anyone found a good Generation alternative

[SirEdric]

Maybe a Generation (lightweight, fast startup, all of the above, etc) that can sit on every Artist's Desktop and connects to the Resolve Database,
from where it gets all the current editing etc.
(I agree editing in Generation was....errrr......suboptimal...)
But an Artist doesn't want to edit. He wants to see his shot in conjunction with the shots before/after, which are being worked on by other artists.
Real time notifications ("Stop that crap. Take Shot 0815 instead"), Chat, all that.

[French_Fry]

We used it primarily as a lightweight frame viewer. It started up so fast and cached really well. We had it connect to Royal Render for high res frame checking. I loved it. I haven't been able to use it for a while now, as everything shows up black. But, yeah, I could see BMD offfering as an equivalent to Scratch's player. ( I tried it out yesterday from the link, and I don't like it. slow start up, you can't drag and drop really fast like fusion or generation. wasn't my cup of tea.)

[rslittle]

Never tried Scratch Play - does it have a scripting API?

Not sure if it does but Scratch does to AE. So can't imagine it would be so crazy for it to work with Fusion.

I always wonder what happened to the 2009 VFXDESKTOP. It had a lot of promise but probably Arvid was hired or sued. :-/

[SirEdric]

Re-Thinking what I wrote above, having Gen connected to Resolve would be just pure awesomeness.
In terms of fast startup, interactivity, collaboration, ..., fark Hiero...

[AndrewHazelden]

Re-Thinking what I wrote above, having Gen connected to Resolve would be just pure awesomeness.
In terms of fast startup, interactivity, collaboration, ..., fark Hiero...

I haven't done anything with it yet but Resolve's fuscript bindings via the Fusion Console window mean you should be able to connect to an active Generation session and pass data back and forth:

Code: Select all

gen = bmd.scriptapp("Generation")

[nsf]

I haven't been able to use it for a while now, as everything shows up black.

This is the drivers issue. Since generation stoped being updated new nvidia drivers doesnt work with it.
Latest drivers that work are 368.81

[theotheo]

..., fark Hiero...

I know you're joking, but Hiero and NukeStudio is really well tailored to VFX workflows in ways that Resolve and Generation is not. We've done major conform work with it and its an absolute breeze as they've made it from the point of view of vfx, not editing.

Its not without its fault but for VFX work, conform and centralization its actually really decent.

One of Resolve's issues is that it treats itself as the last stop before delivery, while in reality you often need a tool -like- Resolve to conform to VFX and spit out hundreds of shots, with multiple plates pr shot into a specific naming convention for use in other applications. And you actaully cannot do that, without manually naming every single export... Resolve -almost- does it, but you cannot link the edit cut item's name to a file export, only the clip's name. And often the same take is used for multiple shots...so....no go...

[ShadowMaker SdR]

but you cannot link the edit cut item's name to a file export, only the clip's name. And often the same take is used for multiple shots...so....no go...

If the whole thing is a database that info should be exportable, no? What else is the point of having a database to begin with?

[theotheo]

Beats me, but we spent quite some time evaluating it before coming to conclusion that its not working for large vfx conforms that require exports (which is basically all vfx anyway...). I did ask around on the Resolve support forum twice without any replies.

All I want is to name {clipName}_sourceplate_{trackname}_v001.%04d.exr and it doesn't work. There's no way to read custom metadata tags back into the file export, even when using the custom tags! Clipname returns the actual clip, not the cut/clip item in the edit. So not only filename export but the folder structure can't be procedurally made either.

We had 320 shots with 4 plates each, ended up conforming it in Nukestudio.

[intelligent machine]

@theotheo regarding the custom metadata tags:

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're trying but assuming you want to create filenames from the metadata for each clip in the timeline including the custom name of the cut. If the cut on the timeline is a direct link to the source then renaming it will rename all cuts linked to that same source in the media pool. Instead, you can nest each cut (remember to copy the source timecode), then add whatever other metadata you want (VFX shot # field for the unique name of the shot for instance).

You may be aware: on the deliver page in the custom file name field you can type % and a dropdown list of all metadata tags will appear.
%{EDL Clip Name}_sourceplate_%{Track 1}_v001. or something similar will work.

[SirEdric]

Nifty!
I didn't know about that '%' trick.
Comes along very handy....

[theotheo]

@theotheo regarding the custom metadata tags:

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're trying but assuming you want to create filenames from the metadata for each clip in the timeline including the custom name of the cut. If the cut on the timeline is a direct link to the source then renaming it will rename all cuts linked to that same source in the media pool. Instead, you can nest each cut (remember to copy the source timecode), then add whatever other metadata you want (VFX shot # field for the unique name of the shot for instance).

You may be aware: on the deliver page in the custom file name field you can type % and a dropdown list of all metadata tags will appear.
%{EDL Clip Name}_sourceplate_%{Track 1}_v001. or something similar will work.

Late reply, but I know about the metadata fields, however it doesn't respect all of them like %marker and a good couple of others that would be useful for tagging individual clips in the timeline.

I also specifically want to avoid created nested/compound clips as most shots have multiple plates, the workload easily doubles.




But in regards to an alternative to Generation, how does this crowd feel about Assimilate Scratch ?

[nsf]

But in regards to an alternative to Generation, how does this crowd feel about Assimilate Scratch ?

I havent checked Scratch in years...
Looking at it I thought its just for Linux (completely same look as flame).
Do you have some experience working with it?

[TAIS]

I miss Generation. I had started to use it in production successfully .... I despair of seeing Resolve integrate Fusion with a editor/colorist axis. BM does not seem to understand the potential of Fusion and Generation as the central architecture of a VFX studio.
... And I regret not being able to put my hand on your scripts wellsichris...

No alternative... BM wanted to do well but they broke us.

[SecondMan]

Broke us? I respectfully disagree

Maybe bent a little. But we're still here.

But you're right about BMD not knowing what they have, or what we need. So can you, please, make a use case, a user story, of what you are using Generation for, how it facilitates your workflow, and where its strengths and shortcomings are.

Share your success story!

You can do it here and have people chime in, or pass it on to BMD directly.