Red to Avid Workflow

Avid Media Composer

Red to Avid Workflow

Posted by Seawild on April 3, 2009 at 7:41 pm

Howdy Folks,

Looking for some feedback/problems on our planned workflow.

I am working on a 2 hour Movie that is being shot on the RED Camera. We are shooting in LA and editing in New York.

We are planning on shooting during the day, then copying the R3D files to hard drive and being them back to our office.

We are then going to use REDrushes to render the R3D files to DNx 115 Dailies files over night.

Then the next day we are planning to take the DNx files into Media Composer and sync them to our Diva audio files, and then rename/organize them for editorial in New York. Also we will be exporting QVGA and making DVDs for Synced Dailies.

The synced Avid Project will then be sent on a firewire to New York and Editorial will open the Avid project and import the dailies into their Master Project file. (This is the part I am worried about!)

Any thoughts? Any “got’cha!”‘s

mooo,
Chris

Terence Curren replied 17 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 10 Replies
10 Replies

Seawild
April 3, 2009 at 10:11 pm

Hi!

Another question.. Does anyone know if the New Mac Nahlem’s work with Avid? Or does anyone have a link with the Avid system requirements?

thx,
Chris
Terence Curren
April 4, 2009 at 12:26 am

I’m betting Michael P will jump in here, but in the mean time check out this:

https://www.avid.com/RED/

MetaFuze will be in your future.

As for specs:

https://www.avid.com/products/Media-Composer-Software/system-requirements.asp

And no, the new processors are not supported yet.

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca
Seawild
April 4, 2009 at 12:46 am

Hi Terence,

Thanks for the info.. Well this project just got a little more complex.

Our Editor in New York is on a Composer 3.1.2 MoJo (G5 Dual 2.6) and wants to edit in SD because he thinks he can’t handle DNxHD files.. I’m not sure on this? He is asking for 5:1 DV25 MXF files.

I was imagining that will be pulling everything together with Composer 3.5.

The editor mentioned that he would put the project together in SD in FCP and use AutoDuck to convert it to an Avid project. Not so sure on this either..

Any help would be awesome..

thx,
Chris
Michael Phillips
April 4, 2009 at 1:26 am

Ouch – You can certainly work in SD, but I would suggest 14:1 and not DV25. You will need to use M
Seawild
April 4, 2009 at 3:04 am

Michael,

>Ouch – You can certainly work in SD, but I would suggest 14:1 and not DV25. You will need to use M

yes.. ouch. thanks. What is “M”? Isn’t 14:1 a Meridian thing? He said he wants DV25 specifically.

>Import ALE, batch import the QT and select 14:1. His system will support HD and editing 1080p/23.976 works with the version he is running.

23.976. That is what I wanted to hear, no reason to deal with pull-down in this day and age.. But can he use DNxHD files on a 3.1.2? And how can he avoid the 6:1 import time? How about 720P 60DNx..?

Thanks much!
Chris
Seawild
April 4, 2009 at 3:10 am

moo,

Will rendering R3D in MetaFuse eliminate the long time to import DNx QT files into Avid? Or is this just like using REDrushes?

thx!
Michael Phillips
April 4, 2009 at 2:13 pm

Media Composer since v1.x support DNxHD resolutions. I would suggest the offline be done at 1080p/23.976 at DNxHD 36. A transcode will need to take place at some point in the dailies process – some customers are seeing 3x longer than real time when on an 8 core Mac from 1/2 debayer which is just fine for offline.

MetaFuze eliminates the QT wrapped DNxHD state and the additional fast import into Media Composer. It is not the fastest transcode at this time due to some limitations that exist in the current version of the SDK. This will be improved in the next version.

14:1 is pretty much the standard SD resolution used by all features that do not cut in HD. Seeing as he has a Mojo, there is no advantage to DV 25 other than using up 2x more storage and is not as efficient a codec performance wise. 14:1 is not an “m” resolution and is still used today on all latest versions.

The only consideration is HD Monitoring – the Mojo (non DX version) will do a basic job of monitoring in SD, but is not a true down convert. He can always go full screen over DVI to see HD.

Michael

Michael Phillips
Terence Curren
April 4, 2009 at 2:18 pm

[Michael Phillips] “The only consideration is HD Monitoring – the Mojo (non DX version) will do a basic job of monitoring in SD, but is not a true down convert. He can always go full screen over DVI to see HD. “

Or Matrox MXO:

https://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo/

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca
Seawild
April 4, 2009 at 10:12 pm

Thanks for the help guys!

I have sent the editor a DNxHD 36 file and am waiting to see if he would like/able to go that route.

The quicktime I made has the original TC info, but I have read that AVID might not read the QT timecode.. MetaCheater might be a work around I guess..

But, I am now looking into using Automatic Duck. This workflow might go something like this;

1) Render 23.98 HD ProRes HQ out of REDrushes.

2) Sycn Prores to Audio in FCP – Organize clips into Scene and Take Bins

3) Export as AVID project render media as 23.98 DV25 MXF Files or 14:1

4) Editor completes cut in AVID Composer and use AVID OMF to online back to Prores in FCP.

Waht ya think?
thx,
Chris
Terence Curren
April 5, 2009 at 1:15 am

3.5 reads imported TC

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

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