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T
The Portland Company
Participant
January 22, 2021
Question

Dynamic Link with Proxies vs Exported AE Proxy's Manually Imported to PP

  • January 22, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 1143 views

I'm struggling to understand the best practice for proxies + keyed footage from AE for use in PP.

 

I have a few clips that are filmed against green screen, but I'm editing in PP, so I have to import those into AE to apply the key since AE's tools seem to be a little more advanced.

 

I tried this methodology first, which I'll call M1:

  1. I imported my clips from my camera to PP.
  2. Those clips has chroma key backdrop. So I right clicked on them and chose Make Composition in After Effects.
  3. I created proxies from AE with Media Encoder.
  4. Then I created my Compositions with Proxy's enabled.
  5. Then I applied my key and saved.
  6. Then I returned to PP and drag my Composition into my main timeline Sequence.
  7. Then I am required to render it using Enter / Return (Edit > Render In to Out).
  8. Now when I go back to AE and make a change, it is dynamically linked (AKA Adobe Dynamic Link), it is reflected instantly in PP.
  9. However, I have to re-render every time.

 

It seems like if it was already rendered within AE I shouldn't have to re-render it in PP. Also, the Proxy toggle button has no effect on the Dynamic Link Compositions as far as I can tell.

 

So I tried a different methodology, which I'll call M2:

  1. Same.
  2. Same.
  3. Same.
  4. Same.
  5. Then I applied my key, saved, but instead of using Adobe Dynamic Link I export the Composition as a Proxy. Both a high quality and a low quality.
  6. These appear in Media Encoder and complete successfully.
  7. Then I manually import those into PP.
  8. I drag the high quality version into my timeline, and attach the low quality as the proxy.
  9. In this scenario PP does not require me to render in the timeline Sequence.

 

The problem, that I see, with this second methodology is that I'm still exporting it, and it's not linked dynamically. So I have to repeat this process every time I want to update the proxy. Which makes Adobe Dynamic Link convenient.

 

So, I guess I'm wondering:

  1. Are these are the only two methodologies available to me?
  2. If so, I think M1 is still the better solution because it removes the steps of rendering.
  3. However, in M1 doesn't allow me to disable proxies from within PP. Is that normal? Is there a way to do it or can I only do it in AE?
  4. Am I misunderstanding or missing anything in terms of optimal process?

 

Thank you for your time.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

T
The Portland CompanyAuthor
Participant
January 23, 2021

So, I answered question, albeit in a roundabout way.

 

Firstly, I can followed M1 but right click and choose Render and Replace. Which creates another file and replaces the AE Comp, eliminating the render time temporarily. Then I can edit my AE Comp in AE and when I'm done, come back to PP and double click on the AE Comp, yes the Comp not the render, which opens is in the Source Monitor. Then right click on the previously rendered clip and choose Replace with Source Monitor (or something like that).

 

It's not a complete solution but it does streamline the M2 process more.

 

Alternatively, I discovered that PP uses UltraKey for keying (green screen replacement) while AE uses Keylight. And although Keylight has more features it relies on the CPU instead of the GPU! This user experienced what I experienced where it was rendering swiftly in PP but he switched to AE for the added control and then render times went from 10 mintues to 6 hours.

 

So I can replace the PP Ultrakey with other third party keying tools, including Keylight according to that thread, or BorisFX. I have not tried either but will report here my experience.

 

In any case, I believe this makes sense with everything I experienced and I will be sticking with UltraKey until my next project and then I'll try installing Keylight in Premiere and BorisFX, among others that may be out there.

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