Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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I guess the most important questions should be, why are you considering changing anything? If your 3 FCP systems are working well for you, do you really need another editing system? If you do, do you have the time to dedicate to learning a brand new system (assuming no one at your shop had Avid experience)? Avid is very different from FCP, and some editors have a hard time switching from one to the other. Just because other post houses in your area have Avid and/or Smoke shouldn’t influence your decision here, unless you plan on working with them and need rock solid compatibility. Otherwise, you could call your local Avid reseller and request a demonstration. That way you can get some hands on experience.
If you definitely do want to go to Avid, the system you gets depends on how deep your pockets are and what you want to do with it. If you plan on doing a lot of HD work, you need secondary color correction, multiple streams of real-time video with effects, then go with the Symphony. This, however, will set you back quite a bit–I think about 60K.
The Media Composer is a beautiful system, especially since it now operates with Mojo/MojoSDI or as software only. It’s capable of realtime color correction, multiple streams of 1:1 realtime video playback (with the Adrenaline box or Mojo, and depending on what effects are used), has lots of great features like Animatte, Spectramatte (the best keyer I’ve ever used), keyframeable motion effects with FluidMotion (beautiful slow motion), and you can mix resolutions in the timeline without have to render just to view your video. Plus, you can get the HD card at any time (for a seperate chunk of change) to do your HD editing, if you need it. Plus, Avid Adrenaline comes with Boris plug-ins, many of which are very useful.
Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 is a great system, but is limited on realtime playback, requires a Mojo for full screen playback to a client monitor (I think), and is limited on the effects (no Animatte, no secondary color correction, no Spectramatte, motion effects are not keyframeable, doesn’t come with Boris Continuum Complete). It is a very powerful editing system, though, and it’s very affordable.
Again, the biggest question is “Do I need another editing seat?”, “Is there something I need to do that FCP can’t but Avid can?” and “Do we have time to learn a new system?”.
I love Avid. I recommend Avid. But definitely get some hands on time before you decide to buy.
Hope this helps.
Mike.
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I believe this commercial was already discussed in this forum, and it was revealed/decided that that spot was done in a true 3D app. Maya, if I remember right, or C4D. You could (maybe) do it in After Effects, but in the time it would take you to do it you could probably learn the 3D app and do it faster. It would be an incredible amount of parenting, keyframing, etc…in AE. If I remember right, someone said expressions or scripting in a 3D app would make it much easier and faster.
Mike.
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I believe this commercial was already discussed in this forum, and it was revealed/decided that that spot was done in a true 3D app. Maya, if I remember right, or C4D. You could (maybe) do it in After Effects, but in the time it would take you to do it you could probably learn the 3D app and do it faster. It would be an incredible amount of parenting, keyframing, etc…in AE. If I remember right, someone said expressions or scripting in a 3D app would make it much easier and faster.
Mike.
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There’s isn’t a hard wired shortcut, but you can map it to your keyboard.
If you haven’t mapped a menu item to your keyboard before, follow these steps:
1. Go to Settings–>Keyboard…double click it to open the keyboard.
2. Then open Tools–>Command Palette.
3. Click “Menu to Button Reassignment”.
4. Click the button on the keyboard you want to map the the Media Tool to, then go to Tools–>Media Tool, and you’re done.
5. Close the keyboard, close the command palette, rock and roll.Mike.
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You seem to have a few extra steps that shouldn’t be necessary.
1) Your backup sounds good. If you captured with timecode and have all the reels, delete that media. You can batch capture.
2) Move everything that’s left to an external drive. I burn it to a DVD. I had an incredibly flakey external HD that would corrupt all the time, so I burn them off. Haven’t had a problem yet. (Knocks on wood)
3) When bringing the project back to life, there’s no reason to relink your offline sequence to your external, then consolidate back to your media drive. Just do this:
a. Open the project, select the sequence, then hit Batch Capture. This will open the capture tool and start prompting for tapes. Feed until the Avid is satisfied. Now shut the Avid program down.
b. Hook up your external. Copy all the media files on your external to your OMFI MediaFiles folder on your media drives. Delete the database files, reopen the Avid (it will rebuild the media database), and open your project. Everything should now be online. If it’s not, select your sequence/clips and relink. Voila! No need to relink and consolidate…just copy the files directly over and relink. Should save some time.Mike.
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Yes.
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I haven’t used Avid Free in over 2 years, but if it’s capture is set up at all like the rest of the Avid line (that is, if they didn’t disable the Log feature) then here’s what you do:
1. Open the Capture tool.
2. Across the top you’ll see a little bar with the record button, a window that turns red when actually recording, a little trashcan, then a button that says CAP.
3. Click on the button that says CAP. It should change to say LOG.Notice that the red record button had changed to a pencil. You are now in log mode!
Hitting F4 from here will mark an in and hitting F4 again will mark an out and log the clip.
Log away, then select all logged clips in your bin, select Batch Digitize or Batch Capture…they changed the name at one point(it will be under the Bin or Clip menu…can’t remember) and make some coffee while the Avid goes to work. If you get stuck with other areas, post. That’s what this forum is for.
Mike.
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Avid shouldn’t mind having the files on lots of drives, provided the drives are fast enough to play back the media and you don’t run into bottleneck issues on how the drives are connected to your computer. To be completely safe, though, try backing up your media beforehand in case something goes wrong. Otherwise, select whatever chunks you want to more and move them. Remember, though, they must in an OMFI MediaFiles folder in the root of the directory. Anywhere else and they won’t work. If they’re MXF files…well, I can’t help you there. I don’t use them (my Avid is pre-MXF). Then delete whatever database files there are, launch the Avid, and try it out. If you run into drop frame issues or find out the drives just can’t keep up, transfer the files back. I transfer files all the time…from hard drive to hard drive, to DVD, from DVD, to and from CDs, etc… It should work fine.
Michael.
P.S. If you want to isolate all the media from a particular project, try using MDV (https://fiool.nm.ru/progz/ The page is in Russian, the program in English) or MediaSift (http://www.senkou.com). These are free media management programs that can copy/move/sift Avid project media files. Very useful, and FREE!
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So you’re trying to export from Avid to squeeze it in Sorenson, and it stops at 67% coming out of the Avid? Or during the squeeze in Sorenson? It isn’t abundantly clear. Also, what version of Avid are you running?
Have you tried the quicktime reference in sorenson? Make sure everything in your Avid timeline is rendered, export a quicktime reference, open Sorenson and import the QT reference file (the .mov only) and squeeze it. If it’s stopping at 67% in Sorenson it’s most likely a Sorenson issue and you’ll probably get more precise answers in the Compression Techniques forum.
Mike.
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Click on the slider, punch in the number using the keypad (make sure NumLock is on) and hit enter on the keypad to lock it. Works for every slider in the Avid, that I’m aware of.
Mike.