Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Media Composer 6.5 Symphony 6.5 NewsCutter 10.5 www.avid.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime CONTENTS INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 AVID AMA AND QUICKTIME..........................................................................................................................................................................................4 AVID QUICKTIME CODEC SUPPORT.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Introduction AMA (Avid Media Access) is the Avid architecture in Media Composer©, Symphony©, and NewsCutter©software that allows you to link to file-based media for use instead of ingesting it first. It can significantly speed up your tapeless workflow by enabling you to directly access material—without transcoding, capturing, or importing— prior to editorial. This guide covers how to link to QuickTime files using your Avid editing software.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Avid AMA and QuickTime From the beginning, Avid editing systems have been able to import many types of QuickTime movies and export edited material as QuickTime files too. QuickTime has proven to be a quick and effective way to share media, particularly between Avid editing systems and the graphics world.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Avid QuickTime Codec Support When you install any of the latest Avid editing applications, the QuickTime AMA plug-in also gets installed, providing AMA support for any QuickTime movie that uses an Apple-supported codec. That means you can quickly access many types of animations and video from other production environments. For example, with QuickTime AMA, you can play and edit Apple Final Cut Pro videos directly, without needing to import or transcode it first.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime PE and LE installers The downloadable codecs on the Avid website are called “LE” (Light Edition) codecs. To find the LE installers for use on graphics or other unlicensed systems, visit Avid.com and do a search for “download Avid codecs.” The codecs installed with your editing system are called “PE” (Professional Edition) and are different in a slight regard; the PE pack contains several licensed codecs that aren’t available for free distribution.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime QuickTime level control Avid QuickTime AMA doesn’t make a copy of the media in a new location, but directly accesses the original file in its original location. The Avid QuickTime AMA plug-in enables you to control aspects of the movie playback, such as interpreting the file as Interlaced or Progressive, and adjust its video levels. You can make these adjustments using the SOURCE SETTINGS dialog, shown here.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Automatic movie updates AMA will always link to a movie with the same characteristics. In other words, if you replace an existing movie file with one of the same name, track count, and duration, any sequences that refer to the original will be updated with the content from the new movie. This is a powerful tool that enables you to update graphics and animations that are going through iterations as editing continues.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime What happens if… I re-create my QuickTime movie with the same settings? If you make changes to the QuickTime movie, this new version will link to the original clip in your bin and in your edited timelines, without you doing anything at all. If the new version is in the same location and has the same name, number of tracks, and duration, then that is the movie to which the AMA clip will access.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime What happens if… My QuickTime movie has an Alpha channel? Alpha channels are not currently supported. If you perform a QuickTime AMA link to a movie with an Alpha channel, you will see the fill only, without the Alpha cutting it. There will be no warning that the Alpha is present, but will not be used. To use the Alpha channel, you can still perform a FILE > IMPORT (after setting up your Import settings to ensure proper handling of the Alpha channel).
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime What happens if… I move a folder full of QuickTime files to which I have linked clips? If you rename a folder that contains AMA linked QuickTime movies, move it to another drive, or restored it from a backup, the clips in your project may not be able to find the movies, and the clips in your project will be offline. To batch relink the clips: Select all of the clips in the bin that need to be relinked.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime To transcode a sequence: 1. Create a new bin and place a copy of the sequence into this bin. 2. Select the sequence and choose CLIP / TRANSCODE. > CONSOLIDATE 3. Select the “Transcode” radio button in the top-left corner of the dialog, then fill out the rest of the form as appropriate. Note that you can convert the video format and audio format using this feature. 4.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime What happens if….
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Ingesting ProRes on a PC using Consolidate If you’re using Media Composer or Symphony 6.5.1 or later, or Avid NewsCutter 10.5.1 or later, you can consolidate ProRes files into Avid storage. To do this, AMA link to the files, select them in the bin, and choose . Please note that AMA does not support Alpha channels, so these will not carry over with the files during the consolidate process.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Ingesting ProRes on a Mac using Import You can use the Import function to get ProRes media into your Mac in its original ProRes format. This will be a quick copy (fast import), as no processing of the original video is done. 1. In the “Media Creation” settings, select the “Import” tab and then choose the ProRes format you are importing. 2. In the Import settings, ensure that “File Pixel to Video Mapping” is set to “601 / 709.” 3.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Making a compatible QuickTime movie Many QuickTime movies you edit may not come from an Avid editor, but from a graphic artist or an editor using a different editing environment or device. These files may be After Effects animations or Maya 3D movies. You can also exchange media with other editing systems such as Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Avid Media Access Sample Workflows Updating the opening animation for a program Let’s say you’re working on a series of shows, and all 10 episodes use the same generic QuickTime opening, which includes a specific title overlay for each episode. Near the end of the editing process, the graphic artist needs to make changes to this opening sequence and, therefore, you’ll need to update all 10 episodes.
Avid Guide for AMA Workflow QuickTime Linking to delivered media Let’s say your colleague captured media for a project on her Final Cut Pro system, but you’re going to cut the promo on your Avid editing system. Your colleague can just copy the required media on the Final Cut Pro system to a folder and deliver this folder on a USB drive to you for Avid editing. While you could edit the media directly from the drive, you wants better performance, so you copy the folder to one of your Avid drives.
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