Apple Compressor: Importing Image Sequences

After the recent Apple Compressor update (v. 4.3.2) Richard Hale sent me the following note.

The April 13, 2017 update of Compressor fixes the broken importing of sequential files. Hurray!

Also, here’s a real time saver when you have multiple sequential file folders to import:

Select the parent folder containing multiple sequential file folders and Compressor will import each folder individually instead of having to manually select each folder one by one.

For example, I scan six rolls of Super 8mm film which are contained in 6 individual folders – one for each film roll containing still frames of each movie frame. All 6 folders are grouped into an album folder, for example, called “John Doe’s Movies.”

I need to create ProRes files from these for editing in FCP. To do this:

• Open Compressor’s Preferences and create a default compression setting for ProRes, along with a location setting.
• Then, in Compressor’s Input screen, type Cmd + Option + I (the short-cut for importing sequential files).
• Next, select the folder containing all the sub-folders that you want to import. (In our example, this would be “John Doe’s Movies”.)
• Select Add and Presto! after some thinking time, Compressor imports my 6 sub folders individually set for ProRes and my output source.
• Finally, set the desired frame rate for each of the 6 films, then click Start Batch.

Away it goes and done.