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Question for the Masters of XML
Please advise me O Keepers of the XML Knowledge….
I’m trying to create a workflow in which I’m sure XML will be very handy but I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it. I’m an editor, not a programmer.
I have 60 sequences in which I need to swap out 8 shots in each program.
So the first sequence has 8 shots: *01shot1, *01shot2, etc.
I want the new sequence to replace those shots with *02shot1, *02shot2, etc. and have it connect to those shots in the media folder.
Now, if I export the XML of the sequence and open it in text editor, it appears I can do a replace and find of the text. So if I search for *01 and replace with *02 then all 8 shots are updated. I import that into Final Cut and it sure enough seems to have replaced it with the new media.
But…I’m afraid of what’s happening behind closed doors. Does the replaced clip take on the original logging info of *01shot1 or does it swap out the logging info embedded in the replacement clip? Is there a case where just swapping out the name in the XML is not enough and more of the content needs to be replaced and this will somehow come back to haunt me?
Again, this seems to work, I just want to make sure that it won’t burn me when I go to export to compressor and suddenly it’s not referring to the right media, etc.
And then part 2, I’m sure there is some way of automating what I just described but it’s way beyond my abilities. In other words, is there an easy way of scripting it to create 60 sequences with the shots replaced with one click? Kinda like Automotion.
Will there be more support for this kind of stuff in FCP Studio 2? Like Automator actions or anything?
Thanks,
Jeff
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3 Replies
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Take a look at Traffic from XM Edit. It’s purpose built for this type of thing.
Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog -
Thanks for the tip. I tested Traffic last year for this same project. I though it would save me, but it got really, really slow when I brought in a large edl with 8 different bins to swap, etc. to the point that it was just faster to manually replace clips. I had it spread across two screens and it just became too difficult to manage and too time consuming.
Jeff
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the fundamental source code for the app you need is freely available in Apple’s developer support webpages … its called Movie Assembler
MovieAssembler
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4. Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 or later. Xcode 2.1 or later.
The MovieAssembler sample application demonstrates the use of several new
capabilities in Final Cut Pro 5.1.2:– AppleEvent commands to communicate with and control Final Cut Pro.
– QuickTime metadata to identify and process movie files.
– Version 3 of the Final Cut Pro XML Interchange Format to access and
modify the contents of sequences in Final Cut Pro project files.Once configured properly, MovieAssembler monitors a watch folder for
newly copied media files. It uses ID tag(s) stored as metadata to specify
if and where a particular media file should be inserted into a selected
sequence.you may need to download and install the latest Developer tools to build the application, and of course you will have to write any additional code needed to adapt this to your particular workflow
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