Monkey Extract Questions

[Gunleik Groven]

Is redline stabilizing now?

 

[Jan Prochazka]

We have a new version of Monkey Extract in testing.
We've struggled with a few key bugs in the recent redline releases so its been a long time coming. It is looking close this time though.

Wonderful! Please leave message here as new version will be available.
Thank you!

(Monkey happy user)

 

[Craig Herring]

New Monkey Extract alpha

New Monkey Extract alpha

Wonderful! Please leave message here as new version will be available.
Thank you!

(Monkey happy user)

Hi All,

We are still testing with the latest version of Monkey Extract.
However, by popular demand I am posting the current version for everyone to try.

Caveats:
(1) I built this on Mac OS 10.6.4. This is not a full release package (I have simply zipped the current build on my dev machine). If it doesn't open on your machine at all then this is probably why.

(2) This is time locked to 40 days but requires no registration key. You should have full access to this alpha even if you don't currently own Monkey Extract.

(3) This will ONLY work with REDline Build 262. I can almost guarantee that it won't work with anything else since the output from Redline has changed a bit. In case you didn't already know, Redline 262 has support for MX and Rocket.

Crucial Changes:
(1) I have rewritten the thumbnail code to use the R3D SDK instead of using redline or the quicktime redcode plugin. Hopefully this will avoid the problems some were having while scanning their footage. There is also a new option on the menubar that allows you to turn off thumbnails.

(2) I have changed the settings a little to cope with the changes in redline options.

(3) Random other stuff that doesn't really need a mention at this stage.

Things yet to test...
Well it all works fine on my dev machine using common settings... but...
still need to test on Red Rocket and later camera builds.
Also need to do stress testing and do a final test of all of the new GUI changes to ensure that they are all intact and hold their settings between sessions.

This isn't guaranteed bug free or anything so if you are using it for a real job then run tests **well** before your deadline to ensure that it works for your particular workflow.

Finally,

If you download this and have problems with rendering, please send me an email at support@rubbermonkey.co.nz. If you try it and it works perfectly then it would be good to hear that as well.

Here is the link
http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/downloads/Monkey_Extract/Monkey Extract 4 alpha.zip

 

[Paulo Naranjo]

Good news for me and everyone

Good news for me and everyone

Hi i have the problem that aprox 60 % o f footage of a feature film were incorrect back up on set, without the metadata files you know the 2 files outside the rdm folder i expect that will scan my footage and keep going ahead with my renders from r3d to dpx thanks monkey you listen very well to our problems, i need to test it, now i go to bed bye.

 

[Kaku Ito]

Nice, finally a software to create the QT proxies in the latest REDLINE in batch.

 

[Craig Herring]

Hi All,

We are still testing with the latest version of Monkey Extract.
However, by popular demand I am posting the current version for everyone to try.

Caveats:
(1) I built this on Mac OS 10.6.4. This is not a full release package (I have simply zipped the current build on my dev machine). If it doesn't open on your machine at all then this is probably why.

(2) This is time locked to 40 days but requires no registration key. You should have full access to this alpha even if you don't currently own Monkey Extract.

(3) This will ONLY work with REDline Build 262. I can almost guarantee that it won't work with anything else since the output from Redline has changed a bit. In case you didn't already know, Redline 262 has support for MX and Rocket.

Crucial Changes:
(1) I have rewritten the thumbnail code to use the R3D SDK instead of using redline or the quicktime redcode plugin. Hopefully this will avoid the problems some were having while scanning their footage. There is also a new option on the menubar that allows you to turn off thumbnails.

(2) I have changed the settings a little to cope with the changes in redline options.

(3) Random other stuff that doesn't really need a mention at this stage.

Things yet to test...
Well it all works fine on my dev machine using common settings... but...
still need to test on Red Rocket and later camera builds.
Also need to do stress testing and do a final test of all of the new GUI changes to ensure that they are all intact and hold their settings between sessions.

