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This documentation makes use of several symbols and typographical conventions in order to differentiate various paragraphs from standard descriptive text. Here is the list of symbols and typographical styles used:

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When installing MIST Studio, STORMSERVER is also installed as a system service.

STORMSERVER is the engine used by MIST Studio for Background rendering.

This menu bar gives access to various capabilities of MIST, related to content management or specific features.

The Command Panel gives access to the assets of a project (media, compositions, metadata) as well as some tools for working with those assets.

From there you will also be able to import and manage the media for the project.

The Viewport layout and capabilities are detailed in the chapter VIEWPORT

The TimeLine behavior is detailed in the chapter TIMELINE.

MIST mouse cursor changes appearance if an action with the mouse is possible:

In the System module or the Timeline modules, different panels are available. They are all have the same behavior:

A contextual menu is a menu in a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears upon user interaction, such as a right-click. This menu offer a selected set of choices that are available in the current state, or context, of the application.

The Contextual Menus are accessible from every module of MIST, at the current mouse cursor location.

MIST uses Drop-down Menus for contextual menus.

The drop-down menus give quick access to possible actions for the specific area the mouse is located.

Hot boxes are available on certain part of the user interfaces, allowing a quick access to tools related to the timeline for example.

Warning messages can appear in the different modules of MIST.

These messages interrupt the current work, in order to inform the user about a critical path.

Warning messages always require an action from the user : press [OK] to continue or ESC to cancel.

A lot of keyboard shortcuts are available in MIST.

A recapitulation of the available Keyboards Shortcuts for MIST is available in Appendix Keyboard Shortcuts. Animation</a> panel

→ To create a new project, type a name in the Name field and validate with CREATE:

On the left column the list of all the projects is displayed.

On the right column you find the list of all the compositions saved for the selected project.

→ Select the project or the composition directly and click [OK].

→ A double-click on the project will open the last saved composition.

You can also sort the Projects and their Compositions by Date Created or Date Modified:

→ Click on the column title to sort the list.

→ Click again to toggle Ascendant/Descendant order.

You can filter the projects to display only Project names containing a certain text:

→ In the Filter field, type the desired text

→ Click on the project to delete and press the [-] icon at the bottom of the page.

This tab allows you to set the parameters when working with JPEG2000. Depending on the performances of your workstation you can choose to use CPU or GPU power.

In CPU mode, you can also defines the maximum number of CPU threads engaged in the encoding or decoding process.

When using a control panel, this is where you can connect and configure it.

The Tangent Devices panels are supported.

→ Select Tangent Tube from the drop-down menu.

This tab allows you to configure the communication between your Reference monitor and the application: the ST-2086 metadata selected in the Mastering Display of the COMPOSITION SETTINGS can be automatically sent to the Reference monitor, allowing to configure it accordingly and avoid the operator to use the monitor’s manual menu.

The following monitors can be remote controlled:

This sections defines the default settings for Dolby technologies.

TORNADO is a transcoding server that can be linked to MIST in order to offload the rendering from MIST PC system.

Read more on TORNADO : https://marquise-tech.cloud/portal/en/kb/articles/tornado-user-guide

There is is different output format available as presets:

→ Select the desired preset to set automatically the dimensions, the frame rates and the pixel aspect of the media.

To define a custom format, select Custom in the Preset drop-down menu, and enter the desired format, frame rate and pixel aspect:

Dimensions

→ Click on the width digits to edit the text and enter the desired value.

→ Press tab to edit the height digits.

→ Finish with enter to save the new dimensions.

You can also change the dimensions by navigating in the cyan bar by dragging the slider one way or the other.

Frame rate

Choose if the project will be played in 24, 25, 29.97 or 30 frames per second. It is important to bear in mind the destination of the final result when setting the frame rate, as it will affect the playback speed.

Pixel Aspect

Select the desired aspect ratio of the Custom project size: 4/3, 16/9, or any other ratio from 1.00:1 to 4.00:1.

By default, the composition duration is set on 24h.

→ To change the project composition duration, click on the edit field and enter the desired composition duration for the project.

It is possible to set the beginning of the composition (the start) at a specific TimeCode.

By default, the Start is set on 00:00:00:00.

→ Choose if your project is a Stereo3D project or a normal 2D one. By default, the project is set in Normnal 2D.

