Hello
Archiving a project was always a solution for debugging / changing OS / switching between two machines over two continents / upgrading Flame…etc. I was always advised to do so. Unfortunately it never worked for me as a whole project backup, I will give an example:
Currently I am in Egypt for an onsite project for 3 months, I worked on 3-4 projects here as delivered, WIP or in progress. Now I wanna go back to Paris with the projects archive to continue working from my Flame there. Basically and in theory I have to archive them without the media/cache/render/MLcahces…etc. to keep only the project batches and/or timelines as sequences. When I proceed to the archive phase, I find myself with a HUGE archive file size. As an example, there is a project that contains only 20 batches, basic green screen setup of 20-30 nodes for each batch, no MV, no ML crazy work, the size of the project archive is 35Giga which is in my opinion too big for only saving batches. I made it clear that no media is saved, but still the archive file size still unbearable.
The dirty solution I have is to copy opt/project/batch/flame…etc. to make sure I have the setups in batch, but I don’t feel this is secure enough.
Where did I go wrong?
I have another project with at least 120 batches, and I don’t even dream to make an archive of it.
Anyone has an opinion about this?
All the best
Hey there!
You could try creating a new archive and just archive the setups (which basically copies the the project directory but in a more Flame restore friendly way) and then restore it when you get back. You won’t have the media, but it might be a bit more secure then making a copy of the directory (permissions and what not)… I’m also assuming that the archive is quite large because you have pre renders?
Another option is to create a new archive and uncheck source media and cache media, and that should give you a smaller archive.
With both options you’ll have to relink the media (I think flame’s batch is clever enough to automatically relink the batch clips as long as they’re named the same), which I’m assuming you’ll have separately?
Also, if you’re relinking media for the timeline and the media path is different to the original path you could do this:- Reconnecting Media with Path Translation - Flame 2018 - YouTube
One last thing…If you’re having to export the clips to take with you, you could always export them as DWAA Exr’s. Nice and small without the quality loss.
Hope any of this helps.
Andrew
Did you take a look to “Volume Statistics”?
Likely you have a file or render in your Batches that doesn’t have a link to shared storage. As in, an already rendered clip, or motion vectors, or a prerender, or something that only exists on your framestore.
I’d go back to your Archive, make a new one, and start breaking your project down into chunks…Batches and Timelines. Try to archive just your Batches. If the file size estimator is more than a few hundred MBs, then something in your Batches contains a clip that only lives on your Flame’s framestore and therefore must be archived. If its one of the Batches, take the top half of Batches, and try to archive that. Continue to break the project down into smaller pieces and you’ll find the culprit.
If you have hard committed media in a timeline, thats also something to look out for. Remember, in order to create the tiniest of archives, you can’t have any clips or media in your Batches of timelines that doesn’t exist on your server/nas/san/whatever. It must contain either a dark “I” icon or a light “I” icon on the bottom corner of the proxy to designate that it is a clip that can be Cached or Uncached.
Thanks, man, I think breaking up the project will take some time, but will be good practice for next time archiving, but I am willing to do that anyways.