MXF to EXR

General discussion
Post Reply
arri_2022
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:01 am

I hope I am in the right forum for this question. My concern: a film was produced with an Arri Alexa Mini LF. The raw data from the camera are in MXF format. Apparently, this data cannot be opened for editing in Nuke for compositing, resp. are displayed incorrectly. To be honest, I'm a bit confused that my VFX freelancer and also the camerawoman can't do it.

For this reason I'm looking for a solution or the best would be a freelancer who converts the MXF data losslessly into the EXR format.
Oliver Temmler
Posts: 66
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:16 pm
Location: Munich, Germany
Contact:

I see two options here.

1) Use the ARRIRAW Reference tool to render OpenEXR sequences.
2) Use the ARRIRAW Converter to unwrap/render the MXF file to single frame .ARI sequences or to OpenEXR sequences.

Handing out the OpenEXR files may reduce the chance of error (of misconfiguring the ARRIRAW processing in Nuke - even though that should be failrly easy to communicate).
Unwrapping the MXF clips to .ARI sequences, however, will result in much smaller source files.
Oliver Temmler
Product Manager Storage Media
ARRI Munich
aMac.uk
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2022 2:25 pm

Hi

Related to this, I'm trying to work out and assist a studio with their workflow who doesn't normally shoot RAW and deal with VFX. I've seen the articles on the ARRI site but I wondered if I could ask if I've understood it properly.

They have shot raw with the Mini LF and used the ARRI Reference Tool to make ProRes proxies for the editor so far.
When the edit is locked, should they first conform the whole timeline and export and clips needing VFX as an ACES EXR sequence or will the VFX artist/compositor want the raw mxf files in case they want to tweak something like temperature for a better key? I imagine not the latter as all the unused takes in a clip is wasted data to send and they can just ask for any pre grade adjustments like that before the clip is converted to EXR.

Then for grading after the VFX clips are sent back as EXR, should the colorist be sent the whole timeline as an EXR sequence - even non-VFX shots - or should they be sent a conformed timeline with mix of the original MFX clips and the VFX EXRs? Again, I'm assuming sending original camera media is wasting data for grade unless they need raw control.

Sorry for any naive questions. It's my first time dealing with this outside of a ProRes4444 workflow. Thanks
Jan Heugel
Posts: 516
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:15 pm
Location: Munich, Germany
Contact:

Hey aMac,

check with VFX what they want. Resolve just added the option to consolidate MXF/ARRIRAW (Resolve 18.0.3), so that might be a delivery option as well.

If they olny do ACES linear my colleague Simon recommends rendering them ACES linear with Source TC and Source FIle names for a more convenient relink.

Cheers,
Jan
Jan Heugel
Application Engineer
Post Reply