Allows you to choose a default audio configuration for all new compositions in the project.

The following settings are useful only when working from film stock.

Film Stock

If you are working from film then select the stock type via the drop-down menu.

Film Type

Setting a Film type will define how the TimeLine is calculated in Feet + Frames (please refer to the chapter Changing the Timebase display).

Available film types are: 8mm and super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm (2, 3, 4 or 8 perforations) and 65mm (5, 8, 12 or 15 perforations).

Film Polarity

Click on the film polarity in use. The selected one is highlighted in cyan.

Printer Lights

Set the printer to obtain balance for color and density of the stock film. PL Point and PL 1/2 Point allow to refine the values more accurately.

The Media Directory allows to define a default location for all media for this project.

Choose where to store the video thumbnails (media preview) automatically generated when a video content is referenced in a project. By default, they are stored in the Project directory.

Some image sequences (e.g. DPX) do not carry frame rate information. In such cases, it is necessary to define a frame rate for this content.

Defines a composition start by default for each new timeline in the Project.

Defines a directory to save the snapshots.

See also the chapter Snapshots.

Modifies the default naming convention for the snapshots.

Applies automatically the LUT set for the Display or for the SDI output to your snapshot.

If a video IO board is properly installed, its name will be displayed in clear in the drop down list and you can start setup the video output of your project.

When available from the video IO board, selecting this option output the signal using HDMI as well.

Both SDI and HDMI output can be done in parallel.

Enable this option to send the Dolby Vision metadata over HDMI to the consummer TV (tunneling). See Dolby Vision for more information.

The audio delay is used to read the audio ahead of the video in order to compensate the delay introduced by an external audio processing device (e.g. a Dolby E decoder).

The value represents the number of frames ahead of the video position from which audio is read during playback.

→ Use the slider or double-clik on the value to set the desired audio delay in frames.

Drag & Drop from Windows' file system allows you to easily import flat files, packages (DCP, IMF, iTunes, etc..), image sequences, compositions, sidecars files, etc.

→ Hit the Windows key or press + at the bottom right of the panel to display the Windows file browser.

→ Select your files and drop them anywhere in the application’s window.

Once the media are properly referenced, they are displayed in the Media tab.

→ To import content into a specific folder of the project media, first select the desired folder prior to drag & drop the content.

The Import panel is an internal smart file browser that has the capability of understanding complex media files and packages.

→ To delete a media, select the desired clip and press *- at the bottom right of the Command Panel.

→ Alternatively, when the clip is selected, you can →. Choose Delete from the drop-down menu.

It is possible to import an entire directory in the project media bin: the source directory organization with the folders and subfolders and their related files is reproduced in the media bin.

This functionality is particularly useful when importing complex folder’s organization like a camera magazine or DPX sequences organized in reels.

→ To import a Directory, position the mouse in the left column and press mouse’s right button. Choose Import Directory from the drop-down menu:

Navigate in the file browser to the desired directory, and validate the import using OK.

The operator can display the media assets using different views :

Click on the View icons on the upper right of the Command Panel to change the views:

When importing an encrypted DCP, the assets are displayed with a closed lock and the media preview is black:

After importing the KDM (See Import Encrypted DCP), the locks are open and the media preview is enabled.

→ A double click on a media will automatically load the content on the timeline.

→ To start automatically the playback of the content loaded on the timeline, enables the option Start play on Load in the Project Settings, User interface.

→ To load manually the media on the timeline, refers to section Adding clips to a composition.

→ to start the playback of an IMF or DCP package, see the Composition tab information on next chapter.

When performing a right-click on a clip in the Media bin you access the Clip menu offering several options:

In order to playback stand alone files together with a video, for example external subtitles or audio files, it is possible to add them on the current timeline:

→ Right-click on the file and select Add Media Track: a new track with has been created.

When a media referenced in a project has been moved from its original physical location, the application cannot access it and it is no longer possible to work with it.

In this case, a warning is displayed on the clip:

It is then necessary to proceed to a manual relink of the path to the files.

Your media is now relinked.

By default, when a media imported in the Media bin is played directly, a Temporary composition is automatically created.

This composition will be replaced by a new temporary composition if another media is chosen to be played, unless it is manually saved.

