I'm an Avid offline Editor based in the UK and I've worked on all kinds of film/tv projects. One day chatting with a fellow Assistant we realised that most of what we knew we learned from jobs / other people / youtube trolling and software release notes. As much as I loved film school (shout out to Unitec, New Zealand class of 2010!!!) it's not where I learned the vast majority of my knowledge and skillset.
Enter the idea for this channel!! We thought it would be great to have a centralised resource where we could show everyone the knowledge we've accumulated in our years in the industry and (hopefully) help our fellow Assistants in editorial!
So have a watch, like, subscribe and comment with topics in editorial you'd like me to cover in future videos! The channel is new so I'd love any and all feedback to get it off the ground!
Join this channel to get access to perks: ru-vid.com/show-UC99E84uGd1VMB42NBoxsJEgjoin
Hey there Jack, love your work! The Smart Tools you show at 14:00 behave differently for me, they only toggle from Both to None whereas what you have shown toggles between Both, None, Red & Yellow. Any suggestions to fix this? It is almost like it is behaving like the ST (Smart Tool Toggle) command.
In the command palette under the "other" tab, can you try dragging and dropping the "add Op Key" function onto the key AFTER you've mapped the trim type/segment mode keys on. Not sure but this might solve it. Checking my own settings now it looks like I may have applied this without realising and that's what's done it.
Using autosync and Auxillary TC1 as the choice to sync - what happens if 'Keep audio on clip with video' is selected, range starting A1 to A1? This seems to produce two tracks, and modifying the clip to just one, is just the attached scratch clip when synced up?
If you select "keep audio on clip with video" then it will add however many tracks of audio are on the source picture files. For me that's usually zero but assuming in your case there's one. Then setting range A1-A1 should be referring to the sync audio. So one track from camera, one track from sync audio.
@@theavidassistant Giving a bit more information to the problem. Resolve was used to sync the picture and sound from some rushes, by adjusting slightly if a few perfs out. Resolve project had original camera footage and original wavs linked inside it. This was then rendered to create video and audio mxf files. An ale including colour information was exported from the resolve timeline. The mxf video and audio files went into Avid MediaFiles folder/MXF folder into '2' folder. The ale was imported into the masterclips bin, 'Maintain events as logged' Clips relinked, remerged for missing data. Original source wavs were dragged into an audio bin, creating avid generated mxf's in a '1' folder in MXF folder. To autosync some subclips, the wav clips from the audio bin are dragged into the masterclips bin. They are all highlighted and then autosync selected. Synced by AUX TC1. If the "keep audio on clip with video" is not selected, then the synced single audio track links to the wav directly. But this wav will not be synced up as it was in Resolve, or is it? Am I right in thinking that the information from the AUX TC1 column, is the adjusted data that means the clips will be synced up properly, if linking to the wav directly, not the masterclip bin which has the sound rendered from resolve in the bin? Sorry it is so long, as is hard to describe well.
@@theavidassistant Posting again as may not have uploaded properly: Giving a bit more information to the problem. Resolve was used to sync the picture and sound from some rushes, by adjusting slightly if a few perfs out. Resolve project had original camera footage and original wavs linked inside it. This was then rendered to create video and audio mxf files. An ale including colour information was exported from the resolve timeline. The mxf video and audio files went into Avid MediaFiles folder/MXF folder into '2' folder. The ale was imported into the masterclips bin, 'Maintain events as logged' Clips relinked, remerged for missing data. Original source wavs were dragged into an audio bin, creating avid generated mxf's in a '1' folder in MXF folder. To autosync some subclips, the wav clips from the audio bin are dragged into the masterclips bin. They are all highlighted and then autosync selected. Synced by AUX TC1. If the "keep audio on clip with video" is not selected, then the synced single audio track links to the wav directly. But this wav will not be synced up as it was in Resolve, or is it? Am I right in thinking that the information from the AUX TC1 column, is the adjusted data that means the clips will be synced up properly, if linking to the wav directly, not the masterclip bin which has the sound rendered from resolve in the bin? Sorry it is so long, as is hard to describe well.
I have yes. Will need to go over it on RU-vid (always have issues getting the downloadable to work on RU-vid, Patreon is so much easier) but the Filters bin is something that's available there as well as a number of other things. Though to be honest all of the stuff in Filters area very simple templates to make and I change and tweak them for every project I do.
Hey Jack love the video's, Ive found then very helpful. Im into 7months on 3 part series, just relinking one of the episodes and I have a question re 'Group clips' do they relink in the same way or do I need to flatten the group clip in someway? that is to get back to the originally named camera clip?
@craigslattery3001 Ah no they will still be groups of the same media but will reference what you've relinked them to. If you made subclips and grouped those then they will have the exact same name. If you grouped the source camera files then the name will change.
