Baselight

Version 4.2
MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Fil m Light

All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systemswithout the written permission of the publisher. Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners. The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this document.

Baselight Product Version: 4.2 Document Reference: FL-BL-QG-0420-BaselightForMac Document Version: 1.0 Modified: 12/01/2011 15:37

FilmLight 2011

Contents
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction 1
About this guide 1 Guide conventions 2

Chapter 2 - Installation
System requirements Installing or upgrading Baselight Installing PostgreSQL Obtaining and installing your licence Upgrading PostgreSQL Backing up your jobs . . . . Uninstalling PostgreSQL . . . Restoring jobs . . . . . . . Starting the Baselight application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 3 5 6 7 7 7 8 8

Chapter 3 - Setup and configuration

Setting up the database Setting up your cloud and volume configuration Copying the setup from another system . . . . . Setting up a second display

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9 10 . 11 12

Chapter 4 - Operation
System differences User files Using the Mac keyboard Numeric keypad . . Function keys . . . Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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15 15 15 . 15 . 15 . 15

Chapter 5 - Media management

Overview Images directory . . . . . . . . . Accessing volumes outside of Baselight Creating proxy images Copying image files between systems Grading scenes on other Baselight systems Using your Mac as a remote VTRE client . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Contents
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Baselight

Introduction
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

1 - Introduction
Baselight is a disk-to-disk grading system, designed to integrate into both the film digital intermediate and video workflows. Baselight for MacBook Pro is ideal as a training system for Baselight or for on-set pre-vis work, and can also be used to perform background tasks such as copying image data between Baselight systems or ingesting video.

About this guide

The Baselight MacBook Pro Quick Guide describes how to install Baselight for MacBook Pro, as well as how to set up and configure the system for most common workflow requirements. The guide also explains how to manage data, and discusses any operational differences between Baselight for MacBook Pro and Linux Baselight systems. General operation of the system, such as performing conform, grading and other tasks, is not covered in this guide; for these tasks, see the Baselight User Guide and the Baselight Reference Manual. Whilst the processes on the MacBook Pro system are generally the same as those discussed in the User Guide and Reference Manual, the keystrokes are different. For a full list of Mac keyboard shortcuts, see Baselight Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac), available from the Baselight Help menu or within Applications > Baselight > Current > Documents on your MacBook Pro.

Baselight

Guide conventions
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Guide conventions
Within this guide, references to user interface items such as menus, on-screen buttons and keyboard shortcuts are shown in the following way: Item Menus Notes Menu and submenu selections are shown in bold: Scene > Close indicates the Close option under the Scene menu. UI buttons The text that appears on the UI button is shown in bold: Open means the Open button. Keyboard keys A keyboard keystroke or combination of keys is shown in angle brackets: <F2> means press the F2 key on the keyboard. See Using the Mac keyboard on page 18 for more details about using function keys on the Mac. The function of some keystrokes can be modified using a modifier key: <Command><A> means hold down the Command key and press A. The other modifier keys are <Ctrl>, <Shift> and <Option>. Modifier keys may also be used in combination: <Command><Shift><A> means hold down both the Command and Shift keys and press A. Symbols Operational steps The following symbols appear in the margin to indicate an important note: useful information:

! or

Operational steps are numbered sequentially (1, 2, 3...) to guide you through the process. Lines that start with an arrow ( ) describe any notable outcomes of the preceding step. Cross-references to sections in this guide and to other documents are shown in italics.

Cross-references

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Installation
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

2 - Installation
The Baselight for MacBook Pro installation requires you to install both the standard Baselight application and utilities, and the PostgreSQL server for Baselight databases.

System requirements
The minimum recommended system requirements are: Apple MacBook Pro 2GB RAM Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard

Installing or upgrading Baselight

To install or upgrade the Baselight application:
1

Either: Download the latest version of the Baselight for MacBook Pro installation file from the FilmLight web site and save it to your Desktop. Double-click this file to open the Baselight for MacBook Pro folder.

The installation file can be downloaded from the FilmLight web site at http://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/services_support/product_support/baselight. OR Insert the Baselight for MacBook Pro CD into your MacBook Pro. When the CD has mounted on the Desktop, double-click the CD icon to open the Baselight for MacBook Pro folder.
2

To start the Baselight installer, double-click the Baselight-x.x.xxxx.pkg file, where x.x.xxxx is the version number of the Baselight software that you are installing, e.g. 4.2.4401. At the welcome message, click Continue. If possible, Baselight detects the volume to install the software to. If multiple destination volumes are available, select the one that you want to install the software to and click Continue. Baselight displays the amount of disk space required to install the software. Click Install. When prompted, enter your password and click OK. Baselight for MacBook Pro is then installed.

