MC6 to After Effects with Automatic Duck

[Oliver Peters]

Strange. It worked for me with Boris. Make sure that when you export the AAF file from MC you have it set to Link To Media (not embed) and have the Edit Protocol button checked. In the Boris import dialogue there is an option to reconnect media. This should see the links to the original QT files. If it doesn’t, you can manually point it to the location of the files.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Frederic Lumiere]

It worked for you with ProRes MXFs? I still get the ‘unsupported MXF’ error for each file.

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media

[Oliver Peters]

Yes, with the Boris tool. Make sure you have the latest version. My process :
1. MC6 – Import ProRes MOVs selecting equivalent ProResMXF format. (Should “fast import”).
2. Cut sequence together in MC6.
3. Export AAF of sequence, selecting Linked Media and AAF Edit Protocol.
4. Open AE and import AAF file via Boris Transfer option.
5. Reconnect to media which connects to original QT source MOVs (NOT MXF files)

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Frederic Lumiere]

Ah got it. You still have a copy of your QT prores, I don’t since I transcoded from DSLR H.264 but I could reconnect to the DSLR footage though…

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media

[Oliver Peters]

OK I see the issue. Yes, I have been working with H264 files already converted to ProRes MOV as well as Alexa files. My normal SOP with Canon files is to convert externally first (ProRes for FCP or DNxHD for MC) using MPEG Streamclip, before I do any editing. These files become my “camera masters” because I also embed TC and reel numbers. For the future, in your workflow, I would recommend importing via AMA. Cut down selects and then transcode to DNxHD. Then AutiDuck should work just fine.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Frederic Lumiere]

Here’s my workflow:

1/ Rename DSLR H264 with Adobe Bridge
2/ Consolidate takes from interviews (10 min max on 5D) with Streamclip
3/ Sync & Embed dual system audio tracks with Dual Eyes & QT 7 (some clips will end up with more than 2 audio tracks)
3/ Add TC with qtChange

4/ Before installing MC6 I used FCP Media Manager to transcode to Prores (Streamclip would not keep the multi-audio tracks intact)

4/ Now I import the H264 (with multi audio tracks synced & TC) with AMA then transcode to ProRes.

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media

[Frederic Lumiere]

[Oliver Peters] “For the future, in your workflow, I would recommend importing via AMA. Cut down selects and then transcode to DNxHD. Then AutiDuck should work just fine.”

Absolutely! Next project… Thanks for all your help Oliver!

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media

[Frederic Lumiere]

Actually, here’s an even better solution:

MXF Import by Calibrated Software makes Prores MXF files readable by QT!

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/MXFImport_Mac.asp

Thanks to this software, there is now a smooth workflow with AutoDuck between MC6 Prores MXF and After Effects.

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media

[Frederic Lumiere]

For the life of me, I had it working once and can’t make it work again!

Automatic Duck crashes when trying to import the Prores MXF AAF.

Boris Transfer will import the clips successfully but the comp is empty (no layers) when choosing to link to the MXFs files. When unchecking the ‘link to original source references’ the comp has all the proper layers but has placeholders instead of mxfs…

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media

[Frederic Lumiere]

Much testing and my verdict is that having MXF Import is nice because it allows playing ProRes MXF in QT and therefore all QT based apps (FCP, AE, etc.) but it isn’t reliable with Boris Transfer.

Boris Transfer works best when reconnecting the clips to your digital negatives (H.264 in my case).

Frederic Lumiere
Producer
Lumiere Media