This isn't guaranteed bug free or anything so if you are using it for a real job then run tests **well** before your deadline to ensure that it works for your particular workflow.

Finally,

If you download this and have problems with rendering, please send me an email at support@rubbermonkey.co.nz. If you try it and it works perfectly then it would be good to hear that as well.

Here is the link
http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/downloads/Monkey_Extract/Monkey Extract 4 alpha.zip

Here is a proper release package for this version.
This will work correctly on Mac OS 10.5
http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/downloads/Monkey_Extract/Monkey_Extract_4_alpha.zip

 

[Dustin Bowser]

DPX Renders coming out very contrasty

DPX Renders coming out very contrasty

Hey. I'm new to this whole DPX workflow, but I'm just trying to get something worked out that makes sense for a project that has some shots go through After Effects, while everything passes through Apple Color at the end.

I've got a project that I'm finishing up right now that was shot on the MX, and I'm using Monkey Extract to conform the project to DPX. A week ago, I was able to render out several FX shots to DPX, and I did all the compositing in After Effects and rendered back out to DPX -- no problem. Yesterday, I tried to conform the rest of the edit to DPX using a Final Cut XML but Monkey Extract crashed every time I hit render. I did some some searching on the forums and found that I should use the beta version 3.2 of Monkey Extract because it supports the new Redline and the MX (though I'm still confused how I got my MX footage exported a week ago looking fine).

So, now I have my whole edit conformed and existing as a DPX back in Final Cut - but the only problem is that all the footage is super contrasty. It doesn't look anything like the "Look" that the footage had when it was shot. I sent the edit to Color and was able to stretch the colors back out to normal, and all the data is there, so it's fine, but I'm just confused about how a week ago I was able to export a few FX shots from the same batch of footage as a DPX and it looked "right". I didn't have to use any kind of special LUT's or anything. Is there a setting that I might have checked somewhere that would make the footage appear that way?

I've tried several different renders, messing with various settings. My output color space is set to REDspace. My footage Color Space is also set to REDspace, though I've also tried just setting it to "Use Settings Above."

Basically I just want to find whatever settings I need to be using to both send shots out for FX work in After Effects and send the rest of the shots to Color, and have everything exist as the same file format in the same Color Space/Depth etc...so that grading is as uniform as possible.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Toke Rude Trangbæk]

Monkey Extract with MX support AND Apple Prores 4444

Monkey Extract with MX support AND Apple Prores 4444

Hi

We could really use a version of monkey extract that works with MX footage AND can make Apple Prores 4444. In the Alpha version you have posted here the Prores 4444 option seems to have dissapeared?!

/toke

Here is a proper release package for this version.
This will work correctly on Mac OS 10.5
http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/downloads/Monkey_Extract/Monkey_Extract_4_alpha.zip

 

[Craig Herring]

Hi

We could really use a version of monkey extract that works with MX footage AND can make Apple Prores 4444. In the Alpha version you have posted here the Prores 4444 option seems to have dissapeared?!

/toke

Yes, unfortunately

If you hit the terminal and type "redline" you can scroll up a bit and see the list of codecs supported by your current version of Redline.

4444 has been removed from that list by RED.
As soon as they put it back in I'll be able to add it back into the codec list in Monkey Extract. Until then...

 

[Craig Herring]

Hey. I'm new to this whole DPX workflow, but I'm just trying to get something worked out that makes sense for a project that has some shots go through After Effects, while everything passes through Apple Color at the end.

I've got a project that I'm finishing up right now that was shot on the MX, and I'm using Monkey Extract to conform the project to DPX. A week ago, I was able to render out several FX shots to DPX, and I did all the compositing in After Effects and rendered back out to DPX -- no problem. Yesterday, I tried to conform the rest of the edit to DPX using a Final Cut XML but Monkey Extract crashed every time I hit render. I did some some searching on the forums and found that I should use the beta version 3.2 of Monkey Extract because it supports the new Redline and the MX (though I'm still confused how I got my MX footage exported a week ago looking fine).