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Baselight

Installing or upgrading Baselight

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide 7

If this is the first time that you have installed Baselight for MacBook Pro on this machine, the Baselight installer prompts you to select another Baselight system on your network from which to copy the cloud and volume configuration. This window lists all available Baselight systems on your network. You can only select systems that have a compatible version of Baselight installed.

Figure 2-1: Baselight installer By copying this configuration, you are setting up your Baselight for MacBook Pro system to view files on, and copy files between, Baselight systems on your network. For more information about clouds and volumes, see page 12.
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Select the system that you want to copy the configuration files from and click Copy Configuration. If these files are copied across successfully a confirmation message is displayed. Click Quit on the message window. When the software has been installed, click Close.

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Baselight

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Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Installing PostgreSQL
Once Baselight has been installed, you must install the PostgreSQL server software.

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1 2 3

If you are upgrading PostgreSQL, you must back up your jobs and uninstall the old version of PostgreSQL first. See Upgrading PostgreSQL on page 7 for details. To install the Postgres server: In the Baselight for MacBook Pro folder, double-click the PostgreSQL.mpkg file. Click Continue at the welcome message. Click Continue at the software license agreement, then Agree to accept the agreement. Select a Destination volume to install the software to and click Continue. Click Install. When prompted, enter your password and click OK. PostgreSQL is then installed.
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When the software has been installed, click Close. You can then close the Baselight for MacBook Pro folder and eject the CD or unmount the Baselight-x.x.xxxx drive from the Desktop.

Baselight

Obtaining and installing your licence

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Obtaining and installing your licence

Before you can run Baselight for MacBook Pro, you must obtain a license. To do this, you need to know the system IDthis is the built-in ethernet MAC address of the system. To find out the MAC address of your system, you need to start the Baselight application without a license:
1

Click the Baselight icon icons that are displayed.

in the Dock and select Baselight from the

An error message is displayed; this error message contains your system ID.
2

Make a note of the ID and email it to license@filmlight.ltd.uk.

You will then receive a license file via email. To install the license:
1 2

Save the license file locally. Start the Baselight application again, and when the error message is displayed select Install license. Browse to the license file, select it and click OK. Baselight then installs the license and continues.

Alternatively the license file can be installed from a terminal window:

1

Open a terminal window: to do this, go to Applications > Utilities and double-click Terminal. Change to the directory that you saved the license file into. Extract the run file by typing: tar xvfz flic.xxxxx.run.tgz <Enter> Run: sudo sh flic.xxxxx.run <Enter>

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Baselight

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Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Upgrading PostgreSQL
If you need to upgrade your version of PostgreSQL, you should first back up any jobs that you want to keep and uninstall the existing version of PostgreSQL. Backing up your jobs To save the contents of your existing database:
1

Start Baselight for MacBook Pro. See Starting the Baselight application on page 8 for instructions. In the Job Manager, select the job that you want to archive. Tap the button above the job column and select Export Job [host:name]. Browse to the location where you want to save the archived file. Tap Ok. All scenes within the job are written to a GZ zip file. When the archive operation is complete, the following message is displayed: Job archive host.job-date-time.gz written where date-time is the date and time that the archive was performed; for example localhost:tutorial-2006.11.15-11:51. This allows you to create multiple archive files over the lifetime of the job, without overwriting previous archives.

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4 5

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Tap Ok on the confirmation message. Repeat these steps for each job that you want to keep.

You can also create a full database backup by typing the following command into a terminal window: /Library/PostgreSQL8/bin/pg_dumpall -U postgres -o -O > ~/pg_dumpfile <Enter> This creates a backup in the file pg_dumpfile in your home directory. Uninstalling PostgreSQL Once you have made a back-up of all jobs that you want to keep, you must uninstall the old version of PostgreSQL. If you do not uninstall the old version first, the newer version of PostgreSQL may not be able to open your existing database and the server may not be able to run. To uninstall PostgreSQL: Type the following command in a terminal window: sudo /Applications/PostgreSQL/Uninstall-PostgreSQL.sh <Enter> You can now install the new version of PostgreSQL; see page 5 for details. After this, follow the steps in Restoring jobs below.

Baselight

Starting the Baselight application

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Restoring jobs

If you backed up your jobs using the Export Job option, follow these instructions to restore these jobs once you have installed the new version of PostgreSQL:
1 2

Start Baselight for MacBook Pro. In Job Manager, create a new, empty job. If the archived file was created from Baselight 4.2 onwards, it can be restored into a job that contains other scenes; however, if the archive was created in previous versions of Baselight, it must be restored into an empty job.

