Exporting a DPX Sequence for Lusture from FCP Workflow

[Nate Orloff]

EDIT: Wow, I promised myself I'd type Lustre correctly and look what I did.

So I'm trying to get a RED project I cut with FCP into Lustre. We're using the equipment form the film school I graduated from and they said that they've had some issues with Lustre reading the REDCODE files and a DPX sequence would be better.

Since Final Cut Studio 3 came out with Color 1.5's ability to read raw REDCODE at 4K resolution, my thought process was to send my FCP project to Color to just render everything ungraded, raw, using the DPX render setting.

My issue is that I now have 23,000+ DPX files with no EDL for Lustre to read. If I import it into Lustre, it wouldn't know the difference between one shot and the next. And I'd rather not manually show Lustre the 250+ cuts I made in the sequence.

So I did some research and apparently REDCINE can read XML files and render out a DPX sequence in the appropriate format. I found an application called Crimson which takes a Final Cut XML and turn it into an XML format that REDCINE can read.

So I did that. But the way REDCINE works (I think) is that you load all the original RED files into the program and import the XML to read them all. Well, this wasn't working for me because I went with the RED->ProRes workflow. I onlined my project according to the whitepaper so now I have a FCP sequence that has all the shots linked to REDCODE QuickTime wrappers. This workflow was designed to be sent to Color so it could read the original REDCODE even though it was wrapped in a QuickTime file. Well, REDCINE doesn't read QT files, only r3d files so I can't even load the shots in that the Crimson XML file is linking to!

The bottom line:
What's the normal, professional method of outputing a RED project cut on FCP? It's my understanding that most post houses don't take Color too seriously so there has to be a way to get this project to a DPX sequence with an EDL that professional color-grading programs can read.

 

[Cail Young]

The bottom line:
What's the normal, professional method of outputing a RED project cut on FCP? It's my understanding that most post houses don't take Color too seriously so there has to be a way to get this project to a DPX sequence with an EDL that professional color-grading programs can read.

If you need a DPX sequence, most houses use Monkey Extract or an in-house tool doing a similar thing.

http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/

 

[Nate Orloff]

If you need a DPX sequence, most houses use Monkey Extract or an in-house tool doing a similar thing.

http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/

I hate to be a cheapo but is Monkey Extract the only solution? Is there any free alternative? I've run a test and it seems to work beautifully. I just don't know I'll be able to convince my director to fork up another $350 for post.

 

[jake blackstone]

If you'd look at the demo video on Crimson site or read the manual, you'd know how to do the DPX export using XML. It works just fine Unless you're using camera version 20, then as understand it, Crimson doesn't work. But there is a workaround for that...

EDIT: Wow, I promised myself I'd type Lustre correctly and look what I did.

So I'm trying to get a RED project I cut with FCP into Lustre. We're using the equipment form the film school I graduated from and they said that they've had some issues with Lustre reading the REDCODE files and a DPX sequence would be better.

Since Final Cut Studio 3 came out with Color 1.5's ability to read raw REDCODE at 4K resolution, my thought process was to send my FCP project to Color to just render everything ungraded, raw, using the DPX render setting.

My issue is that I now have 23,000+ DPX files with no EDL for Lustre to read. If I import it into Lustre, it wouldn't know the difference between one shot and the next. And I'd rather not manually show Lustre the 250+ cuts I made in the sequence.

So I did some research and apparently REDCINE can read XML files and render out a DPX sequence in the appropriate format. I found an application called Crimson which takes a Final Cut XML and turn it into an XML format that REDCINE can read.

So I did that. But the way REDCINE works (I think) is that you load all the original RED files into the program and import the XML to read them all. Well, this wasn't working for me because I went with the RED->ProRes workflow. I onlined my project according to the whitepaper so now I have a FCP sequence that has all the shots linked to REDCODE QuickTime wrappers. This workflow was designed to be sent to Color so it could read the original REDCODE even though it was wrapped in a QuickTime file. Well, REDCINE doesn't read QT files, only r3d files so I can't even load the shots in that the Crimson XML file is linking to!

The bottom line:
What's the normal, professional method of outputing a RED project cut on FCP? It's my understanding that most post houses don't take Color too seriously so there has to be a way to get this project to a DPX sequence with an EDL that professional color-grading programs can read.

 

[marcobonini]

EDIT: Wow, I promised myself I'd type Lustre correctly and look what I did.

So I'm trying to get a RED project I cut with FCP into Lustre.
snip

Ask the colorist if his release of Lustre work the original .R3D files.

MArco

 

[Nate Orloff]

Ask the colorist if his release of Lustre work the original .R3D files.

MArco

I did and they said that because they've had many issues with Lustre reading the r3d files, they're changing the workflow to just use DPX. So the team that's there is also in new territory. Also, it's Chapman University film school. It's pretty close to a professional post house but very green since it's such a new film school.

Anyway, I sent the whole thing to Color and rendered everything a DPX. Put them all in sequence and exported an EDL. The only issues I've worried about are my two video tracks at the end with overlaying dissolves. Worst case scenario, I'll put those shots back together on top of V1 in Avid DS when outputting to D5.

I'm still working on getting Crimson to work since it keeps producing errors. I upgraded to Snow Leopard a few weeks ago since it seemed that everyone was saying that both Final Cut Studio and Avid run fine on it. Which they do. Crimson does not. But I didn't anticipate I'd need 3rd party software. As soon as I finish my Leopard install on a partition, run Crimson, I think it'll work convert my FCP XML to REDCINE XML and everything should run fine... as soon as I convince my director to pay for Crimson...