Steps for saving Dynamic Link

[David Barnett]

Hi,

I've searched here & Google and am having a difficult time. Firstly, Encore CS4 transcode isn't working for me. Just instantly said "Transcode Failed"... Which I'm working on next. What also is bugging me is that I've been getting updates & closing out of Premiere & AE but when I do, I lose my AE effects that are Dynamic Link in PPro.


My question is is there a certain step to saving Dynamic Link files? I am editing in PPro with some effects & color in AE. How do I save it so that I can shut down & open it up tomorrow & it still be there.


Thanks,

[Bruce Watson]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

I've searched here & Google and am having a difficult time. ...

My question is is there a certain step to saving Dynamic Link files? I am editing in PPro with some effects & color in AE. How do I save it so that I can shut down & open it up tomorrow & it still be there.

Adobe doesn't make it easy to understand this dynamic link stuff. I'm on CS5 and don't have a copy of CS4 to play with, so what I can tell you is the results of my research trying to do this with CS5. But I did learn some stuff about how CS4 works along the way, so not all it lost. I hope.

My understanding is, in CS4 and below, dynamic links are one way streets. You can push a PPro clip to AE and AE will see what you did in PPro. But to get the AE edits into the PPro sequence, you have to copy/paste them manually into PPro. Then when you save the project in PPro, they'll still be there next time you open the project.

Dynamic links didn't become two-way streets until CS5. And then only if you do the little dance correctly!

The little dance is, from PPro, you have to click on a clip in the timeline, then do "File...Adobe dynamic link...replace with AE composition". Yeah, I know you don't want to replace anything, you just want to build on what you're working on. But those are the words Adobe used, so that's how we have to use it. Just sayin'.

When you do this, Adobe automatically opens up AE with your clip from PPro. When this happens, you have to name the AE project (the default works, but you might as well use a name you'll understand), and save it. That's important -- gotta flush it to disk.

Now when you make changes in AE, you can swap back to PPro and it's reflected automatically in the PPro timeline without you doing anything at all. This will, of course, slow the whole thing down because you've added more software processing to the video stream (AE and Adobe dynamic link manager, and probably many more) so your playback in PPro can get to be a little choppy. But, when you open up your PPro project, the AE changes are there, even if you haven't started AE yet.

This actually works in CS5. Might make it worth the upgrade from CS4 -> CS5.5 if you do a lot of work like this. It is rather useful I have to admit.

[David Barnett]

Thanks Bruce, sorry for the delay in responding. It was frustrating me & anyway I exported the 35 AE clip to AVI the just used that as source footage in PPro. Not the ideal way, but it got me thru.


However, the CS4 steps are pretty similar to what you stated in CS5, including 'Replace with AE composition' verbage. Anyway, my problem was everytime I closed them down for the night, whenever I reopened PPro the clip wasn't there anymore. Either it was regular or missing, I forgot. Anyway, it seemed the only way Dynamic Link would work for me was if I never shut them down, and banged it all out in one sitting. Possible, I suppose. But not if I were to work on something big like a wedding.


I'll try it again on a non-customer demo take. But should Dyn Link work easily to shut them down & repoen & the AE adjusted footage is still there? Also, I tried doing cartoon effect in AE, yet Encore seemed unable to Transcode it. Is this because it wasn't rendered via AE & was too labor intensive for Encore? Again, I ended up saving it to AVI & used that.

[Bruce Watson]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

...should Dyn Link work easily to shut them down & repoen & the AE adjusted footage is still there?

I don't have enough experience with CS4 to answer. But with CS5 once the dynamic link is created, it's "permanent". I see mine whenever I open up the project in PPro, whether AE is open or not. The dynamic link manager seems to kick off the needed software -- when I open a PPro project that has a dynamic link to AE, I can see the required processes running in memory. If I need to modify the AE part, I just kick off AE and open the AE project that's associated with the PPro project, make my changes, and they show up in PPro just like you'd expect.

Originally Posted by David Barnett

Also, I tried doing cartoon effect in AE, yet Encore seemed unable to Transcode it. Is this because it wasn't rendered via AE & was too labor intensive for Encore? Again, I ended up saving it to AVI & used that.

Can't say -- not enough CS4 experience. I've never had that happen in CS5 though. When ME is encoding it kicks off the PPro and AE bits needed to get the job done. Now, that job may take many hours, but it does get done eventually.