Pinnacle Systems MetaFuze - 2.5 User’s Guide

Avid® MetaFuze

User’s Guide

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Footage

Arri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc. Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Eco Challenge British Columbia — Courtesy of Eco Challenge Lifestyles, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc. It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines. Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada. Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications. “Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer. "The Big Swell" — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc. Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc., Editor/Producer Bryan Foote. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd. Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9. WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA. Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

Contents

Chapter 1 Using Avid MetaFuze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Film and High-Resolution Workflows using MetaFuze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Opening a Project in MetaFuze. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Customizing the MetaFuze Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Scanning your Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Transcoding your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Configuring the MetaFuze Transcoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using LUTs in MetaFuze. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Transcoding your Files in a Batch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Exporting an ALE from MetaFuze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Importing MXF Files into Avid Media Composer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Linking to MXF or GEN Files in Avid DS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Chapter 2 Avid MetaFuze Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Scan Folders Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Group View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Detail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Details of a group... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Details of a file... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Details of a transcode job.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Details of a stereoscopic group or transcode job... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Details of R3D groups or transcode jobs... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Output Preset View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Create XML Batch Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Burn-in Editor Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Transcode Configuration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

1 Using Avid MetaFuze

Avid ® Metafuze™ provides a complete offline-to-finish file-based workflow when used in conjunction with Avid Media Composer MXF media from third-party files (such as DPX, R3D, TIF and QuickTime), which can be offlined in Avid Media Composer, and conformed for finishing in Avid DS.

and Avid DS. Metafuze allows the generation of

Film and High-Resolution Workflows using MetaFuze

Single-frame files generated from digital video cameras, film scanning processes or CGI applications, need to be converted to playable media so that they can be read by an Avid editing application like Avid DS or Avid Media Composer. Avid MetaFuze transcodes consecutive single-frame files (with metadata contained as part of the format) and raw data files from a digital camera into an MXF or an Avid DS .GEN file.

Avid MetaFuze supports different files including R3D, ARRI, DPX, TIF, and JPG. It can also transcode QuickTime and AVI sequences.

Any file type supported by Avid DS or third-party parsers can be read by Avid MetaFuze.

Still-file parsers can be written for both MetaFuze and Avid DS using the parser SDK which is available as part of the Avid DS SDK.

The illustration below shows a typical example of a file-based workflow for editing film footage on an Avid Media Composer or Avid DS.

1 Using Avid MetaFuze

Avid DS

TELECINE

SCANNER

HD 4:4:4

3 4

ACQUISITION

HIGH-RES EFFECTS

& FINISHING

OUTPUT &

DISTRIBUTION

DPX

R3D ARRI QuickTime

FILM DELIVERABLES

VIDEO DELIVERABLES (HD, SD, DVD, BLU-RAY)

AFE

Avid Media Composer

EDITING

Avid

MetaFuze

MXF

Link to transcoded proxy files

TIF

Avid Storage

Storage

Link to high-res source files

Link to

high-res files

via AMA

ALE

This workflow shows you how to carry out editing and finishing on footage that is already in digital file format.

Step 1: Group high-res files into MXF or GEN files

High-resolution digital files could originate from digital cameras, film-scanning facilities, or CGI applications. The files include formats such as R3D, DPX, or TIF.

If you need to work with high-res file formats that cannot be read by Media Composer, start by using Avid MetaFuze to transcode these files to an HD resolution. MetaFuze transcodes the single-frame files into an MXF file that can be read by Avid Media Composer metadata originally contained in the file will also be included; or for non-metadata formats like TIF, metadata can be added.)

Media Composer can link to and output RED footage in HD RGB 4:2:2 or 4:4:4. However, if you need to output at a higher resolution than HD, you should transcode the RED files using MetaFuze and do the offline edit using MXF files. When you conform your Media Composer sequence in Avid DS, you will be able to link to the original RED footage to do the finishing and output.

If you intend to edit directly in Avid DS, then you may transcode your files to GEN format.

Step 2: Edit sequence by linking to HD or high-res media

On an Avid Media Composer, link directly to the MXF media to edit your sequence. From here, you can output directly to HD or SD. However, should you need to output back to high-res media (2K or higher), export the sequence as an AFE for finishing on Avid DS.

. (Any

Opening a Project in MetaFuze

Step 3: Conform AFE for finishing in Avid DS

On Avid DS, you can conform the AFE and connect to the original DPX/R3D/TIF files.

™

In the case of DPX files, necessary information such as KeyKode timecode is inserted as metadata into the DPX file during the scanning process. If the DPX files do not contain the timecode information, the ALE is required in order to make the necessary correspondence to the associated DPX files. The ALE is usually supplied by the film-scanning facility or output by MetaFuze/Avid Media Composer.

The transcoded MXF file used in Media Composer is not required for the finishing process

but it could be imported onto a separate video track in Avid DS and used as part of the conform check process.

Depending on your system configuration, many high-resolution formats are playable in real time — for a specific list of these formats, see the Avid DS support web at www.avid.com. When editing high-resolution projects where real-time playback is not achievable, you can use the proxy mode to apply effects and view the results in HD 4:2:2 or HD 4:4:4.

Step 4: Output to tape or file

In Media Composer, you can output any SD or HD formats as required.

