There are always rumors circulating about the release of real time TC generator effect for avid, to which all are inevitably untrue. As a professional avid editor, you maintain a certain close relationship with the tech guys out there in Tewksbury, and amidst our regular conversations, I kept asking the same question. “When are you making a RT timecode gen?” — Always to which they responded “Soon”. Frankly, I got sick of asking, and decided to make my own. It was mind numbingly easy to achieve and have never had to render another TC window burn again. Here it is –

Step 1: This will be the last TC effect you will ever have to render. Make it a long one. Create a sequence of however long you will need your TC to run. Mine is 1 hour. Apply the effect with no video in the background, and render.

Step 2: Create a quicktime of your sequence.

Step 3: Import this quicktime into Avid. This will be your TC Burn In .

Step 4: Mark an “In” point at the first frame of your TC Burn. Mark an “In” point to the corresponding Timecode in your sequence. Edit your TC clip as the upper most track in your sequence.

Step 5: Apply a Picture in Picture Effect to your TC Burn. (Note: This is a real time effect and does not need to be rendered!) Crop the Window Burn to reveal the Timecode. Use the postion to place the TC wherever you like on the screen.

That’s It! A perfect Real time TC Burn that MacGyver would be proud of. A few pitfalls to be aware of however. Make sure that your Burn In Timecode and your sequence Timecode match — meaning both are Drop Frame, or both Non Drop, however you are working. Also, if you let it, Avid will try and render your effect… No! It will play perfectly fine unrendered. Deselect this track, while rendering your sequence.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.