This guide covers the below:

• Uploading Assets
• Move, Copy and Manage Assets
• Metadata and Auto-Tagging
• Watermarking

1. Uploading Assets

NOTE: Only users with upload permission and above will have access to these features

The production admin is able to grant other users on the team upload access.

Any time you need to add assets to Flow Capture, you have two options:

• Using the Transfer section within Flow Capture, and then clicking the Upload tab.
• Using Flow Capture Connect's Transfer functionality, which allows you to upload to the platform using this external plug in.

If you'll be using Flow Capture Connect to upload, view our help doc, located here: Flow Capture Connect - Transfer

If you'll be using Flow Capture itself, click below to view a video walkthrough, or read on for a written instruction guide:

Uploading

Assets can be uploaded to either a new Batch or one that you've set up ahead of time.

In addition to the assets themselves, you can also attach metadata sidecar files that we'll extract information from and apply to any files you're uploading or have already uploaded. As we dive into the upload panel itself, we'll also be going through through the upload process step by step!

If you're looking for something specific, here's a table to contents to get you there faster!

1. Starting an upload
2. Hide/Unhide Distro Method
3. Adding or Removing Files
4. Upload Options - Metadata and Notifications
5. Pre-Upload Validation
6. Uploading

Starting an Upload

Uploading on Flow Capture begins in the left side of the panel, where you'll choose a destination Batch for for your files. These are containers for files in Flow Capture; they can represent a shoot day, a specific cut of the project you're working on, or however else you want to keep things organized. You can upload to an existing Batch that you click and select, or a new one that you create. 

Hide/Unhide Distro Method

You've also got the option to create a Hidden Batch, which prevents any notifications from being sent out when the assets have finished uploading and processing. It will also keeps the batch and everything in it invisible to anyone with the default Viewer permission level. 

This is helpful if you want to double-check any of your work before notifying everyone else in the Folder that it's up for viewing. Once you're satisfied that everything looks right, you can Unhide the Batch and choose to send out notifications to everyone on the Folder, no one, or a select few. 

Regardless of whom you choose to inform, all the Folder's participants will be able to see and view any assets within the newly available Batch.

Adding or Removing Files

The center part of the panel allows you to either drag and drop the files you want to upload, or to locate them by browsing through your computer and any connected hard drives. Once selected, the files will be shown under the Add Files column.

If you added one too many files, the wrong cut, or just need to make a change, you can remove anything from the upload list by clicking the gray x to the right of each filename.

Options - Metadata and Notifications

The right-hand column gives you the ability to establish the metadata source and workflow for a Folder's video and audio content. This can be extracted from ALEs, XMLs and/or WAVs as supplied by your onset DIT. 

Any information you attach via this process will remain connected to the uploaded assets, even if you move or copy them elsewhere..

Checking the Overwrite Existing Metadata option will inject the metadata information into the corresponding display field on Flow Capture. If unchecked, the metadata injection routine will only populate the fields that don't have pre-existing information. 

When you check Apply To This Batch Only, the metadata is only applied to the Batch you are currently uploading into. If unchecked, Flow Capture will go through and attempt to apply the ALE to all Batches within the Folder.

The option to send notifications about the new Upload to all Participants in the Folder is enabled by default. Toggling it off will allow you to choose individual members to notify or simply not notify anyone. You can also always notify them later by using the Hide/Unhide workflow or sending out a Playlink / Share of a Playlist

Pre-Upload Validation

If you'd like us to double-check your files before you take the time to upload them to Flow Capture, we have a quick process that can scan for common mistakes with Dolby Vision or DNxHD assets to save you from future headaches. You'll want to make sure an Admin in charge has toggled this setting on at either the Folder, Production or Company level. 

Once that's enabled, clicking the upload button will perform the validation:

If nothing is wrong, we'll automatically start uploading everything you've added. If there is an issue, a notification window will appear and inform you of the problem:

Clicking through that will bring you back to the upload panel, where there's now an indicator next to the asset or assets that failed the validation step. The upload button will also have a warning icon that can be clicked to bring up the original diagnosis. 

While you can continue to upload in that state, you will very likely end up with an asset that fails to process successfully. We recommend reviewing anything that fails the validation process and creating a new file that addresses the issue that was surfaced and then running it through the validation again. 

We have breakdowns of issues in our HDR & Dolby Vision and Video Upload Specification articles. 

2. Move, Copy and Manage Assets

Click here to jump to a video walkthrough

The Transfer section contains a Manage Assets tab, which gives you the ability to move or copy your assets from one place to another.

The column on the left is your Source for whichever action the Manage Assets tab is going to be used for. Any assets you copy or move will come from the selections you make here.  

The column on the right is your Destination, which allows you to choose where the files you're working with will go. You can choose from an already existing Batch in a Folder, or create a new Batch as you work. 

You can choose both your Source and Destinations using a Tree Dropdown that gives you a list of all the options you're able to select, based on your permissions. 

