Scripting in Premiere CS6

[paulinventome]

I think i know the answer but i've seen some searches that suggest it is possible and i can see PPro as a target in ExtendScript

Can i script PPro CS6? Is there a scripting guide like there is for After Effects?

If not, are there any known plans to add this?

many thanks
Paul

[John T Smith]

http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere/sdk?view=all may have information

[Stan Jones]

Sorry; lost my reply - argh.

Good question; I have seen nothing regarding scripting support in PR CC. It is not officially supported, but, as you appear to have seen, there is something in the structure that looks like it is possible. But no manual.

SDK is different from extendscript.

[Zac Lam]

Stan and John are both right - the plug-in SDK is different than ExtendScript.  But since there is no scripting subforum, the SDK subforum is a better place to ask about scripting at this time.  I'll move your thread over.

[JonChappell · Accepted solution]

Yes, it's supported but for some reason it's not mentioned on the Adobe site. If you launch Premiere it will show a list of objects and methods in the data browser. I'm not aware of any documentation but I got most of them to work by guessing the syntax.

[paulinventome]

I find the lack of docs very odd but thank you for the clarification. I can see the objects in extend toolkit but not a list of methods. Is there a trick to seeing those?

One area i'm interested in is replacing proxy movies with full data folders of frames, i don't believe the relink system supports moving from a movie container to a frame based one.

many thanks

Paul

[Bruce Bullis]

You're not missing anything, Paul; there are no docs.

There is also no API around RelinkFootage(); yes, the feature has already requested.

Several partners accomplish what you've described, like this:

• Editor completes their edit, using lo-res footage.
• Editor exports FCP XML for the project (new in PPro CC: you can export just the active sequence as FCP XML.)
• "Munge" the FCP XML using some custom tool, replacing file paths to lo-res with paths to hi-res. IMPORTANT: The lo-res and hi-res footage must be using the same audio channel configuration, or you'll get off-line clips.
• Import the 'final' FCP XML (footage paths point to hi-res)
• Render the 'final' project.

All of the above, except the custom munging (your job!) and exporting, are possible via PPro CC (and, with the limitations noted above, CS6) scripting.

Our MAM partners typically write a custom panel (which can also execute scripts) to provide interaction with their managed assets, and communicate with an Export Controller plug-in (there's a sample in the PPro C++ SDK) to drive the Render stage.

Of course, one of PPro's strengths is how it deals well with the heaviest of footage types, withOUT needing proxies, so I'd start by assessing whether PPro CC is performant enough with native footage, before bothering with the above.

Feel free to ask me stuff here, and/or write me directly to discuss your workflow further.

[JonChappell]

One caveat is that FCP XML is not a full representation of a Premiere Pro project and some elements may not roundtrip correctly. I have also had issues in CS6 with roundtripping a project with lots of Dynamic Linked After Effects clips where Premiere tries to display an import dialog for every single clip at the same time which causes a crash. I have not tested this in CC yet so I don't know if it's still a problem.

[Bruce Bullis]

Jon is correct, and FCP XML fidelity in PPro CC remains the same.

Paul, what's the native, full-res format, for which you're using proxies?

[paulinventome]

We had numerous issues, the editor started work in Avid using camera proxies (AVCHD) but it turned out that the external recorder did not record timecode on the DNxHD files and because of another issue the triggering of the recorders were manual. The first issue was a nightmare of never being able to relink in avid because of no timecode. I wrote a script that enabled me to sync the AVCHD and DNxHD files in AE and adjust the timecode so i could basically sync the external files and produce new proxies that could link to the highres. For various other reasons i want to move this out of Avid (what a completely awful NLE, i won't start on that) into Premiere.

I've found a technique in Avid for linking to AMA files which should get me 90% of the way there. I've tested an AAF workflow into premiere and it seems to be okay, so the relinking in premiere now might be simpler. Originally i thought i had to somehow link from the avid internal transcoded files to external nicely named files - hence scriping around Relink.

Beyond that my workflow is editing proxies but wanting to online them within premiere. the grading happens in parallel and as scene are graded they are dropped back into the timeline. The VFX work happens in the same way. We know we won't have picture lock until the last moment so working i parallel like this makes most sense. The format for these master files is probably going to have to be OpenEXR 2K because Nuke really, really doesn't work very well with container formats. Ideally i'd like to use Cineform 444 12bit as my master and intermediate but that doesn't appear possible.

So my linking issue within Premiere is to be able to relink from a proxie movie to a file sequence at the touch of a button but that doesn't appear possible. So i may have to have another step of transcoding OpenEXR to cineform so the relink is movie to movie.

I want to online via premiere. it's my believe that so long as max colour depth is checked then i will see my full 12bit or 32bit files throughout the pipeline.

Does that make sense? I appreciate the heads up here as well. Where do i make feature requests for adobe? I'll add my voice there

cheers

Paul

[JonChappell]

I've never tested this in Premiere but you may be able to create QuickTime reference movies. This will create a QuickTime wrapper that references the existing files on disk so you don't need to re-encode anything, and then you can just relink to the QuickTime wrappers. This is how RED creates QuickTime proxies for their R3D files.

[Zac Lam]

Hi Paul,

Here's the feature request/bug report link:

http://www.adobe.com/go/wish