(key number) and

In Avid DS, for a film out, you can output the final sequence to master as a series of DPX or Cineon

™

images (with an appropriate LUT) for recording to film.

Opening a Project in MetaFuze

When you start the MetaFuze application, it automatically opens a new empty project. A project in MetaFuze organizes and displays all the elements that are related to the project such as, source file folders, the groups of files created from scanned folders, and the information required to create MXF media files.

If you are starting a new project, you can proceed to “Scanning your Folders” on page 13.

To open an existing project:

1. Select File > Open Project.

2. Select the name of the project (.xml) that you want to open.

The selected project opens and displays the project components.

1 Using Avid MetaFuze

Customizing the MetaFuze Window

The views and toolbars within MetaFuze can be moved to a different position within the window, or can be “torn off” and dragged outside of the main window.

In addition, the columns in the Groups view can be rearranged or removed as necessary.

Element Description

1 View Click and drag a view by its title bar. The other views will rearrange to accommodate

the new position for this view.

2 Toolbar Click the double lines on a toolbar to drag it to a new position. The other views will

rearrange to accommodate the new position for the toolbar.

3 Presets for Group

view

You can customize the group view according to the information that you want to display in the columns. Add or remove columns as necessary and save the choices by clicking the Save Preset button. The new preset view will display in the Column Preset list.

Scanning your Folders

To move a view within the main window:

1. Select a view or toolbar that you want to move.

To select a view, click its title bar. To select a toolbar, click the extreme left where you see the vertical dotted line.

2. Drag the view to any position within the window where you would like to place it.

The cursor position determines the destination. If another view exists in that location, it will automatically move over. Release your mouse to drop the selection into place.

Some views can be undocked from the main window by clicking and dragging their title bar

outside the main window. Doing this creates a new window that you can stretch out if you need to see the values more clearly. It also gives you more viewing space for the other views in the main window.

The changes that you make to the window display are automatically saved and reloaded each time you open MetaFuze.

To change column headings in the Group view:

t Select a column heading and drag it left or right to a new position. Release your mouse

button to drop the selected column into place.

t On the toolbar, click the Add/Remove Columns button.

Use the Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select/deselect any columns that you want to display, and click OK.

Any changes that you make to the column display can be saved by clicking the Save Preset button. You can save your settings under a new preset file name or modify an existing one.

Scanning your Folders

MetaFuze is designed to scan specified folders and create groups of files based on similar file types found in these folders. The scan process groups together any files that have consecutive filenames, key numbers, or timecodes. The image resolution (same width and height), is also taken into account.

Once the groups have been formed, they can be selected for transcoding.

To scan your folders:

1. Select Actions > Scan Folders.

2. Browse to the folder where your files are located.

1 Using Avid MetaFuze

The folders can be on your local workstation or on remote storage. (To locate folders on a remote storage, you might need to use the full pathname, for example, \\<machine_name>\<folder_name>.)

3. In the list of available folders, select a folder name, and click the Add Folder button to add the folder to the Selected paths list.

Select a path in the list and then click the Focus button to refocus your Available folders to this path.

4. Select and add as many folders as you want.

5. Option. You can reorder the selected paths using the Up and Down Arrow keys.

6. Option. To remove a folder from the list of selected paths, select the path and click the X button.

7. Click the Options button, and specify the criteria by which you want to group your scanned files — see “Scan Folders Dialog Box” on page 33.

8. By default, the Filename is always considered as one of the criteria. Select the Timecode and/or Key number options if you’d like to use this data as well.

9. You can change the priority order of the criteria by clicking the Up or Down Arrow keys.

10. If you want to specify the type of files to search for, then click the File Types button.

Select only the file types that you need. This filters out any unwanted file types and makes the scanning process much faster.

11. Select the other options as necessary.

12. Click the Scan button to begin scanning your files.

MetaFuze scans the list of selected paths and forms groups based on the options you have selected.

Once the scan is complete, the main screen displays the list of groups that have been found in the selected paths. After groups have been found, you can proceed to transcode your files.

If you have selected the Show scanned information option, the Scan Details dialog box

opens when all folders have been scanned.

13. To save the scanned group information, select File > Save project.

Enter a project name that will be easily recognized when you export your MXF data for use in other applications.

MetaFuze saves all the scanned group information to an .xml file.

Transcoding your Files

MetaFuze converts groups of scanned files into playable Avid MXF or Avid DS .GEN media. In the case of MXF, you can create several MXF files and export an ALE of these files so that you can easily import them in one step from Media Composer.

Transcoding your Files

You can also create an ALE for each format in the selected transcodes with just one press of the 'Export ALE' button. The ALEs will all have the same name but will be appended with a suffix relative to the formats.

ALE support is not presently available in Avid DS, so you will need to link to each file

manually.

As MetaFuze transcodes the files, it also embeds the required metadata for tape source, timecode, and key number, so that you can later relink to the original source media for finishing on an editing system such as Avid DS.

Metadata can also be added to MXF/GEN files that do not originally contain this information (for example, TIF files). Some of this metadata can be applied as an overlay on the image, much in the same way a telecine transfer would provide window burn-ins of the timecode and key number. Finally, when transcoding, you can also specify a format and a codec to be used to generate the media.

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