When selecting assets, you can use the full suite of sorting and search functions. If you're working with an entire batch, just check the box, and we'll automatically create a new batch in the destination to be used when copying or moving.  In our example below, we've sorted by Episode + Scene, so we can select any of the batches created to move all assets within it:

Click here to learn more about searching and batches: Metadata and Organization

If you're moving or copying individual assets, you'll need to check the box next to the destination batch before you can perform those actions. 

Once your assets and destination are selected, you can copy or move your files. Copying leaves assets in two places simultaneously (both destination and source), while moving transfers assets from the source to the destination batch.

Whenever you move or copy assets, you’ll be given the option to notify participants in the destination folder. Note that if you move or copy assets to a different batch within the same folder, this option isn’t available.  

The notification that gets sent out with that is similar to the one we send out for new Uploads. Therefore, in order for a user to receive an email notification, they must have the "Upload" notification toggle turned ON (which is the default), which will generate an email as well as a message in their Inbox. 

3. Metadata and Auto-Tagging

One of Flow Capture's great strengths is its ability to provide a rich repository of metadata by gathering information directly from the camera and seamlessly making it available to downstream vendors. Almost anything annotated by the camera department as having a value can be attributed, be it Kelvin, Focal Length, Aperture, or something truly obscure.

This metadata also powers all of Flow Capture's sort and search capabilities enabling you to zero in on Units, Cameras, Days, Scenes, and more with ease.

Include the camera setting in an On-Set Dailies system (OSD) and output an ALE which can then be mapped to an asset or group of assets in Flow Capture. This is done in the background when you upload your ALE along with your assets.

Renaming Assets

If you've uploaded a file that you need to share with either a group of execs, some press folks, or anyone else outside of an editorial workflow, we can understand your reluctance towards distributing a a Playlink / Playlist Share with file called FAST_CAR_MOVIE_13-1080p_(4/17_-_LOCKED_CUT). To change the display name of any file on Flow Capture, you just need to open up the metadata tab in the Assets view. The field you are looking for is the first one, right at the top:

You can enter any name that works best for you, and once that's up you can just press enter or click the Save button the save the change.

After you do that, the name will be displayed along with the clip and populate in any links that it gets sent out in.

Auto-Tagging

Sometimes locating an asset, annotating it as a Print Take and then transferring those Print Takes from an Unreleased Dailies Folder to a Released one can be an industrial-level pain - we have your back!

With some clever scripting by Flow Capture's development team, it's possible to pre-map a list of specific tags like those Print Takes or a series of keywords to look for in an ALE across a folder. When you then upload assets with an ALE to Flow Capture, the script will trigger and the specified tag will be applied to the designated Assets.

This feature requires engineering time and enabling it will need to be prioritized and scheduled ahead of time to ensure successful, timely implementation.  Urgent or short-turnaround times are generally not be available. Please contact Flow Capture Support to coordinate setup details for your production!

Setup and Requirements

We'll need the following from your team to get auto-tagging set up:

• An example ALE file 
• An example of the file name format you're using 
• The metadata field(s) from the ALE that you want us to apply tags from (Print Take, Camera, Lens,) 
• A list of keywords you want our system to look for from an ALE or metadata field and apply to clips (e.g. character names, locations, etc.) 

You'll also need to go into the folder where these assets will be upload and create all tags you would want in Flow Capture. The steps below help illustrate that process:

• Screen 1 - Your standard metadata enriched asset on Flow Capture. Note the circled P for a Print Take.
• Screen 2 - Shows the creation of the Print Take tag.
• Screen 3 - The asset is then auto-tagged as a result of the script trigger.

If you then open up the Manage Assets tab, you'll be able to filter the source column by the auto-tag that you've created, making the Unreleased Dailies to Released Dailies workflow even easier in Flow Capture. Just select the destination for your Released Dailies and you're set!

4. Watermarking

Flow Capture allows you to create watermarks that can be overlaid on any video or photo assets, as well as PDFs. These watermarks are also burnt into nearly any kind of video or image asset that you choose to make available for download or iOS offlining. 

If you have Admin permissions at any level, you can change a watermark's appearance in the Folder Settings panel of the Assets tab by clicking on the Watermarking icon.

There are six ways you can watermark your assets, which are accessible at different levels within Flow Capture:

• Company Watermark - This is an overarching watermark that's only accessible by company admins. Created in your account settings, it's then applied to every production and folder across the whole company. 
• Group Watermark - This allows you to add a Watermark template at the Production Group level, which will apply to all Productions underneath it.
• Production Watermark - Set at the level of an individual creative project, it allows a company watermark or a custom watermark to be applied to every folder you create.
• Folder Watermark - This allows you to overwrite any company or production watermark at the folder level by creating a new set one exclusively for that folder.
• No Watermark - Turns off watermarking completely (only available at the folder level).
• Playlink Watermark - This allows the user to add a specific watermark template that is only applicable to that Playlink
• Share Watermark - This is similar to a Playlink watermark, but applies to an individual Share of a Playlist.