@@theavidassistant Thanks Jack, I don't quite understand what you mean, I think I may have messed up, I followed your Proxy workflow, transcoded all the camera media and created the group clips from the transcoded media. When I relink, the groups don't appear to be linking back to the camera media. A video on this would be great! Thanks again the videos are brilliant.👋👋
@@craigslattery3001 Right so this video is purely to do with making transcodes and relinking. It doesn't cover standard processes within Avid for stuff like renaming or grouping clips. One rule of thumb I have is I never rename clips when they are brought in, even (especially) transcodes. I'll make subclips of those transcoded master clips and rename those. Benefit here is that you can relink the subclips (and any group clips / multi-cam made from them) to different media but the subclip name is preserved. Plus all metadata is protected as you've not renamed the master clips. There's a series of videos in a playlist called AE100 on the channel. The section to do with sync'ing goes into this a good bit. But it's two long videos. For the benefit of explaining what subclips are, here's a short and simple sync'ing video that will show subclips: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cIgpr5QRoKw.html
Yeah ! I'm following classes to be avid instructor rightnow and i was searching how to make this type of markers like the avid projects intructors of Marianne post - Whoua ! Small thing but great tips to assist and teach some good ways for my students in France ! Many thanx !
Technically both options will do this! You can't have gaps or edits in a clip. It's a match of two pieces of media. So if the audio cuts out half way through you would subclip the second bit out separately and that would be a MOS clip. Partly why I prefer sync maps as these are easier to spot as you do them.
You will need script sync which is included in the ultimate edition or can be purchased separately I think. Standard MC does not have the transcription features I'm afraid.
I want to move huge selected data to a different drive, keeping the media database (mdb & pmr) intact, so that the media is connected and available in avid after they are moved to new location, can you help with the process, im using mimic and have to move selected data between servers.
So if you are copying all of the media files to another server then it should be no worries to just move the whole thing. Moving selected data to a new location is where I always use MDV. The only other way I reliably know to move selected avid MXF data is by dumping it onto a sequence in avid and exporting an AAF with "copy all media" selected.
Hi it would be great if you could do a quick video where you just edit a short scene, from ingesting the footage to exporting and including the whole edit from cutting to adding sound design etc. as there's many tutorials for understanding how to use the controls of avid but not any actually displaying the skills in an actual scenario of editing. Thanks.
So I have that for Assistant Editing workflows. Where I walk through the whole process for ingesting and prepping rushes for an editor in long form. Then another series for advanced 1st assistant stuff. Cutting however is so subjective. I can show how I would go about it but that would not be a short video. Plus every editor I've worked with does things differently. It's why I've kept the channel mostly technical or workflow stuff. Since it's objectively true. I have a series on Patreon/youtube members showing my subjective approaches to things but unsure how to bring that to this platform. I'll have a think about it. Maybe a new playlist of videos around cutting something in avid with tips and demos based on how I would go about things.
@@theavidassistant Ok no problem that makes total sense, maybe some time in the future a video where you could address some common issues during cutting like keeping all audio tracks in sync within complex timelines. Thanks for the reply.
@GoodladEdits no worries. For that I'd maybe check out the smart tools and trimming video on the channel. Should help. Personally I'm a big fan of the sync locks. I keep all tracks sync locked all the time and use yellow trim to trim and have all other media ripple in sync. Red if I just wanna take a small chunk of audio or video out but keep a gap where it was.
Can I just say to anyone else who may have got stuck on this, THE SUBCLIPS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SUBSEQUENCES, you turn them into subclips in the bin with auto sync. I guess the first time I watched this I missed that crucial information and was stuck on it for an embarrassingly LONG TiME.
Thanks Curig! Planning to re-doing them this year now that I have a more established format of making these videos that's a bit more slick and will add more info into them too! Stay tuned ;)
OK sorry to re-hash this but I noticed that when I attempted to do the "Move and Click" Action (in the delete MDB files). It only shows from the top left corner, and not the right? After trial and error of figuring out what to do. I noticed that I need to also change the "Front Window's corner" so it reflects and says "Top Right Corner" across the top like yours says in the video. This might be something to point out because KM by default (in 2024) is using the Top Left Corner. Hope that makes sense?
That is a good point. I personally set it different in every macro I do depending on what I'm doing. In an ideal world I avoid mouse moves as they are less reliable and so in the last year or two I rely much more on keystrokes and app extensions. Maybe time for an updated macros video :)
thanks so much. im learning avid now and I'm trying to activate both types of segment mode so it changes based on cursor placement. but i can only select one segment mode at a time. am i doing something wrong? i can select both trim modes and those change based on cursor placement but not the segment modes
Hey! It's a Dell Ultrawide 34". Not sure of the exact model number as I got it a good few years ago but I can definitely vouch of that monitor size and format, it's terrific for avid work, having a big long timeline across the screen is awesome :)
Very informative. I've been on Media Composer a very long time, and learned about three new things I'd never heard before. As to ideas for more tutorials, you detailed some of what the tracking tool can do. It would be great if you could do a deep dive into the tracking tool. On a recent job I had to do a lot of tracking for screen inserts, some I did with 3D Warp, some with Mocha Pro. The tracking tool was frustrating because there are many things that aren't clear. How many trackers should you use? Does the size of the bounding box on a tracker point make a difference? Is there a way to get around occlusions, i.e. someone walks through frame? Mocha Pro is a lot more sophisticated, but 3D warp with tracking can be quick and easy on most shots. Thanks Jack. - Harry
Thanks for your tutorial very well explained. In my experience, when I create "transcript from clip" on a Mac Mini M2 and Mac Studio M1, Avid stuck when Indexing, and I have to force quit the program. Any ideas for this issue? Thank you.
