Splitting a large project into manageable parts and then combining the edited parts.

ponderstibbons

Newbie Location: Champion Lakes, Western Australia Joined: Jan 19, 2011 08:28 Messages: 42 Offline

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Oct 02, 2019 10:23

I've just been on a four week holiday which could be split into about five distinct parts.
But with almost three hours of raw video and a couple of thousand photos it's all a bit overpowering to just slam everything into one project.
So I thought I'd split the editing into separate bits, work on each of those separately and then bring the parts together in a final holiday reel.
But if I do that will I lose quality if I produce the individual section and then re-insert it into the overall reel?
If I bring the .pds file for each part back in on its own time-line track I'm thinking the workspace will be very messy.
Would appreciate any thoughts on how you guys manage large projects.
Thanks One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man, he had the Vote.
Terry Pratchett (Mort).

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Oct 02, 2019 12:40

It's pretty simple, and you actually have two choices.

The approach you've mentioned will work just fine, as long as the output format is supported by SVRT. You can test this by producing one section and place it alone on your timeline, then type Alt + S and verify that you see a solid green line above the clip.

In your final project, select SVRT from teh Produce module and PD will simply copy the existing clip sections into a final version without re-producing anything. There will be no loss in quality.

If SVRT isn't avaialable for the format you're producing to, another way is to make a project for each section as you've described, and then create a "master" project and import each project section using the Insert Project feature. You'll want to make sure the preferences are set for Nested Project:

That will keep each project displayed as a block on your master timeline, and you can click on any one to see or edit the underlying project at any time. When you produce, PD treats each project as regular clips on your timeline, and will only render each section one time.

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ponderstibbons

Newbie Location: Champion Lakes, Western Australia Joined: Jan 19, 2011 08:28 Messages: 42 Offline

Oct 02, 2019 20:41

Thanks optodata.
After I posted I did another search and found that Maliek Whittaker (in his Youtube channel "PD University) had covered this. But you added a couple of extra essential tips which have clarified the procedure, so I'm pretty sure I can now get on with the project with some comfort.
Just one point I have to watch - and please correct me if I'm wrong - is that if I make an adjustment in the overall project when editing a nested portion then the changes won't be carried through to the file which is a sub-part of the main project.
And similarly if I make a change in a sub-part then the overall project will not be changed until I delete and replace that section in the overall project.
Sounds a bit messy but I think it's difficult to avoid some complexity by the very nature of what we're actually doing.
Again, many thanks for your response.
You've got me going with a lot more certainty now.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 02. 2019 20:42

One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man, he had the Vote.
Terry Pratchett (Mort).

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Oct 03, 2019 14:39

Quote Just one point I have to watch - and please correct me if I'm wrong - is that if I make an adjustment in the overall project when editing a nested portion then the changes won't be carried through to the file which is a sub-part of the main project.
And similarly if I make a change in a sub-part then the overall project will not be changed until I delete and replace that section in the overall project.

That's correct. The best way to think of nested projects is that they are all individual, stand-alone projects, and as such, wouldn't normally be affected by edits you made in a different project. When you nest one inside another project, you're simply placing a copy of the "sub-project" on the timeline, and any changes you make to the nested copy won't carry over into the original version.

For your second question, that's exactly how you'd deal with changes in the sub-project while in the "master," although an alterante approach would be to use Ctrl + A in the nested project to select all the timeline contents, then copy them to the clipboard, re-open the original sub-project, select the timeline there and paste the revised contents, then save the sub-project.

As long as PD stays open during this editing session, the clipboard contents will remain intact. Just remember to save the "master" project before re-opening the sub. This workflow may be the easiest way to end up with identical copies of the sub-project without having to re-do things once you're happy with the changes.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 03. 2019 14:43