The Avid to After Effects Workflow

wolfcrow by Sareesh Sudhakaran

This article explores the workflow from Avid Media Composer to Adobe After Effects and back. It builds on the following articles:

How to move projects from Avid Media Composer to Adobe After Effects

The simplest way to transfer projects from Avid to After Effects is via AAF. I’ve already covered the detailed steps in the links provided above, but here’s the gist of it:

Select the sequence you want to export and go to File > Export….

In the Export As drop down, choose AAF:

The primary reason one exports from Avid to After Effects is to add effects and filters to footage. You don’t want to transcode media or reduce its quality in any way. For this reason, I recommend you select ‘Link to (Don’t Export) Media in the Export Method drop down (as shown above). However, if you’re moving from one computer to another, then it might be a good idea to select ‘Copy All Media’ instead. This way, your clips travel with the AAF file.

If you’re having issues you could try checking and unchecking AAF Edit Protocol, but leave it unchecked to start. You’re supposed to leave it checked but I had trouble either way. read more...