Search results matching tag 'Avid for Final Cut Pro Users'

Module 2, Lesson 6 - Importing from other programs - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:38:02 GMT

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Module 2, Lesson 5 - Using Telecine Logs - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:36:06 GMT

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Module 2, Lesson 4 - Importing Final Cut Pro Logs - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:33:25 GMT

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Module 2, Lesson 3 - Using FileMaker Pro to Log Footage - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:15:44 GMT

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Module 2, Lesson 2 - Using Excel to Log Footage - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:13:21 GMT

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Module 2, Lesson 1 - Logging and Digitizing - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:09:32 GMT

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Module 1, Lesson 4 - Project Differences - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:47:36 GMT

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Now that we've launched the Tempest project, I want to talk to you a little bit about the differences between Final Cut Pro projects and Avid projects and the biggest difference is in the structure of the project window.

In Final Cut Pro, when you start the program you're given an empty sequence ready to edit into. Both the sequence and any clips can live out at the browser level or you can choose to move them into bins which are represented by folder icons. But if you look at your project on the desktop all you'll see is just a single project icon and you can't actually see all the individual components. In the Avid, things work a little differently. When you launch the program you're given a blank open bin. A bin is a file, not a folder and you can store clips, sequences, titles and effects inside it. On the Avid you can't have clips and sequences open at the project level. You have to make a bin first. To create a bin, click the New Bin button. By default it comes up with the name of the project followed by the word "Bin." If you've done this more than once, each new bin will have an incremental number. To rename a bin, just highlight its name and type the new name and press return. You'll see the new name reflected in the title bar of the window for the bin, except that there's a little diamond to the left of it, indicating its not yet been saved. So go to the file menu and choose Save Bin and that bin will be saved. You can organize your bins into folders by going to the Fast Menu and selecting New Folder. If you don't see the New Folder option, it's because you're in flat view. Go back to the Fast Menu, scroll down to the bottom, and select flat view to turn it off, then try again. You can rename a folder just like you do a bin. You can move bins in and out of folders the same way you move files in and out of folders on your computer. Just select a bin and drag it.

The Avid Project window is true WYSISYG. What you see is what you get. Everything you see in the project window is exactly mirrored on the desktop level. It's not just one anonymous icon whose contents you can't discern. If you open up the shared Avid projects folder you will see that the files inside the "Tempest" project folder are exactly the same files that we see in the project window. With the addition of two extra files which represent the project itself and the project settings. You can name your bin, rename your bin delete your bin, create a new bin. You can also make a folder, name a folder, move your bins into folders, rename folders, and nest folders. Everything that we do in the project window you can also see happening inside the project at the desktop level. For example, highlight the icon to the left of a bin name in the project window and press the delete key on your keyboard. Or, go to the Fast Menu and choose Delete Selected Bins. This creates a little trash icon into which the tape bin has been moved. And in fact if I look over here at the computer level, there's a trash folder with the tape bin in the trash folder. If I want to delete it, I go up here to the Fast Menu and choose Empty Trash and answer yes to the question. When you delete a bin, it deletes all of the clips and sequences inside, but it doesn't delete the associated media. Once you've deleted a bin, you will see it disappear from both the project window and also the computer. The flexibility of Avid software, allows you not only to see the individual files that make up your project but also to move them one at a time if necessary. And the advantage to this is that you can move individual files between Avid systems, you do not need to take the entire project. So, if your assistant is logging a new tape, they don't have to create a new project. They can work in the same project everybody else is working in and just make a new bin and then bring you that bin. Or, if you're going to an online facility, you can take just the latest version of the sequence in its own bin, without having to take the entire project.

Let's switch to another project. To close the "Tempest," either click a close button in the title bar or go to the Fast Menu and select Close Project. If you don't see the Close Project option in the Fast Menu it's because something else is selected in the project window. Deselect it and try again. I've created another project here called "Merry Wives" to give you an example of how a project might be organized in the Avid. For example, there's separate bins for titles whether they're scratch or final and they live in a titles folder. There's a separate bin for each tape that we log in and digitize that lives in the tape folder. Separate bins for each scene of footage that lives in the scenes folder. Separate bins for each version of the cut that we laid off to tape. In Avid, an output is called a Digital Cut and it's very important that you save the sequences you lay off so that you can refer back to them later. There are also all the various versions of our cut that live inside the cut folder and all the different types of audio we might be keeping inside an audio folder. So this is one example of how you might want to structure your bins and folders in the Avid.

