Hi there.
When I did recently a conform I noticed I had double media in my Source Sequence.
I looked into it a bit further and noticed that one of the XML’s had a different filepath to the media. This was because the editor exported one XML from home.
XML 1 had path User/test/(DropBox)/Rushes/Day1/…
XML 2 had path User/test-home/(DropBox)/Rushes/Day1/…
As soon as I changed the filepath manually in the XML to the same as the other,
I could generate a proper Source Sequence.
I contacted support about this and they told me to use Path Translation for this in the Storage tab of the Settings. It still feels a bit like an extra hassle. So now before I conform I will check the filepaths of the XMLs.
I thought I share this knowledge here, because I can imagine other people receive XML’s with different filepaths (but same media) as well. Especially with people working remotely and from home.
Thanks for sharing and investigating! This is definitely a scary scenario but it just goes to show you that automated tools like the Sources Sequence creation are only as good as the editorial prep! When I talk about the Connected Conform workflow, this scenario you ran into is exactly why I always mention that you should check your Sources Sequence before moving on-- although I think these situations aren’t too common from what I’ve seen, they can really mess things up. Maybe as long as you’re checking your Sources Sequence you don’t need to always check the filepaths of the XMLs, but I guess you would have to check something no matter what!
I’ve never used Path Translation before-- I’ve heard of it but never looked it up. This is cool!
I think if I were in that situation I would have taken a completely different approach of finding all the duplicates via the sources sequence, source segment connecting them together, and using replace media to swap one of the duplicates with the other, thus consolidating them. If it was a few shots it would be super quick, but if it was like 20 shots, that would have been a lot of work compared to path translation.
There is an easier workaround though:
Normally I create a Source Sequence first and link the media to the Source Sequence.
But if instead you link the different edits to the media and after linking you press Create Source Sequence that will work, because in that case you linked the media first, so all the filepaths are the same. The only disadvantage is that if you have a lot of edits you have to link them all first, instead of only linking once to the Source Sequence.
It all comes down to the filepath. So in summary there are multiple options:
Manually change the filepath by opening the XML in a text editor and use find-replace
Manually change the File Location in Flame in the Conform Tab.
Use the Flame Path-Translation function
Link edits first to media before creating Source Sequence.