So, now I have my whole edit conformed and existing as a DPX back in Final Cut - but the only problem is that all the footage is super contrasty. It doesn't look anything like the "Look" that the footage had when it was shot. I sent the edit to Color and was able to stretch the colors back out to normal, and all the data is there, so it's fine, but I'm just confused about how a week ago I was able to export a few FX shots from the same batch of footage as a DPX and it looked "right". I didn't have to use any kind of special LUT's or anything. Is there a setting that I might have checked somewhere that would make the footage appear that way?

I've tried several different renders, messing with various settings. My output color space is set to REDspace. My footage Color Space is also set to REDspace, though I've also tried just setting it to "Use Settings Above."

Basically I just want to find whatever settings I need to be using to both send shots out for FX work in After Effects and send the rest of the shots to Color, and have everything exist as the same file format in the same Color Space/Depth etc...so that grading is as uniform as possible.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi There,

1> If you are using Monkey Extract 3.1 or therabouts you will need an older pre-mx alpha build of Redline. It is not compatible with the new Redline builds at all and will crash 99% of the time.

2> If you upgrade to the latest redcine-x and redline build 262 you will need the alpha version of Monkey Extract that is posted in this forum.

3> The older version of Monkey Extract / Redline WILL render MX footage (mostly) but you will have issues with color. This is likely how you managed to render out some DPX a week ago.

4> As far as contrasty renders go, there are many settings that can cause this... whether it is the curves, PDlog or Print Density settings, black/white points, gamma curve / color space., your monitor calibration. Too much to cover here really.

From what I've seen, if you go out to Redspace with everything else at defaults then you will probably get reasonably contrasty image out of the box since it attempts to create an immediately pleasing viewable image, so it probably isn't a setting that is "causing" it, rather that you haven't specifically set things up to "avoid" it

When you talk about the "Look" that the footage had when it was shot" then that is fairly subjective... depending on what you were looking AT when it was shot (and how it was calibrated) so it is hard to comment on that.

Other than that, you'll need to experiment a little on some small test clips until you get the look you want.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers
Craig

 

[Ruairi Robinson]

Hey, I am using the latest beta and trying to render out some MX footage to prores to edit in FCP and for some reason it's not finishing on some of the clips - the ones that are problematic are getting up to for example 155 of 174 frames... and then the progress bar goes dark red. Most are processing fine, but so far 7 shots have been affected. Any idea why this might be, or what the fix is? Its not crashing or giving an error message...

Rendering on an 8 core mac pro 2009 model.

Cheers,
R.

 

[Craig Herring]

Hey, I am using the latest beta and trying to render out some MX footage to prores to edit in FCP and for some reason it's not finishing on some of the clips - the ones that are problematic are getting up to for example 155 of 174 frames... and then the progress bar goes dark red. Most are processing fine, but so far 7 shots have been affected. Any idea why this might be, or what the fix is? Its not crashing or giving an error message...

Rendering on an 8 core mac pro 2009 model.

Cheers,
R.

I am not sure what is causing this.

Are you using Redline build 262?

Probably best to take this one offline as I might need to get some test data from you. Please send me an email at support@rubbermonkey.co.nz and I'll see if we can fix this.

Cheers
Craig

 

[Craig Herring]

I am not sure what is causing this.

Are you using Redline build 262?

Probably best to take this one offline as I might need to get some test data from you. Please send me an email at support@rubbermonkey.co.nz and I'll see if we can fix this.

Cheers
Craig

For those of you who had trouble getting this working, here is another build.
http://www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/downloads/Monkey_Extract/Monkey_Extract_4_01_alpha.zip

It looks like the REDline installer was not working well for MOnkey Extract. This version will force you to link directly to the REDline.app as a workaround for this.

