Hi Everyone,
When I enter a BFX the start frame number is the same as the heads of the shot, even when consolidated. I consolidated to 24 frames on conform, but the bfx is starting at 49, preference would be 1. The shots from color have 48 frame handles. If the shot has much longer heads the number can be large. I loaded an AAF that starts at 1:00:00:00. If I make a BFX and switch to frame mode the BFX starting frame number is 1419605, previously this would have always been 1. Is this a setting I can change back?
Yeah I’m confused by this as well. My project settings are set for start frame at 1, but when I enter a clip into bfx, it’s default to 17. 8 frame handles + 1? This doesn’t make any sense
Hey there Andrew. I’m familiar with the minutia of what you’re describing and I think I can explain the why behind it, and I think I also have a decent solution for you.
The main reason for all of this has to do with how the “Start Frame” changed in Flame 2024. When you create a project, you dictate what the “Default” start frame will be for all media that does not already have a start frame.
Any .mov file, since it doesn’t have “start frame” metadata, is assigned whatever your project default is in your project settings.
Any image sequence’s start frame is dictated by however the person who rendered the image sequence set the numbering to be.
In your case, BFX rely on the clip’s Start Frame to dictate the Batch’s frame information, and unlike Batch, it cannot be changed inside of BFX. This reliance on Start Frame also explains why when you consolidate your handles, the frame doesn’t change; even though you have removed the handles, the Start Frame remained unchanged. For example, if your clip has a start frame of 1, it has 10 handles, you consolidate those handles, you are still technically on frame 11 when you consolidate the handles.
Regarding the start frame of 1419605, that sounds like timecode that has been converted to a start frame value.
At the end of the day, if you “Change Start Frame” on any of your clips before going into BFX, you can set whatever you want that value to be. I think that would be your best course of action. But let me know if any of this is confusing or doesn’t make sense.
I still don’t understand it. I have a clip with zero handles. I enter batch fx and the start frame is 17. Project settings are start frame 1 and whether or not I disable “Use Media start frame” in the batch FX user settings it does nothing. Currently if I bring the clip into batch then it works appropriately
I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but in the testing I’ve been doing, that setting Fred mentioned is dictating whether or not the Start Frame is 1 or dependent on the media. Two questions to help narrow it down:
What version of Flame are you running
What is the Start Frame of the clip that you’re sending to BFX? (see below screenshot)
You should be able to context click on any clip or a selection of non-BFX clips in a sequence and Change Start Frame that way if you don’t want to Reformat.
Mark, once a Batch FX has been created its Start Frame cannot be modified, so the Use Media Start Frame setting does not apply to existing Batch FX. To test it, disable the preference, delete the Batch FX, and then re-create it. The Start Frame should then be 1.
Fred that is correct. And doing what you suggest works. I guess what doesn’t make sense is where the “start frame” is generated when the conform takes place. If the original project settings are set to “1” then I’d assume the start frame would be 1 after the conform. This doesn’t seem to be the case. When I match clips out from the sequence they are all different. I have some clips with a start frame of 18, some with 21. As Kyle mentioned i can change the start frame from the “change start frame” drop down when in the sequence then re-match out the clips to the desktop reel then create a batch fx clip which will make the clip start at 1. Is there something I’m missing?
Hey Jeff, whats odd is that the project settings has a start frame of 1. When I match out clips from the timeline, all the start frames are different. See below to my comment to Fred in regards to what exactly seems to be happening. Thank you for your quick responses!
