Adobe 12040118 - After Effects Standard Tutorial page 96

Import assets in Panasonic P2 format
A P2 card is a solid-state memory device that plugs into the PCMCIA slot of a Panasonic P2 video camera. The digital video and audio data from
the video camera is recorded onto the card in a structured, codec-independent format known as MXF (Media eXchange Format). Specifically,
Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects support the Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF, with video in AVC-Intra 50, AVC-Intra 100, DV, DVCPRO,
DVCPRO50, and DVCPRO HD formats. A clip is said to be in the P2 format if its audio and video are contained in Panasonic Op-Atom MXF files,
and these files are located in a specific folder structure.
The root of the P2 folder structure is a CONTENTS folder. Each essence item (an item of video or audio) is contained in a separate MXF wrapper
file; the video MXF files are in the VIDEO subfolder, and the audio MXF files are in the AUDIO subfolder. The relationships between essence files
and the metadata associated with them are tracked by XML files in the CLIP subfolder.
Note: Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects do not support proxies recorded by Panasonic P2 camcorders in P2 card PROXY folders.
The video and audio on a P2 card are already in a digital form, as if the P2 card were a hard disk, so no capture step is involved in importing
media from a P2 card. The process of reading the data from the card and converting it to a format that can be used in a project is sometimes
referred to as ingest.
For your computer to read P2 cards, you must install the appropriate driver, which you can download from the Panasonic website. Panasonic also
provides the P2 Viewer application, with which you can browse and play media stored on a P2 card. See the
Because Panasonic P2 cards use the FAT32 file system, each file is limited to a size of 4 GB. When a shot is recorded that requires more than
the 4 GB, a P2 camera creates another file and continues recording the shot to the new file without interruption. This is referred to as clip
spanning, because the shot spans more than one file or clip. Similarly, a camera may span a shot across files on different P2 cards: if the camera
has more than one P2 card loaded, it will record the shot until it runs out of room on the first P2 card, create a new file on the next P2 card with
available space, and continue recording the shot to it. Although a single shot can be recorded to a group of multiple spanned clips, the multiple-file
shot is designed to be treated as a single clip or footage item in a video editing application. For After Effects to automatically import a group of
spanned clips simultaneously and assemble them into a single footage item, they must all have been recorded to the same P2 card and none of
the files can be missing, including the associated XML metadata file.
1. (Optional) Copy the entire contents of the P2 card to a hard disk.
Though it is possible to import assets into Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects directly from a P2 card, it is usually more efficient to copy the
contents of the P2 card to a hard disk before importing.
2. Choose File > Import.
3. Navigate to the CONTENTS folder.
4. Select one or more MXF files:
To import a video essence item and its associated audio essence items, select the MXF files from the VIDEO folder.
To import only the audio essence items, select the MXF files from the AUDIO folder.
To import a group of spanned clips for a shot that were recorded onto the same P2 card, select only one of the MXF files in the group
from the VIDEO folder. The group is imported as a single footage item with a duration equal to the total duration of all the spanned clips
it includes. If you select more than one of these spanned clips, you import duplicates of the whole group of spanned clips, as duplicate
footage items in the Project panel.
You cannot import spanned clips from a shot that spans two different cards as a single footage item. Rather, you must select a single MXF
file belonging to the shot from each card to create a separate footage item for the part of the shot recorded on each card. For example, if a
group of spanned clips for a single shot itself spans two cards, you must select a spanned clip from the group on card 1 and another from
the group on card 2. This imports the contents of the shot into two footage items in the Project panel.
The Date column in the Project panel shows when each source clip was acquired. After you import spanned clips, you can use the Date value to
determine their correct chronological order within the shot.
Note: After Effects can't directly export to the P2 format. To render and export to the P2 format, use Adobe Media Encoder or Premiere Pro.
For additional information on the Panasonic P2 format and workflows with Adobe digital video software, see the Adobe website:
Adobe workflow guides for P2, RED, XDCAM, AVCCAM, and DSLR cameras and footage
P2 workflow guide for Adobe digital video products
Dave Helmly's video introduction to the P2 workflow in After Effects
More Help topics
Importing assets from tapeless formats
Export to Panasonic P2 format
File formats supported for export
To the top
Panasonic website for details.