Hi everyone. I hope you are doing great!
I am conforming my first timeline ever and I am facing some troubles when trying to resize the source files’ resolution to match the offline reference’s resolution (the first one is 4k while the second is Full HD which is the standard delivery where I work). I have tried using action + resize as they came in the xml, but it didn’t work. I also tried 2D transform, but also failed. Could you help me with some guidance?
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Hey @F4y54l
I prefer to set my resolution import options in the MediaHub when selecting a Search Location from conform but sometimes if I am working with mixed res I will soft import onto a desktop reel, resizing on import and do the conform from a desktop reel source.
No one should be carrying around 4K media unless they have too. I usually aim to do all VFX at 2K unless there is a massive timeline resize. I am often aiming for a 1920 x 1080 delivery.
Anyways. The problem you are getting is trying to match the offline reference. Ideally you have been given a more modern format of EDL like AAF or XML. The old skool EDL carried none of the resize or reframing information from the editor and you found yourself recreating a lot of what the editor had already done.
Now with AAFs and XMLs you can get all of that info included, however, the editor will have been working with transcodes. Smaller versions of the footage that help keep the speed of interaction in the edit suite high.
If you are finding that the action timeline effects are not matching it is because the editor was using a different resolution to you.
I would keep their setup but add an axis underneath and figure out what that resize should be. 60% ? When you find that magic number you can add that same resize to all of the timeline effects and Bob’s your Uncle!
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I actually always bring in all my footage at camera resolution. It is rare that I work on anything longer than 60 seconds, so I like having the control through the whole process. Different offline applications give different info in the aaf. There are a few that I can make the trick that Richard describes above work well, but they are uneditable. I often toss them out and start over, or copy and paste individual channels into a fresh action. I find I am doing that less and less these days, however. But today, an aaf gave me nothing but black, so I just tossed it all out and eyeballed it. If you use Richard’s method above, you can figure out what the scale value should be by dividing the horizontal width of the timeline rez by the width of the source, x 100. So in your case it is probably 100x(1920/3840), or 50%
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Would you mind adding a bit of detail? What didnt work about it? Its likely the Resize options are tripping you up. Letterboxed vs Crop Edges vs. Fill vs Center Cut.
I’d make a new timeline, with just 2 clips…the editor’s reference picture, and the corresponding clip…and play with the Resize Soft Effect options to make sure you can’t solve it with those. And then you can go to the Action Soft Effect if need be.
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That damn resize timeline FX always trips me up. I try and use it and it gives me a black crop. I try and avoid the resize like the plague and only use it for bit depth resizing.
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You’ll get a ton of opinions on this matter because everybody has different challenges…speed, disk space, team size, budget, schedule…it’s not a one size fits all kinda matter.
I tend to follow @ytf’s style because we work in similar markets.
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this seems to be a big deal for all us online warriors. I think a feature request should be in order for conforming. A tool that adds an axis into a action that adjusts to the sizing of the offline, then another axis that uses the transform and scaling from the offline to match both dependent on the connected source size all done on the source sizing not to compromise the footage as best as we can. This could be a setting in the conform tools section. ( i hope i explained this in a way that makes sense. )
I actually have an expression for that. I haven’t really shared it because it is not “perfect” but it creates an action that automaticallly sizes the image to fit. It’s supposed to recognize both horizontal fit and vertical, but it gets confused sometimes.
It was exactly what you said, once I changed into letterbox it worked fine and I just had to adjust the bits of scale and position that were off. Thank you very much to everyone who answered, I also tried some ofthe other solutions to keep them in mind if it happens to get stuck again. I am new to the forum, but I already love it. Thank you all again.
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You can also use this to determine the scale value for the xml premiere script too and it’ll automatically scale every axis for you. The latest version of the script is available in the Logik Portal.
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I’ve never used that, but I imagine that it treats each shot the same. Most of my jobs are a mixed bag, which is why I came up with an expression that usually fits all cases.
Exaclty. It treats every shot the same, so it’s great for the jobs where all the high res is the same resolution. If you’re dealing with a mixed bag, you could run it multiple times and combine timelines, but using that expression is more efficient in most cases.
I usually just drop it on the whole conform at the start, then go through and make adjustments as needed.