Is there a way to update cg quickly in flame?
I’ve noticed in nuke that they can click alt up arrow on a cg render and it updates. Looking for the same or similar for flame. Any ideas?
Hi there. If you are working with OpenClips you have that option, right click on the clip in batch and you will find it easily. If you are not working with OpenClips, then right-click on the clip and replace it from mediahub, and will lead you to the current folder of that particular clip. You will have to choose the new version or change the folder in case it is located in another one.
I knew about replace. I’ve steered clear of open clips because they always seem to break. Will give it a try. Thanks.
You need to rebuild the naming and suffix, behind the version, in pattern browsing. After that Flame will show only one clip in the media hub, instead of a bunch, and you can use internal versioning. For this it doesn’t matter whether it’s an open clip or not.
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Sure. I think what frustrates me is how nuke just handles it without having to do any of this. I’m pretty sure @ALan has made this observation before. Nuke is just a workhorse. Whereas Flame is a show pony with this sort of thing.
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At least there is an undefined shortcut for versioning. So as soon as pattern browsing is setup with your input names, you can switch versions like in nuke.
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Can’t you just drag the new version of the CG from a library or reel onto the old one in batch and have it automatically replace?
BTW, the Nuke updating isn’t perfect. It’s basically just a loosely structured pattern browsing where it’s looking at the version number in the file name. Works great in a shop with a pipeline where the render names are consistent but can be a nightmare if it’s a small shop where a freelance CG artist can name stuff whatever they want.
And this is what I am doing. But I have something 27 cg renders to update per shot. And a really fussy client. It’s time consuming. In nuke I saw they just lasso the cg and hit a hot key and felt instantly jealous.
aw, yeah, that does sound awful. If it’s any consolation, when I have worked in Nuke scripts that have a ton of CG renders, they’re almost always spread around different parts of the tree and updating them is still a chore to go through and figure out which ones need to be selected to update.
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Sure. But both of these tools (and any others for that matter) have their super cool stuff and their closet skeletons. Ask a Nuke artist about having to work with a timeline? Just one example. While frustrating, I’m not sure it helps with a happiness mindset. I say this as someone who works across these tools regularly. I regularly find cool stuff, and big pain points in all of them. None is perfect.
Many of these pain points can get addressed with a feature request (takes a long time), or some python (more sweat equity or having a good friend).
As always, my view is this:
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Yup… Pattern Browse implementation is shameful.
Word. I just want a read node that works like a Nuke read node. Exactly the same functionality. Doesn’t do anything fancy. Just feature for feature what a read node does. It can even fail in the same ways… that’s fine. But it has to have the alt+uparrow functionality.
That would solve this once and for all.
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I hear you Jan, but Flame’s pattern-browsing is a solution in search of a problem. Yes it’s advanced compared to a read node but it requires the foresight to set it up first. It also will be represented as a separate entity vis a vis the actual media—something which freaks folks out.
Now, if that capability could be derived contextually within a read node, so that you import first and then set the pattern you want for future revisions that might be something. Construct your patterns after the fact… yeah that could be something.
I don’t think anyone is saying Nuke’s implementation is perfect in every use case, but that in this particular one, it alleviates a ton of strain and sometimes that’s better than perfect.
Completely agree there. Maybe I just did pick up too much of a vibe of them vs. us, rather than lets just fix this.
I just spent the weekend writing a python script to fix the OpenClip pruning (still testing before sharing it wider).
So apolgoies if I read to much into what was being said.
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None needed. Dissenting opinions encouraged and debate welcomed.
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Yes please. A read mode like that where you can see the location of the file easily and if needed edit.
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Saw that @hildebrandtbernd already mentioned the unbound keyboard shortcuts (ClipMgmt / Select Next/Previous) …
So yes Alt-Up/Dn can work today - if you have open clips or use read clip with pattern matching setup.
Whenever I am comping CG I always use the read file node. If pattern browsing is set up correctly you can quickly tap through different versions/renders or I even if it isn’t you can easily update the source file path with a few quick taps.
Not the most ideal solution but I found it works well when competing with nuke artists for CG comps.
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