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3 4 5 6 7

Tap the button above the scene column and select Import Scene/Job Archive. Browse to the archived file and select it. Tap Ok. Tap Ok on the confirmation message. Repeat these steps for each job that you want to import.

If you made a complete database backup using pg_dumpall, you can restore this by typing the following command in a terminal window: /Library/PostgreSQL8/bin/psql -U postgres -f ~/pg_dumpfile -d template1 <Enter>

Starting the Baselight application

To start the Baselight application: Click the Baselight icon icons that are displayed. OR in the Dock and select Baselight from the

Go to Applications > Baselight > Current and double-click Baselight.

You can also run the Baselight application and other utilities, such as flux and VTRE, from a terminal window. To do this, you should add the following location to your path: /Applications/Baselight/Current/Utilities/Tools

Baselight

Setup and configuration

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

3 - Setup and configuration

This section explains how to setup and configure your Baselight for MacBook Pro system for most common workflow requirements. For more information about Baselight setup and configuration, see the Baselight Technical Manual.

Setting up the database

The PostgreSQL installation sets up the default database and configures the server. There is no need to add users, as this is done automatically by the Baselight application. You can check the status of the server using the Service Manager application in the PostgreSQL installation but there should be no need to change any settings. To connect to databases on any other Baselight systems in your network from the Job Manager, so that you can work on jobs saved on these hosts, you need to add these systems to the list of database hosts. To do this:
1

In the Baselight Job Manager, tap the and select Edit Hosts.

button above the Host column

For each database host that you want to add, click Add and type the name of the host. When you have added all required systems to this list, click Ok to close the Database hosts window. The Job Manager should now list both the local host and the remote host(s).

Local and remote database hosts

Figure 3-1: Baselight Job Manager

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Setting up your cloud and volume configuration

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Setting up your cloud and volume configuration

Baselight systems support high-performance access to local storage of other Baselight systems in a networked cloud across 10GigE fabric. The cloud architecture is flexible enough to allow multiple systems to be networked together and to facilitate data being moved around the network easily; for example, a Baselight ONE system can directly use 2K files stored on a Baselight EIGHT to assist with conforming, ingesting data, and so on. To do this, Baselight uses volumes. There are four types of volume: PFS (Parallel File System) volumes that reside on multi-node Baselight systems; directory volumes that reside on local disks (such as the RAID on a Truelight Player, Baselight ONE or Baselight HD system); SANs; and external servers. If you want to copy information between Baselight for MacBook Pro and a Baselight ONE or Baselight HD system (directory volumes), these systems do not need to be part of the cloud network but must be included in your volume configuration file. If you want to copy information between Baselight for MacBook Pro and a Baselight multi-node system such as the Baselight FOUR or Baselight EIGHT (PFS volumes), then all systems must first be configured as part of the cloud network and then also added to your volume configuration file. The bl-install utility provides a quick and easy method to copy the cloud and volume configuration from an existing Baselight system on your network to your Baselight for MacBook Pro system. This utility is run automatically the first time that you install Baselight for MacBook Pro (see page 3). You can also copy the configuration across manually at any point; see the instructions below.

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Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

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Copying the setup from another system

You are prompted to copy the cloud and volume configuration from another Baselight system the first time that you install Baselight for MacBook Pro. However, you can run the bl-install utility manually at any point if the configuration has been updated, or you want to connect your Baselight for MacBook Pro system to another network. To do this:
1

Go to Applications > Baselight > Current and double-click bl-install.

Figure 3-2: Baselight installer This window lists all available Baselight systems on your network. You can only select systems that have a compatible version of Baselight installed.
2

Select the machine that you want to copy the configuration files from and click Copy Configuration. If these files are copied across successfully a confirmation message is displayed. Click Quit on the message window.

For more information on clouds and volumes, including a detailed reference for the cloud and volume configuration files, see the FilmLight OS (FLOS) chapter in the Baselight Technical Manual.

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Setting up a second display

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Setting up a second display

Generally, you can run Baselight for MacBook Pro using a single screen layout where the Image Window is shown in a corner of the UI screen.
Strip & plugin controls panel Image Window

Cursors & display controls panel

Histogram & Gallery

Timeline

Play controls & Cutview

Figure 3-3: Single-screen Baselight layout It is possible, however, to connect your MacBook Pro to a second display and to use a dual screen layout, where one display is your UI Monitor and the other display is your Image Display.

Although there are no technical limitations on the type of display device that you can connect to your Baselight for MacBook Pro system, you should make sure that this device has been correctly calibrated using Truelight if you are going to use it as your Image Display. See the Truelight User Guide for more details.

