Python: Tag Tools (Internal Name & Client Name management)

[kyleobley]

I was inspired by @andymilkis’s reverse user group submission to be able keep track of both our own internal name as well as the client name (or AD-ID, ISCI, whatever). This has been an issue for as long as I can remember.

Personally I’d try to attach the ISCI to the end of the internal name and then a producer or someone in I/O could use that to then know what the file links to. Regardless of the approach, the two names would always get separated.

The solution, then, is to leverage both Flame’s tagging system as well as QT’s vast tracks of metadata. This idea lead me to write tag_tools.

This is a collection of tools to help manage tags for internal_name, client_name and audio. It will allow you to easily set, change and read the tags to then be able to rename the sequences/files themselves as well as to export QTs with the tags inserted into the metadata.

Have a look at the README as I’ve gone into far more detail then here but the here’s the top-line summary:

What it does:

• Sets/updates the internal_name or client_name based on the current sequence name.
• Adds all audio files to the audio tag.
• Rename sequences (both on the desktop and filesystem) to either the internal_name or the client_name.
• Exports a pre-populated CSV file with the internal_name that you use to then add the client_name. You then re-import the edited file to automatically add the client_name tag to the selected sequences.
• Exports a QuickTime with all the tags jammed into the metadata

I hope some of you find it useful. Let me know if anything isn’t working or if you have ideas of how to improve it. As always, massive shout out to @MikeV and all the work he’s done with PyFlameLib and his UI builder.

[philm]

[bryanb]

Looks cool Kyle. I’ll check it out. I’m also imagining a way to use these tags to populate type tool fields for slate info.