The first thing you notice when you launch the application, is that the main user interface has changed quite a bit. Many changes have been made in order to further integrate visual effects and editorial. As a result of this, your interaction with the application is more streamlined, which in turn enables you to achieve the results you want more quickly while making your projects and media easier to manage.
Let's have a look at some of the enhancements.
Media management in the Media panel
The workspace is where you accomplish all of your project tasks. It consists of three main panels and a series of tabs:
The Media panel is the centralized location for all your project media. The Media panel displays:
The Viewing panel displays different visual representations of your media. You can change the view from the View mode box. The options are:
The Editing panel is where you edit your media and settings in the application. From the Editing panel, you access the timeline, import/export settings, conform settings, Batch and Node settings and Tools settings. The Editing panel is dynamically updated based on the selected tab/task.
At the bottom of the UI are five tabs:
The Tabs enable you to quickly access the different interfaces while remaining in the same environment. As you access the different tabs, you will notice that the work accomplished in one tab is reflected in the others.
The MediaHub is the centralized access point for all media residing outside of the application. From the MediaHub, you import and export your media. When you click on the MediaHub tab, a file browser is displayed, enabling you to browse through your local filesystem and well as the filesystems of other workstations on your network. From the MediaHub, you can browse for files, projects and archives.
Once you have selected a location on a local or remote filesystem, you can import media into the project simply by dragging and dropping it to a folder or reel in the Media panel. Alternatively, you can apply certain settings to your media prior to importing, such as LUT and resize options by specifying the settings in the Import tabs at the bottom of the MediaHub and clicking Import.
Dragging and dropping also works for exporting media. Once you have selected a location on a local or remote filesystem, you can export media from the project simply by dragging and dropping it to from a folder or reel in the Media panel to the selected destination folder in the file browser. When the clip is dropped in the folder, the Media Export dialog pops up and you can specify export settings, such as the format, video and audio settings.
You can monitor the export job(s) through the Jobs tab of the MediaHub.
When working in the timeline, you are essentially manipulating two types of elements: Source clips and Sequences. Source clips are unedited clips that are used to assemble sequences. Sequences contain single or multiple edited clips. Once a sequence is created, it can also be used as a source to assemble more complex sequences.
A sequence is comprised of one or more versions and each versions can contain one or more tracks. You can create a composite from two tracks within the same version but you cannot composite two versions together.
Both sources and sequences are represented in the timeline. Sources are displayed with a green tab, while sequences are displayed with a red tab.
Source clip displayed in the timeline.
Sequence displayed in the timeline.
To display a source in the timeline, simply select it from the Media panel or from the Viewing panel. To display a sequence in the timeline, you can drag it from the Media panel or the Viewing panel to the timeline or select Open, from the contextual menu. You can also open a source as a sequence, in order to build a sequence from an edited source, by selecting Open as Sequence, from the contextual menu.
You can now achieve almost everything that was achieved through the Desktop Modules right from the timeline or from Batch, without having to generate new media. However, you can still access the modules from the Tools tab. There, you will find all the tools you knew as the modules and more, organized into six categories: Composite, Look, Filter, Plugins, Clip and Utilities. These tools follow the same behavior as the modules: they prompt you to select a Front, Back and Matte clip, as needed and they generate new media.
Relationship between Batch, the Timeline and the Media panel
When you select a clip or a sequence on the Desktop, the selection is reflected in the Media panel and in the timeline. This illustrates the level of integration between the different areas of the workspace. The integration goes beyond the workspace, however. For example, if you have media on reel 1 of the Desktop that you want to use in Batch, you can simply drag it from the Desktop to the Batch Sources folder in the Media panel. Now, when you select the Batch tab, the media you dragged is displayed in the schematic.
You can start building my Batch tree and at any time, you can double-click a clip node from Batch Sources in the Media panel and automatically display the timeline of the selected Batch clip. you can then make adjustments to the Batch clip in the timeline (make edits, add Timeline FX or Batch FX). When you switch back to the Batch tab, the changes you made in the timeline are reflected in Batch.
Editing Batch media in the timeline. All modifications are mirrored in the Batch schematic.
You can also, select a Batch branch and convert it to a BFX clip. A BFX clip contains all of the media and Setup information of the Batch branch it was created from. It is essentially a Batch branch represented as a clip, which can be expanded back into the original branch by selecting Explode BFX Clip from the contextual menu. Once the BFX clip is created, it is displayed under Batch Sources in the Media panel. You can select it from the Batch Sources and insert it into a timeline as you would any other clip.
Batch schematic.
Batch schematic represented as a BFX clip.
You can repeat this Integrated Creative Workflow (Media panel, Batch, Timeline) as many times as you want as you work, enabling me to very quickly construct elaborate Batch trees while allowing for very fine granular control over each element in the pipeline.
The BFX workflow gives you access to the Batch environment directly from the timeline. By selecting one or more segments in the timeline and selecting Create Batch FX from the FX menu, the selected segments are automatically displayed in Batch as a pre-assembled Batch tree.
If only one segment is selected in the timeline, the pre-assembled Batch tree consists of the selected clip attached to the front input of a BFX Output node, which pipes the resulting BFX back to the timeline. You then build your Batch tree by inserting Effects nodes between the clip and the BFX Output node and the original timeline segment is automatically updated with resulting BFX.
If multiple segments are selected in the timeline, Generate Composite is automatically enabled in the FX menu and the pre-assembled Batch tree consists of an Action node connected to the front input of the BFX Output node. The selected media is attached to the Action node, where the bottom segment in the selection is taken as the Back clip and the top segment is taken as Media 1 and all segments under the top segment are taken as Media 2, Media 3, etc. in numerical order from top to bottom. You can then build your composite in Action as well as insert nodes between the media and the Action node. As in the previous example, the BFX output node pipes the resulting BFX back to the timeline, where the selected segments are displayed as a BFX clip segment.
Entering Batch FX with a multi-selection from the timeline.
In Flame Premium 2013 20th Anniversary Edition, you have one centralized timeline that is always available. But what of gestural editing on the Desktop? All of the gestural Desktop editing operations remain available, despite the inclusion of a full and centralized timeline. All gestural edits made on the Desktop are reflected in the timeline. You can make quick gestural edits on the Desktop and fine-tune them in the timeline.