If we go back to the "Tempest" project, I want to mention one thing about multiple projects. Because the only way to view the contents of an individual project in Final Cut Pro is to open the project, they allow you the ability to open more than one project at a time. In the Avid, you can view the contents of individual projects by browsing them at the computer level so you don't need to open multiple projects at a time. However, if you'd like to bring into your current project clips and sequences from another project you can do that as long as both are playing at the same frame rate and both are either progressive or interlaced. If the outside bin is compatible with your project, go to the File Menu, and choose Open Bin. Then navigate to the bin and select it to open it. The Avid brings it into your project, but puts it into another folder labeled Other Bins. You can see the word "other bins" is in italics as is the name of the bin you just opened. This is to remind us this bin does not belong to our project. And in fact, if we scroll over here to the right you can see that this particular bin belongs to the "Merry Wives Project." While you have the bin from the other project open inside your project, you can open the sequence and clips in that bin, you can play them, you can change them, you can copy information over from your sequence. You could accidentally delete something in the bin, so be careful. The one thing you can't do though is delete the actual bin itself because the bin belongs to another project. When you're through looking at it just select the bin in the project window and press the delete key. It will disappear from your project but it still exists in its original location. If it's the only bin in the other bin's folder...the other bin's folder disappears as well. So, you have a great deal of flexibility in the Avid, in looking at items from other projects, in creating bins and folders and moving things around and carrying items from one Avid to another.

So that's the main structural difference between Avid and Final Cut Pro when it comes to the project window. We hope you'll enjoy taking advantage of these features. This brings us to the end of our first module, "Introduction to Projects" in our series on "Avid for Final Cut Pro Users." I covered all the steps necessary to start a new project and create a new user. I've shown you where the files are stored on the computer's hard drive, which ones to back up. And how to access your personal settings to take them from one job to another. I've also given you a quick tour of the Project window and how it's organized. Finally I highlighted some of the main differences between Avid and Final Cut Pro. Notably, Avid's ease of use with multiple users and flexibility with the set up and organization of the Project Window. In Module Two, I'll introduce you to logging and digitizing.

Module 1, Lesson 3 - Where to find Avid files - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:37:59 GMT

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Let's take a look at where the Avid files are stored on the computer's hard drive.

The program itself is stored in the Applications folder. And any projects we created using the private tab are stored in the Documents folder of the currently logged in user. Any other files you create using the Avid software are stored inside the Users folder, inside the Shared folder, and inside the Avid Xpress Pro folder. All of these folders are created when we launch the program, and the two most important are the Avid users and the shared Avid projects. Inside this shared Avid projects folder are all the projects we created using the shared button, including the "Tempest." The Avid created a folder for this project and put all the corresponding files inside that folder. You can very easily copy individual files from system to system or you can take the entire project by grabbing the folder. This folder is also what should be backed up each evening. Let's go back up and look at the Avid users folder. Inside this folder is a separate folder for each Avid editor who logged into the operating system of the computer. I logged into the Macintosh as Laura and then launched the Avid software as Laura. So it created a folder here with my personnel settings that I can take with me from job to job. Because we created an additional editor, while logged into the computer as me, the David file is stored in a separate folder inside my folder. If we toggle it open you'll see that he has the same three types of settings and preference files as I do. He can take his own folder from job to job, just as I can take mine. At the end of the day, make sure you back up the upper most level folder so that you get everyone's settings.

So that's it for our quick look at the Avid files. Let's go use the program.

Module 1, Lesson 2 - Intro to Project Window - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:33:03 GMT

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When you first launch your project in Avid Xpress Pro this is the typical layout of windows that you will see. With one editing monitor called the Composer a timeline and the project window. This is a little bit different then the standard view you'll find in other Avid software such as Media Composer or Avid Adrenaline. Those two products have a 2-monitor editing system, which we can mimic by going to the Toolset Menu and scrolling down to select Source/Record Editing. Now I have two editing monitors, like most of the other Avid systems. On the left is the source monitor, which is similar to Final Cut Pro's viewer and on the right is the record monitor, similar to Final Cut Pro's canvas. I still have the timeline underneath and the project to the left. So let's close these windows and take a closer look at the project.

