Duck Support Blog

Blog moving, please resubscribe

Wes Plate — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:46:00 +0000

We're moving the address for this blog to http://blog.automaticduck.com

Please update your RSS readers to get the new feed address.

No web browser appears when clicking Activation buttons

Wes Plate — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:22:00 +0000

A few users have reported that when they click one of the two Get Activation Code Using buttons in the Activation Dialog, no web browser launches.

Quit After Effects then Repair Permissions using the Disk Utility application.

Next, trash your key file.

Then relaunch After Effects and try activating again.

What about OS X 10.5?

Wes Plate — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:35:00 +0000

Our plug-ins work great in OS 10.5. No problems.

Pro Import AE 4.0 is needed for After Effects CS3

Wes Plate — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:52:00 +0000

Are you a user of Pro Import AE 3.0 or an older version of our After Effects import plug-in? If you are and you're moving or have moved to After Effects CS3, you won't be able to use your existing plug-in.

Older versions of Pro Import AE are simply not compatible with After Effects CS3. Only Pro Import AE 4.0 works with CS3.

You can upgrade to version 4.0 here: http://www.automaticduck.com/piaeup/

Pro Import AE 4.01 update now available

Wes Plate — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:21:00 +0000

Pro Import AE 4.01 is now available for download. In addition to several fixes for issues found since the 4.0 release this update adds support for Avid AAF files with embedded media, support for native DNxHD media used in Avid sequences as well as the plug-in now leaves the newly-created comp selected in the project pane. This is handy when you import a comp into a very full project.

This is a free update for users of Pro Import AE 4.0.
http://www.automaticduck.com/support/updates/piae401.php

Pro Import AE 4.01 requires After Effects 7.0 or later.
New licenses are $495 each. Users who purchased new licenses or upgrades for
Pro Import AE 3.0 on or after March 8, 2007 can upgrade to 4.0 at no charge
until December 8, 2007. Users of Pro Import AE 3.0 who purchased before
March 8, 2007 as well as users of older After Effects import plug-ins can
upgrade for $195 per license.

Don't embed media into AAF exports

Wes Plate — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:47:00 +0000

Lately we've been hearing from users having problems importing AAF files into either After Effects (via Pro Import AE) or Final Cut Pro (via Pro Import FCP) when they export with media embedded in the AAF file.

When you export an AAF file from your Avid, and remember you have to export AAF if you have MXF media files, please choose the option to Link to the media and don't embed the media in to the AAF file.

UPDATE: The new Pro Import AE 4.01 update should allow for embedded AAF files now.

Final Cut Studio 2 is shipping

Wes Plate — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:39:00 +0000

Reports around the web indicate that Final Cut Studio 2 is shipping and people are already receiving their boxes. Congratulations Apple!

We have not yet received our FCS2, so while we expect no problems between Final Cut Pro 6.0 and our plug-ins, we can't know for sure until we get our copy.

We'll post when we've got it going and have done some tests.
______________________
UPDATE: We have received our copy of FCS2! So far testing with it has revealed no problems.

PEFCP and PIFCP in FCP 5.0 on Intel

Wes Plate — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:21:00 +0000

Unfortunately you cannot use Pro Import FCP or Pro Export FCP inside Final Cut Pro 5.04 (or earlier) on an Intel-based Mac. If you have an Intel-based Mac, you must have FCP 5.1 or later installed.

If you have FCP 5.0, use it on a PPC-based Mac and our plug-ins will work fine.

Current plug-ins and the AE CS3 Preview

Wes Plate — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Our Pro Import AE plug-ins, version 3.0 and later (including the currently-shipping 3.04) are not compatible with After Effects CS3, including the Public Preview.

We have announced version 4.0 of Pro Import AE and it will be shipping this summer. Pro Import AE 4.0 will be compatible with After Effects CS3. If you're running the After Effects CS3 Public Preview and would like to bang on our beta of Pro Import AE 4.0, contact us using this form.

Support for Windows Vista?

Wes Plate — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:55:00 +0000

So far we've only had one person ask us about Vista support, I guess most users are taking a wait-and-see approach to the new OS. Good thinking.

We are also waiting on Vista. At this time we are not testing any of our software on Vista.

FCP 5.1.3 problems with PIFCP - UPDATED

Wes Plate — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:36:00 +0000

UPDATE:
Apple has released FCP 5.1.4 which corrects this issue introduced in 5.1.3.

Users of Pro Import FCP can update to 5.1.4, but don't update to 5.1.3.

Thank you Apple!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final Cut Pro 5.1.3 has been released, however initial testing shows that it has problems with our Pro Import FCP plug-in.

The timecode of the source clips created in the bin are all the same, which is obviously a problem.

You may also notice clips missing from the timeline.

We do not recommend updating to Final Cut Pro 5.1.3 at this time, please stay at 5.1.2 until this issue has been resolved.

Thank you.

Plug-in does not appear in FCP 5.1

Wes Plate — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:21:00 +0000

Help! I upgraded to FCP 5.1 and now my Automatic Duck plug-in is missing!

