Section 9 Processing Duration: 30 minutes Some of the effects in your sequence will require processing. In this section, you will learn how to select an area or effect, and set the most appropriate options for it. The following topics provide information about processing effects: Processing Effects How Do I Process?
Section 9 Processing Processing Effects n Before you can play most of the effects, you will have to process them. When you process effects, a final image or sequence of images is created and stored in a new media file, called a cache, so that your source media remains unaltered. During playback, this new cache file is used instead of the source media. Media Composer: Rendering is referred to as processing in Avid DS Nitris. Clips without effects point directly to source media. Source media Clip with an effect that needs processing. Source media Cache media After processing, the generated cache file is used instead of source media. Processing is usually needed for video images and graphics. Some video effects do not need processing as Avid DS Nitris can compute the effects during playback. These are known as real-time effects. For more information, see Working with Real-Time Effects in the Help. 114
Processing Effects When you apply an effect to a clip, the timeline ribbon above it changes color to indicate the processing is needed. Before the effect is processed, there are three possible colors that may appear on the timeline ribbon: green, yellow, or red. Red indicates that the effect cannot be played in real time and needs to be processed first. Yellow indicates that the clip can be played in real time and processing is optional. Green indicates that the clip is guaranteed to play in real time and processing is not required. Process button turns red or yellow. Timeline ribbon When the red highlighted area in the timeline ruler is played back, the viewer does not show the resulting image. You will see the Processing Needed message instead. If you have the Avid DS Nitris DNA workstation, you get guaranteed real-time playback and output of some real-time effects because of the accelerated hardware in the workstation. These effects have a green color on the timeline ribbon where they are applied. If you are not using the Nitris DNA workstation, then all effects are processed with the Avid DS software. If your workstation has sufficient processing power, many effects can be computed in real time by the software, allowing you to view the results during playback. These effects are indicated by a yellow color on the timeline ribbon. 115
Section 9 Processing Any effects that cannot be processed in real-time by the hardware or the software will have a red color on the timeline ribbon. When you play back areas where these effects are applied, you will see a Processing Needed message displayed in the viewer. n The Process button also turns red or yellow to indicate when processing is needed. You can process effects even if they are real-time effects. When you process effects, a cache is created with the new processed media. This guarantees perfect playback and output of your sequence. Once a cache is created for a given effect, the timeline ribbon above is cleared. That is, there will no longer be any colored sections. 116
How Do I Process? How Do I Process? In Avid DS Nitris, you can process a specific effect, a specific region, or the entire sequence. To work even more efficiently, you can process the more complex effects at different stages in your sequence. To process an effect: 1 Open Sequence1. 2 On the timeline, select a region or object to process. An object can be a clip, track, effect, or transition bar. 117
Section 9 Processing 3 Click the red/yellow Process button on the timeline. If the button is not highlighted, open the property editor of the effect you want to process and click the All button in the property editor. The Processing Options dialog box displays. 4 Select what needs to be processed. You can also process real-time effects. 5 Select Minimal for quicker processing. 6 Choose whether you want to process in fields or frames. 7 Set the precision bit depth to optimize the processing quality of the video media. 8 Set the resolution at which the caches are created. The lower the resolution, the faster the processing times and the less storage space used. 9 Select the storage areas for audio and video. 10 Click Help for more details on all the options in this dialog box. 11 If you have sufficient space on the storage device, click OK to begin processing. 12 Save your sequence. 118
How Do I Process? A progress bar appears at the bottom of the desktop to show the status of the process. The progress bar shows the number of passes, frames, and the estimated time that Avid DS Nitris will take to process your selection. These passes are based on the number of container clips and the levels of processing required within the selected region. 119
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