Sequence export for CC

Dmitry Kichenko

Dmitry Kichenko

Well-known member
Hi guys
I have a question.

Suppose I was to export a complete sequence from Avid for later colour correction in an external package (Shake in my case). Is there a robust way to do it? For me robust would mean having each shot in the sequence exported as a seperate QT Reference file which I could later reimport back into Avid with all the CC finished, and replace the original footage with the corrected stuff.

So far I had to do it the long way. I would export a part of the sequence or the whole thing as a QT Reference file, and then manually break it into smaller reference files using QT Pro. It becomes quite a pain in the arse with a lot of shots. And then you have to replace all the shots manually after reimporting.

A way to preserve timecode would be nice, like working off an EDL list so I could reimport all the finished shots and have the original shots replaced with the finished ones automatically.

Perhaps I wish a bit too much. I know there has to be a similar technique in the "professional" world with the systems like daVinci. I can't imagine editor assistants exporting each shot manually, and then splicing them in again later on after the colour correction is done.

Heeelp :).
 
Victory is mine :). After 4 hours of research and script editing I think I have a solution to batch export an entire sequence into Shake from any NLE that supports EDLs. Here goes.

First of all, I used the Avid EDL Manager to convert the required sequence into an EDL list, with the CMX_3600 selected as the EDL format, and with audio tracks disabled, so that they don't contribute their timecode to the EDL. That will produce a list of all shots with the corresponding timecodes of the footage as well as the master timecodes of the whole sequence.

The utility itself is highly unstable, and reads my sequences with a 50% success. It can spit out an error 2 times in a row, and on the 3rd time it will open the sequence correctly. Go figure. Keep in mind this is v.22 of EDL Manager, you'd think they'd have it uber-stable by now. But anyway...

Now, to convert the EDL list into a Shake script, I used a modified version of the Python script edl2shk that can be found over at highend3d. The original script sets a timeShift value in the Timing tab in Shake, which freezes the input image. So far I can't seem to figure out the purpose of the timeshift, so I simply commented it out, and the script worked as expected.

When you load up the script, it offers an option for the interactive mode. Apart from letting you choose the range of the shots you want, it also lets you input the footage filename that the fileIn nodes will point to. I rendered out a QT Reference file from Avid, and then entered the name of the reference file into the script. Therefore, the fileIn nodes within Shake will be pointing straight to the Avid OMFI files, with the QT Reference file being the link between Shake and the OMFI Files, which will both save HDD space and allow me to work without a quality loss.

Another good thing about the script is that it's useable for larger projects, as it retrieves the Shot number and reel ID from the EDL, allowing you to easily navigate around the Shake script without getting lost.

The Python script produces something like this:
ShakeExport1.png


I plan to add some code of my own to, for instance, auto-update the thumbnails in Shake (for now I had to manually click each fileIn node, scrub on the timeline, and press the R key to update the them), and arrange the nodes in a pleasing way.

There is a compiled version of edl2shk with a GUI, but it doesn't work for me. It simply crashes, and, of course, I cannot edit the source code. If I learn Python a little, I may be able to write a GUI, and distribute the utility for free for others who want to import their sequences into Shake.

Hope this helps others who want to do their post outside of the NLE.

P.S. There is a product called Automatic Duck which does pretty much the same but for After Effects. It exports sequences from FCP and Avid into AE, and arranges all the shots in layers. But who needs AE :).
P.S.S. Why do I like to do things the f-ed up way? No idea. I guess I like to waste hours once, and then have the process automated afterwards, rather than constantly wasting time on the manual export of the shots.

EDIT: I think t would make sense to move this to the Special FX forum, so others who want to import their films into Shake can read this; the Avid forum is not as crowded most of the time :).
 
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Dmitry,

I was wondering if you could elaborate a little on the syntax used for edl2shk.py script and what if any modifications you made. I've been trying to use it with no success. The script runs with many errors even when you try to print the help menu.

Any help greatly appreciated as some form of edl import to Shake is of particular interest to me currently.

Thanks,

Mark
 
That's cool! I need the same kind of thing for Fusion: it can import OMF files, but Avid doesn't seem able to output them for HDV footage...
 
Wow! That's really impressive Dmitry.

