Two-way Avid Media Composer Integration
Reading time ~7 minutes
You can import Cinegy objects to Avid Media Composer via drag-and-drop in two ways:
directly from Cinegy Archive Browser;
via the post folder.
Import from Cinegy Archive Browser
You can import clips, Rolls, ClipBins, and Sequences from Cinegy Archive Browser directly to an Avid Media Composer project via simple drag-and-drop. To do so, follow the steps:
Open Avid Media Composer and create a new project.
Open Cinegy Archive Browser and select a clip, Roll, ClipBin or Sequence you need to import to Avid Media Composer.
Drag-and-drop the selected object into the Avid Media Composer project bin window.
Exporting each object and inserting it to Avid is shown with the following progress bar:
To abort the process in progress, press "Cancel".
Media for all the objects being exported are converted into MXF files and the references on the received MXFs are written into a created AAF file.
Note | Make sure that the "MXF media location" is set up correctly in the Cinegy Archive Browser options dialog; otherwise Avid Media Composer will not find the generated MXF files and you will receive "Media offline" footages. |
When a Sequence is imported to Avid Media Composer, for each of its clip a corresponding master clip is created. A Sequence with all references to these master clips is created and placed into the AAF file.
The following table shows the feature mapping when a Sequence is imported to Avid Media Composer:
| Feature | Status | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Video clips | Fully supported | Video clips will be transferred with no changes. | ||
Audio clips | Fully supported | Audio clips will be transferred with no changes. | ||
Flop | Fully supported | The corresponding flop effect will be applied in the Avid sequence. | ||
Dissolve | Fully supported | The corresponding dissolve mix will be applied in the Avid sequence. | ||
SMPTE mixes | Coming soon | Feature is ignored during export. | ||
Dip to color | Coming soon | Feature is ignored during export. | ||
Speed | Fully supported | The corresponding speed effect will be applied in the Avid sequence. | ||
Freeze | Special | The corresponding freeze effect will be applied in the Avid sequence for video clips. Audio clips will be replaced with fillers of the corresponding duration. | ||
Titler | Special | Media is exported without the alpha channel information (blended on the black background) or is replaced with fillers.
| ||
Pictures | Special | Media is exported without the alpha channel information (blended on the black background) or is replaced with fillers.
| ||
Audio pan balance | Coming soon | Feature is ignored during export. | ||
Video transparency key frames | Coming soon | Feature is ignored during export. | ||
Multiclip | Coming soon | The multiclip is replaced with a filler of the corresponding duration. | ||
Color correction | Not supported yet due to technical limitations | Feature is ignored during export. | ||
Inverse effect | Not supported yet due to technical limitations | Feature is ignored during export. |
When the import is done, the items are ready for processing in Avid Media Composer:
Relinking Media Qualities in Avid
This feature allows you to work in Avid Media Composer with proxy quality files and then relink the edited material to the high resolution.
Drop Target
There is a special "drop target" window that accepts dragged-and-dropped items from Avid Media Composer Bins – AAF files. It can be launched via the "Show drop target window" command:
The following "Drop to Cinegy Archive" window appears:
The "Drop to Cinegy Archive" windows always stays on top; you can change its transparency using the slider on the right side of the window.
| Press the "Set target" button to launch the "Select node" dialog and define the target Cinegy Archive database location for importing media. |
| Press the "Set group" button to specify the media group. Use the "Select Media group" drop-down list from the dialog box that appears to select the required media group. |
| Press the "Import" button to launch the standard "Open" dialog and select the file(s) for import. |
Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop clips or compositions from the Avid Media Composer workspace into the "Drop to Cinegy Archive" window. The other way is to select the previously created AAF file(s) and drag-and-drop them into this window.
Note | Import is impossible unless the target location is defined. |
Note | Only AAF file format is supported for import into Cinegy Archive. |
As soon as the files are added, the import session starts automatically. The window caption displays the import process details.
The following window informs whether the import process is finished successfully or failed and displays the detailed information about the performed operations:
The logging details can be managed using the context menu commands:
Sample Workflow
These steps show the sample workflow for rough-editing of the proxy quality files in Avid Media Composer and then relinking them to the high resolution files:
Configure Cinegy Archive Browser:
set "Export mode" to "AAF+MXF Op-Atom".
in the AAF + MXF Op-Atom Settings dialog select the proxy quality from the drop-down list (MXF Avid 15:1s) and deselect the "Do not recompress if source format can be used in Avid directly" option.
Drag-and-drop the specified objects from Cinegy Archive Browser into Avid Media Composer bin.
Perform the desired editing operations in Avid Media Composer using these proxy quality media.
In Cinegy Archive Browser AAF + MXF Op-Atom Settings, change the media files format settings to the desired high quality.
Drag-and-drop the specified objects from Cinegy Archive Browser into Avid Media Composer bin again.
When the export is completed, the new MXF files will be generated according to the specified settings.
Finalize your composition in Avid Media Composer using high quality media.
Avid Interplay Integration
Note | The usage of Avid Interplay integration should be requested separately. |
When all the necessary Avid Interplay Integration parameters are set up, the Avid Interplay folders tree panel will appear:
To send the object to the Avid Interplay server, select the object and drag and drop it to the desired folder in the Interplay tree:
or select the "Send to Avid Interplay" command from the object’s context menu.
Note | Make sure that the "MXF media location" is set up correctly in the Cinegy Archive Browser options dialog; otherwise Avid Media Composer will not find the generated MXF files and you will receive "Media offline" messages. |
The following window will inform you of the exporting progress:
The files will be exported to the specified Avid media files folder.
Working with Post Folder
Post folder is a special network shared folder which checks for the appearance of new AAF files to be imported into the Avid Media Composer projects.
Important | Refer to the AAF Files Location paragraph for details on Avid media files storage configuration. |
When a new AAF file is added, a message appears above the Cinegy Archive Browser icon located in the notification area of the task bar, informing you about the new file:
The content of the post folder can be managed via the "Post" manager. To open it, right-click the Cinegy Archive Browser icon and choose the "Open post folder" command:
The following "Post" manager appears:
Here the list of AAF files (so-called "posts") contained in the post folder is displayed.
| Those posts that have not been imported to Avid Media Composer are marked as unread. |
| The posts that have been imported to Avid Media Composer are marked as read. |
To import a post to Avid Media Composer, select the required one and drag-and-drop it to an Avid Media Composer project.
| Press the "Refresh" button to update the list of posts from the post folder storage. |
| Press the "Delete" button to delete the selected post(s) from the post folder. |
| Press the "Delete Read" button to delete all the read posts from the post folder. |
