[Adam Claude jones]

Sorry, but nope. The material is 100% certain to be 10bit and it shows as such in other applications. It’s AE somehow.

[Adam Claude jones]

Hi Neil. Yes, I saw and already replied.

I’m not entirely sure what is the source of the Cineform files but I guess it came from the camera that way?

[Adam Claude jones]

Ok then. But if AE doesn’t change the footage, why is it that AE shows 10 bit footage as being Millions of Colors. Isn’t that 8 bit?
Thanks again.

[Adam Claude jones]

Thanks for that. I saw and already replied to you. 🙂

[Adam Claude jones]

Thanks for the detailed reply Neil. I appreciate it.

[Neil Sadwelkar]“What is the source of your DPX files? Are they scans coming out of a scanner? In that case the DPX files will normally have some time codes embedded in them.”

No. There original files were Cineform 10 bit 4:2:2. So not sure if it had actual timecode.

[Neil Sadwelkar]“You can convert these DPX sequences into QuickTime ProRes files in Color. Color creates Quicktimes which carry the same timecode as the DPX. Maybe if the DPX have some source info that too will get carried into the QuickTime.”

That would be handy. I would have to see if the DPX has some sort of timecode but my guess is it doesn’t. I guess all I have to work with is time duration. But Since the DPX were converted from the original camera files I may ask for it to be re-converted and to add some timecode this time if that would be even possible. If so, what type of timecode would you advise?

[Neil Sadwelkar]“You can then edit the ProRes files in FCP and make an EDL. This EDL in Color can reconnect back to the original DPX. You can then render out the DPX into new sequences, this time with handles so you have new DPX sequences that have only the used files not the original DPX length.”

So I would edit the ex-DPX prores files along with the rest of the show which is not DPX, finished the cut, make an EDL, open that EDL in Color, reconnect only the DPX parts of the show, then render out only the DPX parts into new DPX sequences and send that to VFX? Just making sure we are on the same page.

[Neil Sadwelkar]“VFX can work on these and send them back to you. Then you can again use Color to create ProRes files.”

Once the VFX shots comeback finished they would still be in DPX and as they will need to be strongly color corrected since the director wants a very pushy look to the show, converting them to prores before the grade wouldn’t be that great. I only QT to send it to FCP right? So I could grade it in DPX? Otherwise I would like to convert them to 10 bit uncompressed QT instead of prores. Could I still do this in Color?

So I would be reconforming in Color? The finished VFX shots would not even touch FCP till they have been graded and finished? And once I’m finished with the grade I use “send to FCP” and from there I just render out of FCP normally (for DVD) and render out of Color in DPX in case they do get a filmout ?(they may be sponsored for a filmout). In the case of rendering the finished show directly out of Color to DPX I may not even need to convert the finished shots to QT since I guess Color can work with DPX just fine. It was actually made for that right? Still not sure of that.

[Neil Sadwelkar]“FCP may not reconnect these ProRes files back to the sequence as now the length has changed.”

Oh, so I do need to reconform in FCP and not in Color? I thought if I would reconform in Color and use send to FCP I could just send it as a new sequence and FCP would not need to look for anything? I guess I misunderstood then.

[Neil Sadwelkar]“Depending on the number of shots, you can either plug them in manually (you have visual reference so it’s quite easy)”

Well, I have about 5TB of DPX shots here, so not exactly little 🙂

[Neil Sadwelkar]“If the number of shots is large, you can use FCP Reconnect to reconnect. That works even if the length is different from the original as it only looks at time code to reconnect.”

Never used it, so don’t know how it works. But I will check it out.

[Neil Sadwelkar]“Ideally you need to have GlueTools and FCP Reconnect. And Pomfort Silverstack to do easy DPX to QT conversions where you can view DPX info easily, and even do colour space conversions.”

FCP-reconnect seems cheap enough, but the whole idea of doing this offline workflow is to avoid Gluetools and a big RAID. Would I still need Gluetools then? Color can’t work with DPX without Gluetools? And wont Color convert the DPX to QT without Pomfort Silverstack?

[Neil Sadwelkar]“I have all three, and can help if you need.”

Thanks very much for the offer Neil. But with the amount of material I have it wouldn’t be very feasible. But thanks a lot and thanks for helping me iron out this workflow. Man, I miss the DV days 🙂

[Adam Claude jones]

Well, the question came up from the discussion on the thread I started a while ago. So technically the question was already posted on that thread. Maybe the thread just got too long and the question got lost and maybe I should post the separated questions as a new thread.

I just watched the tutorial by the way. Nice. The second offline method you presented is exactly what I want to do. The difference is I can’t just relink to the high-rez raw files because to do that I would have to send the whole clip to VFX and they would waste a lot of resources working on the frames I’m not using.

[Adam Claude jones]

Thanks Shane.

I will take a look at the tutorial as my workflow is also tapeless. Thanks.

I have DPX files which I want to do an offline workflow with because I don’t have Gluetools or a RAID. So I want to convert them to Prores to edit offline. The problem is how to re-connect the media later, specially that about half of it are green screen clips which have to be sent to VFX after I have edited them. But to VFX I need to send the DPX versions. The thing is how to reconnect the finished VFX shots later on the timeline and also how to send only the DPX frames that correspond to the parts of the (prores)footage I used on the timeline. Apart from doing it all manually, which given it’s 50% of the project would mean re-editing 50% of the project again when the VFX shots comeback, I don’t know how to do it. And also having to separate the corresponding DPX frames to send to VFX by hand. 🙁
This would be my first offline project.

[Adam Claude jones]

Yeah, but does AE lists Billion of Colors? I can only see either Million or Trillion.

[Adam Claude jones]

Well, the material is neither 8 bit or 16 bit. It is 10 bit, so what should it say?

Because at the moment is says Millions of Colors+(straight).

[Adam Claude jones]

[Matt Lyon]“And again, each VFX shot should be given a unique name (usually via text overlay slug in the timeline). You would create a corresponding folder on your delivery hard-drive, and place JUST the separated frames for that shot in it (with handles, if requested). The way you name these shots would be based on some agreed upon convention…”

That sounds good. But just one thing I’m still confused about.
If each VFX shot has to be given an unique name, but FCP links the shots to the original media, how will FCP replace these shots aromatically once I point it to the new folder containing the now finished VFX shots to re-connect to the media? The unique names of the VFX shots won’t match the original file, which is the raw footage before the cutting.
Like if I use 00:00-00:30 from take1 and then 04:00-04:30 of the same take1 and name the 2 shots VFX1 and VFX1B and send just these frames to VFX, how will FCP know where to put the clips once I re-connect the media? It will not longer point to Take1 but to VFX1 and VFX1B whihc FCP has no idea about. Do you know what I mean?

[Matt Lyon]“You’ll have to forgive me for probably glossing over large parts of the process, but there is simply too much to write! ”

Matt, you are helping a ton here and I’m extremely thankful for it.