About Connected Conform

Connected Conform is a set of tools created to help you conform sequences that share similar sources and similar contents. Aimed at helping you deliver multiple deliverables, it offers you two new types of specialized sequences, the Sources Sequence and the Shots Sequence. The former helps conforming multiple sequences in a single operation, the latter helps consolidate with shot distribution and processing.

Connected Conform is there to help you when you have multiple deliverables that share structure and source media but:

• Are of varying length.
• Require different finishing tasks such as visual effects or titling.
• Use the same media, but in different locations, or of different durations, or even uses different sections of said media.

The Connected Conform tools allow you to:

• Conform a group of imported sequences in a single operation.
• Consolidate media ingest and linking by tying together related segments' metadata.
• Manage and distribute shots to be worked on from a central location.
• Integrate the worked on shots with the imported sequences for final delivery.

All this can be accomplished using the Connected Conform tools which include:

• Sources Sequence, a specialized sequence to conform multiple sequences in a single operation.
• Shots Sequence, a specialized sequence to help with shot distribution and processing
• Shared Segments, a concept to share information between related segments across different sequences.
• Reel Group and the Sequences reel, which provides a clear location for the Connected Conform workflow.

Connected Conform Workflow Overview

Below is an example of a Connected Conform workflow. Also provided, links to online tutorial videos.

Step 1: Connecting Sequences
Online tutorial: Connected Conform Workflow - Conforming & The Sources Sequence
	Go to Conform. Import your sequences. Make sure they are all in a single Reel group's Sequences reel. Click Create Sources Sequence. Go to the just created Sources Sequence, and conform it. For added benefits: Enable Limit Handles and specify an amount of handles. This ensures you limit the amount of media relinked, and ensures you have heads and tails to slip around effects. Enable Save Sources. This facilitates source management later on. And does not impact framestore usage unless you have enabled the Cache Source Media or Generate Proxies import options.

Step 2: Sharing Segments
Online Tutorial: Connected Conform Workflow - Metadata & The Shots Sequence
	Click Create Shots Sequence. From the Shots Sequence, prepare your shots, such as by assigning comments or renaming segments. Or, as in the example below, by assigning Shot Names to your segments. Select all the segments from the Shots Sequence. Right-click the timeline and select Rename Shot. Type in the shot name of your choice, but make sure to include the Background Index token. For example: ShotName_<background segment> Click Rename. Because of the Shots Sequence, every segment in the connected sequences now have a shot name. Because of the Background Index token, every background segment has a different shot name, and any vertically laid segment has the shot name of its background segment. This ensures layered segments are part of the same shot. Note: If you defined a limited amount of handles but need more content from the original source media file: Unlink the segment. Notice how every shared segment in the connected sequences is unlinked from its media file. Enable and set Limit Handles to the required amount of handles. Using Link to Media File, relink the segment to its media. The segment now sports the new handles. This is similar to an un-consolidate.

Step 3: Apply VFX and Distribute Shots
Online Tutorial: Connected Conform Workflow - Using BatchFX and Batch
	Work in context of the timeline: Apply a TimelineFX to a segment in the Shots Sequence. Right-click that segment, and select Sync Shared Segment. The TimelineFX is applied to every shared segment across the connected sequences. This can be done from any segment from any connected sequence. Metadata sharing is not unidirectional from Shots Sequence to other sequences: there is no hierarchy, only links. Rendering a segment and then selecting Sync Shared Segment also shares the renders between shared segments. Work on individual shots, in the context of Batch: Select the shots in the Shots Sequence. Each shot must have a Shot Name. Click Create Batch Group. A Batch Reel is created for each of the shots, and a new Version track is created, as a placeholder for your shots to be rendered. Work on the shot in Batch, and render the shot. It is now available in the Batch Renders reel. Make sure the placeholder segment in highlighted in the timeline. Select the rendered shot and select Media Replace from the Secondary Edit box in Timeline, or press Ctrl-Shift-R. This updates every connected sequence with the new media. Note: The above example assumes there is only one artist working on the sequences. But you could very well distribute the shots (Batch Groups) using the Shared Libraries. Or without creating Batch Groups, you could use the Shot Publish approach to distribute the shots. Both approaches create a new Version track and use placeholder segments.

Operations To Avoid When in Connected Conform

When working in the context of Connected Conform, avoid the following:

Applying a Gap FX

Any created Gap FX is local to the sequence where it is created. This means that a Gap FX is not shared between connected sequences.

Applying a Batch FX to vertically composited segments

The flattening of the vertical structure require by a Batch FX disables segment sharing since it destroys the spatial information for the concerned segments. Use instead the Create Batch Group workflow, where such information is preserved. Note that applying a Batch FX to an individual segment is a supported operation in the context of Connected Conform.

Creating Batch Groups

Once you have created a Shots Sequence, you can, from Conform, create Batch Groups. One batch group is created for each different Shot Name within the selected segments. Each batch group can be seen as a discrete unit of work completely encapsulated.

Creating a Batch Group:

1. Select the segments for you need to edit in Batch.

   The Batch Group can be created from any sequence within a Sequences reel, including from the Shots Sequence.

2. Assign a Shot name to the segments, using the Events list in Conform View, or the contextual menu.

   Segments without a shot name will not create a Batch group.

3. Create the Batch Group. Do one of the following:
   • In Conform View, click Create Batch Group.
   • In Timeline View, right-click the timeline and select Create Batch Group.

One Batch group is created for each unique Shot name, in the location defined by the Batch Group Destination box. When you use Create Batch Group in Conform, that Batch group's Render node uses the following settings:

• Its attributes, such resolution, source timecode, or tape name, are taken from the back plate. The node is also connected to the back plate.
• Its In/Out marks are from the original timeline segment.
• Its name is set to the Shot Name, or by the Default Render Node Name preference.

When you create a Batch group, a receptacle segment is created on a new Version track, in every sequence connected to Shots Sequence by the shared segments. By using Replace Shared Segment, this receptacle segment can be replaced with the Batch group result, with every connected sequence automatically inheriting the replacement.

Once the work is done in Batch:

1. Render the result.

   The rendered clip, with the original clip's metadata, can be found in the Batch Renders reel.

2. Open the Timeline view.
3. In the Shots Sequence, on the new Version track created previously, select the receptacle segment to update.
4. Select the rendered clip from the Batch Renders reel.
5. Select Replace Media from the Secondary Edit box. The new media is now available across all connected sequences.

Selecting where Batch Groups are created:

• Use the Create Batch Group Destination box to decide where the Batch Groups are created.
• You can choose to create Batch Groups in a new library, a new shared library, or as a series of batch group of reels in the Desktop.
• Pick Destination allows you to select a destination when you create the Batch groups.