→ To save a temporary Composition, right-click on it and enter a name in the text field:

→ Alternatively press Ctrl+S and type a name for the composition:

The new composition is then available in the list.

All the compositions saved for a project are accessible from this tab:

When importing a DCP or an IMF package, CPLs are listed as compositions:

A tag IMF or DCP clearly identify them in the list.

When a CPL refers additional matadata files, like Sidecar or OPLs, the Composition display a triangle:

→ Click on the triangle to expand the composition information

→ A double click on a Composition will automatically load all the assets referenced in the composition on the timeline.

When a project contains several compositions, you can quickly toggle from one to another:

→ To toggle between compositions, double click on the desired one: the timeline automatically switches compositions.

You can modify the length of the columns for the list of composition. Position the mouse until the cursor changes appearance next to the column you want to modify and slide:

Read more on Compositions

→ Use F to resume the zoom factor and display the image in a 1:1 pixel.

Some controls for the Viewport are directly accessible from the GUI (in addition to keyboard shortcuts).

Display guide lines on the Image Viewport:

To hide / show the timeline, use Page down and Page up keys.

→ To open the Dual Viewport, click on DUAL on the TimeLine or use the shortcut Alt+X:

The Record Viewport (right) is for the Composition, and the Source Viewport (left) is used by the source media.

→ Select the source media from the Command Panel and press Ctrl + double mouse click: it will automatically be placed in the Source Viewport.

→ Alternatively, you can right-click on a media and choose Load in Source to directly open it in the Source Viewport.

→ From the Compositions list in the Command Panel you can also use right clik on a composition to choose Load in Source Viewport.

→ To toggle from one Viewport to the other, click on the desired Viewport. The timeline displayed is the one for the Vewport outlined in grey (active viewport).

→ You can also switch from one to the other with the X shortcut.

The navigation management tools in the Viewport remain the same as for Single Viewport on the selected Viewport. Refer to chapter Viewport Manipulations .

It is possible to synchronize the timeline of the source with the one of the composition to do frame matching.

→ Select the viewport you want to use as the reference image, position the PlayHead on the desired location and click LOCK or press the G key.

Automatically, the second timeline will place and lock the PlayHead position at the same image number. You can also playback both timelines at the same time.

You can gang the 2 Viewports to navigate and zoom in the image of the 2 versions in sync. This is ideal for a close inspection of 2 different versions of the same content.

→ Once the media are loaded on both viewport, click the Gang Icon (G).

The user interface displays playback information. It is also possible to change the playback speed on the fly.

See Playback information

Some controls for the timeline are directly accessible from the GUI (in addition to keyboard shortcuts).

Depending on the length of the composition, you may need to navigate through the composition back and forth, or change the display scale to reveal more or less of it.

The TimeLine can be configured to serve your needs depending on the projects you are working on. Possible configurations include:

Composition duration is displayed in dark green over the timescale:

By default, the composition is set on 24h.

The duration of the composition can be adjusted by a simple move (click and drag) of the small handles at each end of the composition’s line.

→ To auto adjust the composition duration to the clips on the timeline, press Alt+Ctrl+F.

The Composition can also be manually adjusted by typing values for the beginning and the end of the composition:

→ Click in the Composition Start and / or End in the Shuttle Bar, and type desired values.

The composition is automatically updated with the new duration.

In order to quickly fit the composition, you can also use the Timeline Hot Box:

→ Press Ctrl + right-click on the Timeline itself to display the TimeLine Hot Box and select COMPOSITION. The Hotbox provides you with short cuts to fit the different type of layers of the composition.

A project can contain an unlimited number of compositions, each of them with a different output format, frame rate or image resolution.

Compositions are reflecting the content of a Timeline.

To manage a composition, from the Command Panel / Compositions, select one and use right-click to display the drop-down menu:

→ To Add a Marker, position the Playhead on the desired timecode and in the Markers panel select a color and click +. The Marker is set for a default duration of 1 sec.

→ To mark a range, first define your range and in the Market panel click +.

→ To delete a Marker, select it in the Markers' list and click -.

Markers are represented in the TimeLine by colored triangles and positioned in the Marker’s track:

You can navigate from Marker to Marker using different options:

→ Double click on a time code in the Markers list for the PlayHead to jump directly to the related frame in the TimeLine.

