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Depending on your other systems and your workflow, you could consider the DPX file format. It has a 10-bit mode so you won’t waste space with 16-bit if all you need is 10-bit. Of course, there’s 16-bit DPX as well. And there’s 8-bit DPX in case you don’t need 10-bit.
And DPX works well with any FFI/FS system as well as Shake, Nuke, etc. And now with QT 7 conversion between Quicktime (uncompressed) media and DPX is fast and easy. DPX also has good meta-data handling so it can carry time-code, keycode and other parameters in the header.
Neil Sadwelkar
Mumbai, India.About the quicktime version. Its something that throws many people so I mentioned it. Most PCs that aren’t doing any video capture/layout have the “default” Quicktime version of 3 or 4 or 5. And even Macs. Many facilities are still using Avid ver 7-11 under MacOS9 so they too have QT ver 4-5.
When interfacing any of these with newer QT 7, there are issues.
Cheers
Neil
Friend,
You need to check the version of Quicktime you’re running. Meaning, your PC may have a rather old version of QT (like 4 or 5) while your friend’s Mac may have the latest QT 7. Also, your friend may have (initially) not made a self-contained movie hence it didn’t open.
Nothing wrong with exchanging data between PCs and Macs or even Linux and Irix systems. We do it all the time. The machines are just fine. The humans who sit in front often get tardy.
Neil Sadwelkar
Mumba, India.Apparently the problem has been fixed by a SGI patch.
To quote from the smoke webboard …
The problem was fixed by SGI (with a 6.5.x patch). Please contact
discreet support to know how to get the fix.In case you manage to find this patch, please post it so all of us can use it. The local discreet in my area is still awaiting this patch.
Neil
You can write to Arri and they’ll send you the corrected LUTs. I haven’t tried these, but write to Thilo.
The problem with the downloads is …
The ones from the web site have carriage returns instead of line feeds and will not work.
In flame, inferno, smoke and fire the luts must be placed in the
/usr/discreet//lut directory.
And they must be added to the /usr/discreet//cfg/init.cfg
file.Cheers
Neil
I had posted this in another thread here at fxguide …
After upgrading to Tiger and QT7, QT exports out of mac, encoded as DV-PAL, Apple UC 8-bit ot BlackMagic 8-bit don’t import into Smoke 7/Flame 9. This has been raised at the Discreet forum as well. And there seems no solution in sight.
The problem is probably Apple has made changes to the structure of QuickTime that Autodesk/SGI need to accomodate. Maybe, just maybe.
Running the QT 6.5 re-installer is a workaround for anyone who isn’t using FCP 5 in Tiger which “prefers” to have QT7.
Another workaround for Blackmagic-FCP setups is to use FrameLink that ships free with Blackmagic 5 drivers. This utility “instantly” converts any Quickltime 8-bit or 10-bit SD or HD into a mountable and share-able “drive” containing a .dpx frame sequence. These can be copied over NFS into Smoke/Flame. And these import correctly into Smoke/Flame.
Framelink also works the other way around to convert .dpx sequences into Quicktime.
Kona also has a similar utility but I’m not conversant with it.
Quote:DV_PAL encoded Quicktimes never worked in smoke or flame, regardless of the version of Quicktime used to encode them.This is not true.
At our facility, we routinely exported Quicktime as DV-PAL (for edit reference only) from FCP 4.5 (QT6.5) and Avid MC 11 (QT 5) for import into Smoke 6 till smoke ver 6.7 and QT 7 came along and spoilt the party.We have also successfully sent QT as UC 8-bit or BM 8-bit into Smoke/Flame. But not 10-bit anything.
You might have used Smoke before ver. 6 or QT before ver. 5 on an older (OS9) Mac or something.
Quote:After upgrading to Tiger and QT7, QT exports out of mac, encoded as DV-PAL, Apple UC 8-bit ot BlackMagic 8-bit don’t import into Smoke 7/Flame 9. This has been raised at the Discreet forum as well. And there seems no solution in sight.
The problem is probably Apple has made changes to the structure of QuickTime that Autodesk/SGI need to accomodate. Maybe, just maybe.
Running the QT 6.5 re-installer is a workaround for anyone who isn’t using FCP 5 in Tiger which “prefers” to have QT7.
Another workaround for Blackmagic-FCP setups is to use FrameLink that ships free with Blackmagic 5 drivers. This utility “instantly” converts any Quickltime 8-bit or 10-bit SD or HD into a mountable and share-able “drive” containing a .dpx frame sequence. These can be copied over NFS into Smoke/Flame. And these import correctly into Smoke/Flame.
Framelink also works the other way around to convert .dpx sequences into Quicktime.
Kona also has a similar utility but I’m not conversant with it.
Neil
Go over to Apple’s site and read the announcement of Shake 4 as well as new versions of Final Cut Pro and Motion. Then go over the posts in this thread and you’ll see how far rumours are, sometimes, from the real truth.
Neil