To Browse Files Using Patterns

By accessing the Pattern Browsing tab in MediaHub, you can browse content using patterns similar to the ones used to create patterned Open Clips.

To use pattern browsing:

  1. Enable MediaHub > Pattern Browsing.

    The message Using browsing pattern confirms that pattern browsing is used. It also displays the pattern used to filter contents in MediaHub.

In previous releases, you could create an Open Clip to build a multi-channel clip out of multiple files, or create versions out of multiple clips. But now you can do the same without first creating an Open Clip. These clips are then automatically updated when new versions matching the pattern are available on the file system.

Tokens can be used to match file names or folders. You can use pre-defined tokens, or your own custom tokens.

Clips matching the defined patterned are seen with V or Multi icon, based on the pattern. Also, MediaHub status bar displays the current pattern used to browse when Pattern Browsing is enabled. That way, you know MediaHub uses Pattern Browsing to display content.

From the Browsing Pattern tab, you can also create and manage shared presets. As with any MediaHub setting, these options are saved with the project.

When new content matching the pattern is added to the file system, it is possible to update clips in Flame using the Source Version > Update Source from the contextual menu in Media Library, Batch Group or Timeline.

In Pattern Browsing, you have access to the following tokens:

Shot Name, Sequence, Artist and Task are custom tokens. Or you can add your own, using the Custom... option.

Custom Tokens

Use custom tokens to adapt pattern browsing to you own folder structure.

Production pipelines often define complex folder structures to manage content generated by various tasks and artists. These folder structures usually contain identifiers that can now be used to create custom tokens for Pattern Browsing.

Pattern Browsing Example

Consider the following file structure:

You can see that the path can be generalized to the following structure: 

<show>/<sequence>/<shot>/Work/<artist>/<task>/v<version>/<width>x<height>/<name>_v<version>.<frame>.<extension>

Armed with this generalization, you can than create a browsing pattern using tokens: 

{task}/v{version}/{width}x{height}/{name}_v{version}.{frame}.{extension}

With this pattern, MediaHub can discover multi-version content for various artists and tasks when browsing the Task level. You do not have to define the tokens, MediaHub tries to match the possible paths to the pattern you define, similar to how regular expressions work.

This ability enables workflow where content for the same Multi-Version clips can be in different folder location, like this example:

By using this browsing pattern: 

 {show}/{sequence}/{shot}/Work/{artist}/{task}/v{version}/{width}x{height}/{name}_v{version}.{frame}.{extension}
  1. You'd get a multi-version clip named Seq_0010_SHOT_0050_paint with 3 versions.
  2. The pattern recognizes the following versions added to the clip:
    • Show/Seq_0010/0050/Work/Maria/Paint/004/1920x1080/Seq_0010_SHOT_0050_paint_v004[0001001-0001500].exr
    • Show/Seq_0010/0050/Work/Peter/Paint/007/1920x1080/Seq_0010_SHOT_0050_paint_v007.[0001001-0001500].exr
  3. It also adds versions 004 and 007 to the clip Seq_0010_SHOT_0050_paint even if the newly added versions are located in a different folder structure.
Important: Make sure there is no duplicate version to avoid faulty detection, as is the case with two versions with the same identifier in the folder structure.

Custom Tokens are seen in MediaHub > Previewer > Video Track 1 Information (Tokens). This information is also available in Pre-Processing on the timeline, and in the Extended Menu of a clip's node in Batch.

Another Pattern Browsing Example

Consider the following file structure:

HAPPY_COUPLE/
	Sequences/
		Seq_001/
			SHOTS/
				Shots_001/
					ARTISTS/
						Joe/
							MEDIA/
								Paint/
									001/
										1920x1080/
											Seq_001_Shot_001_Paint_v001.1001@1500.exr
									002/
										1920x1080/
											Seq_001_Shot_001_Paint_v002.1001@1510.exr
									003/
										1920x1080/
											Seq_001_Shot_001_Paint_v003.1001@1520.exr
								Degrain/
									001/
										1920x1080
											Seq_001_Shot_001_Degrain_v001.1001@1500.exr
									002/
										1920x1080/
											Seq_001_Shot_001_Degrain_v002.1001@1510.exr
							Pat/
								MEDIA/
									Paint/
										004/
											1920x1080/
												Seq_001_Shot_001_Paint_v004.1001@1520.exr
							Maury/
								MEDIA/
									Paint/
										005/
											1920x1080/
												Seq_001_Shot_001_Paint_v005.1001@1520.exr

If you define Pattern Browsing as the following, Multi-Version clips will be seen in MediaHub when navigating to the Sequences folder:

In the above example, Sequence, Shot, Artist are custom tokens, their values available in MediaHub > Preview > Metadata > Video Track1 Information > Tokens. This information is also available in the Preprocessing > Metadata window.

Pattern Browsing Presets

You can define presets for pattern browsing.

Flame also comes with Pattern Browsing presets that match the various Sequence Publish options:

Parent topic: Importing File-Based Media