Machine Transfer: Two Computers

When Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve are not on the same computer, for example an editor working in Premiere Pro who sends the project to a colorist working in DaVinci Resolve, CrossFlow carries the project from one computer to the other with a transfer file (a .crossflow file), and can bring the graded clips back the same way. The two computers can be on Windows or Mac, in any combination, and the media can sit in different folders on each one.

A transfer file describes the project, the options, and the files CrossFlow made. It does not contain your media: you send the media yourself (on a drive, through a shared folder, a transfer service...). CrossFlow tells you which folders to send, and finds the media again on the other computer.

This Computer's Setup#

At the top of the Main tab, CrossFlow shows whether it found Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve on this computer, and adapts to it. On a computer with only Premiere Pro, Convert Project is grayed out and Export for Another Computer is put forward; on a computer with only DaVinci Resolve, Open Transfer File is put forward and Export for Another Computer is grayed out. Hover a grayed-out button to see why. Everything stays visible, so you can see all CrossFlow does whatever your setup.

If CrossFlow got it wrong (for example an application installed somewhere it does not look), choose the right setup in the Setup list. CrossFlow asks before using a setup with an application it did not find. Automatic goes back to what was found.

Sending a Project to Another Computer#

On the computer with Premiere Pro, select your project as usual, set your options, then click Export for Another Computer (next to Convert Project). You can type your name, your studio and a message: they are shown to the person who opens the file. Then choose where to save the transfer file.

CrossFlow runs the same steps as a conversion: it analyzes the project, and renders through Adobe Media Encoder what Resolve could not reproduce (see Automatic Transcoding via Adobe Media Encoder). Instead of building a Resolve project, it saves the transfer file. Its Full Details then list what to send: the transfer file, and every folder holding some of your media, including the folder of the files CrossFlow transcoded. For each folder, CrossFlow says whether to send the whole folder, or only some of its files: Which files lists them. Copy the List of Files copies the full path of every file to send, one per line. Media already missing on your computer are listed apart, since they can't be sent.

Tip: if you put the media folders next to the transfer file on the other computer, CrossFlow finds them on its own.

One license is enough for the whole trip. When the computer sending the project has a CrossFlow license, the transfer file is signed with it (CrossFlow asks the license server, so it needs internet at that moment): the other computer then converts the whole project, even without a license of its own. Without a license, or without internet, the file is not signed, the export says so, and the other computer converts it as a trial unless it has a license of its own. The card of a received project shows which license applies.

Opening a Project Received#

On the computer with DaVinci Resolve Studio, double-click the .crossflow file, drag it onto the CrossFlow window, or click Open Transfer File (under Select Project, in Premiere → Resolve mode) and choose it. If CrossFlow is already open, the file opens in it. CrossFlow shows who sent it, when, from which kind of computer, and their message. View Details opens what was done on the sender's computer (the analysis and the transcode), and Close gives you back your own project and options.

Under the message, Media on this computer finds the project's media, with a bar showing how many were found. CrossFlow looks next to the transfer file, in the places it learned from earlier transfer files, and at the media's original location. It recognizes a file by its name, its size and a sample of its content, never by its location, so two cameras' clips with the same name are not mixed up. What it can't find is listed by the folder it was in on the sender's computer:

• Locate Folder...: point to where that folder is on this computer. When the folder you pick keeps the end of the original path (for example Shoot/Day1), CrossFlow understands that everything above it moved, and also finds Shoot/Day2 and the rest on its own.
• Locate File...: point to one file. What it teaches about the folders is used for every other missing file too.
• Search in a Folder...: CrossFlow looks for every missing file anywhere inside the folder you pick.

A file with the right name but not the same content is shown as found "but not the same file", and is only used if you click Use It. When several different files match, you choose which one. The places you taught CrossFlow are remembered for the next transfer files: see them, or make CrossFlow forget them, under Machine Transfer: Known Media Locations in Settings & License. Media that were already missing on the sender's computer are listed apart: if you have them, CrossFlow can still use them.

The options are the sender's. You can still change every Transfer Option, which also helps find where a problem comes from. The Transcode Options are shown for information only, since the transcode already ran on the sender's computer. Choose the name of the Resolve project, then click Convert in Resolve. Media still missing are left out of the Resolve project, and CrossFlow asks before converting without them.

Sending the Graded Clips Back#

Once the clips are graded, the colorist sends them back with Return to Premiere, started as described in Return to Premiere, from the received task in the Tasks tab or by selecting its Resolve project. Premiere Pro is not needed on this computer: instead of building a Premiere Pro project, CrossFlow exports the graded clips into a new folder next to the transfer file received, together with a new transfer file. You can type your name and a message for the editor. Send that whole folder back.

Putting the Graded Clips into Premiere Pro#

Back on the computer with Premiere Pro, double-click the transfer file that came back with the graded clips, drag it onto the CrossFlow window, or switch to Resolve → Premiere mode and click Open Transfer File. CrossFlow finds the project you exported (or asks you to select it), and the graded clips next to the file. Click Put Graded Clips Into Premiere: as with Return to Premiere, CrossFlow builds a new copy of your Premiere Pro project with the graded clips in place.

You may have kept editing while the colorist was working. CrossFlow puts a graded clip where that clip is now, even if it was moved in the timeline. A clip trimmed, split or deleted since the export is left as it is, and Full Details list every clip with what happened to it.

A received project, a graded clips export for another computer, and a graded clips import can't be continued with Continue Task: open the transfer file again, or start the export again from the received task.