Clip Name Burn-in

Anybody know of a plug-in to burn clip names into the video?

no way in fxscript to extract a clips name .... don't think you'll find one.
kurt heinrich at 1z1 has a free bitc filter that dispays a little more than the fcp's built in offering, but it doesn't do clip name:
[www.1z1.at]

good tip re the 1z1 plugin, Andy

i just had a look at it, an it DOES show the source clip name.

problem is it's really small in relation to the TC.
here's an approach tho:

COPY your sequence
apply this filter to all clips in the copy.
drag the copy as a NEST into the original sequence and crop out the huge TC,
so the nest becomes just a floating clip name.


cheers,
nick

nope ... it shows the source clips "reel" name, not the clip name itself

you are correct.

sorry,
the clip i used had very similar clip and reel names.


nick

Andreas Keil's Spherico Film Tools provides an XML solution:

[www.spherico.com]

export your FCP sequence as an XML,
run it though their "XML4Dailies" and then re-import the new XML into FCP,
and you get your sequence overlaid with text, bristling with details about each clip.



nick

in a word, fabulous ... the man's a genius
thanks Andreas (and Nick for pointing the way)

cheers
Andy

Thanks for all the input. Unfortunately none of these solutions do what I need. Because we work in renered QT movies, not captures form tape, there is no logging info for the clips other than the clip name which is derived from the file name. All of these solutions use the logging data and not the clip/file name.

Robert Weaver
Director of Post Production
Starz Media - Film Roman

Then your best bet may be to do them manually as subtitles. Undeniably slow, but does what you need.

not so slow if you program it as a QuicKeys macro.

they do take a while to test drive and get right,
but if you;ve got a lot of clips, it could save time in the end.

if i wasn't heading out of town, i'd offer to write it for you.
(i may be able to do that still, as i'll be taking my laptop)

Andy, are you sure there's no way to extract clip name using fxscript?
it should be pretty easy to make a plug in that did this.

otherwise, Robert, you could contact Andreas.
he may be able to write something for you (XML wise)


nick

i remember now i did something similar using the extra comments area on a TC generator.
butter than an overlay, as you can then easily export the clip with the name burnt in.

has to be done manually for each clip, tho.


nick

FX Script won't do it. Been down that road. There is no "Clip Name" variable. We have more that 1,000 clips so manual is not going to happen either. I thought about QuickKeys to copy and paste the Clip Name into the Reel Name, but I haven't used it for years and don't currently own a copy. What about Automator? Does it talk to FCP?

So I think XML is the way to go. It should not be that hard to set a text generator tag inside the clip attributes that sees the clip name string as it's input. Now I just need to find a programmer to do it. Perhaps Andreas is the best path.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Robert Weaver
Director of Post Production
Starz Media - Film Roman

Andy Mees Wrote:

Quote

in a word, fabulous ... the man's a genius
thanks Andreas (and Nick for pointing the way)

Thanks for that Andy (and Nick). Can I puplish that ? ;-)

@ Robert: Automator won't talk to FCP (at least not yet). To get the clip's name the only way is to extract from the XML. So you should have definitively a look at the XML stuff, the things you need can be extracted and can be parsed into a generator or a custom filter via XML.

Regards
Andreas

Absolutely, Andreas.

I've done a fair bit of automation via xml and had great sucess, but whilst my systems all work very well, they're generally built for specific installations and are not necessarily very robust.

I even wrote a mini app to extract and list/print markers from an xml export, just for the hell of it (my wife and kids we're away!) .. that was before I realised you already had a perfectly good solution in "readxml". I'm a big fan of things being done right and so I stopped suggesting using my solution and started suggesting yours instead :-)

Needless to say, I'm a big fan.

Thanks
Andy

Thanks again Andy!

Robert you can write a small FX-Plug which renders text into the clip.
If you export your sequence as XML the clip names can be extracted and the FX can be applied to the clipitem using the clip's name as text value. This way the text always is attached to the clip and you do not need to adjust two clips (generator & clip) when editing, you also can enable or disable the FX.
If you want I can can do that for you.

Regards
Andreas

I'm having a similar issue burning in clip names.

I use FCP to cut animatics, and it would be very helpful if I could deliver with burned in clip names that could be automatically generated. How would you write a FX script for this?

you cant, according to the others posting.
read the other posts in the thread, Kalina
i think it;s pretty well covered.


nick

I did read all the posts, the one right before mine said you could do it.

"Robert you can write a small FX-Plug which renders text into the clip.
If you export your sequence as XML the clip names can be extracted and the FX can be applied to the clipitem using the clip's name as text value. This way the text always is attached to the clip and you do not need to adjust two clips (generator & clip) when editing, you also can enable or disable the FX.
If you want I can can do that for you."

guess i was being a bit picky about the terms.

Andreas is talking about an XML application,
or probably more accurately, he's talking about BOTH an FX plug, PLUS an XML app

elsewhere it;s plainly stated that you CANNOT get to the clip name with a plug-in alone.

personally i;d love to see a subtitle generator written as a filter,
as Andreas mentions, it would save you having to work with more than one clip while editing.


nick

> personally i;d love to see a subtitle generator written as a filter

Or an option added to the Timecode Reader, a checkmark that would "include clip/sequence/nested clip name". Features request!


www.derekmok.com

Since I first made this post, we have written several XML tools specifically designed to deal with animatic production.

We have developed tools to:

Automatically create a FCP sequence from a Storyboard jpeg series. Artist/Director notes meta data transfer as clip comments to FCP complete with audio file links and slug timing from our XML based asset managment system.

Burn File Names (or anything else) with feet and frame counters, duration, audio slug offset, ect into FCP clips.

Automatically extract, create and name Scene clips from a animatic Sequence. Scene names are generated from the sequence in which they originate. Scene clips become place holders for final color animation.

Automatically find and update place holder Scene clips with Final Color animation media as it comes in, updating clip name to new version # in the process.

Storyboard printout from FCP sequence with timing/slug info.

And more.

I had brief communication wiht Michael about demoing our FCP animation worlflow at one of the LAFCP meetings. If there is interest, I'll follow up.

Robert Weaver
Director of Post Production
Starz Media - Film Roman

Do you plan on making any of these tools available?

I can't say at this time, as we are still in development. Unfortunately the decision is not mine to make. The company may wish to keep these proprietary. That being said, while this was certainly not easy, it has not been all that difficult. We found that PHP 5 has very handy XML manipulation capabilities.

Robert Weaver
Director of Post Production
Starz Media - Film Roman

hey, great work, Robert.

i'd love to see those demoed
of course i don't live in LA, but....

and i imagine it would make a great story for Apple


cheers,
nick