Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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Copy everything in the OMFI MediaFiles folder on each of the two non-external to the OMFI MediaFiles folder on the external. You can’t have more than one OMFI folder on a drive and expect Avid to see it. Only one, at the root of the drive, called OMFI MediaFiles. Again, Copy everything, because if there are two files named the same you’ll get message telling you so and asking if you want to overwrite. You can click “yes to all” and go get some lunch while everything transfers, or sit at the system and click “No”, which will take up your time but make the transfer faster. Your choice.
Before you delete anything on your two non-external drives, take your external to the other system and check to make sure your sequence is online. First, delete the two database files in the OMFI MediaFiles folder, then start Avid. It will rebuilt your database, recognizing your newly transferred media, and hopefully linking it to your sequence. Check it. If your sequence isn’t linked, Unlink it then try relinking it again. It should be online. If everything checks out ok it will then be ok to delete everything on your original two non-external (I guess that would be Internal) drives. Good luck. Post back if you have questions.
Mike.
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Oops. Internet is being bothersome. Sorry.
m.
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When I worked in the ad business I stayed didn’t spend much time with the media department, but what I understood was that an “Agency” bought media at a 15% discount and sold it to the client at the media outlet’s original quoted price. Of course, most clients were prepay on their media or required a sizable deposit to protect the ad agency from going broke or taking on too great of a risk by fronting all the money.
This is changing, however, with many larger clients now negotiating having to pay a much smaller percentage–I know some of our clients paid only 5 or 10% “commission” because they spent so much and played the whole, “Well, XXX Agency will only charge us Y%, but we want to stay with you guys because you’re so nice. But we’ll switch in a heartbeat if you don’t meet our demands”. Gotta love the multi-million dollar clients.
Other’s didn’t pay a “commission” but a standard rate for a negotiated amount of media time–say 500 cable spots on 2nd-3rd tier stations to run sometime between 9am-9pm with free filler runs from 9pm-9am if the station had high inventory levels left at air time. These packages were negotiated between the agency and the cable service–they had a pretty close relationship. This meant the cable outlet would sell their surplus inventory for less than desired, but received at least some money for airtimes that would otherwise have been filled with excessive promotions or “freebies” for other paying clients.
Your best bet would be to call the media outlets in your area and figure out 1) How many clients you have to have to be considered an agency, and 2) How they handle media sales. Some may give you a discounted rate if you fit the “agency” criteria or give you kickbacks.
And remember, this entire industry is built on trust. The client trusts you’re going to put your heart and soul into their project to give them the best commercial at the budget level, you trust the client is going to pay you and listen to your professional advice, and you have to trust the media salespeople to handle your business with care–that is, to get you the best rate they can at the best run times given your clients budget, and that they won’t go directly after your clients and try to make the buy directly. Remember–a direct buy to a client typically means a higher commission to the salesperson. Selling to an agency may mean making less money, and there are some very unethical salespeople. Find someone you can trust and they’ll help walk you through it all.
Good luck!
Mike.
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I have no idea. Never seen this happen. Has anything been installed on your system lately? And are the pictures you’re panning and zooming on still showing up–just not the moves on them? If the pictures are still there, try reloading them and see if it makes a difference. Otherwise, you have me stumped.
Mike.
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Have you rendered? Try that, and/or make sure “Render on the fly” is turned on.
Mike.
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So you’re editing audio, but the sample plots are kind of small. You could always enlarge the tracks by selecting them and hitting Ctrl+L, but if you have a lot of audio layers you’ll find yourself having to scroll up and down a lot. So just make the Sample Plots larger!
On a PC select the tracks you want to enlarge the sample plots on and hit Alt+Ctrl+L to make the sample plots larger–Alt+Ctrl+K to make them smaller. I suppose on a Mac it would be Option+Ctrl+L and Option+Ctrl+K, but I don’t have a Mac to test it.
Now you can see more detail in your sample plots without making your audio tracks enormous.
Mike.
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No worries–just make another bin called “Quick Transitions in Transition” or some other such silly nonsense and put the transitions you probably won’t be using for a particular project in there. Just load up your Quick Transitions bin with those pertinent to your project to keep the list manageable and rock ‘n roll!
Mike.
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Export as a .png sequence. Should do the trick.
M
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This has worked on every system I’ve had the pleasure to cut on:
QUICK TRANSITIONS:
Hitting the quick transition button on your Avid will give you a little dialog box where you can choose dissolve, film dissolve, fade to color, fade from color, and dip to color. But what if you have a custom transition you plan on using a lot, like a crazy circle wipe or 5 frame white flash? Well, you could manually apply it to every cut, adjust the parameters in each, or copy the effect to a bin then drag it to each transition…OR have it pop up in your Quick Transition Dialog Box!
Make a bin and call it Quick Transitions NOTE THE SPELLING AND CAPITALIZATION!
Save any transition effects you want to use to this bin. Then, when you hit the Quick Transitions button and click the pull down menu where you have Dissolve, Film Dissolve, Fade to Color, etc…you will see a list of all of your saved transition effects in your Quick Transitions bin! Best of all–the bin doesn’t even have to be open!
I have a Quick Transitions bin in a project called “The Necessary Stuff”. It includes bars, tone, slates, and my favorite Quick Transitions. For every project I open the Quick Transitions bin–all my saved transitions are there, and when I delete my project they’re still online because they’re in The Necessary Stuff project! Genius, Avid, Genius!!
Mike.
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I posted this on the Avid Forum in response to a question, but it’s a good trick to know for those starting out.
HOW TO MAKE A CUSTOM MATTE USING AVID’S TITLE TOOL.
Say you have an interview you want to put in a little circle or oval over some background footage. You try to use the circle wipe, but it only creates a matte in in the center of your screen and you want your interview to be in the lower right hand corner. What to do?!?
2 Effects–1 PIP, 1 Matte Key effect.
1 Title.The Recipe:
I set up the scenario to get you going. V1 is your Background. V2 is an Interview. V3 is your Matte.Cut your background into place on V1. Cut your interview into place on V2. Apply a PIP effect to your interview, size it until it suits and then move it to the corner you want it in (in this case, lower right hand corner).
Open your Title Tool. Select the Circle button and make a circle over your interview portion of the screen (to make a perfect circle, hold Shift while you make it). Make this circle in the exact size and position you want your interview footage to show when it’s all said and done.
Make the fill of your circle completely black. Now deselect the V at the bottom of the title tool to turn off the video preview–thereby giving your title a solid background. Select the box to the left of the V and choose White. You want it to be a white circle on a black background. When you’ve done this, save the title.
Cut this title onto V3. Remove the title effect. This will leave you with just your fill. You should have a white background with a black circle. Now, apply a Matte Key effect to V3. This should create a circle matte exactly where you want it, keeping just a circle part of your interview and punching the rest out, leaving your background.
2 More Things:
1. I might have the colors mixed up. If it’s giving you the inverse of what you want, either make the background of your title black and the circle white, or choose “Invert Matte” in the matte key effect.2. You’ll have a hard edge on your circle. If you don’t like that, do this: Make your circle as before, then apply a 1 drop shadow. Make the fill completely transparent and the shadow completely opaque and black. Then apply a Soften Shadow (Alt+Ctrl+H on a PC). The higher the number, the softer the edge (choose from 4 to 40). This will give you a soft, gradient like transparency blend on your matte.
Use this trick anytime you want to make a custom matte without having to go to photoshop. The title tool, as backwards and weird as it is, can be your friend.
If you have additional tips/trick, post here!
Michael.