Timeline messed up on AAF import

[reezekeys]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

An AAF is an EDL. It is only concerned with the clips position on the timeline. It references the original timecode in the source clip but placement is taken from your sequence not anything inherent to the clip. If that makes sense.

Kinda. How does this apply when you have the same clip in two or three different locations? I must be dense. I took a single clip, copied it and moved the copy few bars away. Same clip, now in two different spots. In DP, both clips show the same "original" timestamp and "user" timestamp. Only when I invoke "Set User Timestamp from Sequence" on the copied clip does its "user" timestamp change to agree with its actual location on my timeline. This is expected behavior in a DAW?

I assume Pro Tools or any other DAW importing an AAF looks at these timestamps to know where to place the clips on the timeline. Am I wrong? It seems to me that once I start sliding clips around, copying, pasting, etc., the timestamps are not going to agree with their actual location on the timeline. How is an AAF transfer supposed to work then?

[reezekeys]

I've confirmed that, at least in Digital Perfomer, the clips' timestamps do not necessarily correlate to their location on the timeline. I can create a clip and move it to a new location, and both the "original" and "user" timestamp stays the same. So, during an AAF import, the importing app must use some other means to know where to place clips - at least that's my conclusion.

[smurfyou]

That's what I was saying, those clip timestamps have no bearing on where they are located on the timeline. UNLESS you specifically need to spot them to their original timecode.

The timeline/sequence/EDL works like this:

At 01:00:00:00 I will place clip A001 using 5 seconds from that clip:

A001 01:00:00:00 - 01:00:05:00 using 13:02:15:00 - 13:02:20:00

So the clips timecode is used to reference which parts of that clip will be used on the timeline. That what the AAF does.

[reezekeys]

OK, the elevator is getting to the top floor...

So theoretically - if I assign user timestamps to all my clips in DP based on their position in my sequence, then get misplaced clips in PT I can just "move them to the user timestamp"? (I assume there's a command to do that). Not a real solution when there's a few hundred clips spread over 20+ tracks in a two-hour project! Maybe if there was a global command or macro to move all clips to their user timestamps, but I think you already mentioned that was not the case. Thanks for hanging in with me.

[smurfyou]

Yes theoretically true but PT can't do that. Many of us have asked for that feature as a lot of other programs will.

Not sure if I mentioned but I think the last files I got from DP were the embedded and consolidated OMF. If you want me to test something send me a PM.

[reezekeys]

Appreciate the offer, thanks. I'm currently finishing up doing rough mixes in DP - then will tackle getting everything into PT. I didn't think of trying OMF instead of AAF, thanks for that tip.