Exporting Clips and Sequences to Files

To export a clip or a sequence:

1. Do one of the following:
   • Right-click the clip to export and select Export. And then, using the Media Export window, navigate to the clip's destination.
   • From the MediaHub, drag-and-drop the file from the Media panel to the location displayed in the browser.
2. Select an Export type and a Format Preset.
3. Click Export.

   Flame prepares the export job. Once that preparation is done, the rest of export happens in the background and frees up Flame for your use.

To export an RGBA movie file or file sequence, create a Matte Container prior to exporting.

• Use the Create Matte Container option in the MediaHub. The resulting clip will be a Matte Container and the Comp effect will be disabled.
• Use the Create Matte Container Tools and select the Contain or the Contain & Add Comp option.
• Use the Add Matte option in the Timeline FX ribbon to create a Matte Container.

  To be able to export an RGBA media file, make sure the Comp effect is muted before exporting.

Tips

• Muted tracks are not exported.
• You do not have to render your whole sequence before exporting it: Flame automatically renders only the media required for the export.
• Minimize the space taken on your storage by using Export in Foreground.

  For File Sequence and Movie, foreground export lets you export media without requiring you to re-render. This options make so Flame does not need to allocate frames on the framestore because content is streamed directly to the exported file, reducing the time to export.

  For Sequence Publish exports, when the media needs to be packaged, Flame renders before exporting for the segments that require to be pre-rendered. For example, using the Flattened tracks option with Timeline FX requires rendering prior exporting, as do segments with a BFX or Resize.

• Use Ctrl-click to select multiple clips for export in one operation.
• Select a folder, a reel, or a library from the Media panel to export all of its contents. If that folder contains a folder structure, that structure also gets exported.
• When exporting with Export Between Marks, you can have pre-roll and post-roll black by setting the in and out marks to include some empty track. Each frame of included empty track creates a frame of black on the export.
• When exporting a single frame as a file sequence, consider setting the Frame Padding field to zero to export that frame without any file numbering. And if you export a multi-frame clip as a file sequence by mistake without Frame padding, Flame detects this and automatically assigns a frame padding of 8 digits to correctly export the clip.
• Apple Final Cut Pro X XML Export

  When you open the XML in FCP X, the media will automatically relink if exported to a file location available on the FCP X workstation. You might have to use the FCP X Relink tool to link the XML sequence back to the QuickTime if the media file path is different.

• When working with CODEX files, you cannot use the Link Original Media option in Media Export to create file system links to the original media files because Flame cannot generate 12-bit packed DPX, the format used by CODEX recorders. Flame will instead create new 12-bit unpacked DPX files.
• OpenEXR exports include Tape name and Keycode data in the exported files' header.
• DPX metadata
  • The frame rate is written to the DPX file header, in both the TV rate and Movie rate fields.
  • The Drop Frame mode of 29.97 fps files is written to the DPX file header. Limitations from the DPX SMPTE-specifications prevent the drop frame mode from being specified in files using a timecode higher than 30 fps.
• In ProRes exports, Flame corrects the aspect ratio to match the Apple-defined standard. For PAL 16x9, the standard pixel aspect ratio is 118:81. For a frame of 720x576 this gives a an aspect ratio of ~1.82 = (720 / 576) x (118 / 81).
• MXF DVPro: a PAL export is always F2; a NTSC export is always F1. Fields are translated if required.
• When exporting, use Add Token to build a dynamic file name. Here are some of the available tokens.

  Select:	To insert the token:	Definition:
  Height	<height>	The clip's height, after resize if applicable.
  Width	<width>	The clip's width, after resize if applicable.
  Date	<date>	The current date ( YYYY_MM_DD)
  Event Number	<event number>	A number usually defined in a EDL, but that can be manually set in Conform.
  Project	<project>	The name of the project, as displayed in Flame > Project and User Settings.
  Project Nickname	<project nickname>	The name of the project, as displayed in Flame > Project and User Settings > Project Edit.
  Segment Index	<segment>	A sequential index (from 1) indicating the relative position of each segment on the timeline; gaps are not indexed unless they have a Timeline FX applied.
  Segment Name	<segment name>	User-defined name of the timeline segment.
  Time	<time>	The time, formatted HH:MM:SS.
  User	<user>	The user name, as displayed in Flame > Project and User Settings.
  User Nickname	<user nickname>	The user name, as displayed in Flame > Project and User Settings > User Edit.
  Version ID	<version>	Number of the current version, as defined in the Clip Options tab.
  Version Name	<version name>	Version Name from the Clip Options tab.
  Workstation	<workstation>	The name of the workstation, as displayed in the Host Computer field in Flame > Project and User Settings.

Note: When exporting an Open Clip with Clip Version enabled, make sure the frame rate remains the same between versions: having differing frame rates within one Open Clip is not supported by the format.

Support for MXF XDCAM 422 Short GOP

MXF XDCAM 422 exported by Flame are encoded based on Sony's XDCAM format, and all start with a full Group of Pictures (GOP). Some broadcasters use a different flavour of XDCAM 422, where the media start with a short GOP (starting on an I-frame). You can meet these encoding requirements by setting an environment variable. You can configure either or both Background and Foreground exports to use this alternate encoding.

For Foreground Export, edit the application's .cshrc.

1. Close Flame.
2. In a shell, type: cd /opt/Autodesk/<application>
3. With a text editor, edit the file .cshrc
4. Add the following ligne to the .chsrc:

   setenv DL_MXF_MPEG2_I_FRAME_FIRST 1

5. Save the file and restart Flame.

   Encoded MXF XDCAM 422 will now be encoded starting on a I frame. To return to the previous setting, delete the line setenv DL_MXF_MPEG2_I_FRAME_FIRST 1 from the .cshrc.

For Background Export, you need to configure the Backburner Server process.

• On Mac OS:

  • Open the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.autodesk.backburner_server.plist
  • Add the following lines following the first <dict> line:

    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
    <key>DL_MXF_MPEG2_I_FRAME_FIRST</key>
    <string>1</string>
    </dict>

  • Restart the Backburner Server service using the Service Monitor.

• On Linux:

  • Open the file /etc/init.d/backburner_server
  • Add the following line after the initial comments:

    export DL_MXF_MPEG2_I_FRAME_FIRST=1

  • Restart the Backburner Server service using the Service Monitor.