Baselight

Setup and configuration

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

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To connect a second display to your Baselight for MacBook Pro system:

1 2 3

Make sure that the Baselight application is closed. Plug the second display into your MacBook Pro. Start the Baselight application. Baselight automatically detects the presence of the display and then prompts you to select a new screen layout.

Make sure that one of the dual screen layouts is selected and click OK. One screen is then used as your Image Display, and the other screen shows the UI in full-screen mode.

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Setting up a second display

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Baselight

Operation
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

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4 - Operation
System differences
In general, you can perform exactly the same operations on Baselight for MacBook Pro as you can on Linux Baselight systems. You should, however, be aware of the following differences/limitations: As you do not have the same storage and bandwidth capacity as a Linux Baselight system, you may want to work on proxy images on your Baselight for MacBook Pro system to improve processing speed. See Creating proxy images on page 20 for more details. Baselight for MacBook Pro is not supplied with the Blackboard control surface. Common operations can be performed quickly, however, using keyboard shortcuts. See below for more details. The QuickTime codecs available on Baselight for MacBook Pro differ from the codecs available for Linux Baselight systems. In most instances, this should increase the range of QuickTime files that can be read or written from your Baselight system.

User files
User formats, preferences and configuration files are saved for each user in Library > Preferences > FilmLight > Baselight.

Using the Mac keyboard

Numeric keypad The numeric keypad functions use a set of alphanumeric keys that display their alternate function on the lower right of the key. To use the numeric keypad, either press Fn-Num Lock first, or press Fn then the key that represents the number that you want to use; e.g. to enter 1 on the numeric keypad press Fn-J (as the J key displays the number 1 on the lower right). To use the function keys (F1, F2, etc.) for Baselight-specific operations, you must go to the Keyboard section of your Keyboard & Mouse preferences and ensure that Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys is selected. Note that the F9-F12 keys still default to Dashboard and Expos shortcuts; to change this, go to the Keyboard Shortcuts section of the Dashboard & Expos preferences and change the shortcuts to use non-function keys. Keyboard shortcuts For a full list of Mac keyboard shortcuts, see Baselight Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac), available from the Baselight Help menu or within Applications > Baselight > Current > Documents on your MacBook Pro.

Function keys

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Using the Mac keyboard

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Baselight

Media management
Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

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5 - Media management
Overview
Images directory When Baselight for MacBook Pro is installed, your system is configured with a single images volume; this volume is called images1. If there are any other Baselight systems in your network, and you have set up your cloud and volume configuration (see page 12), you can see these systems listed in the Sequence Browser and the flux utility as [name]-images, where [name] is the system name; for example, bc0085-images. Volumes can also be accessed from a terminal window using the file path /vol/[name]-images, for example, /vol/bc0085-images. Accessing volumes outside of Baselight If you want to access your local images volume from an application other than Baselight, just select your hard disk in the Finder window and then select the images1 directory. If you want to access the images volumes of other Baselight systems on your network, these volumes must be mounted first. The easiest way to do this is via the flux utility:
1

To start flux, click the Baselight icon icons that are displayed.

in the Dock and select flux from the

Select the volume that you want to mount from the volumes menu at the top of one of the file lists. The volume is then automatically mounted. You can then click the Actions menu button Finder. and select Reveal in

This opens the volume in the Finder window, from where you can drag and drop image files onto other applications. For more information about flux, see page 18.

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Creating proxy images

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Creating proxy images

On a Baselight for MacBook Pro system, you may want to work on lower resolution images than you would use on a Linux Baselight system. If this is the case, make sure that proxy images exist for the images that you want to copy onto your MacBook Pro. If proxy images do not exist, you can create proxies for all shots used in a scene or job by following these steps:
1

Select the scene or job in Job Manager and then click the Generate Proxies button at the bottom of the panel. If a job is selected, but no specific scene is selected within that job, then proxies are generated for all scenes in that job. The system first builds a list of all the frame sequences that are used in the selected job or scene and checks to see if any proxies already exist and whether they need to be regenerated. It then proceeds to generate the required proxies.

To stop the proxy generation process at any point, click the Cancel button in the proxy generation pop-up window.

For more information about proxy generation, see the Baselight Reference Manual.

Copying image files between systems

If you have set up your cloud and volume configuration (see page 12), you can use the flux utility to copy files between your MacBook Pro and another Baselight system, or between two remote Baselight systems. This can help to free up your other systems for grading work. If you are using flux to copy material between Baselight systems you must have the same version of Baselight installed on each system, though this does not have to be the version that you are generally running on that system.

