Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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Since it’s already been cut on Avid and you’re a DS operator, I would suggest renting the DS. Taking a project from Avid to FCP would be a headache, add a lot of time ensuring everything onlines correctly, and you wouldn’t be left owning equipment that may not be used for a while. If you go with the dS, the time you would have spent porting everything from Avid to FCP could be spent actually working–meaning, making money. No reason to muddy the waters just to stay on a MAC system. Rent DS, get the job done, cash the check and start the next project. Good luck, it sounds like fun!
M.
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You sure can. Just make an OMFI MediaFiles folder in the root of your external drive. For example, if you external drive is your L:\, it would be L:\OMFI MediaFiles NOTE THE EXACT SPELLING, SPACING, AND CAPITALIZATION!
To transfer footage from your online system to the external drive, I would suggest using MDV or MediaSift, both file transfer programs for Avid, available for free.
MDV: https://fiool.nm.ru/progz/ The site is in Russian but the program is in English.
MediaSift: https://www.senkou.com/ I use this one–it doesn’t work with MXF Files, but I don’t use them. If you use OMF only this should be fine–otherwise, use MDV. I haven’t used it yet, but it’s supposed to be pretty powerful.
Once copied, plug your external drive into your new system, trash the Media Database files in the OMFI MediaFiles folder on the external (if there are Media Database files–sometimes with a transfer there won’t be).
Copy your project folder to the new system–put it in the Avid Projects folders, and when you launch the Avid it should see the project and the project should link up to the media on your external. If you deleted the Media Database files on the external Avid will rebuild the database and relink the files to your project. If it isn’t relinked, select your sequences and clips and choose ReLink. Also, if the Avid isn’t recognizing the external, choose File–>Mount All. This will force the Avid to mount your external and use it as a drive.
One word of warning–depending on the speed of your external, the resolution of your footage, the complexity of your edit, and whether the port you plug the external into is on a bus that’s sharing resources with anything else (like a Mojo), you might not get realtime playback. But give it a shot, and if not–transfer the media off your external to your regular media drives on your new system.
I do it all the time at work between our Xpress Pro, Media Composer, and Xpress Meridien systems. I’ve never had a problem. Good luck!
Mike.
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Thanks! I had thought about writing a manual to Avid editing and effects that would come with an accompanying DVD, but the amount of time it would take is greater than the amount of free time I have right now. That and I’m not conviced I know nearly enough to make it a guide worth buying. Thanks for the vote of confidence though! Glad everything worked for you.
Mike.
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Sure is, and it’s one of my favorite tricks. Here’s your list of ingredients:
2 Effects–1 PIP, 1 Matte Key effect.
1 Title.The Recipe:
We’ll set up a scenario to get you going. V1 is your Background. V2 is your 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.
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 the exact size and position you want it to be 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. The title tool, as backwards and weird as it is, can be your friend.
Post back if you have problems, and best of luck!
Michael.
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In addition, make sure you’ve selected the Video button in your capture tool. You should see a V, A1, A2, etc… Select the tracks you want to capture or you’ll end up digitizing nothing–or the wrong tracks altogether. And if the V isn’t selected you won’t see any video in the Avid monitor when you play the tape.
M.
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Well, you’re running the wrong driver and in the wrong mode, and I remember seeing some posts a while back where people had trouble running their monitors at different resolutions. Scour the readme that comes with Xpress Pro HD 5.x. It will tell you the correct driver to use and how to set it up. It even gives you the driver–it’s in your Avid folder. Do a search for nVidia on your system and it’ll pull it up. Avid is extremely picky about what cards you use and what drivers you use. Follow their instructions for uninstalling your old driver and installing the new one to see if you can get your problem fixed, and set up your display settings per Avid’s instruction. Dual mode/clone isn’t it, but off the top of my head I can’t remember what is correct. It’s all outlined in the readme. Start by looking there.
Mike.
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You can use the animation codec, which is lossless. Render in the correct field order so you don’t get jitters, and if you want to bring an alpha into the Avid set it to million of colors+ with a straight alpha. When you import into your Avid, select the same field order you rendered it out of and invert existing alpha.
For a faster import, visit the Avid website and download the Avid codecs. Will decrease your file format conversion time dramatically. If you use an Avid codec, use Use Existing Alpha when you import it into your Avid.
If you run into problems post back here and we’ll walk you through it.
Mike.
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Cinematography is definitly a craft and an art form, and it’s the sum of multiple talents, often requiring multiple people very skilled in select areas. Pick your favorite movie and pay attention to the lighting, the color pallete, the angles used, wardrobe, camera movements…all of these areas had different people dedicated to just that.
In my opinion, lighting goes a long, long way to a “professional” look. Choosing whether you want rich, deep colors or a flatter, almost monotone look. And don’t forget that a lot of work is done in post by professional colorists. Ever watch deleted scenes that aren’t finished? They often look more harsh–more detailed, and the colors don’t “pop” like the finished piece.
The best advice I could give you is find someone who is good at lighting and ask, beg, plead, bribe, blackmail them (ok, maybe not blackmail) into letting you shadow them. Learn, learn, learn. Do the same with DOPs, editors, colorists, directors, etc. etc. etc…heck, even actors. There is no one quick fix or piece of technology that will give you the look you want. Best of luck…it’s a lot to learn, but an awesome field to be in.M.
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I posted your problem on the Avid forums (turns out I needed to do the same thing you did, and that’s when I found out it couldn’t be done). As best we could come up with as a workaround in that forum was to cut your video that’s intended for the PIP effect before or after the background video. Then, when you open your color corrector you can choose to view the previous or next edit in one of the three monitors. Gives you a bit of a reference. Make your color correction there, exit CC mode, place your color corrected clip over the background and apply the PIP effect, hoping for the best. Step in and out from there for final tweaks.
I’ll let you if I can come up with a better workaroud, but right now it doesn’t seem like there is one.
Mike.
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I haven’t tried this, and I’m not in front of the system right now, so it might not work, but…
1. Load your clip into your source window.
2. Open your Digitize/Capture tool
3. Load your tape and select the right tape name
4. Drag your master clip from your bin or source monitor to your Digitize/Capture window.It should load the timecode information into the timecode boxes. Make sure you have deck control and hit Q (the Go To In button on the keyboard–might be different if you remapped it). It will cue up to that frame and you can check to make sure they match.
M.