[Sean Mcnally]

[jerry wise] “won’t you have to remove the transition after you have made the trim?”

No, the functionality I’m looking for is that Premiere won’t trim overlapping clips, and will instead add a transition between them. Will consider sending a request to Adobe, or perhaps looking into the SDK to see if I could finagle writing a plugin for this…

[Sean Mcnally]

Thanks for the informative response Kevin!

[Kevin Camp] “you can’t get control of all text properties, and size would need to be controlled with a scale animator….”

I see, so you can’t make a “master font” with text animators. My texts are in seperate comps. Anyone else have any ideas on this?

[Sean Mcnally]

[Dave LaRonde] “utilizing text animators that don’t really animate”

Pardon my ignorance here, but what’s a “text animator”? Are you talking about the animation presets?

[Dave LaRonde] “Then you could pick-whip expressions on the other layers to the master layer’s values.”

The thing about that…I’m aware there are hidden pick-whips for Source text, but are there individual pick-whips for font, size, kerning, outline, etc? Each text needs to be individual, so the Source Text pick-whip won’t help me. Thanks.

[Sean Mcnally]

[Shane Ross] “I make a folder called PROJECT_A_MEDIA…and put the WHOLE Avid MediaFiles folder in there”

Not a bad idea. Might go with the idea of renaming the individual folder though, that way I get in the habit of always keeping a close eye on the folder structure and contents. Looks like I’ve finally got a solution!

1) Import Footage
2) Edit
3) When done, rename Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 to something else, say Project_A_MXF and move elsewhere
4) Next time I want to work, rename “Project_A_MXF” to “1” and move it back to Avid MediaFiles/MXF/.

Thanks, guys!

[Sean Mcnally]

[Shane Ross] “Yes…that doesn’t start with a number.”

But why would it matter what I name it before it goes into storage? Next time I use the folder in Avid, just before taking it out of storage and moving it to the AvidMedia Files/MXF folder, I’ll just rename it to “1” again, so Avid will see it as a working folder.

[Sean Mcnally]

Reminds me of the old Get Smart series…missed it by that much!

Alright, so it seems to me like the only issue is if I want to go back to a project and add more media. So, I guess I’ll just have to re-name whatever folder I’m working with to “1” while I’m using it in Avid, and then back to “Project_A” before I put it into storage somewhere else on the drive. Any issues there?

[Sean Mcnally]

Well sure. But as long as the MXF files are stored in Avid MediaFiles/MXF/[FolderName], I should be good, right? Doesn’t matter what the name of that folder is. What’s the problem with my solution?

[Sean Mcnally]

I see what you mean. Turns out, you can’t Consolidate/Transcode directly from the Media Tool, but you can copy all the files into a new bin, and do it from there. Good idea on changing the name of the “1” folder. Just have to make sure you un-check “Skip native media files already on the target drive”

Basically, I just need to think of the Avid MediaFiles/MXF directory like a USB hub, and the folders within it like virtual USB drives. Remove them, the media will go offline, but put it back, Avid will find it again.

So, thanks to all of your guidance, as well as research I’ve conducted since starting this thread, here’s my new method for organizing my media files:

1) Import Footage
2) Rename Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 to something else, say Project_1_MXF.
3) Once I’m done with Project 1, I can move my Project_1_MXF folder somewhere else, wherever I want. Then, if I need to work on Project 1 again, I can just pop that folder back into the Avid MediaFiles/MXF directory.

If I somehow screw up and get the mxf files from two projects jumbled together in the same folder, I can:

1) Open Media Tool
2) Select my drive and the project whose files I want to extract
3) Select Master clips and both Precompute clips options
4) Copy everything that turns up in the Media Tool window to a new bin
5) Select everything in the new bin
6) Right click, consolidate/transcode
7) Make sure there isn’t a folder called “1”, so Avid will create a new one
8) Use the consolidate option (whose name is a bit confusing. Nothing is really “consolidated” or lost, it just moves things from one drive to another, or in my case, a new “1” folder.)
9) Make sure “Skip native media files already on the target drive” is un-checked.
10) Press consolidate, and you’ll have a brand new “1” folder with all your project’s media in it, which you can re-name and move somewhere else.

I’ve also found that 10-step process can be automated, that is, if I’m willing to shell out $100 for Automatic Duck’s MediaCopy. But, as long as I keep on top of it, I shouldn’t need to re-generate those folders at all. Even if, for example, I import more media for Project 1 after renaming the folder, and a new “1” folder is created, I can just move the new files into the Project_1_MXF folder.

Thanks so much!

– Sean

[Sean Mcnally]

[John Pale] “Open the Media Tool and sort by project”

Yes, I’m aware this can be done, but the media tool can’t copy those files to a new directory on my hard drive. That’s what I’m looking to do.

[Sean Mcnally]

[Glenn Sakatch] “If i forget to do a switcheroo at any point, i can always drag the database into an open bin, and figure out what media is from what project, and get it clean up and reorganized.”

Is there any easier way to do that? Can I go into an Avid project and tell it to suck out all the transcoded media that pertains to that project, and put it into a new folder or directory?