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AVX Plug-Ins

"Tips" appear in green. Tips will save you time but are not essential information.

"Cautions" appear in red.  Be sure to read and understand this information.

This site's contents Copyright 2003 3Prong.com Inc. WaveScope, SpeedRamP, ColorFiX, DirtFiX, FlickerFiX and FilmSim are trademarks of 3Prong.com Inc. Adrenaline, Avid, Avid DNA, Avid Mojo, Avid Xpress, AVX, Film Composer, Media Composer, Meridien, Nitris, and Symphony are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Macintosh and OS X are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Avid System Compatibility

3Prong AVX Plug-ins work on all Avid Macintosh and Windows systems shown here in green,
and do not work on those shown in red.

A timeline monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater and a fast CPU are recommended.

Installation

Get the Macintosh or Windows installer by clicking on "Try" at www.3Prong.com. Double-click on it to run.

All available plug-ins will be installed in your Avid's AVX_Plug-ins folder. Any old versions of plug-ins will be updated, but existing Unlocking Codes will remain valid and undisturbed. A folder called 3Prong containing these User Guides is also installed there. 

On Windows Avid systems, installation is automatic to the AVX_Plug-ins folder identified by the Windows registry.

On Macintosh Avid systems, if the installer finds several AVX Plug-ins folders, you may be asked to choose one for the installation. Click once on any of the choices to display where they are located on your system disk. Choose the AVX Plug-Ins folder which is contained within the Avid application's folder. For example, on Media Composer systems it is usually Media Composer:Supporting Files:AVX Plug-ins.

After installing, and then re-launching your Avid application, the category "3Prong" will appear in the Effect Palette. Each of the Plug-ins shown there operates in either Trial or Licensed mode:

• Trial mode is fully functional, but renders the 3Prong logo into the video image. 
• Licensed mode: after you buy a license and enter the Unlocking Code, the logo is no longer added to further renders.

Licensing

3Prong AVX Plug-Ins are individually licensed to specific Avid systems using a combination of Ordering and Unlocking Codes. You obtain your particular system's Ordering Code by installing and actually trying the plug-ins. After your payment is received by 3Prong, your Unlocking Code is sent to you by email.

Open the Effect Palette and choose the 3Prong effect you are interested in licensing. Drag the icon onto any segment in your timeline. Enter Effect mode, and click on the segment to select it.

Press the "Other Options" button in the top left corner of the Effect Editor. (For SpeedRamP and FlickerFiX, you then press an Unlock button in a subsequent dialog box.)

A dialog box like this one appears, showing your system's unique Ordering Code. Carefully copy it down. Then press Cancel to close the dialog box.

(Some Avid systems have obsolete drivers or revisions which prevent the generation of the 3Prong Ordering Code. If you receive an error message about this or your Ordering Code is not shown, please look here for help.)

Visit www.3Prong.com, click on "Buy", and carefully enter the Ordering Code into the web order form.

You will receive an Unlocking Code by return e-mail, usually within an hour of payment confirmation.

With any example effect of the desired plug-in shown in the Effect Editor, again press the Other Options button.

Enter the Unlocking Code in the space provided. Then press the Unlock button at the bottom left corner.

If you have also purchased new Unlocking Codes for other 3Prong AVX plug-ins on that system, you may enter those.

Quit your Avid application. When you re-launch, licensed plug-ins will be unlocked.

Tips for Use

• You may have certain preferences that you would like to have restored every time you apply an effect.  For example, you may prefer that  WaveScope always start with the Quad display by default. Power users save commonly used plug-in settings as an effect template to apply directly from a bin.

• Use caution when trimming. Keyframes in Avid effects are positioned relative to the duration of the segment or transition. Whenever an effect duration changes, the location of the keyframes within changes proportionately. DirtFiX effects in particular use precise keyframe locations to repair just those fields.

• All AVX effects require rendering. To minimize this, isolate desired areas by adding edits before applying the effect. Adding edits will also separate the desired area from the head and tail of the shot. This could avoid problems caused by later trimming or adding transitions, which could change the effective length of the segment. 

