Its a very common question, "How can I replace my graphics without editing them all in by hand?"

Until Avid came out with Batch Import in Symphony and MC version 8.
this was the way to do it. Since many of us are still using
ABVB Avids, this technique is still current.

The great thing is, this technique can be used to replace
PICT files, QuickTime movies (when NOT brought in with alpha),
audio files like AIFFs... Here I'll show you by example how
to use the Relink command to replace a shot without editing in the new version.

Here you can see a though our designer created a genius
type treatment and rendered it correctly to two separate movies for
the matte and RGB channels, they misspelled a word.

Now we're going to have to ask them to remake the graphic. Dang.

We talk to our designer, and they are able to re-render their animation
with the correct spelling of "Beautiful". What they send back to us is the same
duration, its just fixed. So they name the file with a "2" to differentiate
the new files from the old. And who knows, there may
be a version "3" or "4"...

We import the two new movies...

Now we have four movies. If this were a bigger job, we may have more.
But what's important is that we have two pairs of movies... Two RGB clips,
Two clips for the matte.

Pairs. They're pairs. That's important.

Lets tell the Avid that they are PAIRS.

Let's select the first pair. To indicate to the Avid that these two
clips are a pair, we'll give them the same name.

So from the Clip menu we choose Modify... Then we choose Modify Source.

Click New to create a new source, then name it whatever you'd like.

After you do this, the Avid will complain a couple of times
just to make sure that you REALLY want to do this.

So go ahead and click OK, OK, OK, OK.
A fter you've done so, your bin shows that the two clips share the same tape name.

Great! Lets do the same thing for the other pair.
This pair gets a DIFFERENT source than the first pair.

I'll show you this in real time.

Almost there. That last part was the hardest.

Now comes the magic.

Select the sequence you need revised, and drag it into the bin containing the NEW graphics.

Now select both the Sequence AND the NEW graphics.

From the Clip menu, choose Relink. Turn on "Relink to Selected".

And that's it! After you click OK, your sequence will change its
pointers to the revised clips, and your record monitor will update
to reflect the change.

The End

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