 

[Frank Cueto]

Any chance that we could get R3D trimming implemented? It would ROCK to copy the R3D's with just abit of handles. Right now we have to copy TONS of unnecessary footage which takes time and space.

thanks

 

[Erik Hansen]

Craig,

Is Redline 262 the build to use with v4 betas/alphas?

Thanks
- Erik

 

[Craig Herring]

Craig,

Is Redline 262 the build to use with v4 betas/alphas?

Thanks
- Erik

Yes. You must use build 262.
There are changes to the command line and the output between various redline versions and this is the only one I can guarantee will work with the current alphas.

Note: The 4.01 alpha of Monkey insists that you manually specify the location of redline.app. so...
1> download redcine-x 262
2> open the redline zip file and run the "install redline" app.
3> Open Monkey extract, go to the redline & rocket tab and set the redline path to the actual location of redline.app (not the one in your sbin folder)

This is all a workaround since the latest redline installer simply installs an alias to redline.app in your /usr/sbin/ directory. On SOME machines I have found that this doesn't entirely work.

 

[Matthew Crnich]

Hey, I am using the latest beta and trying to render out some MX footage to prores to edit in FCP and for some reason it's not finishing on some of the clips - the ones that are problematic are getting up to for example 155 of 174 frames... and then the progress bar goes dark red. Most are processing fine, but so far 7 shots have been affected. Any idea why this might be, or what the fix is? Its not crashing or giving an error message...

Rendering on an 8 core mac pro 2009 model.

Cheers,
R.

I am having similar problems.
Macpro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad Core
16 GB 1066 MHz DDR
OS X 10.6.4

Redline 262
Monkey Extract 4.01

I have one clip, used 7 times within an edit. Once ME gets to Render, only 1 - 2 of the clips truly renders completely. The remainder stay dark red. Tried changing number of Render Threads, made no difference.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[Matthew Crnich]

Output Color Space:

Output Color Space:

With the Mysterium-X based RED ONE cameras shot in REDCODE 42, what are people using for their "Output Color Space" within Monkey Extract?

I will be mastering to rec709 for video delivery. I plan to render rec709. Just curious if people are still rendering to rec709 or using the "REDgamma"? or something different?

I am going from FCP to Monkey Extract to After Effects CS4 on MAC.

-M

 

[Dillbag]

Hey Craig,

I'm a first assistant editor based in Vancouver, Canada, and had a few questions about Rubber Monkey. Dan Best over at WingNut suggested your software and said I should drop you a line.

I am currently working on a TV series and pulling DPX plates for the VFX vendors through RedCineX. I'd like to use Rubber Monkey but was hoping there was a way to export multiple clips from one EDL or XML into a folder auto-named the name of the FCP (or Avid) clip name instead of the camera reel I.D./clip name. Alternatively, is there a way to export by event number? I could then rename the folders based on the file names...

Also, are the trial licenses still available? I'd love to send the VFX vendor a test shot to make sure the files are useable.

Many thanks!

 

[Craig Herring]

Yes. You must use build 262.
There are changes to the command line and the output between various redline versions and this is the only one I can guarantee will work with the current alphas.

Note: The 4.01 alpha of Monkey insists that you manually specify the location of redline.app. so...
1> download redcine-x 262
2> open the redline zip file and run the "install redline" app.
3> Open Monkey extract, go to the redline & rocket tab and set the redline path to the actual location of redline.app (not the one in your sbin folder)

This is all a workaround since the latest redline installer simply installs an alias to redline.app in your /usr/sbin/ directory. On SOME machines I have found that this doesn't entirely work.

Here is the 4.02 alpha for everyone who is currently timing out.
This version DOES require a registration key. If you need a temporary registration key then please contact us at support@rubbermonkey.co.nz.

We are still trying to iron out a weird bug where in some environments some (or all) clips will fail to render... hence the delay getting this out. There are a few other bug fixes in this release.

You can download the latest version here...
www.rubbermonkeysoftware.com/downloads/Monkey_Extract/Monkey_Extract_4_02_alpha.zip