a preview of what the final will look like?
Render a short section before the longer render 🙂
6. One last question, if there is anyone out there that made the switch from PPro to MC5?…
I cut on Cube, Affinity, Premiere, Toaster before moving to Avid. Wished I had done it sooner. I was comfy doing simple (no to few internal effects, no crazy trim modes) edits within a day or two. Having experience on other editors helped, but here’s the key. You have to approach the Avid as if it were your first piece of editing gear. Learn how Avid wants you to edit first… as you progress you will hopefully understand why certain features (some say bugs) are preferable to other editors. But if you continue to try to do things the way you did them in Premiere (or Media 100, or FCP, etc.), I promise you will want to eat a bullet after a few days. Let the past go, hang out at the great community here and on Avid’s own site, and eat the elephant a little at a time.
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Thanks for the input. I can see already just from doing the trial version and the tutorials what you mean by eating the elephant one piece at a time. Now to play a little more and then see if I can justify the switch. Especially thanks for the footage ingestion tip. This could get interesting.
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