• If you are having trouble selecting a very small segment in the timeline, lasso the segment before entering Effect mode.

• You may apply an effect to a filler segment on the video track above. (On some Avid systems, it is necessary to place an add-edit in a blank track to create a filler segment.) This trick is useful in a number of situations:
  
  
  • to apply to a composite of multiple video tracks without nesting
  • to quickly apply to a consecutive series of segments
  • if the segment is too short to produce the intended effect (SpeedRamP)
  • if your computer is too slow to efficiently mark keyframes and set up the effect (DirtFiX), you may simply monitor the tracks below while adjusting the effect above. When done, if you wish you may drag and drop the completed effect onto the lower segment and delete the effect above. (Make sure the segment lengths match exactly. Remember that dissolves may increase the effective length of a segment by the handles.)

On-screen controls:

• Move an onscreen box by dragging it from the middle. Adjust the size by dragging any of the four corners. <Alt> or <Option> dragging a corner of the box resizes all four corners at once.
• If you accidentally close a box entirely and it disappears, use the sliders in the Effect Editor to open it up again.
• It does not matter if the sides of a box pass each other so that the box becomes inverted, as the effect is still applied to the interior of the box.

Sliders

• To nudge a slider by larger amounts, use the <shift> arrow keys.
• On faster systems, you may hold down the Option key (Mac) or the Alt key (Windows) to see the effect while a slider is being adjusted.
• To reset all the controls in a group to their default position, hold down the Option key (Mac) or the Alt key (Windows) and click the group enable button.
• Close all of the control groups by Opt+clicking (Mac) or alt+clicking (Windows) any single "twirldown" triangle in the effect editor.
• Use the TAB key to jump from from one visible slider to the next.

Rendering

• You can set up a 3Prong effect on an unlicensed systemin trial mode, and the effect will render without the 3Prong logo on any system which is licensed for that effect. However, if you use 3Prong Plug-ins on offline editing systems, be aware that field-based effects will render differently with two-field media than with single-field media, and may require adjustment.

• Mac and Windows versions of 3Prong AVX effects are compatible. An effect created on one platform will render the same way on the other.

• As with all AVX plug-ins, a rendered effect's media files can be played on another compatible Avid system, even if it does not have the plug-in. However, you cannot revise or re-render the effect without the plug-in. You may of course save or export a rendered effect as a video mixdown.

• Newer Avid systems allow partial rendering of effects. If rendering is cancelled in progress, the system will ask if you wish to "save partial results."  Some 3Prong AVX plug-ins have unique data caching mechanisms that may not work properly if partial renders are used. To prevent problems, do not save partial results when DirtFiX or FlickerFiX effects are rendered.

AVX Limitations

• Due to problems with Avid's AVX implementation, certain plug-in data may not be properly cleared if you switch directly from one segment to another while remaining in Effect mode. or if you replace one AVX effect with another, even if they are the same type. 3Prong recommends that you exit Effect mode or select another non-AVX effect instead of switching directly and that you remove AVX effects entirely before replacing them with another.

• Due to limitations in Avid’s AVX, there may be problems with caching certain effect data if AVX plug-ins are nested or stacked. You may avoid these problems by rendering AVX effects individually, immediately after applying them.

Support

3Prong AVX Plug-Ins are designed to Avid’s AVX specification in order to be useful and trouble-free on as many Avid systems as possible

Customers are sent email announcements about bug fixes and new versions. If you wish to subscribe to our announcement mailing list, visit www.3Prong.com/mailist.htm.

If you have a suggestion, find a bug or have a problem with a specific product not operating the way it should, please send email to support@3Prong.com. Licensed users will receive support. Anyone who identifies and reports a reproducible bug previously unknown to us will receive a free license for a 3Prong product. In your message, give as many details as possible, including:

• your contact information including company and phone number
• plug-ins involved, with Ordering Code
• Avid model, computer type, AVR or compression setting used
• NTSC or PAL, video or film, nature of the footage
• exact effect settings
• each step we should perform to recreate the problem on our test systems.

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