How to pick up a job again after you have lost track of the versions
Ask Vizard Agent what already exists before you ask for anything new. It can list the versions that were produced, put them side by side, compare their durations and tell you which one is the clean master. That's the question you actually have when you come back to a job.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Say it plainly. There is no penalty for admitting you lost the thread, and it is a far better opening than asking for a change to "the video", which is ambiguous the moment more than one version exists. Any link you still have helps Vizard Agent find the rest, and the last one delivered is the best starting point.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
You closed the tab, or it's a week later, and there are several renders with names that meant something at the time. Starting again is expensive and unnecessary, because the work still exists. Only the first few steps are recovery; after that the job continues as though nothing had happened. In the session behind this article it:
- Found the last link to the finished result, loaded the editing rules for that kind of job, and checked the file's duration and tracks, since the copy in hand may be a trimmed cut rather than the master.
- Reviewed the edit and where the subtitles sat on extracted frames, and got an exact transcript of the original speech to continue the translation work.
- Measured the maximum height of the burnt-in subtitles across the source frames to see whether a clean picture could be recovered.
- Tested removing the burnt-in line without cropping the frame, and reframing above the subtitle zone as an alternative.
- Assembled the saved versions into one comparison frame to find the clean copy, and checked the durations and availability of the older versions.
When does this not work well?
Some work genuinely can't be recovered. If nothing was ever delivered, the links have expired, or the files only existed on a machine you no longer have, the honest answer is to start again, with a recipe so it doesn't happen twice. If several jobs were running at once, say which one you mean.
Common questions
Will it know which is the latest? Vizard Agent compares content and duration rather than trusting a filename.
What if I have no link at all? Describe the job to Vizard Agent: the length, the language, the subject.
How do I avoid this next time? Ask Vizard Agent for a recipe and a register when the job is finished.