Unable to find source AAF file -Round Trip Avid Export

[Peter Chamberlain]

It sounds like the original AAF from Avid for this project has been deleted or moved and so Resolve can’t read, modify and write the new one for export. If you put the original back in the same location it was in it should work fine.
Peter

[Roman Hankewycz]

Peter,
Can you explain why exporting an AAF requires an original AAF to build from whereas exporting an XML can be done from scratch in Resolve?

roman hankewycz
harbor film company // colorist

[John Michaels]

If you have not made any edits to your sequence in Resolve, you do not need to export a new AAF from Resolve at all. That’s just for if you have changed the cuts on the timeline in the Conform tab, added transitions, etc that you want reflected back in your graded Avid sequence.

When you say you cannot relink the new media in Avid, could you please be more specific? Do you see the new graded media in Avid at all? You should place your graded MXFs in one of the numbered folders within your Avid MediaFiles/MXF folder, and they should then be visible within the Media Tool.

[Ronen Pestes]

Peter, is there a way to point resolve to the original file or to a new clone file from the Avid?

It seems that part of my issue is connected to the Hard drive not being seen by the OS the same way. My drive was not showing up in the Device list of the browser, however I can access files and save. In reslove I had issues to see the drive as well.

My media is on another drive, I can see all the grades and modify them as needed, just not to export the AAF.

Michael, no edits in resolve. I just went back to touch up few shots. Resolve create a new MXF media, so you do need a new AAF to link to it. I can get the media via Media Tool and use it, but this is not a round-trip. The strange thing however is the the media generated has the same file name, so in theory, Avid should just be able to replace one file with another.

FYI- My original round-trip, most of the effects cam back perfectly, however some resize effect did not.

Ronen

[John Michaels]

Again, you do not need a new AAF if you have not changed your edits in Resolve. You can simply export the new MXFs using unique filenames, bring them in to your project via the Media Tool, and relink them to your existing sequence in Media Composer. Just be sure the original media and the graded media both belong to the same tape name for the relink to be successful.

[Ronen Pestes]

Apparently Resolve is not embedding the tape name in the individual clips. This is why Avid is not able to relink. Tape column in Avid is empty. Modifying the tape and you can relink.

Is it an Avid issue or Resolve?

[John Michaels]

Resolve embeds the tape name for me. Note that the “Tape Name” in Avid is the same thing as the “Reel Number” in Resolve. So in Resolve, do your source clips show the correct tape name in the “Reel No” column? Or is it blank? Because Resolve carries that information over to the new MXFs it renders.

EDIT: If Resolve does not show the proper reel number/tape name for your source clips, you’ll need to fix that before you render out. Go over to your media pool in the Browse tab, highlight your clips, right-click them and choose “Set Reel Number.” You’ll have several options to choose from. If you’re importing MXFs from Avid, you can probably choose “Embedding in source clip” to get the right tape name. If you’re using something that isn’t MXF (like AMA-linked footage in Avid), you’ll have to set them manually, or you have a few other options if you refer to the Resolve manual on the subject.

[Nat Jencks]

I know this is an old thread, but 3 years later, this is still an issue.

I second Roman’s question, why would the AAF need to be in the same file path that is was originally imported from? This seems like a bug.

I just wrapped a project where the initial AAF was imported from a location on local storage but which was later consolidated to a new location.

It now seems to be impossible to export an AAF for the avid. The AAF itself is very little data? Why not copy the needed information into resolve when the AAF is imported? Or at the very least allow it to be relinked to throw up a dialog allowing the user to find the original AAF if its not in the original path.

But really I don’t see any reason why the data from the AAF can’t just be imported into resolve when the sequence is first imported.

Please consider this somewhere between a feature request and a but report, thanks!
-Nat