User Guide
updated January 7, 2010
The plug-in that is now Pro Export FCP first shipped in July of 2002, the plug-in's name at that time was Automatic Sequence Export Pro. ASE Pro grew out of another export plug-in for Final Cut Pro that was a part of our solution for converting sequences from FCP to Adobe After Effects (another horrible plug-in name, the Automatic Composition Import FCP Suite).
The original Final Cut Pro to After Effects translation solution used OMF as the interchange, this was back in the days of Final Cut Pro 3.0, and at that time there was no XML export from FCP. Very quickly after the ACI FCP Suite shipped users started to want to use the OMF exports from Final Cut Pro to get to Avid editing systems. It wasn't possible with the OMF export component of the ACI FCP Suite since we put a lot of extra data in to the OMF file to enrich the translation to After Effects and the Avid editing systems didn't like those additional parameters.
So to meet the needs of editors offlining in Final Cut Pro and finishing on Avid editing systems, the plug-in now called Pro Export FCP was born. Over the last six years the plug-in has gained a lot of new capabilities and this 4.0 release raises the bar even higher.
Before you begin, let's consider a few questions.
You don't have to ask yourself these questions, but it may help you plan for how you're going to use Pro Export FCP.
In any case, there is one thing you must have before you start using this plug-in: a sequence.
A frequent request is to export an entire Final Cut Pro project out to an Avid, but at this time that's not possible. So to use Pro Export FCP you need to have an edited sequence. If you don't have a sequence, just some logged bins, click here for suggestions on transferring your clips.
When you are ready to export your sequence from Final Cut Pro, choose File -> Export... -> Automatic Duck Pro Export FCP, this brings up the Pro Export FCP export dialog.
The export dialog consists of three sections:
If these are not the settings you require for your export, click the Edit Settings button. The details of the settings that appear when you press this button are listed in the settings section of this guide.
Use the file navigator to choose where you are going to save your exported AAF or OMF file. If you are creating media as a part of your export the media will be saved in this same location so be sure you have enough free space.
See the Settings page for more details on these options, but use this radio button to choose if you are going to export an AAF file or an OMF 2.0 file.
Review the summary text displayed in the dialog, this tells you how the plug-in's settings are defined and so how your file is going to be exported. If the settings are not correct press the Edit Settings button to modify the settings. See the Settings page for details.
When you click the Save button your export begins. Depending on your settings the export can take just a few seconds if you're exporting a composition-only file all the way up through hours if you're creating a great deal of media.
If your sequence is large you may see two progress bars, do not be alarmed! The first grey progress bar is Apple's progress bar showing the sending of the XML from Final Cut Pro to Pro Export FCP. Once this data is in the plug-in you will see the plug-in's progress bar as it processes your edit and media information.
For shorter sequences you may not see the first progress bar, this is also normal and nothing to be concerned about.
Awesome, the export is done. How what?
Avid media files go in very specific places, they cannot be located just anywhere like Final Cut Pro allows. So you will need to move the media files created by Pro Export FCP 4.0 to the right place before you will be able to use the media in your Avid.
To help you differentiate the files Pro Export FCP uses Finder labels to color the files. This is just to help you visually know which files go where.
MXF media files are stored in an "/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1/" folder on your Avid. It doesn't particularly matter on which drive or partition the files go, as long as they are in the right folder the Avid will find them.
These files are labeled green in the Finder. So green files go into "/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1/"
If you don't put your MXF media files where the Avid expects to find them the Avid will not relink the sequence to the media, since the Avid won't know your media exists.
AIFF and WAV media files are stored in an "/OMFI MediaFiles/" folder on your Avid. It doesn't particularly matter on which drive or partition the files go, as long as they are in the right folder the Avid will find them
These files are labeled yellow in the Finder. So yellow files go into "/OMFI MediaFiles/"
If you don't put the media where it belongs your Avid won't find it and you may be sad. But don't worry, just put the media where the Avid expects to find it and things will be fine.
The AAF file is labeled orange in the Finder. You can simply drag this file onto an open Avid bin, or you can import the AAF file through your Avid's File->Import... function.
Pro Tools has its own rules about media beind on drives that are qualified or set up for play back. If you are exporting from Pro Export FCP an AAF file with linked media, be sure you move the resulting AIF, MXF or WAV files to a drive suitable for playback in Pro Tools.
Otherwise there isn't much to concern yourself with. Pro Tools will search for the media while it opens the AAF (via DigiTranslator) and will connect to it if it can.
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