→ Use shortcuts Shift+U for Next Marker and Alt+U for Previous Marker

Additionally, when the PlayHead is positioned on a particular Marker, it is highlighted in the Marker’s list.

SMPTE markers labels are supported. To add some, select the desired Marker in the list and click on Default on the Type column.

This action display the Markers drop down menu.

You can also add custom comments.

Select the desired Marker in the list and click on Default on the Comments column and add your custom text:

You can move or change the duration of a marker directly in the timeline:

→ Position the mouse on the IN or OUT point of the marker until the cursor shows and move the marker to the new position.

→ To Add a Locator, position the Playhead on the desired timecode and in the Locators panel select a color and click +.

→ To delete a Locator, select it in the Locators' list and click -.

You can navigate from Locator to Locator using different options:

→ Double click on a time code in the Locators list for the PlayHead to jump directly to the related frame in the TimeLine.

→ Use shortcuts P for Next Locator and Alt+P for Previous Locator

Additionally, when the PlayHead is positioned on a particular Marker, it is highlighted in the Marker’s list.

→ Select the desired Locator in the list and click on the empty field in the Comments column and add your custom text.

→ To rename a Locator, double click on its name and enter the new text.

You can move a Locator directly in the timeline:

→ Position the mouse on the locator until the cursor shows and move the locator to the new position.

Once created, duration as well as the IN and OUT points of reels cannot be changed. In order to do it, a new reel has to be done. To create all the desired reels, repeat the process as many times as necessary. The reels are listed in order of timecode and not by their order of creation.

The Auto Reel function is a very useful tool creating automatically the reels.

Right-click on the TimeLine background to access the COMPOSITION OPERATIONS drop-down menu and choose Auto Reels:

A window appears in order to choose the desired method and settings:

All of these method can be applied by choosing different range such as:

Composition, Actual Total or Marked In/Out.

reel-move.png

In order to delete a reel, click on the desired reel and click - to validate the deletion of the selected reel.

You can navigate from Reel to Reel using different options:

Additionally, when the PlayHead is positioned on a particular Reel, it is highlighted in the Reels' list.

There is several modes for playback available:

The “Play once” mode is set by default.

→ To toggle to the other modes, click on the icon until the desired mode is displayed.

To play a specific region of the composition, mark the desired range with IN and/or OUT points:

The timeline’s interface displays some playback information such as:

→ Use JKL controls to modify the playback speed.

One of the major differences between a colorist and an editor is the fact that they have different requirements regarding the display of the shots and how to navigate from one to the other. While the editor will be mostly using the timeline to navigate in the composition, a colorist is more likely to prefer another method. The reason for this is quite simple : when color grading a show, the focus is on the shots as individual pieces of content and their placement in the chronology of the show or the possible transitions between them is not relevant.

A classic editing timeline is far from sufficient to serve the purpose. Instead another navigation tool is preferred. This navigation tool is the Event Viewer (sometimes called the shot viewer).

The Event Viewer also displays the clips available on the timeline in a chronological manner; however, it represents each clip with a preview of one of the frames of the clip. Each preview is displayed next to each other and their dimension is always the same. As a matter of fact, the Event Viewer does not visually represent the length of a clip (or shot). Again this information is of little interest during the color correction process. The diagram below shows you the difference between the timeline and the Event Viewer representations :

Besides the visual difference, there is also the fact that an Event Viewer allows only a limited number of editing operations. These editing operations are the common ones used by a colorist or an assistant and once again they only serve the purpose of permitting operations needed in this context.

It is also worth noting that the name (i.e. Event Viewer) refers to the objects it displays as “events” and not clips or shots or anything else. From the colorists point of view the timeline is an assemblage of pieces of material that have been spliced together in a chronological manner.

Each of these objects are called “events” because they are actually events occurring at a certain time during the playback of the final show. Once an event is over, it is immediately followed by another event (which can be another piece of material, a transition, or simply a black screen).

A colorist will work on each of these events and make sure that they are all consistent from the color point of view and correspond to the intentions of the director of photography.

In addition to the navigation shortcuts offered by the Event Viewer, there is another important reason to use it. The Event Viewer also gives you access to multiple grading versions per event.