Watermarking Options

The settings available for changing a watermark are always the same, no matter the level you're working at. There will always be an option to apply watermarking settings from previous level:

Below that you'll find an option to create a new watermark template as well as all previously created watermarks.

When you click the 'Create New Template' button, a Watermark settings page will pop-up allowing you to customize your new watermark. Above all of that is a toggle which lets you switch between dark and light preview images. 

For each element, clicking the "Create" button will add it to that template:

The "Text" dropdown contains the different element types that can be added, and include all of the same elements that are available to be watermarked:

After making your selection, click Save to save the changes. Once a Watermark Template has been created, it will show up in your list of templates and can be edited, renamed, or deleted:

A Watermark Template can be apply to the entire production, a specific folder or at the playlink level!

Customizing Watermarks

You can customize a watermark by clicking 'Edit' from the 'More actions' menu. After you've done that, all these tools will be at your disposal for customization:

The first option at the top controls the alignment of the watermark, with options for Middle, Left and Right justification.

The Text Style option controls what the text of the watermark itself will look like: 

On top that, there is a series of sliders and a toggle for the following option:

• Font Size - Sets the size of the type in the watermark.
• Opacity - Sets how much you can see through your watermark.
• X and Y Position - Sets the position of the watermark relative to the anchor point you've chosen to align against.
• Shrink to Fit - Will adjust the size of the watermark so that it doesn't overrun the borders of the asset itself. 
• Rotation - A dropdown slider that allows you to put a spin on your watermark, angling it to any one of 360 degrees.

Company Watermarking

If you're a company admin, you can access Company Watermark setting by selecting your Company Name on the Desktop and clicking on the Waternark icon on your right-hand side:

From there, switch ON the toggle 'Enable Company Watermark'. The only difference between this and other settings panels are the two options at the top, in the Company Settings section. Everything else you use to create the actual watermark is the same whether you're making a production or folder watermark!

Group Watermarking

If you're a Company Admin, you can create and apply a watermark template at the Production Group level. To do so, you'll need to toggle "Apply Company Watermark" to OFF, then create or select a watermark template to apply.

Once you've done so, that template will be applied to all Productions under that group. This can be further adjusted on a Production or Folder basis as needed.

Production Watermarking

If you're a Company or Production Admin, you can access the production watermarking panel by selecting the Production on the Desktop tab and clicking on the Watermark icon on your right-hand side. That will open up the familiar watermark settings panel:

Watermarking Downloads

Flow Capture will try to watermark any video or image file that you request to download, but there are limits to what our system is able to process. 

For video files, Flow Capture cannot watermark DNx/MXF or ProRes files due to encoding limitations. If you would like source files of these types to be watermarked, you will need to apply when you create before uploading to our platform. This same limitation applies to RAW still image files. 

PDF Watermarking

Applying your watermark templates to your PDF uploads can be enabled/disabled based on your needs.

If you choose to enable this by toggling "Use for PDF" to ON, any watermark you have applied to the folder will be used for your PDFs.

If you choose NOT to enable this by leaving the "Use for PDF" set to OFF, PDFs will be watermarked using only the user's email address, applied diagonally across the page.

Metadata Watermarking

You can also add watermarks to your assets based on the metadata that's attached to them. To start, choose the Custom Text option from the top of the dropdown menu options. Type in the following:

{META.}

Between the period and closing brace, add in the piece of metadata you want displayed, using lower-case characters and underscores for spaces. For example:

{META.scene}

or 

{META.shutter_angle}

Any of the metadata fields listed in the Metadata Panel can be added, from aspect ratio to white point, so get as detailed as you need to - you can also have multiple metadata tags within one watermark!

Playlink Watermarking

When creating and sending a Playlink, the assets will be watermarked based on the folders settings by default. If you wish to apply a different watermark specifically for a single Playlink, you can do so in one of two ways.

The first way is to create a watermark template with the elements of the watermark you wish to add to the Playlink, and then select that template to apply it. For more on creating a Watmermark Template, please review our help doc here: Watermark Templates

Once you do so, when creating the Playlink, you'll have the option to use the default watermark, or you can select the watermark template that you created:

The second way to create a Playlink-specific watermark is to do so "on the fly." In order to do that, select the 3 vertical dots next to the watermark preview, and click "Create Override."

You'll then have the ability to create a new watermark using the same interface as above. Once done, click Save, and the watermark will update to this newly created watermark.

Note: it will be given a default name, but that can be changed by clicking the pencil icon, updating the name, and clicking Save.

Playlist Share Watermarking

When creating a Share of a Playlist, the options for configuration will be very similar to those of a Playlink, including the ability to select a watermark template to be applied to that Share.

If no watermark template is selected, each asset will be watermarked based on the folder-level watermark settings where it lives.