flunky.features

"Live" Project Management First and foremost, flunky is a replacement for Jaleo's Project Manager. When restoring projects, the user must edit a text file to remind Jaleo that the project is there, even though it should be able to sense the new directory in its WORK path. Flunky does that for you. When you restore a project into your WORK directory, simply click the "Projects" tab to refresh the list and make your selection. It's a relatively minor time saver, but something that has always bothered me. Rename Projects Jaleo has always used (and to my knowledge plans on continuing to use) absolute path names in its various project files. This means that the simple act of changing a projetct's name (for an update of an older project with new job #, for example) can become a mess. In a typical job, the user must search/replace all these files to the new directory name as well as rename all media on the MATERIAL drive. Flunky takes care of that for you now. Info & Notes Based on the file dates, flunky can determine the project's status. This is especially helpful for scatterbrains like myself who often forget whether or not they just archived the media for a givn project. For those still stuck with small project drives, the info screen will also let you know how much space your project is taking up on your WORK and MATERIAL dives. Flunky also has a feature for easy access to project related notes, change orders, etc. New/Delete, yadayada Flunky takes care of the basic project management tools you expect from the original tool.

Build Batch Render Scripts Quickly, Easily For years I've been using shell scripts to do batch rendering, but typing it all out by hand creates the possibility of misspelling and lots of wasted time. Flunky presents you with an intuitive batch builder with every project and render available. Project Switching When I get busy I often need to render a bunch of pan/scan shots or deep composites for multiple projects. This used to mean coming back in late at night. With flunky, you can set up batch renders across projects. Go home and let flunky do the work. Auto-Batch Using the file dates on the current project's .rnd files as well as an analysis of your MATERIAL drive, flunky can figure out what clips still need to be rendered and build a batch list for you.

The view from 10,000 feet df -k is great for letting you know your disks are getting near capacity, but it doesn't help you get a sense of what is taking up so much space. Flunky can graphically show you where the culprits are. Color-coded meters let you know when you're getting full. Project-Based See how much space a given project is taking up on your WORK or MATERIAL drives without the hassle.

Project Archiving Tools Making media backup lists in RTVideo has always been a pain for me (mostly due to interface issues) especially for projects with both new and old footage. Flunky can figure out the proper backup name (Backup_005, for example). Flunky can also get the TC start by looking at old .bckI files. Flunky allows you to choose the "oldest clip" of the bunch to archive and even makes a guess as to where to start. Archiving sessions that used to take several minutes to set up now take a single click. ? Who knows? This is the area where the most new improvements will come. Better EDL import (df/ndf fix, etc.) could go here along with a host of file conversion utilities- as soon as I get around to making them.