In the title bar of the project window is the name of the project followed by the name of the current user. In the Avid you can only have one project open at a time so although you see tabs across the top of the project these do not represent separate projects. Instead they represent separate aspects of the current project. And by default the first tab labeled Bins is selected and this is the view you will probably be using most often. The second tab is called Settings. And this is where all the settings for the Avid software are located in one handy to reach window. You can scroll up or down through this list and when you find a setting you want to change double-click on it to open it. For example I want to change the bin settings so I'm going to double-click it, it opens up a new window called Bin Settings. Down here at the bottom enable "super bin" has been selected. Super Bin is a really handy feature for people editing on systems with only one monitor, who need to conserve their screen space. I'm going to turn it off for the tutorial, and then click OK and that saves my change.

You'll notice up at the top of the setting window is also a pull-down menu listing the users accessible on the system. So for example, if it's the end of my shift, and I'm going home and another editor is going to come in and work on this project, I click in here and I can switch to the User Profile of another editor or create a new one. In this case I'll create one for David and click OK. And now the Tempest project is being edited by David. If I want to go back to my settings I just click in that window again and choose my name from the list and it's switched back to me. It's very handy in the Avid to keep user settings separate and distinct and yet very easily accessible. I never have to log out of the project, I never have to quit out of Avid Xpress Pro and I certainly don't ever have to log out of the operating system to switch users. And if you take a look here again at the Users Tab you can see it lists all of the people who's user settings have already been created.

Module 1, Lesson 1 - Creating a Project - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users

Avid Community Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:21:51 GMT

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Every time you launch the Avid software, the first thing you see is the Select Project window where you can pick both the user and the project that you're going to work with. The Avid assumes by default that you're going to work in the user settings of the person who logged into the computer. But you don't need to do that. You can click in the pull-down menu and choose Create User Profile to create settings for an additional editor. I'm going to leave the settings at Laura. But the advantage with the Avid is you don't have to create all your user settings at the operating system level. You can create them right within the software itself. Now, if I had an existing project I wanted to select it would appear in the menu here on the lower left. But, this is the first time we've launched the software, so we need to create a new project. And we need to decide where to save it. Click Private, if you're the only person using your computer or if you're sharing it with other people you want to make a project that's not accessible to other people. It will store the project in your personal user documents folder and only you will be able to read and write to it. Click the Shared button if you're sharing the computer with other editors and assistants who each in their own turn are going to need to access the same project. That project will be saved in the shared users folder and anybody who logs into the Avid will be able to open it up and make changes. The third option is External. Click that, and then this folder button to open up your directory listing and navigate to another place where you would like to create a project.

In this example, we're going to create a shared project, so I'm clicking the Shared button and then the New Project button. Which opens up the new project window where I assign a name and format to the project and decide whether or not I want to track film information. Unlike Final Cut Pro, the Avid requires you to name your project before you start using it. This eliminates all of the problems associated with digitizing media into an untitled project. In this case I'm going to call the project "Tempest" and choose a format from the pull-down menu at the right. Because this is the only opportunity you'll have to name your project and determine its format and because it's difficult if not impossible to change some of these later, make sure you have all the proper settings selected now. If your project originates on film, there is a matchback option that once selected allows you to track all of the film information for that project. So click the button and from the menu at the right select a film format. If your project starts on film and ends on film the Avid is able to track all that in its own software without using an external program. Set your project at 23.976p, for example, and the matchback option turns into a film option. Click on the film button and then choose a film format. Again, this will let you track all the key code and ink numbers that you need to for your project. In our example we're going to create a project at 720p/59.94 and turn off the matchback option and then click OK. Our project now appears in the menu on the left under the shared button. If I click on the Private button instead, you'll see that there are no projects created in the private directory. In order to open my project I need to click the shared button. Make sure the project is highlighted. Make sure the appropriate user settings are selected and then click OK to launch the project for us to start using.