Working With Multiple Grades
by Martin Roe
on
Sep 4, 2008 at 8:00:52 am
A question for the wise!
I have been using a number of multiple grades as a director i work with likes to work hard to find the right look.
At various points, different grades have been the "right" one and have been rendered out. However, at a later junction, a different grade has become the "right" one and this is the rendered.
However, FCP does not update which of the two grades I now have selected in color and remains connected to the old grade. By which I mean for example, I now have in the render directory folder for shot 1 the following files
1_G1
1_G2
1_G3
1_G4
Where once, 1_G2 was the chosen one, we have now settled on 1_G3
However, I cannot get FCP to connect to 1_G3
Is there a way to get FCP to autoupdate this?
I have a workaround, in which i simply copy and paste the correct grade to every Grade slot I have used and render them out. However, this isn't terribly practical at the large volume of shots I am currently working through.
Any suggestions? Is there some beautifully simple method around this that I am blissfully unaware of?
This problem became particularly tricky when, in the process of discovering that this WAS the problem, I went through a number of projects and deleted all grades other than the final approved one.
This left me with some shots where FCP is connected to 1_G2 and the only way to figure out which ones this is (except by eye during QC) is to go manually through the render files, note them down, and check against the color project. Which I have been doing.
If anyone has any thoughts, I would be very grateful.
Re: Working With Multiple Grades by Joseph Owens on Sep 4, 2008 at 3:15:11 pm
No, although it is great that FCP will auto-reconnect to a re-rendered grade, it works against substituting alternate rendered clips. Why not try reconnecting the changed clip on the FCP timeline to the rendered alternate grade rather than explicitly importing the clip? That would essentially re-write the background XML that created the timeline, if I'm not misconceptualizing.
For a dash of cynical humour, I'm reminded of a recent "Dilbert" strip where the pointy-haired boss asks Dilbert if he's made "those changes" that he was asked to do. Dilbert asks his boss if he remembers which things he wanted changed. When the boss answers 'no', Dilbert says, "Well, I guess I'm done."
