In the following article, we’ll cover what it means when a file shows “No Preset” in External Post QC and how to correct it.
What does “No Preset” Mean?
Occasionally you may notice that files returned from the External Post vendor show “No Preset” in place of the Style Guide position name on the film strip in External Post QC.
This indicates that Creative Force is unable to successfully map images to their Style Guide positions. This can have negative implications for future steps in the production process. For example, as Creative Force relies on accurate mapping in order to link images to the Style Guide positions, if an image is not mapped to a position the system will not be able to rename the assets according to the asset naming established on the Assets tab of the Style Guide. This may lead to Creative Force mapping and naming all assets to the Main position, which can result in duplicate assets on the Asset Delivery location.
Furthermore, if an image is not successfully mapped to preset, the system is not able to alert the user performing the QC step if an image returned from the External Post vendor is not fulfilling the Style Guide requirements.
Below, we will cover the ways various methods Creative Force utilizes to map images to their respective presets as well as how to correct an image that has not been properly mapped.
Correcting No Preset errors for FTP Vendors
The method Creative Forces uses to map images to their presets is determined by the kind of Post-production vendor your studio is using.
For standard FTP Vendors (so any non-Pixelz/Bright River vendor) Creative Force uses the filename to map images to the Preset. The filename is set up on the Style Guide under the Assets Tab. As vendors do not have access to Gamma, this information will need to be shared with the Vendor outside of Creative Force. The images returned from the Vendor must be an exact match to the Asset Naming established on the Style Guide. Let’s take a look at our example from above.
On the Style Guide for our example product the Preset applied to the Main position has 2 variants: a Main variant and a Sub Variant.
Asset Naming for each of the variants for the Main Position is as follows:
To check the filenames of the assets returned from the vendor we can select the “eye” icon from the External Post QC right-side panel:
From this view, we are able to see that while the Main variant was named properly, the Sub variant the vendor created has a “_Main_1” file extension while the file extension required by the Style Guide for the Sub position is “_Main_IG”. As a result, the system was unable to map the image to the preset variant.
To correct the error, you will need to reset the product back to External Post and have the Vendor reprocess the images. Rejecting the images, in this case, will not correct the error.
No Preset Error when Using Bright River
The process for mapping images to presets and variants is a bit different when using Bright River as your External Post Vendor. Rather than using the Filename, Creative Force uses what is called the Preset Variant Code.
The preset variant code is found under the preset settings. Simply navigate to Studio Settings > Presets and select the Preset you are working with.
At the bottom of the list, you will a field for the Preset Variant Code. Each spec within each Preset will need its own unique Preset Variant Code.
The filenames of images returned from Bright River are required to end in the preset variant code for each variant in order for the images to be successfully mapped.
For example, if the image name is “CreativeForce_09192022” and the preset variant code is “Main_1” the filename of the image returned must be “CreativeForce_09192022_Main_1”.
To correct the error, you will need to reset the product back to External Post and have the Vendor reprocess the images. Rejecting the images, in this case, will not correct the error. To read more on mapping images from Bright River check out the article below:
No Preset Error when Using Pixelz
No preset errors are rare when using Pixelz as a Post-production vendor, however, there are a few important things to keep in mind. No preset may be an indication that your templates and subtemplates have not been properly set up. Pixelz templates are designed to link your images to the correct preset and thus return the image under the correct position and preset name. As long as your templates and sub-templates are set up correctly, No Preset errors should not occur. If you notice No Preset errors when using Pixelz as your post-production vendor, we would recommend reaching out to your Pixelz account manager for further assistance.