#fcpxusefultips

[thefcpxeditor]

Wait!! Don't Update to OS X Yosemite!

By Braden Storrs

STOP!!! Don't hit the button to download OS X Yosemite. Until the Apple Pro Apps (FCP X, Motion, Compressor, Logic Pro X) are updated with an official Yosemite compatibility update. Along with any other programs and plugins that are essential to your workflows. Yes, there are reports that things are working properly but there are a million little things that can go wrong from hardware compatibility differences, to plugins, etc. If you make money with your software then do yourself a favor and wait. If it's just a hobby for you then be my guest and be a guinea pig for the rest of us. Hopefully we'll get an immediate update, but it could be a while. Last year there was a two month wait for FCP X. Though to be fair they were waiting on the Mac Pro to be released. Of course there will be many who miss this notice or ignore it and will come here to complain about bugs and guess what, we will have little sympathy. If you choose to update anyways don't go around complaining about bugs.

To keep up to date on update info and the like join our FCP X Editors Facebook Group!

[thefcpxeditor]

FCP X Quick Tip: Organize at High Speed

By Braden Storrs

As an editor I'd rather be editing then doing all the preparation work that leads to it. I'd say most of us don't have an assistant editor to do all the tedious work so if there's any way to speed up the process then bring it on! This tip will especial help those working on any kind of larger project such as a documentary or film.

This technique is similar to one I used in earlier versions of FCP X with Keyword collections but it is much smarter to use with Smart Collections (go figure). MacBreak Studio did a video on this last year called Smarter Smart Collections, but it was before the FCP X Library model so I thought I'd put this together with the current workflow.

Smart Collections let you organize your media, based on sets of rules, into any number of collections you would like to create. If you are creating these collections new for every project then you are wasting a lot of time you could be using to edit.

Here's what to do:

Create a new Library and save it somewhere on your Mac's hard drive so it is always accessible, or wherever you deem appropriate. I call mine Library Template:

Then I rename the default Event to Event Template:

I then create two folders for use in the project. A Smart Collections Folder and a Keyword Collections Folder. This isn't required, it just keeps things tidy:

At this point start creating your Smart Collections and place them in the Smart Collections folder. You can right click on the Event and select "New Smart Collection" or use the keyboard shortcut Option+Command+N:

Rename the Smart Collection to what it will represent (i.e. multicam clips, dialogue, music, compound clips, notes, unused video, etc.). Here's the collections I've created that include most of the collections I might want while editing. Your list will probably be different. Just suit it to your needs:

At this point double click on each of the Smart Collections and give them the appropriate set of rules to match the category. Don't forget to do this. The collections won't figure this out on their own. For Example, here is the rule set for the Dialogue collection:

In regards to Keyword Collections, they are harder to predetermine. They are extremely useful but are more project specific. So generally they are added after the media is imported. They are useful for separating out takes from certain actors, scenes, script pages, etc, for example. If there are certain Keyword Collections you know you'll need on every project then create them now. Then when the media is imported, apply the Keywords to the appropriate media. You can also import media directly into a Keyword collection by right clicking and choosing Import Media, so that the keywords will be automatically applied. You can keyword just certain ranges of clips as well. Select the in and out points of a clip in the browser and give it a keyword/s and when you select that keyword collection it will just show the range of the clip/s you applied it to. Here are two videos that show how useful Keywords can be. Lightiron: Live Play 3 and FCP X at the Studio Level

You can even use Keywords to create a specific Smart Collection based on certain Keywords:

In any case, just customize it to your needs. There's enough tools in there to fine tune your collections to an almost ridiculous level. It may take a little bit of time to set this up, but once you do you never have to do it again.

When you have a new project go ahead and load the Template Library. Then create and save the new Library for your project. It will have a blank Event in it that you can delete later if you don't want it. Then just grab your Event Template and drag it to the new library and drop it on it. Follow the prompt and there you go, all of your organization is now applied to the new Library and as you import media the files will all be automatically sorted to the proper collections. Pretty awesome. At this point rename the Event Template in the new Library to whatever is appropriate.

You can also drag the Keyword or Smart Collections between events:

At this point you can close your Library Template and get to work.

It just took you 30 seconds to organize hundreds or even thousands of files when it could have taken you hours to do it manually. Got to love that.

