Looking for input on a major workflow change, and how best to approach this most efficiently.
Goal: Edit one spot with multiple unique versions, each encoded to a different spec. For instance, one spot that is tagged uniquely for each cable provider it goes to.
Previous Workflow: Export all 20 versions as QT REF files. Practically instantaneous. Automation software renames them based on certain criteria, and sorts them to their respective watch folders. AME sees each watch folder and encodes any incoming files to that spec. Works great. (When it works).
Current Workflow: Transitioning away from Avid. Premiere cannot generate REF files (I understand why). Have all versions ready in Premiere. Open Premiere project in AME and select all 20 cuts. Manually choose encoding presets for each and every cut.
Am I missing something here? This seems to take me a lot more time than my previous workflow. I suppose I could render out all 20 cuts to intermediate files much like I did with the REFs, but this takes a lot of space, and a lot of time.
Is there some way for me to tie a specific AME encoding preset to a Premiere Sequence? So that for instance "Commercial ABC" gets encoded with the "ABC 1080i" preset automatically?
I'm used to being able to frame-serve my video straight to the encoder--whether it be with REF files, or things like AVIsynth. In this particular workflow, rendering out intermediate files seems an archaic and unnecessary step. Yet without doing that, I'm not sure how I'd make use of watch folders coming from Premiere...
Surely I'm missing a functionality within AME or Premiere that can accomplish what I'm after? Anyone is a similar boat that has tackled this kind of workflow?