Due to changes introduced in Final Cut Pro 5.1...

...Pro Export FCP plug-ins older than version 3.03 do not work in FCP 5.1 or later.
...Pro Import FCP plug-ins older than version 2.0 do not work in FCP 5.1 or later.
...the Free XML Exporter older than version 1.02 does not work in FCP 5.1 or later.
...the exporter that came with Pro Import AE 2.0 and older does not work in FCP 5.1 or later.

Pro Export FCP 3.0
If your license is for Pro Export FCP 3.0, you can update to the latest version at no charge from here.
If your license is for Pro Export FCP 2.0 or earlier, you can upgrade here.

Pro Import FCP 2.0
If your license is for Pro Import FCP 2.0, you can update to the latest version at no charge from here.
If your license is for Pro Import FCP 1.0, you can upgrade here.

Free XML Exporter
http://www.automaticduck.com/xml/

Pro Import AE 2.0 or older
If you have Pro Import AE 2.0 or older and you're using our plug-ins to translate FCP timelines to After Effects, the OMF export plug-in that came with those import plug-ins is not compatible with FCP 5.1 and later. Upgrade to Pro Import AE 3.0 here and you will be able to export XML 1.0 files from FCP 5.1.x and import into AE.

Universal Binaries of PEFCP and PIFCP released

Wes Plate — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:07:00 +0000

Pro Export FCP and Pro Import FCP have been updated, making them Univeral
Binaries, native on both PowerPC Macs as well as new Intel-based Macs.

If you are a user of Pro Export FCP 3.0 and/or Pro Import FCP 2.0, please update your plug-in by downloading the installer from http://www.automaticduck.com/support/updates/

Unable to parse XML file

Wes Plate — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 22:27:00 +0000

A few of our users have recently run into this error when importing a Final Cut Pro XML file into After Effects using Pro Import AE. There are a few ways this error can happen, here are a couple of the most likely suspects:

1. DVDxDV
The QuickTime movies created by DVDxDV contain some junk characters in the REEL field and these junk characters prevent us from reading the XML file. Clear the reel field for these clips in your FCP browser and export the XML file again.

2. "Foreign" characters in path to file
We are continuing to work in our support of "foreign" characters such as é and ø, but until we complete the work these kinds of letters cannot be anywhere in the path to the file. This means any folder between the hard drive and the file. Click here to see a path that will cause the import to fail. By removing any of the "foreign" characters in the folder name, the import will succeed, click here to see.

Timecodes change dropness on import

Wes Plate — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:31:00 +0000

UPDATE - The 5.7/2.7 releases from Avid seem to have fixed this problem. Hooray!

A couple users have reported to us that non-drop clips from FCP would import into their Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 or Adrenaline 2.5 systems as drop-frame.

This is obviously very bad, the timecode in the Avid should be exactly what it was in FCP!

This seems to be a problem in the latest 5.5/2.5 release of Xpress Pro/Media Composer. The same OMF file imported into older Avid software creates clips with proper timecodes.

We have notified our friends at Avid about this problem.

Until it is addressed we recommend importing your OMF files into an older version of Avid editing software, then you can save the bin and open it in 5.5/2.5.

Combustion 4.04 update breaks Pro Import Cmb

Wes Plate — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:29:00 +0000

Autodesk recently updated Combustion to version 4.04, this is a good update to the program, however it does not work with our current version of Pro Import Cmb.

We are currently working on an update to Pro Import Cmb for Combustion 4.04 compatibility.

UPDATE: The latest version of Pro Import Cmb works great in Combustion 4.04

Pro Tools shows no tracks in OMF from Pro Export PPro

Wes Plate — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:22:00 +0000

This issue has hit a few users recently, where an OMF export from Premiere Pro using Pro Export PPro 1.02 comes into DigiTranslator with apparently no audio tracks. We have built a 1.02b exporter that seems to solve this problem. You can download it here.

Re-activating after host application upgrade

Wes Plate — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:47:00 +0000

Have you recently upgraded to After Effects 7.0 or Final Cut Pro 5.0 or 5.1? Your plug-ins may need to be reset and then reactivated after you upgrade the plug-in’s host application.

This article shows you how to do this, please watch the movie below. Following the movie the instructions are laid out as text.


resetting Pro Import AE	resetting Pro Import FCP or Pro Export FCP

One of the things your plug-in ties itself to is the serial number of the host application, so when you upgrade the application and you get a new serial number, you will need to reactivate your plug-in to get a new activation code.

Here are the steps to reset and reactivate your plug-in...

Quit the host application (FCP or After Effects)
Trash your plug-in’s key file. Where is my Key File?
Reset your serial number on the registration server. Serial number reset page.
Launch host application and access plug-in
Fill out the Activation Dialog, press Set to generate your new Product ID then go to the registration server to get your new Activation Code. Do Not Use any old activation codes or product IDs.

Hopefully this helps you reset and re-activate without much trouble.