A tool to help prepping sequences
by John Pilgrim
on
Sep 23, 2009 at 9:37:31 pm
Hi all,
I'm midway through building a tool to help in prepping FCP sequences for Color. The tool will generate a web page listing any filters and motion tab settings used on clips, as well as any clips that don't match the sequence codec. It works by applying an XSLT transform to an XML file of the sequence exported from FCP, to select parts of the sequence XML data and convert it into HTML.
I'm writing it for my own use with clients' projects and don't have a lot of time to build this into a full featured product. I will probably just be posting it on my website for folks to use and/or modify under a CC or GNU style license.
I should add that the tool's purpose is only to save my fingers from having to open up clips needlessly in a sequence in search of Color-unfriendly naughtiness.
That said, I'm curious what data or tests folks here would want to have this tool report about a sequence that they're prepping for Color.
Cheers,
John
SF, CA
Here's the a sample of the first working output from the preliminary version on a client project:
Re: A tool to help prepping sequences by Alan Okey on Sep 24, 2009 at 8:31:30 pm
What would be brilliant is a tool that could simply delete any flagged* material from an XML sequence and retain the correct timecode placement of all unflagged clips. The resulting XML file would only bring over the Color-friendly media and exclude any of the naughty bits.
*Flagging would denote any Color-unfriendly material such as stills, speed changes, Motion tab settings in interlaced clips, etc. Of course this is a moving target, as the latest version of Color has improved in regard to handling material that was Color-unfriendly in v1.4, so it ultimately may not be worth the effort.
Some notes:
-- The script processes the XSLT locally in your browser, and your XML is not uploaded to my webserver. No breach of your or your clients' privacy.
-- It only works in Firefox 3 and above. Sorry Safari and MSIE.
-- I will be updating the XSLT with more details and tests, so if you like the report for a project that you currently have, print it out now.
Some notes:
-- The script processes the XSLT locally in your browser, and your XML is not uploaded to my webserver. No breach of your or your clients' privacy.
-- It only works in Firefox 3 and above. Sorry Safari and MSIE.
-- I will be updating the XSLT with more details and tests, so if you like the report for a project that you currently have, print it out now.