I have learnt a lot from this channel as an assistant editor trying to get into avid media composer. Can someone point to to a few resources for learning avid command scripting to automate some tasks in avid? I am very curious about it. I would be very helpful for the help. Thank you in advance. Cheers
Jack, I don’t know the definitive answer to this but would you ever - after ingesting your video - rename your clips (via bulk edit) before creating your vision auto sequence? And if not why? What would be the ramifications down the track? Thanks mate
Definitely not. I (and most folk I've met in post - though not all) never rename the source clips. After sync'ing we end up with sync'd subclips and they will be renamed as per the slate, likely using bulk edit if we have that data in the ALE (though I prefer to do it manually). Reason comes down to relinking and preserving the source data. Sure that data SHOULD always be in the tape/labroll column but it's still good practice to keep source clips named as per the camera since we will always end up with subclips anyway. I never cut with the source clips. Even if there is no sync sound I'll make a subclip and rename it to keep with this practice.
In terms of ramifications if you alter the metadata of any of the source clips I've seen it break the ability to relink to the source in online before or at the very least cause a lot of hassle getting it to work as we restore that data. I worked in a post facility before being an Assistant Editor years ago and we bumped into this once or twice.
Generally I’ve always created subs from an auto sequence video timeline synced to an auto sequenced audio timeline and would never touch the original ingest media. However, my assistant began renaming the originals and I really had to scrutinize why as I’ve personally never come across any relink issues. But I’m glad you’ve shed some light on this matter. Thanks again.
Your tutorials are so good, but I end up having more questions by the end because your workflow and knowledge base is so vast, I feel like I'm always playing catchup. And I mean this in the best way. Thank you so much for your content, you're a hero!
Wow thanks! Feel free to drop questions or comments or through email. I'm pretty slammed these days but will always get around to answering them eventually :)
@@theavidassistant Thanks! (Switched to my regular account) I actually just joined the membership to say thank you for all the work you put in. Great stuff!
How do you mean a searchable option? We can search through the transcript from the bottom of the window and we can search the project for any line spoken using the find window.
Paid. The free version of avid has a different name "Media Composer FIRST" and is not really a free version like how Resolve has a free version. Media Composer First is purely for training and is missing a lot of the key features to be used as a professional tool. Also the transcription features are only in the ultimate edition.
00:02 Avid Media Composer 2024.6 brings full compatibility with the latest operating systems and a new transcription tool. 01:59 Avid Media Composer 2024.6 introduces new features including subframe level track editing and expanded open timeline IO preview. 06:00 Avid Media Composer 2024.6 introduces transcript tool for detailed clip analysis 08:06 New AI transcription feature and un-linking from Source Monitor 12:17 Avid Media Composer 2024.6 introduces new options for handling subclips and groups. 14:29 New subframe automation with volume and panning 18:31 Enhanced marker options in Avid Media Composer 2024.6. 20:21 Enhanced marker exporting and interoperability with Protools 24:21 Introduction of Open Timeline IO in Avid Media Composer 2024.6 26:16 Avid Media Composer 2024.6 focuses on interoperability and AI tools
Hello, thank you for this video. I started with Avid xPress Pro, then HD. xPress Pro was so much simpler back then. I wish it was still around today. I'm trying to figure out how to use the up/down arrows to widen or to make tall the video track or the audio track to add key frames. And/ or make both tracks tall at the same time. I'm not talking about zooming in/out. Thanks.
Hey! To make any track larger or smaller you would enable the tracks in question (on both source and record side) then hit Cmd+L to go bigger and Cmd+K to make them smaller. Or Ctrl if you are on windows. Hopefully that helps but if it's not what you are after just let me know :)
@@theavidassistant Thank you for your answer. I was asking and watching your video because I was looking for a correct way to letterbox my project. According to avid documentation the best way to do it is frameflex. But if I do it I can't later zoom in with 3dwarp without losing the desired ratio (everything is zoomed, letterbox too). Can you recommend a way to do it correctly? Best regards 😃
FrameFlex is the best way to format your clips but definitely not to letterbox the project. The two ways to do that are via mask margins or an effect on an upper layer. Here's a video I did on the topic recently that should help: Avid Basics - Mask Margins ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PmvPsvKiRuE.html
Nice addition. Now I hope there will be a better integration between Transcript and Scriptsync. For instance, if a clip has a Script, why can't it be used instead of the Transcript window? Also, are Transcripts searchable at a project level? In documentary, I use Scriptsync all the time to see if someone mentions a particular word in any of the interviews.
Well there's always been the PhraseFind feature that we can use to search the whole project for any spoke word. This integrates nicely with the transcripts. So you could have the find window up when cutting a doco and use that to search the whole project for a line or word, then jump the transcript tool for navigating through the clip? They are refining these features with each release since 2023.8 so I'm sure there's more to come in the future :)