Avid to Color Timecode problem

[Darda]

Hello,

We are to shoot a commercial with the RED ONE camera in a week and I have been doing some tests to fit RED in our workflow. We are planning to use AVID MC as our offline tool and APPLE COLOR for grading.
To be able to do our offline in AVID MC we have tried both exporting DNxHD MOVs and an XML from REDCINE, and creating MXF files and an ALE from METAFUZE 2.0 and importing into AVID MC. They both seemed to have worked. As we were able to import both in to AVID MC and work with them.
When we have exported the EDL out from AVID and tried to import into APPLE COLOR however, the METAFUZE workflow doesn't seem to work. But with the REDCINE workflow everything seemed perfectly OK. The problem with REDCINE though, that it takes so many hours to export the DNxHD MOVs (appr. 35 Hours for 1 hour of RED 4K footage). So naturally we want to work with the MXFs created with METAFUZE
As I looked in further I have found out that the working EDL from REDCINE uses EDGE TIMECODE from the R3D files whereas the nonworking EDL from METAFUZE uses TIME OF DAY TIMECODE. So I modified the METAFUZE EDL to display the EDGE TIMECODE and it WORKED. But the modification process is very time consuming and errors can be made very easily.
So my question: is there a better way to avoid this kind of problem alltogether. I have read that you can PREFERR the timecode RED will be using while shooting. Can this kind of adjustment solve my problem?

2nd question: There is also an issue with the RED clips being renamed after they have been imported into AVID. It sems that if you rename your clips in avid (say from A002_C003_0115WB to PL010_-close-up-01) that name will appear in the AVID EDL and COLOR wont be able to find them anymore.
But our editor sure wants to be able to rename her clips for easy access. What can be done to avoid this kind of problem?


Darda

 

[MichaelP]

There are already other threads that speak to the renaming of clips within MC - file name and source file name are tracked in alternate columns. As an added step for peace of mind, you can always highlight the Name column and do a CTRL-D (PC) and copy the entire contents into the Camroll or Labroll columns. These columns can be used later in the EDL creation process.

As far as which timecode is being used, we can only use what is given to us from the file - REDCINE only exports one of the timecodes and is the one that is based on the priority timecode set in camera. REDrushes, or applications based on REDline carry both timecodes into the ALE file so you can choose at a later time which one to use. In MetaFuze, the the ALE carries the TOD in the START and the edgecode in the AUXTC1. The full filename is carried in the Camroll column. Then you can follow the Color EDL workflow that was listed on this site for EDL creation.

Michael

 

[David Battistella]

If i was finsihing this I would want to move the whole avid project to FCP and Color and do the final output in FCP instead of grading the AVID encoded media.

So you would just need a clean XML from the AVID to do this.

Also, I suggest AUTOMATIC DUCK software for going between the two platforms.

David

 

[Darda]

In MetaFuze, the the ALE carries the TOD in the START and the edgecode in the AUXTC1. The full filename is carried in the Camroll column. Then you can follow the Color EDL workflow that was listed on this site for EDL creation.

Michael

I was unable to find any information on Metafuze neither about the edgecode nor the AUXTC1. In Redrushes however I was able to switch back and forth between the TOD TIMECODE and the EDGECODE in REDRUSHES and in AVID after importing. So if I use REDRUSHES to import in to AVID most of my problems seem to be solved. But the Metafuze workflow still seems more advantageous as we were able to run MF on our farm and the transcoding time has dropped to 17 min for one hour of 4K footage!

Thanks for your reply

Darda

 

[Darda]

If i was finsihing this I would want to move the whole avid project to FCP and Color and do the final output in FCP instead of grading the AVID encoded media.

So you would just need a clean XML from the AVID to do this.

Also, I suggest AUTOMATIC DUCK software for going between the two platforms.

David

We are unfortunately bound to include AVID in to our workflow because it is the only software our editor prefers to use. For the grading process though we will use the EDL from AVID to grade the raw R3D files in COLOR, therefore suffer no compression in our online. Am I wrong?

Thanks for your reply

Darda

 

[Jörgen Persson]

For straight cuts and dissolves try this Avid to Color workflow:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37857

During the offline the editor can name the clips to whatever she wants and edit like she's used to.
For the online you just duplicate the Tape column to the Name column and enable Clip comment in the EDL. This EDL will then be imported correctly in Color.

I would set the camera to use TOD (Time of day) TC. I think it's more useful than Edgecode.

Try it out. If you need any help just send me a PM.

 

[Darda]

Thanks a lot man! I have already checked out your post and bookmarked it. Actually it was thanks to that we were encouraged to try COLOR workflow.
I havent tried the duplicating CAMROLL to NAME trick but I guess it will work. For the timecode problem, our programmer is working on a script that will change the AVID EDL TOD timecode to EDGECODE, which will be ready soon. That way we will have both timecodes ready to use. Also I will enable Clip names in comments in AVID as you suggested.

Thanks a lot again.

Darda

 

[MichaelP]

MC already tracks both timecodes - depending on how the ALE was created in the first place.

Michael

 

[nomzz333]

You maybe surprise to know that I didn’t know about it before…