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SyncSketch
We'd like you, our users, to let us know what is important for you about how frame numbers and/or SMPTE Timecode values are imported, displayed, and exported in SyncSketch. We want to make SyncSketch support our users' varied workflows. Please comment below if you have anything to add.
Here’s what we would like to know so we can make sure this keeps moving in the right direction:
  • What workflow do you use that depends on frame numbering working a certain way? For example, we describe an “Editorial” workflow below. If someone has already described a workflow that’s close, just click its heart icon and add a comment detailing anything that is different for yours.
  • If your clips have embedded timecode, how are they being created? Which applications? Which cameras?
  • Are you using (or do you want to use) scripts that use CSV download or our API to get comments and sketches back into some other application that we don’t already have integrations with?
If you’re using one of our integrations (ShotGrid, for example), how are you expecting timecode matchback to work?
  • How do you want timecode for items to be interpreted/displayed/corrected/ignored at the Workspace level, Project level (our current implementation) the Review level, or per item?
  • What SMPTE timecode formats do you use, predominantly? For example, do you use drop-frame or nondrop numbering? Framerates, like 23.976 or 59.94?
  • Do you ever want absolute frame numbering to start at anything other than 0,1,100, or 101? Do you want it to reflect embedded offsets in each clip?
If you don’t care to comment publicly, or if you would like a more interactive discussion (like a video chat, for example), please post an email to support@syncsketch.com and we can continue privately or make arrangements for a call.
Some basic concepts and terms to bear in mind for this discussion:
In digital video files, timecode isn’t embedded into every frame. It is usually thought of as an offset from zero for the first frame.
There is a notion of embedded timecode (the offset specified in the file) vs. displayed timecode. These are not always the same.
Some clips (Maya playblasts, for example) do not have embedded timecode offsets, and SyncSketch needs to handle these cases in a useful way.
Some clips have “handles” added before and after the clip they’re working on, for context. Sometimes the timecode reflects these handles, even though the frames may not be included in the uploaded media.
“Editorial” workflows are those where timecode values need to matchback into the application or system from which the clips were originally produced. For example, if a segment is exported from the middle of a project in a video editor or animation application, and someone makes a comment about a particular frame in SyncSketch, the user will want that comment’s frame number to matchback to the corresponding frame number in their application.
Created by Mike Jennings
October 22, 2021