Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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[Chris Kenny] “Ask the user to import the footage into the app.”
So post software should be built and judged entirely on how easy it is for someone with no experience with them to import footage, without any training? Seems silly. How easy is it to get footage in Resolve for someone with no experience? Or Smoke? Or Speedgrade? Do we completely disregard the reasons why an NLE prefers/requires a specific media structure simply because someone hasn’t learned why?
[Chris Kenny] “In Media Composer, you have to go create a /Avid MediaFiles/MXF folder, then create a numbered folder within it (numbers only, please!), then quit Media Composer, place your media in that folder, re-launch Media Composer, access the Media Tool, check all the correct boxes (which is a little confusing in its own right), and then drag the clips from the resulting window to your bin. This is completely undiscoverable, and, frankly, crazy. And it’s not an isolated example.”
There’s a reason for Avid’s media structure, and easier ways to get MXF media populated in a bin – your method is not necessarily the best or fastest. Besides, once you show and explain to a person why it’s done a certain way they understand it and it’s no longer a hurdle. At all. And in return for a short explanation and a bit of understand they get Avid’s legendary media management. Seems a fair trade.
Plus, if you gave ProRes files to everyone the Avid user could drag them over just like Premiere or FCPX and Avid would import them (not instanteous like X or Premiere, but the end result is the same). Or they could AMA them and get direct access. Of course, that might require them to read a manual (heaven forbid).
[Chris Kenny] “But if you’re a new user who learns software mostly by exploring it — which is how most people seem to prefer to learn software — Media Composer is very nearly impenetrable gibberish.”
Most people prefer to learn software by just exploring it, without any training or explanation or reading of the manual? People who are buying the software to make money with, as part of their job? I don’t buy it. And even they do, then why does Bill Davis keep telling people you need to watch training videos to really come to understand the how and why of FCPX and that it will take you 6 months to “get it” and really understand it? He’s a huge proponent of X and even he recommends training.
Are there things Avid could improve on, including interface tweaks? Absolutely. But to say it’s oudated is kind of silly. You’re not even a day-in day-out editor, Chris. Maybe the interface wasn’t designed for you?
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[Brian Pistone] “The AVID argument is valid, I’m not sure on cost.”
Education licenses are $295 a piece – when I taught we bought a 10 pack and got a slight discount. In addition, any student can purchase it for $295 and they get 4 years of free upgrades. In that respect it’s the cheapest of the bunch.
So I’d teach Avid and Premiere, given your update. The entire Adobe suite is useful to know and fits perfectly with your SNL type stuff, where you might do more compositing/motion graphics/AE type stuff, and Avid is very prominent in television/broadcast. Has your market had stations switch to FCPX or have you seen a real adoption of the software in your area? If not, I’d consider it the odd man out, especially since the timeline mechanics and terminology are different from every other NLE on the market. Skills on Avid translate very quickly to Adobe and vice versa – I’m not convinced FCPX skills translate as easily to another NLE if it’s all they’ve learned.
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Michael Hancock
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Scroll down to find .pdf downloads for the approved/qualified systems for Mac and PCs.
https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Compatibility/en422411
The Dell 690 isn’t on the list, but that doesn’t mean it won’t run it. It just means it’s not been tested so you won’t get support from Avid if you run into problems. You can always download the 30 day trial of 6.5 and test it out to see if you run into any show stopping bugs or issues.
If you system meets the minimum requirements at least and you have a qualified graphics card you will probably be alright. It just won’t be as fast as more modern hardware.
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Michael Hancock
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[Craig Seeman] “If you define the term “industry” you may be able to define the commonly used NLEs within it.”
[Brian Pistone] “I am writing curriculum this summer for the Television Broadcasting Production and Technology program for my school district.”
Television Broadcasting, per the OP’s original text. So I’d recommend Avid and Edius, maybe Premiere.
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Michael Hancock
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I’m on version 5.5, so maybe some of these were added in 6. That said:
[Trevor Asquerthian] “‘Reveal in Project’ from source window (i.e. ‘find bin’) button?”
No. But there is a Reveal in Project, but it only works on selected clips in the timeline, not the source monitor. Submit a feature request (I have).[Trevor Asquerthian] “Indication that clip is scaled to frame size?”
Right click and see if it’s checked. Otherwise, I know of no visual indicators.[Trevor Asquerthian] “Implementation of single video window.? (i.e. rather than source *and* record)”
Close the Source monitor.[Trevor Asquerthian] “Making Vertical movements of clips with keyboard?”
No. A lot of people have been asking for it. Feature request time.[Trevor Asquerthian] “Way of having ‘mark clip’ work in source monitor (to mark whole clip)?”
No. Adobe needs to implement this. And in 5.5 Mark Clip doesn’t work on “filler” – does it in 6? If not, feature request time.[Trevor Asquerthian] “Way of Autopatching? (i.e. I have V on source side and V4 on TL selected – don’t make me patch as well.”
No. Feature request time. This is desperately needed.[Trevor Asquerthian] “Way of editing from one sequence into another (i.e. inc patching tracks)”
In 5.5, you open sequence one, select your clips, open Sequence 2, paste. Hopefully this is fixed in v6, but I doubt it. Maybe v7?[Trevor Asquerthian] “Option to set default option for 4 point editing (ignore source out should be default) and thus not have to bring up the ‘fit clip’ dialogue?”
In 5.5, no way to disable the dialogue box. Huge annoyance of mine – I’ve submitted feature requests to have it removed or an option to “never show this – use checked option as default”. Feature request time![Trevor Asquerthian] “Waveforms don’t seem to work when nested in Multicam?”
Multicam and audio in 5.5 is horrible, and I won’t use Premiere for multicam projects because of it. Maybe it’s been fixed in 6, but it seems like it isn’t.Those the questions I know the answers to. Hopefully others will chime in with the rest.
In the meantime, submit feature requests to Adobe. Only way this stuff will be fixed/improved is if you tell them to.
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
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Michael Hancock
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Glad it worked. But the issue you were having is a long standing complaint about Avid. They desperately need to overhaul the effects architecture. It can be quite painful to work with at times.
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Michael Hancock
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What are you using to key the green out? If it’s Boris, use the position parameters of the key effect to move it. If it’s Spectramatte I think you can promote it to 3D and use the position parameters of that to move the layer. Both of these options leave the background unaffected.
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Michael Hancock
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Link?
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Michael Hancock
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I export Quicktime Reference during the edit/review/revise process and use Adobe Media Encoder (AME) to compress the reference files to .h264 to send to clients.
Once an edit is locked and approved I export a final Quicktime Reference and use AME to make either a ProRes or DNxHD master file and whatever else the deliverable might be (.h264, MPEG2, etc…).
To back up the project I append the Avid MediaFiles folder with the project name (for example, Avid MediaFiles Project1234), move it to the main project folder (all projects have one primary folder with all elements related to it placed inside the folder – for example, PROJECT1234 contains subfolders for Avid, After Effects, Audio, Final Deliverables, etc…), and back up the entire project to hard drive. We run shared storage so we leave it like that for a few days so the backup system can dump it to LTO tape, then we delete it. When we need to bring the project back online we just move the Avid MediaFiles folder to the root of the drive and open Avid, revise, move it back into the project folder and rearchive.
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Michael Hancock
Editor