Relinking media after bringing in project from Color from a different system

This is my 1st time dealing with color. My sequence was transfered to a different system for color correction. Upon returning the new "project from color" the file names are "106_g1". My original files are all .mov files. How do I relink my media?

Will

You don't. The new project will be linked to the new files...the 106_g1 (grade 1)...which are also .MOV files, by the way. That's what Color does. It renders out NEW media that has the color correction applied to it. So you should have a new sequence that links to these render files.

Here's how it works in a nutshell. You give the project to the Colorist...they take the current sequence, prep it for color correction, then use the SEND TO COLOR command. They color correct, then render. When the rendering is done, they SEND TO FCP...and a NEW sequence appears in FCP, that links to the new media created by rendering....the 106_g1 files. So now you use that new sequence when you continue to work, like compress for DVD, or output to tape, or for the web...


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It's important to note that when you archive your project, you save not only the original media files but the newly graded files as well. This way you have your original cuts and the final master.

It is a little confusing at first because in the timeline you'll still see the original names of the clips, but if you do look at the item properties of the clip, you'll see that it is linked to the one of the Color clips, i.e. 21_g1.

By the way, the naming structure from Color is simply "Shot Number_Grade Number." So 21_g1 is Shot 21_grade 1. In Color you can have up to 4 grades assigned to any given shot so having that grade number can be useful if you decide to go back in and tweak the shot.

What Shane said about the Color workflow. Speaking of which, a while ago, I tried going the typical post route on an indie setup- offline-> Color for TC -> AE for comps, then render out a final master to sync back up with the audio in Final Cut.

One issue I had was that when I tried to media manage and consolidate the clips based on file names, FCP ended up copying both the original clip and color corrected media, resulting in a tragic mess. Not sure if the issue has been fixed since then, or if anyone tried this workflow and encountered the same issue with FCP media managing both the non-graded clip and the graded one, essentially running into duplicate file name issues.



www.strypesinpost.com

strypes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What Shane said about the Color workflow. Speaking
> of which, a while ago, I tried going the typical
> post route on an indie setup- offline-> Color for
> TC -> AE for comps, then render out a final master
> to sync back up with the audio in Final Cut.
>
> One issue I had was that when I tried to media
> manage and consolidate the clips based on file
> names, FCP ended up copying both the original clip
> and color corrected media, resulting in a tragic
> mess. Not sure if the issue has been fixed since
> then, or if anyone tried this workflow and
> encountered the same issue with FCP media managing
> both the non-graded clip and the graded one,
> essentially running into duplicate file name
> issues.

You should not run into duplicate file name issues because the original file and the color graded file are two completely different names. While they appear to be the same name in the timeline, a quick check of the Item Properties will show that the graded clip has a different file name. If you take your color graded clip offline, you'll clearly see the name of the clip in the "Media Offline" red screen is something like 1_g1.mov and not what the clip name shows in the timeline.

I've been media managing FCP projects with Color graded timelines and have never had an issue with FCP confusing the file names. It always looks for raw files in my original timelines and the graded files in the graded timelines.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Strange. I've run into it a couple of times. If I do a reveal in finder from FCP, it opens up two finder windows, with both the old clip and the new clip. Not too sure what went on in there.



www.strypesinpost.com