Blackmagic Forum

Will Black MAgic have an AMA plugin for Avid Media Composer V6 much as we do for Red?

Awsome Red workflows in Avid currently and it will be great to see the same for media from teh new BM camera.

Well for one thing MC is stuck at HD.
Since the BMDCC records to DNxHD, I am glad to see there is a path.
Itll be no different from dealing with R3D files into AMA.
Last I checked there is no 2.5K DNxHD codec option but there is ProRes 4444 at any size you wish

Hi

We would like to see an AMA plugin for the BMDCC.

That way, i can shoot in 2.5K, bring the files to Avid with AMA, transcode the footage to an offline resolution and relink to the original files on Resolve or any other grading system.

For now, the BMDCC cannot record in both 2.5K and DNXHD at the same time, and that force us to limit the workflow to HD - in order to work within Avid.

Dori
http://www.opus-tv.co.il

ianim8 wrote:Well for one thing MC is stuck at HD.
Since the BMDCC records to DNxHD, I am glad to see there is a path.
Itll be no different from dealing with R3D files into AMA.
Last I checked there is no 2.5K DNxHD codec option but there is ProRes 4444 at any size you wish

MC is just a broadcast tool so yes HD is it's raster limit. But that works fine for Red files at 4K that are needed for Blu-rays or HD TV (which of course MC is great for)
And yes it should be the same as working with R3D files if we have a BM Cinema AMA plugin which we don't currently do we?
So currently there isn't an AMA MC workflow until we get a plugin.
Over on the Avid side we all hope for a Raster independent source side on MC. Still limited to Broadcast raster sizes for output but the ability to scale our access to the source. That can already be done using the AVid FX app but much nicer if it was in MC.

Im curious to see the DNxHD workflow with this camera.
I cant comment on the AMA part since it requires a Transcode.
We had way too many issues with AMA and R3D and even with MXF from XDCAMs.
I now just use RCXPro to convert all R3D to DNxHD for Avid use.
We dont finish to 4K so its not require for us here.

ianim8 wrote:Im curious to see the DNxHD workflow with this camera.
I cant comment on the AMA part since it requires a Transcode.
We had way too many issues with AMA and R3D and even with MXF from XDCAMs.
I now just use RCXPro to convert all R3D to DNxHD for Avid use.
We dont finish to 4K so its not require for us here.

We've had the opposite results with AMA. Initially frustrating but we now pre manage the file structures and deal with the weak DSLR QT files by adding timecode and reel id and then have AMA down to a fine art. It's so powerful to be able to bring 100 hrs plus of tapeless media online in a very short space of time and the client start making selects and even editing. We then prefer to transcode (or consolidate) for a more robust offline finally re-linking back to the AMA's but often we just work the AMA sources all the way to the end. Transcoding just the runtime of the finished cut as opposed to all the sources is great.
Also for Red I'd hate now not to be able to use the "set Source Settings" and adjust the RAW data and immediatley have that in my time line. Too often a shot looks burnt out and you need to know what can or can't be clawed back.
AMA of Red files in MC and the complete edit is very robust. I'm hoping BM can offer the same (or evne better) with the new BM camera.

Thanks for the insight into your workflow.
We have never had to go that route since we went from beta > xdcam > RED.
Our DSLR projects ended up on the other rooms with Premiere and FCP/X.
I too am looking forward to the day I get to play with the BMDCC files

There's no reason Blackmagic couldn't make an AMA plugin, but I don't imagine it super high on their priority list.

What would be good to see is a very cut down footage processing too. Something that has the Resolve engine within it but is streamlined for basic raw decoding and batch processing.

There's a couple considerations here... CinemaDNG being an open format would allow anyone to create an AMA plug-in once they license the AMA SDK from Avid. The more specific parts of the workflow is the decoding of metadata that is more specific to BMCC recording files such as source filenames, and extraction of XML metadata from the .WAV file. For example, if recording ProRes, I doubt the generic AMA QuickTime plug-in will grab any of the metadata other than the filename itself and timecode. That would fall more on Avid doing... And then to make sure than whomever is decoding the metadata is done consistently to regardless of method, all the metadata is being tracked the same way...

Michael

Well maybe it's not what you are looking for but since Da vinci is included with the camera maybe this workflow to work with avid is useful for you. It's more or less AMA plug in but you only do transcoding directly in davinci...

Thanks Jesuan - I am quite familiar with the Resolve workflow, and that will most likely be the primary method used when shooting CinemaDNG although I see some interesting challenges there that the end user will need to be aware of as well.

Similar to choosing between REDCINE X Pro for R3D, the user will choose which is the best method based on their particular workflow and turnaround times, Resolve will be used the same way although it has waaay more functionality than Redcine X.

What I am referring to is more the metadata extraction and management across different postproduction processes and ensuring that whomever makes (if) that plug-in that this is taken into consideration.

Michael

Jesuan wrote:Well maybe it's not what you are looking for but since Da vinci is included with the camera maybe this workflow to work with avid is useful for you. It's more or less AMA plug in but you only do transcoding directly in davinci...

So if you use Va Vinci to transcode the camera footage to say DNX36 and edit offline in Media Composer you can of course re-link the timeline from MC back in Da Vinci but can you link the timeline in MC back to that camera footage if you don't want to finish in Da Vinci?

Yes, as long as you are careful on how you create the REEL ID in DaVinci the first time around. If you carry the folder name that contains the DNG files, then other third party systems can use that as source ID when conforming - but it can be fragile as you can't change the name of that folder in any way. I wish the DNG files themselves had a more unique name than just frame[xxxx.....xxxx]. I have been playing with Better Renamer to use folder as filename in the rename process.

Michael