[Adam White]

Thanks Andy.

I can see the logic of this, although generally I don’t tend to receive multiple files with the same name across different card masters from a shoot (thankfully the camera ops I mostly take material from avoid this).

If I understand correctly, applying the custom name as you describe would end up with files being referred to as one thing within FCPX, whilst those same files will have a different name at the Finder level. If this is the case, I guess that mis-match is best avoided (can see that leading to a whole load of confusion) so I’ll probably just leave the default settings as they are.

Cheers,
Adam

[Adam White]

Thanks both for info.

From what I’ve seen, I like the potential for easy Proxy workflows. Particularly for large multicam edits with many different angles, I can see this being very useful indeed.

As I understand it, the correct way to utilise a Proxy workflow would be;
* Import all media into the Event
* Create both Proxy and Optimised versions of all media
* Whilst working, set the preferences to “use proxy media”.
* Once edit is complete, and before beginning finishing tasks such as grading, set preferences back to “optimised or original media”.

Is that the correct way? Are there any major pitfalls/gotchas that I need to be aware?

Hopefully a 422LT transcode option will become available in the next update – still would certainly have a use for that. Though a Proxy workflow is also a very useful option to have.

Adam

[Adam White]

Thanks for taking the time to answer, Pat. Greatly appreciate your insight.

I will certainly go the AMA-Selects-Transcode route next time around.

[Adam White]

Currently I’m editing on either Avid Media Composer 6 or Final Cut Pro 7. FCP is still tool of choice where I know there is going to be a need for extensive FX work, or graphics. Avid for anything else – I try and use Avid as much as possible (to aid with getting more and more comfortable with it) but there are some jobs that instinctively feel like they might be painful with it.

Here in London, I still just see loads of FCP Legacy seats. I don’t think that’s going tp change until it is irretreavably broken by some OSX update at some point. There is a great deal of interest in Premiere Pro, and I think most FCP legacy users here will probably head towards that – I’m not sure they will until there is no choice but to do so, however.

I have yet to encounter any FCPX seats. All the conversations I have seem to end with the sentiment of ”Anything but X” and I think, fairly or unfairly, it’s reputation hasn’t really changed since the abysmal launch. I dare say there will be more proponents of it here over time but I honestly haven’t met any yet.

I’ve been really surprised by how little things have changed since the launch of X. At the time I thought things would start to change within a year or so, but its over 2 years later and in reality virtually nothing has changed in terms of the ubiquity of FCP legacy. That has surprised me somewhat.

[Adam White]

Amazing! Great idea, Mark. I have mapped the keyboard in the same way you have and it works great.

Such a small little bit of timeline agility but I know I’ll use it constantly! Thanks.

[Adam White]

Impossible to quantify the amount of processing time your tip will save me! Not to mention the number of extra beers that can now be consumed thanks to getting out the door earlier.

Thanks!

[Adam White]

Terrific! Sounds like just the ticket. Thankyou Michael, much appreciated, will certainly look into this in more depth when next in front of Avid.

[Adam White]

Sorry to post again, but I just noticed your comment with regards to method of ingesting, Michael.

Very interesting! I always assumed the process would take the same amount of time whether you Imported or Transcoded from AMA file. Any idea why it’s faster to use the transcode method?

Interestingly, just a couple hours ago I was transcoding some C300 files in Avid. I linked to original media via AMA to see how the performance was, and then decided that trusty DnXHD would be nicer to work with. And I did notice that the clips seemed to be processing faster than they would have if I’d just done a straight import.

[Adam White]

Great to know v7 has the ability to do background transcoding. Thanks for the insight. I read somewhere on Twitter that it doesn’t offer background exporting or rendering yet though, is that true?

To be honest, I think with my current set-up native editing of any kind is just a big NO-NO. It’s too painful an experience. Alot of it probably has to do with the basic video card I have on my iMac. I had similarly bad experiences editing native 5D and c300 files with Premiere Pro (software that I really didn’t care for anyway). Unless I absolutely, positively do not have the time to transcode (very rare for the work that I do) it is all about DnXHD or ProRes for me.

Hopefully AMA will become a more usable feature for me once I upgrade to one of the new Mac Pro’s.

[Adam White]

Everyone has already given some great insight.

I guess I was in a similar position to you in that the only thing I had ever cut on professionally was FCP. I was (am) incredibly agile with it, and a couple years or so into using it I got to that awesome place where the software itself seemed to melt away, it really became irrelevant, everything was so fluid that it was just about the actual task of EDITING.

On first trying out Avid, like you, I was incredibly frustrated. Why does the timeline not operate in the way I’m used to? Why are empty spaces in the timeline acting as “clips” and not empty spaces? Why do I need to go into different modes to carry out certain tasks? etc. And for an embarrassingly long time I was stumped by the opening dialogue boxes and project settings.

But stick with it. I guarantee, that when it starts to click into place, there will be lots about Avid that you love. For me, it’s the dynamic trimming which really stands out at the feature I just absolutely love. When I do a project in FCP now, it’s the first thing I miss! Add to that the robust stability (something that I felt sorely lacking from PP, one of several reasons I decided that it wasn’t going to be the replacement for FCP I wanted) and also the way you can work with audio, and you have an outstanding tool.

The other thing, which I believe has been noted by others, is that the sky is really the limit for you career-wise if you are comfortable working with Avid. For me, this was a big part of wanting to continue through the pain and get to grips with it. The sense that whatever job might come along, I would be ready for it. With FCP going the way of the dodo, knowing your stuff in Avid is more important than ever. I am still very sceptical about whether or not Premiere is going to become as ubiquitous as FCP became, so it seems foolish not to really get comfortable with Avid.

On the downside, the aspect of FCP that I really loved was what a diverse tool it was in that I could create great looking effects, and some pretty solid graded “looks”, and even some simple composites. I have yet to get to grips with these aspects of Avid (I can do a bit of simple colour work now, but that’s about it) and I don’t think it’s ever going to be the same kind of tool for these tasks as FCP was. But the interchange with After Effects is pretty great with Automatic Duck plugins, so even that isn’t too much of a downer.

I still have a huge amount to learn. Frustrations still occur quite frequently. But I’m getting there. It’s great to be getting more comfortable with a tool that you feel like you’re going to be using for years to come.