Enjoy!

One last note would be that the evolution of this system would allow, in the future, to save these Library Templates as presets for Libraries which could be chosen inside FCP X when you create a new Library. For now I use my Library Template but it would be great to be able to load it from a preset instead of having to manually load mine in and copy it over. I highly recommend sending this as a feature suggestion to the FCP X team at Apple. Here's the link: FCP X Feedback

* This article was written with FCP X being at version 10.1.3. 

** The article's title piece was created with mObject from Motion VFX in Motion 5.1.

[thefcpxeditor]

FCP X Quick Tip: Troubleshooting Compressor 4.1

In the picture above you'll see two compressor sessions encoding the same file. The file is a 2 ½ hour 1080P h.264 .mp4 file. The first time I did the conversion it took 17 hours, 35 minutes, and 37 seconds. OUCH. The 2nd time I did it it took 22 minutes and 22 seconds. WOW!!!

What was the difference? I had previously contacted Apple via their compressor feedback page about another batch encoding session in which the encoding just seemed to stop. Compressor didn't crash, it just stopped encoding (or seemed to). They got back to me. Yes, it does happen. They've helped me a number of times with various bugs that pop up. They sent over a troubleshooting link and some suggestions of how to resolve the issue. It turned out to be very easy and the first thing they suggested resolved it. 

Here's the fix if you've had a similar issue. It's #9 on the troubleshooting guide:

Removing the Apple Qmaster folder will allow it to be recreated the next time Compressor is launched.

If Compressor 4 is running, quit Compressor by choosing Compressor > Quit Compressor.

In the Finder, hold down the Option key and choose Library from the Go menu.

In the Library folder that opens, open the Application Support folder. Move the Apple Qmaster folder to the Trash.

Restart your computer.

I followed the instructions, restarted the computer, and retried the session and it finished a 2 ½ hour 1080P file in 22 minutes. I've never seen any program encode that fast.

Here's the link to the full Troubleshooting Guide: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3894

Hope this helps.

[thefcpxeditor]

FCP X Quick Tip: Capturing Old Footage Via Firewire

By Braden Storrs

Final Cut Pro X accepts importing from tape or digital signals via Firewire. If you have a newer mac you can get a Firewire to Thunderbolt converter and it works fine that way as well. I use a Canopus ADVC-110 that accepts RCA and Firewire import and then outputs Firewire to my Mac.

When importing, FCP X will automatically create a new clip every time it senses a break in the footage. This is usually fine if the source was a newer camera with a cleaner signal. That way you get a new clip every time you start or stopped the camera. It’s a big problem though when capturing from an older source. I’m converting old VHS videos and whenever the tracking gets off, even a bit, it will cut it into a new clip. So you end up with cuts to new clips randomly all over. Unfortunately the cut is not seamless there are frames lost. The new 10.0+ versions of iMovie work the same.

My preferred method of importing these old tapes then is to use the old 9.0.9 version of iMovie. It will import your tape as a single video clip, ignoring signal breaks. Though you can also start and stop importing at will so you can end up with multiple clips if that is preferred. You can then just go into the iMovie event and grab the clip/s and put them wherever you want for your use. Great thing is it doesn't add any expense to your workflow as pretty much every Mac has iMovie. iMovie captures to a DV format though and FCP X does not like the format at all! I highly recommended transcoding the files before you use them or have FCP X create optimized media as playback will be rough otherwise. Seems strange as it is only SD resolution but it is what it is.

FCP 7 is a better alternative to use for the capture stage if you own a copy. It gives more control and captures to Quicktime format, cutting out the transcoding step.

[thefcpxeditor]

FCP X Quick Tip: RED Raw Proxy/Optimized Media Workflow

The above warning is what will appear if you have already created your proxy or optimized media files in FCP X for you RED Raw clips but then you try to go in to the inspector and click on the button that says: 

To make any changes to your RED Raw files FCP X will have to delete the transcoded files files and then re-transcode them again if you want them back. The same thing happens if you modify the R3D files outside of FCP X.

Moral of the story is if you want to make any rough changes to your R3D files do so before editing! Then transcode and edit. If you are doing the color work in FCP X and will be modifying the R3Ds you can then do so. It will delete your transcodes and you can work strait with the Raw files.