This IS the Avid L2: Re: [Avid-L2] Drop Frame DPX?

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Re: [Avid-L2] Drop Frame DPX?

One of Avid's DPX export options is to base the frame count on time code. So if I export with that option a 1:00:00:00 start time code becomes 86400. With one second pad at the top starting at 59:59:00 the resulting first DPX frame is numbered 86376 which is 24 frames before 1:00:00:00. This correlation is useful if I have to make a patch fix and the facilities making the IMF files from the DPX seem to prefer it this way.

Perhaps when dealing with individual shots for VFX etc... the frame count is more helpful but at least in my case of delivering a final master sequence basing it on the sequence time code has worked well.

If I get some research time I'll see what would happen in a 29.97 project exporting DPX from a drop frame sequence. I would think the resulting time code based option would yield a 2 frame skip at the even minutes except for the 10's of minutes. Just a curiosity at this point but I remember being burned when people would make 23.976 dubs adding pulldown for offline with drop frame which messed up the online conform later so I figure it's only a matter of time before I get a DPX with a similar issue.

---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <jeff@...> wrote :

You can think of DPX as just an image sequence. Each frame increases its number sequentially, never skipping a number. Those filenames don't relate back to timecode. Just the order of every frame. No matter what framerate the project is, the DPX files will all be labeled sequentially (no break in numbers)

If you were to take these files in to something like After Effects, After Effects wouldn't have the ability to tell what the framerate of the sequence is. You'd have to tell it yourself. From there it could put timecode on it for you.

This is one of the reasons why when you talk w/ Nuke or Flame or 3D artists they will often talk about frame number rather than a timecode of the area they are working on.

This used to come up more when we were cutting SD in 29.97, but sourcing from 24fps film... Flame would need to remove the pulldown to work on shots... so now it's got a new framerate and new timecode... anyways, I often remember discussions similar to: "... on the fifth frame of that shot..." rather than: "...on 02:15:12:10..."

Jeff

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Jeff Hedberg

Director of Operations
Union Editorial
575 Broadway,6th floor
New York, NY 10012

On Dec 7, 2016, at 7:37 PM, John Moore bigfish@... [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

With all the fun things I'm learning about 4K and DPX exports from Avid I just had a thought about Drop Frame in a DPX world. So far all my 4K is 23.976 so there is no Drop Frame issues. I export basing the frame count on sequence time code which is very helpful when making patch fixes etc...

I haven't tried this but does anyone know if I was working in a 4K project with 29.97 frame rate where drop frame was used. If I export a DPX with frame count based on time code what happens at the drop frames? Would the break in sequential numbers cause the DPX to burp? I know it is possible to just have the frame count ascend and ignore time code but where's the fun in that. Basing the frame count on time code is really helpful. Anybody know if a DPX with frame count based on drop frame time code would work correctly?

John Moore Barking Trout Productions Studio City, CA bigfish@...

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Posted by: bigfish@pacbell.net

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