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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED to Avid to Smoke

M

Mathieu Marano

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Hi knowledgeable crew,
I'm in an RED/MC5/Smoke on Mac workflow and I'm missing a piece of the puzzle. So here's what I did:

-Opened the R3Ds in RedcineX to a BIN and exported a MXF/AAF 1080 23.98 DNx 36
-Loaded the MXF and AAF in Media Composer 5 and completed the edit.
-Exported en EDL of the sequence
-Opened the EDL in Redcine X and relinked to the origianl R3Ds.
...

Now, from a timeline in Redcine X, how do I get into Smoke on Mac or Smoke Advanced? Can I convert a RC-X project to XML?
 
Was there a reason you needed to go back to REDCINE X? Can you not import EDL into smoke and link to the R3D files from there?

Michael
 
I tried but it won't relink. Is there a special twist to add to the edl for it to relink? Or should I go thru Wiretap Central?
 
I am not sure, but I think you may need to go through Wiretap.

Michael
 
jake blackstone said:
As far as I know, for conforming with r3d files, every Autodesk app (even 2011 versions) has to go through Wiretap or at least Gateway Central.
Click to expand...

That is incorrect. As of 2011, Smoke can soft import Red files (as well as a number of other formats, including Avid MXF's, AVC Intra MXF's, and others), and with 4K Red files it can soft import at either 2K, 4K, or 1K. On the Mac version it can also soft import Quicktime using any codec on the system. Conforms can be done using the soft imported files directly, rendering does not take place until output. You can even use soft imported files directly in Action. Wiretap Central is no longer required for this, and it all works very, very well.
 
M Most said:
That is incorrect. As of 2011, Smoke can soft import Red files (as well as a number of other formats, including Avid MXF's, AVC Intra MXF's, and others), and with 4K Red files it can soft import at either 2K, 4K, or 1K. On the Mac version it can also soft import Quicktime using any codec on the system. Conforms can be done using the soft imported files directly, rendering does not take place until output. You can even use soft imported files directly in Action. Wiretap Central is no longer required for this, and it all works very, very well.
Click to expand...

correct...2011 is a vast improvement. No wiretap required.

have you changed any file names?
 
Thanks guys.

It's been working fine for a long time with XMLs but my problem is from EDL coming from a Media Composer. I'll double check the filenames and the EDL structure.
 
Mathieu Marano said:
Thanks guys.

It's been working fine for a long time with XMLs but my problem is from EDL coming from a Media Composer. I'll double check the filenames and the EDL structure.
Click to expand...

You might want to try using an AAF instead. Much more information, and any multitrack edits remain intact. Smoke basically uses code licensed from Automatic Duck to do a translation, it works quite well.
 
M Most said:
That is incorrect. As of 2011, Smoke can soft import Red files (as well as a number of other formats, including Avid MXF's, AVC Intra MXF's, and others), and with 4K Red files it can soft import at either 2K, 4K, or 1K. On the Mac version it can also soft import Quicktime using any codec on the system. Conforms can be done using the soft imported files directly, rendering does not take place until output. You can even use soft imported files directly in Action. Wiretap Central is no longer required for this, and it all works very, very well.
Click to expand...

Mike.
My understanding is, that soft import doesn't import r3d and I believe, that importing r3d into the Smoke was the original question. Soft import only uses QT proxies, which is valid way of working, but at some point r3d material has to be debayered for final render and that can only be done by using Wiretap Gateway. That goes for RRocket as well. All Autodesk apps use Wiretap or Gateway can be used for r3d debayer, because red SDK is implemented only through Wiretap and Gateway.
 
Sorry but Smoke, Smoke on Mac and Lustre can open the R3D files just fine with access to debayer, temp, resize, gamma and color space settings. And it work great without Wiretap Central. Smoke on Mac can benefit from the Red Rocket but doesn't need it to open R3D files. You can have a look at the video posted earlier in this thread. All red processing can be done locally in Smoke since 2011. You can commit it to Stone if you wish.

What isn't working so fine here is that R3D aren't relnking to the imported Avid edl but work very well with XML from fcp.
 
Thanks for the smoke info guys, I haven't had any time to play with the workflow yet. As far as EDLs go, depending on how the original files got made, you can create a 16 character (full file name) source EDL, or the FCP style 8 character truncated style EDL with no need for additional comment line. I prefer the 16Char EDL since there is no mistaking which file you are referring to.

Mchael
 
Mathieu Marano said:
What isn't working so fine here is that R3D aren't relnking to the imported Avid edl but work very well with XML from fcp.
Click to expand...

I'm having the same problems but also with AAF. Smoke 2011 recognizes the AAF (automatic duck massage) and the AAF can be thrown into Storyboard and opens as a full timeline, including Axis and whatnot but is not able to relink properly. Maybe it's my newbeeness but as you said an XML from FCP is working as expected.

In the not very likely case I'll find the trick I'll let you know.

Hans
 
jake blackstone said:
Mike.
My understanding is, that soft import doesn't import r3d and I believe, that importing r3d into the Smoke was the original question. Soft import only uses QT proxies, which is valid way of working, but at some point r3d material has to be debayered for final render and that can only be done by using Wiretap Gateway. That goes for RRocket as well. All Autodesk apps use Wiretap or Gateway can be used for r3d debayer, because red SDK is implemented only through Wiretap and Gateway.
Click to expand...

Your understanding is wrong as of the Smoke 2011 release. I don't know how many times you're going to make me say it, though.
 
Hans von Sonntag said:
I'm having the same problems but also with AAF. Smoke 2011 recognizes the AAF (automatic duck massage) and the AAF can be thrown into Storyboard and opens as a full timeline, including Axis and whatnot but is not able to relink properly. Maybe it's my newbeeness but as you said an XML from FCP is working as expected.

In the not very likely case I'll find the trick I'll let you know.

Hans
Click to expand...

You need to make sure you're selecting the proper matching criteria, specifically, deselecting clip name and selecting tape name and timecode. You have to make sure you're telling Smoke the correct number of directory levels to go back up to before starting it's search, and you also need to make sure that the tape names in your bins are correct. Depending on how your bins were created, that might require you to copy the camera roll column to the tape column, or something similar, before creating the AAF. All I can tell you is I've had success with both AAF and XML on our system, but as you said, it took a bit of experimentation before that happened.
 
And we use EDL's from Avid everyday with no issues. You might need to massage your settings before exporting the edl. I'll check our settings Monday and let you know what we use.
 
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