In this chapter, you will learn the following things:

The Event Viewer is a key element during a grading session. As a matter of fact, colorists use it much more than the regular timeline. Therefore it must be accessible at any time by using all the connected input devices, i.e. the mouse or the stylus, the keyboard and of course the control surface.

The Event Viewer always displays the events on the currently active layer only. In a multi-layer composition, you must activate the layer you want to work on first. The Event Viewer is immediately updated with the events (clips or holes) existing on the active layer.

The events are arranged chronologically from the left to the right. The leftmost event is the first event on the timeline, while the rightmost is the last event on the timeline.

The current event (the one that you are working on) is always centered in the display. Towards the left you will find the preceding events (or past events), while to the right you will have the upcoming events (or future events).

The diagram below shows multiple events on the currently selected layers and their organization from left to right:

As previously explained, the current event (the one that you are working on) is always centered. To distinguish it from the other surrounding events, it has a light-blue blinking border.

Besides the indication of which event is currently worked on, there are other indications that the current event carries and that are worth looking at. The close-up screenshot below shows the current event centered and exposes some extra information :

The current event also has a display of the current frame number as well as the total number of frames. This indication is updated as you navigate through the event.

Moreover, each event has a “dirty” flag that is displayed on the top-left corner of the thumbnail. This flag indicates that the event has been modified and the modifications have not been confirmed or saved. So, if you don’t save your composition by yourself, the auto-save could do it and then make the flag disappear.

One of the top purposes of the Event Viewer is to provide a fast visually-oriented navigation through the shots available in the currently active layer. Rather than locating a segment in a timeline, the Event Viewer allows you to visually locate the event you want to go to by looking at his thumbnail.

The navigation is performed by either using the mouse and stylus, or the same navigation keyboard shortcuts as in the timeline or eventually by using the transport controls of your control surface. In this section, only the specific Event Viewer navigation methods will be explained.

During the grading process it could happen that a missing shot needs to be inserted in the timeline. This can happen for various reasons, some being the fact that a VFX shot was missing or you simply need to insert some titles for the purpose of mastering. Whatever the reason, the best way to edit the timeline is still by using the editing tools in the actual timeline or editing mode.

Nevertheless, for some simple operations it is also quite handy to insert shots by placing them between other shots via some quick methods. The event viewer offers the possibility to insert shots before or after a shot, by dropping one or more clips attached to your pointing device.

To insert before or after a shot through the Event Viewer, some conditions need to be met :

Also you have first to decide if you want to insert or replace by clicking on the button on the top left corner of the timeline to toggle from one to another (or you can press the hotkey INSERT). The one showed will be the one used :

Just as important as being able to insert shots on the fly, without any conforming or editing operations, it often happens that shots simply need to be replaced. There are many ways to replace shots on the timeline and every method has its pros and cons. While the timeline and more editing-oriented and the conforming operations are more adapted to building or adapting full compositions to media changes, they still are somehow complex operations.

A simple method is provided by the Event Viewer, facilitating shot replacement without the need to understand editing or conforming.

To replace one or more shots through the Event Viewer, some conditions need to be met:

During the grading process shots must be selected and deselected to perform various operations on them as a group. Shots can be selected any many places with the exact same effect on them, however the event viewer also allows some basic selection operation for the sake of convenience. Below are listed the selection operations that can be performed directly in the Event Viewer.

Once you have dropped your media in the Media tab of the Command Panel (see Media Tab, you can start adding the clips on the Timeline.

There are several ways to add clips to a composition and they all depend on the context. Some methods will be more appropriate than others in some particular cases.

→ To select a clip on the track, click on it. Clip will change color to light grey.

→ To select several clips, use Ctrl + click on each of them.

→ To select all the clips, start to select one clip then use Ctrl+A.

→ To deselect clip(s), use Ctrl+D.

→ To select a range of clips, position the mouse on the track next to a clip you would like to enclose and press Shift + left mouse button and drag the mouse over the desired clips. The covered range is bordered in blue.

Alternatively you can use the TimeLine Hot Box to quickly manipulate the clips:

You can remove an entire clip or a range of frames from the composition using several methods :

In order to quickly navigate with clips, you can use the Timeline Hot Box:

→ Press Ctrl + right-click on the Timeline itself to display the TimeLine HotBox and select CLIP.

Roll changes the Out point of one clip and the In point of the next clip. If you roll 10 frames to the left, MIST will cut 10 frames from the clip on the left and add 10 frames to the clip on the right.

→ To Roll a clip, position the mouse at the intersection of the clips until the cursor changes to and slide on the right or on the left:

Timeline after a Roll of Clip B on the right:

Performing a Trim can modify the length of a clip without modifying adjacent clips. It is not possible to trim over an adjacent clip.

→ To trim the clip, position the mouse at the intersection of the clips until the cursor changes to or and slide on the right or on the left:

Timeline after a trim of Clip B on the left:

Moves a clip on the right or left inside an empty part of the track. It is not possible to slip over an adjacent clip.

Alt+Top arrow for + 1 frame

Alt+Down arrow for - 1 frame

The slipped clip’s In and Out points are offset by the same amount of frames. The adjoining clips don’t change: the media moves left or right without changing the length of the segment itself.

Select the clip to slip then use the keyboard shortcuts:

Alt+Ctrl+Left arrow for - 1 frame

Alt+Ctrl+Right arrow for + 1 frame

You can move a clip with a simple click and drag the clip in the desired direction. The behavior on the adjacent clips depend on the mode you are in:

If the timeline is in INSERT mode, then all the clips in the timeline are moved together of the same amount of frames on the left or on the right, preserving gaps and clip lengths.

If the timeline is in REPLACE mode, the clip is moved without changing position of adjacent clips, resulting in an overwriting.

To use the drag & drop method, first select the desired insert mode (INSERT / REPLACE).

→ Position the playhead on the video track at the desired location

→ Drag & Drop your source clip from the Command Panel or the Library and use the Paste method of your choice.

You can use the Dual Viewport for inserting a clip or parts of a clip using the 3-point editing method.

Refer to Dual Viewport for more information.

For all text-based subtitle formats, only the UTF-8 encoding is supported.

It is important to differentiate the effective duration of the subtitle file from the interpreted duration.

The effective duration is ranging from the first spot to the last spot. Whatever timecode is indicated for the first spot, once placed on the timeline the interpreted start will always be 0:00:00:00 by convention unless otherwise specified in the metadata.

If a start TC is embedded in the file, for example an EBU STL file starting at 10:00:00, then the way it will be interpreted by the timeline differs depending on the way the file is opened:

If you double click on a subtitle file specifying a start TC directly in the media bin, it will be placed automatically on the timeline at the indicated Start TC:

If you import a subtitle file specifying a start TC on an existing timeline using drag & CTRL V, then the start TC will be the one of the playhead location:

In this last case, the original TC of the spots will be relative to the new start point of the file. This will be reflected in the spot list with a different color for the time codes (see below Subtitle Inspection chapter).

Some subtitle formats carry metadata that are displayed in the Command Panel  Metadata  Clip page.

When you import the file on a new subtitle track on the timeline, the track box will display the language information present in the file. However, if you delete the file and replace it with another clip of another language, the Track language information will not be updated automatically.

The import of standalone subtitle file is similar to a video or a audio assets.

You can import the subtitle file directly from the OS browser by selecting it and dragging it into the Command Panel's Media bin.

The way to import subtitles and captions image profile is identical to text profile.

However, make sure the image files and the subtitle XML file are in the same root folder, permitting to automatically locate the image files to which the XML subtitle file refers.

→ To place your subtitles and captions in the timeline create a subtitle track by clicking S+ at the top left of the timeline and place your media like any other asset type or paste it directly to the playhead location.

In case you have selected multiple subtitle tracks, they will be stacked on the top of each other.

The way mutliple subtitle tracks are displayed depend on the mode of the composition:

If needed you can hide a track using the Enable / disable icon (eye).

It is possible to configure the composition size according to the properties of a subtitle file such as IMSC1. To do this, the file must have the attribute tts: extent defining the resolution of the image in its settings.

Most of the time, this attribute is used in the subtitle files using the image profile and the pixel unit. This is to inform the optimal resolution of the use of the subtitle, so as not to deteriorate its quality which the would make it unusable:

The composition fits the dimensions of the subtitle file.

In the case of using a subtitle in text profile, the subtitle will use the same resolution as the current composition. The text being vectorial, there is no loss of quality.

It is possible to quickly navigate from one subtitle line to another one in the composition.

