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SynthEyes can retrieve metadata about shots (more specifically about the individual frames in the shot) such as lens focal length, focus distance, iris, ISO, etc, depending on the information available and extracted by the image-format-specific reader. So it may be available or not depending on the image format and what camera produced it, and what applications have processed it after that.
Current image/movie formats that SynthEyes can read metadata from: DNG, EXR, JPEG, RED, and TIFF.
Note: Metadata may be supplied in a tab-delimited ..._meta.txt file containing a header line and a data line for each frame. Empty data fields are pulled from the previous line so that data can easily and compactly be repeated for the entire file. This file overlays existing metadata in the movie or imagery.
Warning: Metadata in movies and images is not well-standardized (ie it's quirky and application-specific), and can exist in many forms. SynthEyes may not be able to find any or all kinds of metadata in a particular image or movie file, even if some other program can. If you want to lobby for some specific data from a specific image type to be readable, you'll need to supply sample images and the name of the program writing it.
Warning: The Disk Cache does not preserve the metadata from the source shot by itself. If metadata is required, either turn off the disk cache, or use the Metadata/Export All Frames script to save the metadata in tandem with the BAFF file.
There are a limited number of things that can be done with the metadata:
Take fixed or animated focal length and sensor (plate) size data from a zooming shot, and drive that into SynthEyes's seed FOV track via the "Metadata/Retrieve focal length and plane" script ( which is a Tool script, not an importer!).
Look at it for clues to what happened on set with the "Metadata/Export Single Frame" exporter.
Export it to a text file with "Metadata/Export All Frames", for example to use metadata from a RED file that has been converted to an image sequence.
Access the predefined metadata with Synthia, for quick looks or setup gimmicks.
Access it via your own Sizzle workflow-integration scripts.
Note that the metadata is specific to each individual frame, ie it is animated.
Generally setup information should be available, and the same, for each frame, though that may depend on the source.
Here are the predefined metadata items, which are created from other metadata items. The names shown are literal and must be used exactly (without the quotes) within a metadata file, Sizzle or python. Missing values will be zero or the null string, or use MetaPresent to test. Note that the importers will typically define many more format- specific items; exif_* items are frequently present.
“exposure” The shutter exposure time in seconds.
“fnumber” Lens f-number in f-stops (may be a t-stop for RED, see the RED- specific metadata)
“focal” The lens focal length, in mm. WARNING: useless unless you also really know the sensor (back plate) width! Even still, not very accurate!
“focus” The lens focus distance, in mm.
“iso” The ISO setting of the camera 100, 200, 400, etc.
“pixelAspect” Pixel aspect ratio, optional from some still image readers (EXR), being passed to the image sequence handler.
“plateHeight” The height of the plate (sensor) corresponding to the actual image , in mm.
“plateWidth” The width of the plate (sensor) corresponding to the actual image , in mm.
“shootDate” Shooting date YYYY-MM-DD (local time) “shootTime” Shooting time HH:MM:SS (local time) “shutter” Exposure as a shutter angle
“timecode” Timecode HH:MM:SS:FF (or HH:MM:SS;FF for dropframe coding).
Timecode can be burned into the camera view, perspective view, Save Sequence or Preview Movies, see the View/Time Burn-in menu etc.
"timestamp” Timestamp of the frame within the file , in seconds. Might be used to diagnose dropped frames during filming, for example. Timestamp can be burned into the camera view, perspective view, Save Sequence or Preview Movies, see the View/Time Burn-in menu etc.
You can easily access any additional metadata items that may appear in future camera firmware. If you use the Metadata/Export Single Frame exporter, you'll see the tag name that you can use in Sizzle or Synthia. For example, you can access RED's 8- character reel ID from Sizzle with shot.metastr.red_reel_id_8_character To teach Synthia to retrieve it, use
define an object attribute "reel id" values are a string accessed readonly by `shot.metastr.red_reel_id_8_character`.
Then you can ask for camera 1's reel id , for example. Use metanum and "a number" for numbers.
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