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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 :)

Monkey Extract - quickly render RED footage for grading, using an EDL

Nigel Stanford

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After some great feedback from the community, the new version of Monkey Extract is now available for download here.

Update - New version, 1.206 - 24 September 2008
Better EDL scanning, speed enhancements, new Final Cut workflows

If you don't know what Monkey Extract is, it's basically a tool for automating the rendering of footage for grading. You can load an EDL, and it only renders the frames from your cut.

New features:
- Edgecode or time of day timecode
- Export to DPX, Quicktime, or Tiff
- RSX support
- Customized output file names

Feel free to try it out, and let me know if you have any problems. :biggrin:

Thanks!
 
Seems like a great tool!

I got a message saying it only partially found a match but that is because FCP seems to add an extra frame at the end of the count. Don't know why. Anyway, it still rendered so it did work regardless.

Are there any rules as to how many video tracks etc? Any guidelines that will make the workflow run smoothly everytime?
 
Seems like a great tool!

I got a message saying it only partially found a match but that is because FCP seems to add an extra frame at the end of the count. Don't know why. Anyway, it still rendered so it did work regardless.

Are there any rules as to how many video tracks etc? Any guidelines that will make the workflow run smoothly everytime?

only 1 videotrack....its the nature of edl
 
Every one at Rubber Monkey have been great and extremely responsive to suggestions, bugs, and requests. If anyone is at IBC this week, they can see an Avid demo using Monkey Frame Extractor within an Avid workflow with DS AFE conform of the DPX files.

The pull list was done from the Avid timeline using the XML and an XSLT that takes all the layers and VFX and pulls it out as a nice neat CMX 3600 EDL.

These XML tools will be released soon... I know I have been saying that, but is much sooner than the last time I said soon... ;)


Michael
 
Hi Michael,
This is good news i am waiting from you. You are the man ;) Thanx Michael

Kim
 
Every one at Rubber Monkey have been great and extremely responsive to suggestions, bugs, and requests. If anyone is at IBC this week, they can see an Avid demo using Monkey Frame Extractor within an Avid workflow with DS AFE conform of the DPX files.

The pull list was done from the Avid timeline using the XML and an XSLT that takes all the layers and VFX and pulls it out as a nice neat CMX 3600 EDL.

These XML tools will be released soon... I know I have been saying that, but is much sooner than the last time I said soon... ;)


Michael

Michael,

I tried conforming using Avid MC 3.0 EDL (both CMX 3600 & Red 16) in Monkey Extractor and it fails to recognize. Our R3D footage are based on Time of the Day. I already complained to Monkey Extractor Team by sending their database file. They asked my EDL.

Any idea why it fails?
 
Hi there,

We use Avid MC 3.0 with Monkey Extract CMX3600 and it's all good. It's never failed once.

Are you saying it cannot read the EDL? or can't find footage? Will see if I can help
 
Monkey Extract unable to find footage.
 
Do you have your RED footage in folders for each reel as they come of the red drive?
ie:

ProductionName/
Reel_A001/
A001_080722.RDM/
A001_C001_080723.RDC
A001_C002_080723.RDC
A001_C003_080723.RDC

Reel_A002/
A002_080722.RDM/
A002_C001_080723.RDC
A002_C002_080723.RDC
A002_C003_080723.RDC


If they have changed from this structure then I think Monkey extract will have a problem. If you move the clips into a single folder I think this may also cause a problem.
Also if you have moved files around since you last did an extract. You could delete the monkeybase.dat file which will be in the source directory of your R3D files this will force it to rebuild the database.
 
I found that the footage needed to be an exact match. At first it said things like "39 R3D files found, 0 Matches."

I removed .mov etc. and it found it immediately.

Now if I could just get Color to properly load the DPX EDL I'll be fine. I'm sure it's a combination of me/Color...

Cheers,

Jim
 
Hi Jim,

are you using the new _color EDL that monkey extract makes for you? It tidies up the formatting to make it work with color.

ie: 001 A017_C03 AA/V C will be turned into

001 A017 AA/V C

Final cut seems to deal with this automatically and create a better looking reel/tape name but in any case clip names aren't necessary for conform only the reel name

so you should have no trouble using the _color.EDL file which is made whenever you start an extract in the same directory as the source EDL. Cheers
 
Thanks reactor. Yes, I'm using that one. It opens in color, pulls in the DPX files but my edit is nowhere to be seen. It brings up one clip, then 10 seconds of black followed by the full take of my second clip (like full 2 minutes rather than 3 seconds in my edit) and that's it.

Like I said, probably me. I'm not a color expert and have probably approached it incorrectly.

If anyone has ideas or advice, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks,

Jim
 
Well hopefully if we've coded it right, it will always run smoothly! :innocent: If you have any problems, let us know and we'll look into it

Tested, layering one clip over another and it worked great with at least 2 tracks.

What is the best timecode for edls? Should we choose edge code or TOD when rendering offlines do you think? Noticed Edge code was the default setting. I've heard about a problem with TOD overlapping when in varispeed. Maybe this is a non-issue now that the full clipname is in the DPX header. Used to be just reel number, right?
 
Thanks reactor. Yes, I'm using that one. It opens in color, pulls in the DPX files but my edit is nowhere to be seen. It brings up one clip, then 10 seconds of black followed by the full take of my second clip (like full 2 minutes rather than 3 seconds in my edit) and that's it.

Like I said, probably me. I'm not a color expert and have probably approached it incorrectly.

If anyone has ideas or advice, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks,

Jim

I got the same message with the clips found but no match.
The problem was the settings in monkey extract. You need to choose the right timecode. If it's set to edge code and you chose TOD when rendering offlines in RA og RR , then the message will say how many clips it found but no match (because the edge code is not there anymore, only TOD).

Then it should import nicely into Color.
 
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