[Richard Sanchez]

In general, that’s how I’d track something like that in the Avid, and like mentioned before, Avid does have a very good built in tracker. That said, sometimes Motion Blur can really make huge difference with a shaky shot. Just a little bit to sell the effect. If you know the basics of After Effects, I generally would use After Effects. Track in Mocha (using the Mocha Import Plus script) and Red Giant’s Warp plugin and you can get some amazing tracking work done.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

Have you tried DaVinci Resolve Lite? That will create Op Atom MXF files for Avid.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

You can use Automatic Duck to export AAFs of your sequences from FCP to bring them into Avid. It will translate your sequences, but not your whole project. There really is no great way of translating all that work. If you can finish in FCP, that really would be the easiest way to preserve that work. If you need to cut in Avid, I’d use Automatic Duck to translate your sequences (Also giving an AE at least a couple of days to A/B match it because many effects will not come over and motion effects are usually problematic) and then reorganize the media from scratch in Avid.

https://automaticduck.com/products/

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

WHAT?!?! They got rid of Avid Log Exchange? Can you still import ALE’s from Resolve or whatever dailies system you might be using to merge relevant metadata?

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

Unfortunately I can’t speak for those programs. FileMaker Pro is popular for this purpose, and I’ve done it with Excel.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

Export your spreadsheet as a tabbed delimited text file. Then run it through Avid Log Exchange to convert it to an ALE file. Then you can import it. I usually set it to “Merge with known master clips” in your import settings.

If you’re on 7.0.3 it will merge that data without removing any custom metadata on those master clips. If you’re on pre 7.0.3, merging could remove any custom metadata you have on those clips, so be aware of that. Michael Phillips describes it well here.

https://24p.com/wordpress/?p=132

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

You could send your entire setting XML (Or AVS if you’re on 5.5 or older). Have them tab the project window over to settings, and select “Open Settings” from the File pulldown up top and they can drag your custom export setting over.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

From the stand point of the AEs, the CDL is just a series of numbers. I probably worded it poorly when I said “Apply the CDL”. The CDL is baked in before it makes it to editorial, but will be useful when conforming back to the camera negative, so making sure the CDL is stored and passed along is necessary. The CDL information is usually contained in the ALE.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

That’s really really good to hear!

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Richard Sanchez]

Rather than set your shot log to “Maintain Events as Logged” I would usually drag the AAFs into bins to create my master clips, and then select all clips with the Shot Log set to “Merge with known master clips” to apply the CDL, and Sound TC information that is usually contained in the ALE.

I would still provide the ALE, as I’ve seen meta data (particularly Sound TC) magically disappear, which require me to manually re-enter it based on the Sound TC burn, or remerge the ALE (which can sometimes be dangerous, because as Michael has mentioned before, the merge feature is not a true merge feature and an obliterate existing custom metadata on clips if you’re not careful. Speaking of burns, I generally ask for a flash timecode burn with the video tc and filename on the bottom left, and the Sound TC and Sound Roll flash burned into the bottom right.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks