Consistent management of collections, collection types and collection structures is an essential capability to efficiently manage large collections of media and thus a key feature of any Media Asset Management solution. Limecraft allows you to create and manage different types of collections. Depending on the collection type, different metadata and custom workflows can be attributed to the collections of a particular collection type. This article is about how to work with collections. Setting up and configuring collection types is described in the chapter on Library Management.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


1. Creating collections

The sidebar on the left of the screen lists all collections in your production. Initially, there are no collections. Move your mouse to the section titled ‘COLLECTIONS’ and a button with a plus icon is shown. Click this button:

Screenshot of how you can create a new collection in Limecraft




A dialog titled ‘Create a new collection’ appears:

Limecraft dialog to create a new collection group


You will have to fill in two fields:

  • Collection group – In Limecraft Flow, all collections belong to a collection group.
  • Collection – The title of your collection

Fill in both fields, like in the example below. Press ‘Save’ to create the collection.

Limecraft dialog showing how to create a new collection


To create more collections, you simply repeat the above process. The collections you make will appear in the sidebar on the left of the library:

Screenshot of how collections are displayed in Limecraft


Clicking the collection will activate a filter showing only the clips in this collection. No clips are in our collection yet, so no results will be shown if you click it. So how do you get clips in a collection?

2. Adding clips to a collection

In the library, hover over a clip and click the ‘Assign to collection’ button. It might be hidden in the menu as shown below, depending on the setup of your production:

Fragment of a screenshot showing how you can assign items to a collection by hovering over the thumbnail of an item


A dialog appears listing all your collections. Start typing the name of the collection you want to assign the clip to (or the name of a new collection if you want to create one). Once you picked a collection, click ‘Save’ to confirm. Your clip is now part of the collection.

Limecraft dialog displayed when you want to add an item to a collection


Note: a clip can be in multiple collections at the same time.

3. Collection-level Workflows

If you hover the collection title in the sidebar, a button with a gear icon is shown. Clicking the button reveals a menu with actions you can perform on the collection. The standard collection-level workflows can be extended by custom workflows.

Fragment of a screenshot showing a dropdown of actions that can be executed on a collection



3.1 Export

The collection can be exported to a range of formats. Clicking the ‘export’ button will list them all. Simply pick a format and a file will be downloaded.

Upon export collection, Limecraft displays a dialog that allows you to select the type of output format and destination, including AAF for Avid, Final Cut, FCXML for Adobe Premiere, PDF, Word and CSV

3.2 Share Collection

The collection can be shared with anyone (also people not part of your Limecraft Flow production team). Click ‘Share Collection’ and click ‘Generate Shareable Link’ to get a link for your collection. This link can be used in e-mails, chat messages and so on to give the receiver access to the clips in your collection.

Dialog displayed when you share a collection.


3.3 Open in Collection Builder

The Collection Builder allows sorting material and removing clips from a collection. This is discussed below.

3.4 Go to Subclips

Open the subclips screen for the clips and subclips in this collection.

3.5 Go to Review

Open the review screen.

3.6 Show Clip Details

Shortcut to the item details, whereby all the items are placed in a carroussel for easy access.

3.7 Rename

Clicking Rename will pop up a dialog asking you for a new name for the collection.

3.8 Show Details

Opens the metadata overview for this particular collection, allowing authorised users to update or modify the collection-level metadata.

3.9 Delete

Clicking Delete will delete the collection. The clips in the collection won’t be deleted, they will still be part of your library.

3.10 Move to other parent

Move clips to another collection. 


3.11 Show workflows

Clicking this will bring you to the Workflow overview in the Production settings where you can see which workflows were started or completed here. 

3.12 Custom Workflows

Depending on the specific configuration of your workspace, collection-level actions may be extended with custom workflows. For example, custom workflows may include, without any restriction, archiving, de-archiving, purging, file transfers, or other sequences of actions.


4. Edit a collection in the Storyboard Editor

The Storyboard Editor gives you fine-grained control over the contents of a collection. Open the Collection Builder by clicking the button with the gear icon next to the collection name, and choose ‘Open in Collection Builder’ from the menu.


The top part of the screen will now show the collection contents. The bottom part still shows the library as it did before opening the Collection Builder.




5. Sorting your collection

You can change the sort order of the items in the collection. Hover over an item and click and hold the icon with the four arrows. Drag the item to the desired location.

The sort order you specified will be used in your exports of the collection. When exporting to an NLE, the items will be arranged in the same order on a timeline.

6. Removing items from a collection

Select one or more items and click the red button with the broken chain icon.

7. Subclips

Note that subclips, like comments, can also be assigned to a collection. Multiple subclips of the same clip can also be assigned to the same collection.