Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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[Dean Fragola] “Is there anyway I can just “gut” this computer and put in a new processor, Windows 7, and new video & sounds cards? “
No. You’re going to need a new system.
[Dean Fragola] “And my other question is, once I upgrade AVID from Xpress Pro to Media Composer, it is such a jump in technology that Media Composer then won’t even find all my files, media and projects that I currently have on my hard drives in Xpress Pro?”
You’re best bet is to make a new project in Media Composer with the same name as your Xpress Pro project, then copy the bins over at the desktop level. Everything else will be good to go. Media Composer might update your sequences if necessary, but I’d be surprised if you lose any work. Avid is pretty well known for forward/backward compatibility.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
The Fusion drive is an SSD and a regular drive. The OS monitors what programs and files you use most and keeps the on the SSD, speeding up the opening of programs, the read/write response of said programs, and should give you a snappier, faster, more responsive machine.
The 1TB is just a regular hard drive.
I’d go for the fusion drive to get that SSD goodness.
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Michael Hancock
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[Shane Ross] “DNxHD 80?”
I believe it was introduced in 6.5 and is an option under a 1080 23.976 project.
To the OP – is your home machine running version 6.5 and the work machine 6.0 or earlier? Is so, that’s the issue. You’ll need to upgrade the work machine or transcode to a compression native to both machines – like DNxHD36.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Glad to help!
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Rosie Walunas] “- Regarding more specifics about the frame size – I’m working on something in 1080i. We are importing low-res archive at 30i 16:9 10:1, then switching the project back to 1080i. The image is being resized to fill the frame.”
Are you applying a resize affect or is Avid scaling it up when you switch from an SD project to HD? If it’s Avid automatically doing the scaling, you’re fine. If you’re applying a resize and scaling it up that way, you’ll need to remove that when you import the full res stuff. It won’t need the a resize affect – it’s full frame, after all.
[Rosie Walunas] “So, as you say, and if I’m understanding correctly, the reimports should be okay because they will be filling the frame regardless, and the effects should hold up, but can be tweaked if something is slightly askew?”
Should be good to go. And of course effects can always be tweaked. Once you online you’ll just need to check them to make sure you still like the way they look at full res, then render. Of course, test this if you can. Always good to test.
[Rosie Walunas] “20 seconds versus 30 seconds – why can’t the editors just go with one duration?”
I was a one man band until the last few years. Once I started working with other editors and motion graphic artists and passing projects back and forth a lot I very quickly learned the importance of setting rules on projects and the importance of sticking with them. Good luck with your project!
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Glad you found it useful. It turned out longer than I anticipated but I tried to cover a lot.
To answer the rest of your questions:
[Rosie Walunas] “What about frame size? If it is different and the new clip comes hi-res from an archival house, and the editor has slapped a bunch effects and resizes on it? Would I still be doing some fiddling with the effects on that clip? (In FCP sometimes this has to be done, and eye match.)”
Depends on how they imported it. For example, if they have an offline file, say 1280×720, and they import it into a 1920×1080 project and choose “Image sized for current format” it will scale the import to fit the 1920×1080 . Apply any affects you want to it, and when you get the full res file at 1920×1080 import it the same and nothing needs to be updated.
On the other hand, if they import it and choose “Do not resize smaller images” it won’t scale the import to fit the project raster. So you’d have a 1280×720 image floating in the middle of a 1920×1080 frame. Then, if they import the high res file (1920×1080) the same way the image will fill the whole screen and you’ll have to fix all of your effects.
So I recommend you import the low res stuff to scale up – it will look bad, but when you get the high res stuff you won’t have to redo anything with your effects.
[Rosie Walunas] “- I noticed if stills are imported at a certain duration, that has to be the same? Or can the duration be overridden? (Let’s say I’m starting out with a Bin from someone and I want to Import the stills, but their duration is too short or long for my liking.) I tried clicking the Over ride current settings button, but no luck.”
Just tested this – never tried to change duration after importing on a still. Here’s what I found:
You can change the duration to make the clip longer, but not shorter. So if you import a still at 10 seconds and need it to be 20 seconds you can delete the media, batch import the still, choose to “Override clip settings with current settings” and change the duration to 20 seconds and it will import, change the duration to 20 seconds, and update in your sequence. However, you cannot make the still shorter – it will not import and tell you to check the console. The message there says “IMPORT_TOO_SHORT”. So you can make stills longer, but not shorter. You said you tried this – it didn’t work for you?
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Hello Rosie,
Sorry for the delay. I got the tutorial done – you can find it here:
It’s about 16 1/2 minutes but I tried to cover everything – importing, batch importing the same file (offline/online), batch importing and linking to different file than the original (ex. importing a revised logo), caveats (file duration must be the same, alpha channels, files with audio), and batch importing after having moved the original imported files.
Let me know if this helps. I recommend watching it in HD or downloading the original file to keep for reference.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Go to your internal drive where the transcodes are and find the Avid MediaFiles folder (it will be at the root of the drive – C:/Avid MediaFiles)
Rename is xAvid MediaFiles. This throws all the media offline.
Duplicate your sequence and select the duplicate (we’ll relink this to the AMA footage.
Open all the AMA Bins and make sure that footage is online. If it is, hit Ctrl+A on every bin to select everything. Go back and select the duplicated sequence and choose to Relink. In the Relink menu choose to relink to Selected Items in ALL Open Bins and hit OK.
Sequence should relink to AMA footage.
When it’s over, you can go back to your C: drive and remove the ‘x’ in Avid MediaFiles and the transcoded footage will come back online.
That’s how I’ve done it on Symphony v6. I’m typing from memory, but I’m pretty sure I got all the steps down. Let us know if you run into errors.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Yep. Just drag the bins you want to copy into the Media Copy window, set where you want them copied to and hit Copy. It will copy all the .mxf media to that location . Great way to move media around or archive projects.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
MediaCopy by Automatic Duck. It’s free now:
https://www.automaticduck.com/products/mc/
You can use this to copy just specific bins from projects, or entire projects. It a great tool to have.
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Michael Hancock
Editor