Exporting an EDL, AAF or XML Sequence

1. Select File > Export > EDL/AAF/XML.

The Export to EDL/AAF/XML window opens.

2. In the Destination Path section, click the Browse button and choose a folder in which to save the exported files.

3. In the File Pattern field, type in a prefix or a file naming pattern for the exported files—see About File Naming Patterns.

4. In the File Pattern field, you can set your own pattern which will be used to name the files created from the export. Leave this field blank to use the default pattern. The following variables can be used to define the file name pattern:

• %t = Project title
• %a = Act name (when acts are enabled)
• %q = Sequence name (when project contains sequences)
• %s = Scene name
• %p = Panel name
• %l = Layer name (when exporting one image per layer)

You can add a number between the % sign and the letter of the variable to define a minimum number of characters to use.

5. In Export Type, select all the formats in which to store the editing information (ie: file names and timecodes for video and audio clips). One file will be created for each selected format:

• Generate EDL file: Can be imported in Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere.

NOTE Due to limitations with the EDL format, only the first four audio tracks in your project can be exported, and sound clips that are used multiple times in the project will only appear one time in the exported sequence.

• Generate AAF file: Can be imported in Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress, Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere.

NOTE Due to limitation with the AAF format, Slide-in and Slide-out transitions will be converted to Dissolve transitions, Clock Wipe transitions will always be exported as 12 o’clock (0 degree) clockwise transitions, and Edge Wipe transitions will be exported as either Horizontal, Vertical or Corner Wipe transitions.

• Generate XML file: Can be imported in Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere.

NOTE If your editing system is not mentioned above, check its specifications to verify which format can be imported.

6. In the Options section:

• Movie Format: Movie clips can be exported in Windows Media Video (*.wmv) format on Windows and in QuickTime Movie (*.mov) format on either Windows or Mac OS if QuickTime Player is installed. This option cannot be changed if only one movie format is available for export.

NOTE Not all editing systems support importing Windows Media Video files. Check with your software’s documentation to see which movie file types are supported.

• Video Config: Click this button to configure the video settings. When exporting in QuickTime, this allows to set the video codec, framerate and quality. When exporting in Windows Media Video, this allows to set the variable bit rate quality.

The resolution drop-down right of the Video Config button can be used to define the output resolution, since you might not always need to export the storyboard at full resolution. You can select Full, Half or Quarter of a project’s resolution.

• One Movie Clip Per Panel: Exports one video file for each panel instead of for each scene. This can help obtain better granularity during editing, since the sequence will have smaller movie clips.

• Copy Audio Files: Uncheck this option to skip copying the sound files. By default, the project’s sound files are copied to the same directory as the EDL/XML/AAF files and the video files when exporting.

NOTE When this option is unchecked, the project’s audio tracks and their editing data will still be exported into the EDL/XML/AAF sequence. Only the actual sound files will be missing.

• Generate Video Files: If you only need the EDL, AAF or XML files to be generated, uncheck this option so no video files are rendered.

7. In the Export Range section, select whether you want to export the entire project, or only specific parts of it:



• All: Exports the entire storyboard.
• Selected Scenes: Select this option to export a specific selection of scenes. Then, click on the Select button to open the Scenes Picker dialog box, in which you can:
• Type the number of a sequence or of a scene in the Sequence or Scene fields in the Filter section, to only show matching sequences or matching scenes in the list.
• Click and drag to select a range of scenes.
• Hold the Ctrl key and click on each scene you want to add to your selection.
• Hold the Shift key, then click on the first scene and the last scene you want to add to your selection, to select every scene between those two scenes inclusively.
• If your project has sequences, click on a sequence to select every scene in that sequence.
• Current Scene: Exports only the currently selected scene.
• Current Panel: Exports only the currently selected panel.
• Tracked Panels:Exports panels on which tracking changes is enabled—see About Track Changes.

8. In the Burn-In tab, choose what kind of information you want to have printed into the exported files:



• Print Time Code: Prints the global timecode on each rendered image.
• Print Scene Names and Panel Numbers: Prints the scene names and panel numbers as an overlay on your video.
• Print Additional Duration: Prints another time code counting the time for the current panel, scene or sequence, depending on what is selected in the Repeat drop-down.
• Units: Whether to print the additional duration in time units (seconds, minutes, etc.) or in frames.
• Repeat: Decide what to count the time of for the additional duration. For example, if set to per Panel, the time elapsed since the beginning of the current panel will be printed.

9. In the Camera Grids tab, using these options, decides whether you want any kind of camera frame to be printed into the exported files:



• Title Safe Area: Prints the Title Safe Area over the picture. By default, this area is 20% smaller than the camera frame. It is used as a guideline of the area that CRT displays might crop out of the picture. Visual elements such as text and logos should be placed within this area.

• Action Safe Area: Prints the Action Safe Area over the picture. By default, this area is 10% smaller than the camera frame. It is used as a guideline of the area that CRT displays might crop out of the picture. Characters and action should be placed within this area.

• 4:3 Safety: Prints the title safe area and the action safe area for the 4:3 camera frame over the exported image. They can be used to position elements in projects that are meant to be displayed in both widescreen and 4:3 proportions.
• 4:3 Reference: Prints the 4:3 camera frame over the exported image. This frame corresponds to the camera frame if the aspect ratio of the picture was 4:3. It can be used to position elements in projects that are meant to be displayed in both widescreen and 4:3 proportions.

10. In the Captions tab, you can choose to print any of your storyboard’s captions into the exported movies using the following options—see About Captions.



• Print Captions: Choose whether to not print captions (None) or select one of your project’s captions to print into the exported movies. By default, a Storyboard Pro project has Action Notes, Dialog, Slugging and Notes captions, but you can also choose to print custom captions if your project has any.
• Font: Select which font the captions will be printed in. By default, they will be printed in Arial.
• Height %: Sets the size of caption lines relative to the height of the exported movies. For example, if exporting a movie at 1080p with 3% Height captions, each caption line will be 32 pixels in height.
• Position: Prints the captions at either the Top Left, Top Centre, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Centre or Bottom Right of the movie. By default, captions are printed to the Bottom Centre.
• Max Lines: Sets the maximum amount of caption lines to print on each panel. If a caption being printed requires more than the maximum amount of lines, it will be cut off with an ellipsis (...) at the end. Note that even if captions are printed at the bottom, they will be aligned to the top of the space reserved for them, which is calculated by the amount of Max Lines x the Height %. Therefore, if this setting is too high and captions are printed at the bottom, they may appear closer to the middle of the picture than to the bottom.
• Text Colour: Select the font colour in which to print the captions.
• Bg Colour: Select the background colour on which to print the captions. If the checkbox is unchecked, the captions will be printed directly into the rendered picture. Otherwise, they will be printed in rectangular boxes of the chosen colour.

11. If you want to automatically play the video or view the exported files once the export is done, check the Open document/folder after export option.

12. Click on the Export button.

13. You can now import the sequence into a third party editing software. Refer to the documentation of your editing software for information on importing the sequence into a project and editing it.