Relinking Media

In the Conform tab, you can easily relink an unlinked sequence that stores the path to the media (display the path by Alt-clicking the segment). Most AAF, FCP XML, and DLEDL and native sequences do store these paths.

To relink segments of a sequence to their media:

1. Display the sequence in the Conform tab.
2. Select Link to Media File from the Set Search Location drop-down menu.
3. Click Link to Media File.

   Smoke automatically relinks the segments to their media.

To relink a segment to its media:

1. Select the unlinked segment to relink.
2. Click one of File Location, File Name, or File Type to highlight it.
3. Press Enter.

   Smoke scans the File Location for with File Name and File Type, and displays files that match.

4. Selecting a match and click Link to Media File.

Tip: When you import a sequence (AAF, FCP, XML), consolidate the handles on import, and enable Cache Source Media to improve performance. When you need the original full-resolution media, or the media with the discarded handles, unlink the sequence, and then relink using the previous procedure. Every segment is now restored to the full-resolution, not cached, original media.

Multi-Channels and Relinking

You can relink content to multi-channel clips (OpenEXR or Photoshop .psd) using Conform. The procedure below is useful if your sequence contains segments using for source a layer of a multi-channel clip. It is still applicable, but somewhat less useful, for alphas; in this case you should look into Conforming with Matte Containers.

Tip: Alt-click the clip or segment to display the path to its media.

If the media of the unlinked OpenEXR or .psd is at the location specified by the clip:

1. Open the clip as a sequence.
2. Click the Conform tab.
3. Select the segment to relink.
4. Click Link to Media File.

   The segment is now relinked to its media.

If the media of the unlinked OpenEXR or .psd is at a location differing from the one specified by the clip:

1. Open the clip as a sequence.
2. Click the Conform tab.
3. Set only File Name as Match Criteria.
4. Click Set Search Location to locate the media files.

   Make sure that the Clip Options is set to Include Alpha Clip so Conform also finds the different channels in the media files.

   Note: In previous releases, you had to use both Filename and Name to be able to find the media file: it is no longer the case. You can still use Name for advanced matching but it is no longer required for standard filenames Conform.
5. Once you have located the files, click Set.

   You can now proceed with matching sources and segments as usual.

Conforming With Matte Clips

You can promote a segment to an RGBA matte container when conforming. This allows you to keep comp information in your conformed sequence.

When importing a sequence—EDL, AAF and FCP XML— make sure to:

• Set, in the MediaHub, General > Clip Options > Alpha Channel Processing to Create Matte Container: every segment referencing an RGBA media file is promoted to matte container that contains one RGB track and one alpha track.
• Select only the File Name match criteria in the Conform tab, or Smoke cannot conform the RGBA content.

Note:

• When importing an FCP XML sequence, all content created from Photoshop .psd layers is conformed as a matte container.
• The contents in Final Cut Pro should have been imported and the segment needs to use the layer name for clip name. If the clip name is derived from the PSD media file, the match will be done using the flat PSD layer.

To relink a segment to RGBA material and promoting that segment to a matte container:

1. In the Conform tab, click Set Search Location.
2. In the Set Directory, set the Alpha Channel Processing box to one of the following:
   • Include Alpha Clip: This imports RGB and alpha channels as separate clips. This means that in the Conform list, paired clips (RGB clip + its alpha) are displayed as a Multiple, yellow, entry.
   • Create Matte Container: This creates a Matte Container for the clip. And segments referencing linked clips will be promoted to Matte Containers when matched.
   • Ignore Alpha Channel: Only the RGB part of the media are used to create the clip, and the conform sequence shows a regular (non-container) segment.
3. Once you have located the files, click Set.

   You can now proceed with matching sources and segments as usual.

Note: Note that if a segment is already an matte container, using the Create Matte Container will effectively create a matte container within that original matte container. Select the Include Alpha Clip and Smoke will automatically assign the correct channel to each of the matte container tracks.