→ Go to COMMAND PANEL  TOOLS  SUBTITLES  TEXT

→ Double click on a timecode REC IN or REC OUT :

On the Viewport you can activate different Guides in order to verify the placement of a subtitle on the image:

→ Display the Safe Frame guides using Alt+F.
Parameters for the Safe frame guide can be adjusted in COMMAND PANEL  SETTINGS  FORMAT

→ Display a grid on the Viewport using Alt+G.

As soon as the subtitle has been placed in the timeline, subtitles are displayed into the Viewport. If not, verify that the associated font has been loaded:

→ Go to COMMAND PANEL  TOOLS  SUBTITLES  FONT

If a font is present in the subtitle, it’s name will automatically appear under the tab FONT in white color.

If the font has been not properly loaded, no font will be listed or the font will be displayed in red.

In addition, the Console will display an error message:

→ Double-click on the 1 digit or the font label to open the Font Library.

→ Select the desired font into the list and click on OK to validate your selection. Fonts present in this list are based on the OS font folder.

Due to the inherent structure of the subtitle file, MIST imports subtitle files as a single block with all your text into it. Like any other type of media, it is possible to apply basics editing functions.

When you cut a subtitle file placed in the timeline, the REC In and REC Out will be displayed in yellow in the spotlist. The spotlist is located in the TEXT tab of the SUBTITLES panel.

This indicates the offset value between each line of text subtitles with the timecode of the cut as starting point. Regardless of the placement of the subtitle cut in the timeline, the indicated offset will always be based on the timecode registered in the subtitle file.

MIST allows a large modification of many subtitle and caption parameters through inline commands. The possibilities of modifying these parameters depend mainly on the format of the subtitle in use.

If you want to do some basics text editing correction, do as follow:

For DCI subtitles format, it is possible to change the text position by moving respectively the X,Y and Z sliders from left to right to change the values. From the drop-down menu, select the desired text alignment.

Subtitle management for stereoscopy is similar to subtitle management for other content. The main difference is to care of the Z axis when editing subtitle position in the TOOLS tab. There is no need to duplicate tracks to generate 3D for subtitles.

To manage the Z axis, do as follow:

For further information, please report to the stereoscopy chapter.

As seen in previous sections of this chapter, if the language information is present in the file’s metadata, it will be applied to the track on the timeline.

However these informations can be modified when creating a master, in the Timed Text section of the Master Delivery panel.

MIST allows you to export your subtitle track to another subtitle format as single file:

→ Select your subtitle track by making it active (track name highlighted in cyan).

→ Click on EXPORT to open the export window.

→ From the File type drop-down menu, select the format to export from the Subtitles category.

→ After having define your file path, click OK to export the subtitle.

Note that for some file format, the font can be added to the subtitle file (e.g. CineCanvas).

See also more on Subtitle export in the Master Delivery chapter.

From the media bin, right-click on a subtitle file and choose Export as…​

→ From the File Type menu choose the desired subtile format, choose a location and validate with OK.

This action will perform a subtitle conversion taking into account the source clip properties (TC, frame rate).

→ press Right mouse button on the TimeLine background to display the Composition drop-down menu and select Audio Waveforms:

If the channels of an audio clip have been incorrectly mapped, it is possible to remap them automatically in the timeline:

→ Click on the audio channel to remap then use right mouse button to display the Clip drop-down menu.

→ in Channel Mapping, select the new channel to assign:

You can verify the channels assignement of the clips when the audio lanes are extended:

To route the audio channels:

→ In the Command Panel, select TOOLS then ROUTING

If several soundfileds are present on te timeline, they will be displayed in the Routing panel in the same order.

→ To expand / collapse a soundfield, click on the triangle:

→ Assign the audio layers of all the soundfields present on the timeline to the desired audio channel (up to 16) by a click in the cell:

→ To change the channel assignment, click on the desired channel for each audio layers.

If your listening device is not compatible with the soundfields on the timeline, it is possible to perform a down-mix to stereo:

→ In the Command Panel, select TOOLS then ROUTING

→ In the Audio Routing section, use the DOWNMIX dropdown menu to select the desired downmix configuration:

MIST offers a full set of Audio monitoring tools for the quality control. Refers to the chapter Audio Monitoring for details about the different audio scopes.

