[Lenny Greaster]

With Debugmode Frameserver outputting a “temp.avi” pointer file, setting up a “temp.avs” with just “DirectShowSource(“temp.avi”)” prevents FFMPEG from throwing up an Invalid pixel format ‘-1’ error if the source is just the pointer. It also matches the most prominent instructions on the web for making ProRes on the PC as well as the detailed workflow I posted awhile back…
Re: Pro Res Format?

I wrote a script which watches for complete mov’s and stops the frameserving but also starts the next one queued up in Adobe Media Encoder. That way I can batch to ProRes from Premiere/After Effects without using any intermediate encodes – it’s actually faster than my Mac for After Effects to Prores renders.

There are plenty of .bat scripts to bulk transcode intermediate files to ProRes (or any other codec) with FFMPEG on the web and some GUI’s like “Avanti” and “Another GUI FFMPG”. These are pretty easy to utilize.
What advanced batching methods do you use?

[Lenny Greaster]

I’m pretty sure you can use Avid DNxHD as the codec to import into Resolve. The Avid PC codecs are free (download from Avid) and they are Quicktime wrapped (mov file) so you need to create an export preset in Media Encoder.

Make sure you have the Quicktime PC decoder for ProRes (from Apple). With this you can happily use/read ProRes in Premiere.

If you absolutely have to have ProRes (and stuck on a PC) then you can use FFMPEG to make the ProRes mov files. You either make an intermediate file (uncompressed or DNxHD) and use FFMPEG directly or you can use a combination of Debugmode Frameserver, AVISynth and FFMPEG to make ProRes right out of Adobe Media Encoder.

[Lenny Greaster]

Let’s see if this is formatted correctly…

Here's a quick "how to" for FFMPEG (assuming an intermediate file "source.avi")

1. Install FFMPEG (download from https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ I'll use the 32bit Static (latest)

2. Place the FFMPEG_32 folder in Program Files
3. Copy "source.avi" into the same directory
4. Open a Command Prompt
5. Type "Set path=C:\Program Files\FFMPEG_32\bin;%path%" -no quotes, press Enter
6. Type "ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 3 -acodec copy output.mov" -no quotes, Press Enter
7. "output.mov" will be ProRes 422 (HQ) and in the same directory

Options
The path can be set in the ffmpeg script for the source and the output example:

ffmpeg -i E:\Media Drive\Project\Render\source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 3 -acodec copy E:\Media Drive\Project\Final\output.mov

[Lenny Greaster]

You’re very welcome! Sorry my back-slashes in all the file paths didn’t come out, I hope that doesn’t throw anyone… should have used the code button, d-uh!

[Lenny Greaster]

Here’s a quick “how to” for FFMPEG (assuming an intermediate file “source.avi”)

1. Install FFMPEG (download from https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ I’ll use the 32bit Static (latest)

2. Place the FFMPEG_32 folder in Program Files
3. Copy “source.avi” into the same directory
4. Open a Command Prompt
5. Type “Set path=C:Program FilesFFMPEG_32bin;%path%” -no quotes, press Enter
6. Type “ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 3 -acodec copy output.mov” -no quotes, Press Enter
7. “output.mov” will be ProRes 422 (HQ) and in the same directory

Options
The path can be set in the ffmpeg script for the source and the output example:

ffmpeg -i E:Media DriveProjectRendersource.avi -vcodec prores -profile 3 -acodec copy E:Media DriveProjectFinaloutput.mov

Here are the different ProRes settings:

PRORES proxy ‘apco’ – 36mbps ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 0 -acodec copy output.mov
PRORES 422 (LT) ‘apcs’ – 75mbps ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 1 -acodec copy output.mov
PRORES 422 ‘apcn’ – 112mbps ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 2 -acodec copy output.mov
PRORES 422 (HQ) ‘apch’ – 185mbps ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 3 -acodec copy output.mov
PRORES 422 (4444)’apch’ – 185mbps+ ffmpeg -i source.avi -vcodec prores -profile 3 -pix_fmt yuv444p10 -acodec copy output.mov

That’s it! There are a couple of UI’s for FFMPEG and you can write a bat script to batch encode a whole folder. The DebugFrameServer/AviSynth work flow is a bit more complex but easy enough when you’ve done it a few times.

I hope this is helpful!

[Lenny Greaster]

With a little effort you can. You can use Debugframeserver, Avisynth and FFMPEG directly from an export – or make an intermediate file (maybe uncompressed) and just feed that into FFMPEG to make ProRes mov.

Otherwise I would suggest DNxHD as an alternative (download the free Avid codec).

[Lenny Greaster]

Use After Effects then dynamic link to Premiere.

[Lenny Greaster]

Choose Quicktime as the format then click on the preset and then in the video tab change the codec to h.264 and make sure your video size, frame rate and data rate is correct (it’s a preset, it doesn’t know your sequence settings). Now you will have h.264 in a Quicktime wrapper (an “.mov” file).