Playlink Commenting and Markup

Whether it's color and cut reviews, timed dailies releases, or some assets from a location scout, the ability to gather feedback from your creative teams in a medium that can be exported into actionable formats (txt, Avid EDL, etc.) allows everyone to do their best work no matter where or when they are. Combined with the wealth of distribution and security options that are the baseline for playlinks and Flow Capture, there's no better solution for remote offline collaboration. 

This feature is available anywhere you can access a playlink, whether from our browser apps in Chrome, Safari and Edge, our desktop app, or the iPad app.

Playlink Types

The experience you get will look the same regardless of where you access the playlink, but there is a slightly different behavior in how they initially appear. 

Inbox Playlinks

We've separated playlink commenting from the normal experience of watching assets here. Traditionally uploaded files will still play as expected in the Inbox, but any playlink that you open will bring you into a separate player with the commenting and markup tools. 

From there, the experience is the same as our web-based playlinks. 

Web-Based Playlinks

All of these types, from Highly Secure on down to Least Secure, will give you the same experience; once you're, you'll have nearly the same layout that you get after opening a playlink from the Inbox view. The only difference is the absence of the small ↖️ in the top left corner of the window, which is the exit button for Inbox Only playlinks. 

Layout

All of the tools you're familiar with are here! The assets included in the playlink are listed along the left side of the app along with the exit button for Inbox Only playlinks, while the commenting and markup tools are available on the right. 

Across the top you've got the timecode displays and the name of the currently selected asset. Along the bottom are the transport controls, timeline, view and quality options. 

We'll start our walkthrough on the right side of the app. 

Commenting and Markup Tools

These are what you're here for! If anything comes up while you're reviewing in the playlink, you can pause and use these to leave notes. 

Going from top top bottom here, we've got the following:

  • The Comments Icon - This whole line is clickable, and it allows you to minimize and open the comments panel itself. 
  • Commenters - A list of anyone who's commented on the asset you've selected. Keep in mind that this will only show you, as all playlink comments are private.
  • Markup Tools
    • Pencil - Used for freehand markup. 
    • Beacon - Allows you to place a pulsing dot on the picture. 
    • Arrow, Square and Circle icons - Preset shapes you can use to highlight specific areas of the frame. 
    • Color Drop - Lets you choose a specific color for your markup.
    • Undo and Redo icons - Remove or redo a step of the markup you've left.
  • Comment Field - Click the, "Add a comment," prompt to start entering your valued feedback!
  • Search - Look through all the comments that have been left. 
  • Sorting Options - Lets you order the comments by timecode or date. 

After that is the list of any existing comments that have been left against the asset. Clicking on any of those will move the playhead to that specific frame of timecode and display any markup that's associated with the comment. 

Leaving Comments and Markup

You can leave feedback at any point while you're watching a clip in Flow Capture. Just pause playback at your desired spot or enter a specific piece of timecode, and click the Add a comment box to begin writing. Once you've done that, you can add markup to highlight what you're talking about. 

Choose one of the markup tools and then add it to a specific part of the frame. 

If you're confident in your mouse or trackpad drawing skills, the pencil is a quick way to work, but any of the preset shapes will let you add a shape that can be dragged and manipulated to different sizes. 

Once you post your comment, it will be tied to the specific frame of timecode you've been working on. clicking it, or the indicator on the timeline will jump the player back to that spot. 

If you need to go back in and edit your comment, just click the vertical ellipses next to its timestamp along the left side of the app:

Choosing Edit will bring you back into the text entry and markup phase. Selecting Delete will prompt you to confirm that you want to remove the comment. 

Playlink Info and Exit Button

This section on the left side of the app is all about what's in the playlink and how you can get out of it if when reviewing from the Inbox. Up in the topmost left corner you'll find the back arrow (↖️) that lets you exit the playlink when you're viewing it from the Flow Capture Inbox. 

Beneath that, you'll find the name of the playlink and any custom message that's been made for it. Clicking read more will open up the full text of the message and then read less will close it back up.

Beneath that is the asset, or list of assets, you've been sent. Clicking one will select the file and queue it up for playback and if you've got a long list you can scroll through them all to find a specific one. 

If you need to download anything from the playlink and have permission to do so, you can click the the vertical ellipses to open up the menu with the download options:

Where there's more than one asset, you'll be able to choose from downloading the file you've selected or everything that's included in the playlink. 

Transport Controls

The tools used to control playback have been modified to give you more flexibility over what you see when you're viewing the playlink. 

The majority of the space is taken up by the timeline and playhead, which you can still scrub over to get preview frames of the selected clip. We'll break down what's on each side of that separately.

Playback Controls

Located in the bottom left corner of the app, these buttons are your manual interface for interacting with videos on Flow Capture. 

From left to right we've got:

  • Previous clip - Sends you back to the last asset in the playlink. 
  • Ten second rewind - Skips the playhead back ten seconds in the currently selected asset. 
  • Play/Pause - Starts and stops playback.  
  • Ten second skip - Jumps the playhead forward ten seconds. 
  • Next clip - Moves you to the next asset in the playlink. 
  • Timecode - Displays the current timecode and lets you choose between ABS, SRC and Frame display. 

Our keyboard shortcuts also carry over into the playlink view.

View Controls

These are located in the bottom right corner and are tied to what's displayed in the playlink and for playback. 

Starting on the left and going to the right, you have:

  • All controls view - This is the default look, and shows you the list of assets on the left, commenting controls on the right, etc. 
  • Asset list view - Hides the commenting controls to give you a slightly bigger player. Good for playback-focused playlink viewing. 
  • Comment tools view - Hides the asset list. This gives you a bigger player and better experience for leaving feedback.
  • Player only view - Expands the player to nearly full screen by hiding both the asset list and commenting tools. 
  • Fullscreen - Expands playback to the entire screen. The transport controls will stick around for a couple seconds and then slip away until you stop playback or move the cursor. 
  • Resolution and Dynamic Range indicators - These show you what playback resolution and dynamic range you're being delivered for the selected asset. 
  • Volume control - Lets you raise, lower or mute audio playback.  
  • Quality selection - All the options for choosing playback resolution and dynamic range. You can also enable clip looping and playback within Immediates action markers from here. 

Here's an animation that walks through each of the different views you can choose for the playlink. 

Choose the one that's the best fit for the work that you need to do in Flow Capture!

Private Comments

All playlinks have siloed commenting. This lets everyone leave notes on their own without any visibility into what others are saying; handy for both sensitive material and catty colleagues. These comments are then collected against the asset in the Viewer section of the Desktop view for those who've been added to the folder.