In MIST, the Immersive Audio files are not managed as regular audio tracks.

When dropping an immersive audio track into the Media bin, MIST recognizes the metadata and displays a specific icon for the file:

When importing manually clips, the immersive audio files must be placed on an Auxiliary data track on the timeline.

In the drop down-menu, select the desired type of Immersive audio track:

A new layer has been added to the timeline:

You can now place your immersive audio track on the timeline.

MIST supports Dolby Atmos^TM technology and allows the import and the render of Atmos files for QC purposes.

MIST allows the wrapping of DTS-X audio tracks in a DCP. See Creating a DCP with DTS-X.

Using the Native CMS, the media is displayed as is and no color space conversion is done on the composition.

The native CMS is particularly recommended when the media is already in the right color space and finalized after the grading phase.

With this mode it is however important to set the Worklfow accordingly, in order to have the full tool set of image analysis in line with the content.

The Marquise Technologies' Color Management System is a proprietary color management system allowing state of the art color conversions.

For more precision and reliability, MTCMS uses industry standards to compute in 32 bit-float on-the-fly the exact values for every possible color. No interpolation is done when using a LUT.

ACES, for Academy Color Encoding System, has been developed by AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) with the intend to help preserve the color integrity of the content from shooting to archiving.

Specific algorithm allows any kind of source to be processed within the controlled environment of the ACES color space and for a specific output.

For additional information on ACES, please refer to the ACES White Paper document.

As explained previously the CMS requires to define the colorimetric information of the sources placed on the timeline of the composition for reference for all future operations (e.g. conversions, color-grading, exports, etc.). Source settings can be managed individually by clip.

MIST parse the existing metadata of the media, so when a color metadata is present in the file, MIST will automatically load it as Source settings. If not, you need to characterize the source manually.

→ Access the GRADE panel at the bottom right of the timeline (or press F9)

→ Select the clip(s) in the timeline

→ In the Source tab, select the source parameters.

→ To use the same settings on all the clips, select them on the timeline then use the GANG function.

From one CMS to another, the required information may vary slightly:

MIST always compute in FULL range internally meaning that:

That’s why if no information of range is present in the media, the FULL range will be set by default. This avoid any additional compression if the source is indeed encoded as FULL content but with no metadata saying.

Be careful with this setting or your output may have levels that are not correct.

MIST supports different chromatic adaptation also called Color Appearance Model (CAM). This adaptation makes it possible to match the original RGB color coordinates of the DSM to equivalent CIE XYZ coordinates. These colors are not matching from a colorimetric point of view but rather from a perceptual point of view. This is why MIST offers different methods that will meet the needs of each project. Select a method to apply for adapting the white point of your source media to the one set in the MTCMS:

The Target Display allows to select the way the content will be displayed in ACES CMS or for Dolby Vision workflows.

MIST allows to load a Look Up Table for the Viewport. You can select one in the drop-down menu.

A histogram is a graphical representation of the tonal distribution in a digital image.
It plots the number of pixels for each tonal value. By looking at the histogram for a specific image one is able to judge the entire tonal distribution at a glance.

→ You can use Shift+H to display the Histogram.

Options

The vectorscope is used to visualize chrominance, which is encoded into the video signal as a subcarrier of specific frequency: it plots the Cb and Cr channels against each other, for the purpose of measuring and testing television signals.

→ You can use Shift+V to display the Vectorscope.

Options

This diagram allows you to see how the signal is displayed within the color space chosen.

→ You can use Shift+G to display the CIE diagram.

Legend

Options

The Waveform is used to measure and display the level of the brightness, or luminance, of the part of the image being drawn onto a screen at the same point in time.

→ You can use Shift+W to display the Waveform.

Options

This tool offers different modes in order to inspect the image.

→ to activate the Zebra, use Alt+Z or press Z on the user interface. By default, the Zebra patterning is set on Signal Range mode.

→ to toggle between the different Zebra modes, select them in the Command Panel / Tools / Zebra:

The Luminance meter is used to measure the photometric brightness of an HDR image. It measures the amount of light that strikes a surface in the picture.

→ You can use Shift+N to display the Luminance meter.

You can display detailed color information for a specific area of the image (pixel accuracy).

The information are displayed per color channel (R, G, B and A).