You can run flux on other Mac systems, not just MacBook Pro systems; however, the full Baselight application can only run on a MacBook Pro. To use flux on a Mac system other than a MacBook Pro, follow the installation instructions in Installing Baselight on page 3. You will see an error message if you attempt to run the full Baselight application, but flux will run successfully. To copy files to or from your Baselight for MacBook Pro system, or between other Baselight systems:
1

Make sure that your MacBook Pro system and other Baselight systems that you want to copy data between are set up in your cloud and/or volume configuration. See page 12 for details.

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Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide 2

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To start flux, click the Baselight icon icons that are displayed.

in the Dock and select flux from the

You can also run the flux utility from a terminal window. To do this, you should add the following location to your path: /Applications/Baselight/Current/Utilities/Tools The flux window appears. When it first opens, it lists the files and directories from /images1 on both the left and right; when you next use flux, it remembers the directories that you browsed to last. The amount of free disk space in the current directory is shown at the top of each file list.

Figure 5-1: Flux window

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Click the volumes menu at the top of one of the file lists and select the remote system that you want to copy files to or from. If there are any other Baselight systems in your network, you can see them listed on the volumes menu as [name]-images, where [name] is the system name; for example, bc0085-images. Select the objects that you want to copy by clicking them in one of the file lists. To select multiple objects, click the checkboxes to the left of the entries that you want to select or select a range of objects by holding down the <Shift> key. Note that if you are copying image files from a Linux Baselight system to your Baselight for MacBook Pro system, you may want to copy across lowerresolution proxy images. See Creating proxy images on page 18 for details. In the other file list, navigate to the directory that you want to copy objects to. Click the Copy > button to copy selected objects from the file list on the left to the right-hand file list, or the < Copy button to copy selected objects from the file list on the right to the left-hand list.

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For more information about using the flux utility, see the Media management chapter in the Baselight User Guide.

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Grading scenes on other Baselight systems

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Grading scenes on other Baselight systems

If you want to use your Baselight for MacBook Pro system to grade a scene saved on one of your Linux Baselight systems, you must first add the Linux system to your list of database hosts so that you can access the scene directly from the Job Manager; see Setting up the database on page 11 for details.

Local and remote database hosts

Figure 5-2: Baselight Job Manager If you are grading the scene while connected to your cloud network, you can just open up the scene on the remote host from the Job Manager, make any grading changes and save the scene. If you want to grade on the MacBook Pro while not connected to your network, you must save a copy of the scene locally:
1 2 3 4 5

In the Job Manager, select the remote host and open the scene. Select File > Save As... from the main Baselight menu. Select your local host. Select the job that you want to save this scene into. Click Save.

Then when you have made the grading changes on the Mac, you can save the scene back to the remote host:
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Open the amended scene in Baselight for MacBook Pro. Select File > Save As... from the main Baselight menu. Select the remote host that you want to save the job back to.

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Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide 4

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Select the job that you want to save this scene into and enter a name for the scene. You cannot overwrite an existing scene on the remote host, so you need to save the scene with a new name.

Click Save.

Using your Mac as a remote VTRE client

Your Baselight for MacBook Pro system can be used as a remote VTRE client to perform ingest tasks on your Linux Baselight systems, freeing up those systems for grading work. The Baselight for MacBook Pro system does not need to be part of your cloud network in order to run VTRE remotely; you just need to know the name of the Baselight system that you want to run VTRE on. If you are running VTRE remotely from your Baselight for MacBook Pro system you must have the same version of Baselight installed on both systems, though this does not have to be the version that you are generally running on that system.

You can run VTRE on other Mac systems, not just MacBook Pro systems; however, the full Baselight application can only run on a MacBook Pro. To use VTRE on a Mac system other than a MacBook Pro, follow the installation instructions in Installing Baselight on page 3. You will see an error message if you attempt to run the full Baselight application, but VTRE will run successfully. To run VTRE on a remote Baselight system:
1

On the Mac, select Applications > Baselight > Current and double-click vtre. When the VTRE application starts up, it displays a list of the remote Baselight systems in your Baselight Preferences. To add systems to this list, go to the Audio & Machines tab in the Preferences and click Modify next to the Remote Machines field.

Select the system that you want to run VTRE on and click OK. The VTRE window opens. Any operations that you now perform are carried out on the VTR deck attached to the remote Baselight system.

For full instructions on using VTRE, see Appendix A VTRE in the Baselight User Guide.

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Using your Mac as a remote VTRE client

Baselight 4.2 MacBook Pro Quick Guide

Baselight

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