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Editorial export and NLE handoff in Dragonframe

Dragonframe

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Definition

The step where a stop-motion scene leaves Dragonframe's per-frame capture environment and becomes part of a cut assembled in a separate non-linear editor (NLE): exporting a review-grade composite or movie, editing against other scenes' exports, and then returning to the full-resolution captured frames for compositing once a shot is locked.

Dragonframe treats a stop-motion scene as a directory of individually captured frames, not a continuous take, so editorial has to reach into that directory rather than trim a single clip. The software's own export tools exist to bridge that gap: Movie Export renders a QuickTime, AVI or MP4 from the captured frames; Image Sequence Export writes the frames back out in a chosen still-image format with a controllable naming scheme; and Composite Export is described on Dragonframe's own features page as making "a rough composite to communicate with post-production" -- a deliverable built specifically for handing a scene to an editor before the shot is finished.

Two features address the round trip back to full resolution. Dragonframe's high-res playback toggle lets an animator or editor review either the light-weight video-assist frames used during the shoot or proxies of the full-resolution camera captures, so an editorial pass does not have to wait on the heaviest files. Direct File Access keeps the camera's original high-resolution source frames in an easily-reachable per-scene directory rather than inside a proprietary project container, and the After Effects Integration feature imports an image sequence straight from that scene source location -- so a shot picked in the edit can be pulled back to its full-resolution frames for rig removal and compositing (see after-effects-compositing) without a separate re-export step invented by the post team.

Audio is locked to the animation rather than to wall-clock time. Dragonframe's Time-Warp feature keeps an imported guide track synced to the project's frame rate: if an editor or animator reviews the scene at a different playback speed, the audio stretches to stay aligned with the frames instead of drifting out of sync the way a fixed-duration audio file would against a re-timed edit. That distinction matters once a scene leaves Dragonframe and starts being cut against other scenes' exports in a separate editor, where frame counts -- not timecodes borrowed from a continuous live-action take -- are the unit editorial actually works in.

Workflow

  1. Shoot and retain: capture the scene in Dragonframe; the camera's full-resolution source frames stay in the scene's own directory rather than a proprietary container.
  2. Export for review: render a Composite Export or Movie Export (QuickTime/AVI/MP4) as a rough cut communication deliverable, or review directly off video-assist frames or full-resolution proxies using the high-res playback toggle.
  3. Cut: assemble the film's editorial pass in a separate NLE against the other scenes' exports, with any guide audio kept in sync via Time-Warp regardless of review speed.
  4. Return to source: once a shot is locked, pull the scene's full-resolution frames back in as an image sequence -- After Effects can import directly from the original scene source location -- for rig removal and compositing rather than working from the review-grade export.

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