[Glenn Sakatch]

I’ve been on DS since late 1999. It has come a long way in conform from MC. I tried smoke in 2011, but couldn’t really afford the time to learn it before a new job was to begin, so i stuck with DS. We have done conforms from MC and FCP (using duck or boris) to ds, and even the FCP confroms have gotten better.

With a MC to DS conform you can either send a list and re aquire your footage from source material, or you can simply use the DNXHD media in both applications.

I use Red footage in DS quite a bit. The workflow from MC to Red, going from an offline res to a full HD, 2k or 4k resolution is very very good. Including very easy reformatting of frame size, or different color versions of the same shot.

In my limited experience with smoke, i found the editing side of things horrible. I know the idea is to edit with MC, and conform with another tool, but there are always time when you have to do something in the online suite. I also found the CC tool on smoke to be lacking a bit. A guy who used to work for us and is now on his own, started with smoke, but quickly added Lustre for better CC control.
I know some of that is supposed to have change for their newer version.

As for hardware, DS isn’t really on dedicated hardware anymore. Its the same idea as smoke. You have to buy a qualified computer. Mac for smoke, PC for DS. I’m assuming you aren’t going down the linux version of Smoke. You also need some qualified hardware. Specific graphics card and Kona hardware for DS- not sure what smoke is qualified with anymore.

Also good to note that DS comes with a free license of Media Composer- so there is a savings right there.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

there is no “close gap” function. If you have a gap in the video, you have to place your bar in the gap, press the t button to select that gap, (assuming only video is selected) and hit the X button.

You want to park your bar on a clip, press your in and out mark “t” button, and not have the in and out
be wider than the clip you are parked on. correct? The in and out is wider because you have your audio track selected when you are pressing the “t” button, and your audio clip is different than your video clip, or you would get the same problem if you have more than 1 video track selected. The box is basically trying to find (based on your track selections) where the next instance of an in and out would be that covers all your selected tracks.
You mention that later you deselect the audio before hitting the extract button. Try deselecting the audio
before you hit the T button. That should at least mark your in and out correctly.

I’m still not sure if you are trying to delete the audio under the clip or you are trying to get the audio to lock, but only have the video extract and shorten.

i should add, although i’ve never been a huge final cut fan, the close gap function was one of those functions that when i first used it , i said. “that I like!”

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

Have you tried selecting your clips and then hitting the delete button?

Also, I think i had my left and right backwards when i wrote that last post, drag your box from the left to the right to multi select clips.

You can also multi select a wide range, then unselect the ones you don’t want with the control button…or is it the shift button? not in front of the avid right now.

If you have drawn a large box to select clips, and get video or audio tracks you don’t want included, you can deselect those tracks and they won’t be highlighted any more, the the selected ones will stay highlighted. (hold shift before deselecting tracks and you can just swipe down the list to deselect them as you go.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

I think you misunderstood my answer. Point is that if you could do that kind of mapping, you would have to be a rocket scientist to memorize each possible combination.

just turn on auto patch on your timeline settings. Avid usually does a good job for figuring out the basic patches.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

It would be a pretty elaborate keyboard map that could have a button for each possiblility.

1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4….
16-1
16-2
16-3

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

just press the delete button. If you have a bunch of effects, it will delete those on the first pass. If it is just a clean clip, it will delete that. You can also draw a box with the shift key held down to multiselect clips, then press the delete button. The box has to be done from the right to the left, and only the clips totally
surrounded by the box will be selected.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

on windows its alt matchframe, for the clip to retain its last set of in and outpoints.

Mac, not sure…maybe alt, maybe command?

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

Sorry, tried to respond to this last week, but the posting never went through.

There is no risk to renaming any folder… as long as you understand the rules regarging read/write (if folder only has numbers) and read only (if folder has letters)

If you want to add new footage to a folder, simply put it back to a number only naming convention, let avid rebuild the database, then name it back to what you really want to call the folder. Remember, anything “new’ that you do, will go into the folder called “1”. That is where you’ll find the stuff you want to copy to a different folder

You can rename these folders as much as you want…Avid doesn’t care, as long as the folder is in the proper area Avid MediaFiles/mxf/yourfoldername,
The folder also has to have an accurate database for Avid to find all the footage in it. (see paragraph 3 above)

To locate renders, run your media tool and have it search for precomputes.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

If you are constantly switching back and forth between a couple of major projects, and want to keep them separated, you can also rename the numbered folders to anything else you want…after the database has been built. If all your media for job1 has been captured to a “1” folder, and you are about to start capturing for job2…take the “1” folder and rename it job1. then start capturing for job 2. A new “1” folder will then be created. At the end of that process, change that folder to job2. The databases can be read by Avid in a folder with letters…but Avid can’t write anything new to that folder…including updating the database. It is a great way to keep media organized for all to see what is in the folder. All renders and such you do will go into a “1” folder. I don’t usually worry about splitting renders into separate named folders…they can always be recreated if deleted accidentally.

Also, with the mxf file structure, if you capture from tape, you will notice not only the A and V representing audio and video, but the first set of numbers on the file are your clip names…or part of your clip names. Not sure offhand if this is the case for imported files. After a while, it is possible to look through that maze of numbers and find individual shots.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

no the plus sign doesn’t appear anywhere. The book is simply using that instead of the word “and”

same as trying to stop some onscreen functions, it will tell you to do a “command + .” or “ctrl + .”

Probably would be better served to say “command and .” or “ctrl and .”

Glenn