If you do have success retooling that script or creating a GUI I'd be very, very interested in getting a copy.
 
hello,

i am the author of the original edl2shk c++ application binary (with GUI).
I am wondering why it's crashing.
Edl2shk exe use quicktime to read the source timecode embeded inside the mov files, because if you have recorded timecode during capture (which is the case when you use a remote) the edl take that as source TC, not the file "counter" TC.
Maybe some quicktime incompatibilty between version has been introduced ?
It also does the same with avi files.
All this kind of things are the reason why i coded it in hardcore c++, not in python...
Due to a disk crash i don't have the source code anymore, but i might have some pieces of it.... here and there:(
So the man who asked me to create this app then created his own in python (we are not the same person !) because he wanted the REELS to be merged a different manner i think.
More precise feedback would be welcome

best regards

Julien Stiegler
 
hello Guys,

i have some good news....
i have found an old command line version of my app's source code.
It is a real mess because it was pieces of coderecovered using some disk crash recovry system... so i still need to sort it a little bit.
But now that we are at it, please
Send me some feedback about edl2shk :
- your system spec (mainly, your OS)
- bug reports
- feature request
- formats request
example
- I am using softimage XSI , so for example i would like to add softimage file format output support (to get an edited track in XSI's animation mixer for example, or even the FXtree).
- i noticed someone is using digital fusion, i think it would be great to have DF output as well.
- what about after effects
- Also the EDL format is really limited. I would stick to the CMX3600 because it looks like most editors support it. FCP can output xml though, what do you think ?

I would focus on those point in a first step.
Then i would think about adding a GUI.
But a shake macro gui can be used to build the necessary option in a user friendly way and call the edl2shk command from within shake.

Once those things will be sorted out i may release it in open source.
Then i'll have to choose a crossplatform framework for the GUI.
I see several options :
- wxWidgets (is the framework i used to make the GUI you are using actually) It's free and i can make a commercial app if i wish
- Qt (free) open source edition but that would force me to release the source under GPL. Though i have no problem with that, as long as my name stays mentioned in the tool and code.
- tcl and mkTclApp or such C wrapping...

I think Qt is very nice .... so _i think_ it will be open source

Please send the suggestions in this thread (and be patient because i am a busy 3d graphist/animator....)

PS
i forgot the most important !
send me EDL sample files !
(and a mac....joking...)
 
hi there!

I fill to be called somehow by this conversation as I'm a partly reason of small confusion here. I wrote edl2shk SCRIPT which was a succesor of Julien's exec with the same name. As Julien had lost his code I couldn't resist to try my own tool and use the name which sounds so natural.

I'm absolutely sure that Julien's tool is much better then mine, especially as he's going to develop new version of it. He can retieve timecode from QT & AVI, got GUI (I prefer commandline actually), and some more sugar;)! The only advantage of the script is a way of dividing shots in shake. I strongly recommend to Julien to go that way also!

As to my script, it works fairly well as long as you call it with proper interpreter (python not perl, bash etc). In next release I will give it a NEW NAME and bunch of new features ;) I work on it with WinXp, OSX and Linux and never had any problems although I never work on QT Reference which introduces some problems as first post on this thread says.

Hope Julien posts and current one will dispel confusion on edl2shk.
 
hey symek!
thanks for the clarification.
I still have the command line version source of my app with quicktime/avi tc link etc... but as long as you all are happy with the existing tools that's fine.
 
I finally realized where was a problem of Dmitry Kichenko with my script.

Dmitry: You have exported QTReference file of timeline not sources!
That is not a task my script was intended for but on the other hand it was brilliant idea. Why to bother with exporting many sources if one can just export only timeline. I've implemented native support for QTRef from AVID to a new version of script! There is also new parser and recursive search of media files specially usefull for Adobe Premere users. Go and grab it. Hope you'll find it usefull!


cheers,
Symek.
 
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FCP to combustion

FCP to combustion

I realise that these tools are mainly to get footage to shake, bu is it possible to do something similar for getting footage to combustion?? Ive done a big batch export but that is a pain and especially with the wierd file names that are created from the HVX.

Any help would be great

Mark
 
well, I've even tried to build some exporter to combustion also, but as there is no simple way to script combustion (as Fusion for example) I've gave up.

But as I know Combustion works with EDLs natively, right? As I understand it is a tool for batch capturing inside C. It's good to have another option (that's why I've recenty added Fusion support to edl2shk although Fusion supports edls - this version of my script is not online yet).

Anyway, Compustion with its fanncy XML based scene format and no decent scriptability is hard to work with... sorry.

cheers,
SY.
 
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