Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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We have the CS2 Production bundle (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro 2.0, AE 7, etc…) installed on a MC Adrenaline and Avid Xpress. No problems here. I just wouldn’t suggest opening Premiere and Avid at the same time–if you’re going to run into problems, that’s probably where it would be.
Michael.
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It’s Boris Continuum Complete, the plug-in package that comes with new Media Composer purchases. You can also buy it seperately here:
https://www.borisfx.com/product/continuum/
It’s a nice package. Lots of effects with a lot of possibilities, and more reasonably priced than Sapphire.
Michael.
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Just to clarify, the editor wants to cut down on his import time. If you give them a quicktime in the Animation codec Avid will have to transcode it to OMF or MXF in an Avid codec during import. Depending on the length of the quicktime file, this will be a couple of seconds or a couple of hours.
If you render in an Avid codec the import is almost instantaneous. After that, they render only if they’ve hit the realtime playback limit in their Avid, which is dependent on how many effects they’re using, what resolutions, drives, etc…
I second the Meridien codec. Is it old? Yes. Is it a great codec and does it work on both old and brand new Avids? Yes and yes. And, as moldyboot said, make sure your editor knows what color space you worked in and the field order (if any) you rendered in. They’ll have to set their import settings accordingly. Otherwise, all should be good!
Michael.
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https://www.avid.com/content/7334/XpressUserGuide.pdf
Check out the part on Logging and Capturing footage. It explains it in detail. If you get stuck, let us know.
Michael.
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There’s something wrong on their end. Importing a quicktime encoded in an Avid codec is a relatively fast import. Make sure they have their import settings to match your file–size, field order, invert alpha/use existing alpha/ignore alpha, and color space. Also, as mentioned above, have them check their resolution on import.
Importing a 3-4 minute movies shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes on a new system, and that’s if it’s completely reencoding from, say, a targa sequence. Have them check their import settings again.
One last thought–how did you deliver the file? Is it burned on a DVD? If so, and if they’re trying to import from the DVD, it could be a bottleneck there. They should copy the files to their hard drive–say the system drive–then import from there. It will speed things up a lot.
Michael.
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alyousha,
You’re misunderstanding what I’m saying about using the matte as a luma matte. I’m not talking about applying a filter or an effect here–I’m taking about using it as a track matte.
In After Effects, import your Matte and Fill.
Make a new composition and drag the Matte and Fill to it, with the Matte above the Fill.
Assuming you’re using a default layout, look at your composition–you should see the eyeballs where you turn your layers on and off, then the source name of your layers, then the switches where you can change each layer from Full resolution to Draft, set a layer to shy mode, turn motion blur on for the layer, etc… This is the Switches column.
Hit F4 and the switches column will change to the Modes column and show your Transfer Modes and Track Matte options. You want to click on the pull down box of the Track Matte for your Fill layer and set it to either Luma Matte or Luma Inverted Matte, depending on what’s black and what’s white in the Matte layer above it.
After Effects will use the Matte layer, which is directly above the fill layer, as the Matte Key for the Fill layer. Any part of the Matte Layer that is 100% black will make the corresponding parts of the fill layer completely transparent, and any part of the Matte layer that is 100% white will make the corresponding parts of your fill layer opaque, and shades of grey will be semi-transparent.
This should key your footage. If you still have a little bit of a halo, precomp the Matte and Fill and add a Matte Choker, soften and adjust to taste, then finish your compositing.
Hopefully this made sense. It does work–I’ve done it with hundreds of clips. I get a better key in Avid using Ultimatte than I do in After Effects with Keylights. This is how I maintain that key in After Effects for the final compositing.
Let me know if this makes sense for you–also, look up Track Mattes in the After Effects help book/online help. It should explain it in further detail.
Michael.
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Using the matte as a luma matte will work, but you might have to invert the luma matte.
Perhaps most importantly–what program are you trying to composite in? You said your footage was keyed in the Avid and you wanted to export it with an alpha. You never said where it’s next destination was–is it going to Premiere? Is it going to After Effects? Combustion? Shake? Where you’re sending it will make a difference in how you use the matte and fill.
Michael.
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What version of Media Composer are you running? I believe 720P/50 support was added in 2.7.
This link is geared more towards 720PN/25, but there might be something else there that might help with 720P/50…
https://www.avid.com/exchange/forums/post/212451.aspx
Michael.
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Well, I just imported an OMF that I had captured yesterday. It actually creates another OMF file.
If you have a teacher who takes everything they captured (I assume on an external drive) and imports these OMFs into the student’s project, they’re basically wasting their time. It seems to do the exact same thing as consolidating would (copying the media to the local drive, from the external), but I’m betting importing is slower. Why don’t they just copy the OMFs and open the original project? It will relink and you won’t have to worry about importing anything.
It seems like they might not know about consolidating, or transferring files at the desktop level? Maybe they know it but they’re just not comfortable? The only time I can think to import an OMF is if you’re given one as media that you don’t already have–say, rendering a composition out of After Effects.
I’d be interested to know their reasoning behind the OMF imports. If they give you a good reason, please share it here, and good luck with your request for some lanshares.
Michael.