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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

FCPX HELP!!!

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Gabor D.

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Hey All!

I'm new to FCPX, watched the Ripple training, however it didn't cover the area I'm asking about.

If I finished a project. I edited it, color corrected, sound edited, rendered, etc... Then...

How can I put this project away, what files, folders should I copy to an external HDD (which is my archive drive), so I could later bring it back to FCPX and for example alter the edit?

I tried and moved the Final Cut Projects and Events folders to my desktop, emptied them out of FCPX, and tried to bring them back and I couldn't....

How could I solve this prblem????

Thanks
 
There are two folders you should be interested in moving, well two or more depending on how many events and projects you used to create the movie.
What I do is I create a separate set of folders for backup purposes though it's more to hide them away so that I don't have dozens of nonsense events and projects from all the rubbish I shoot from time to time, One for the events and one for the projects.
If you look in your Final Cut Events folder any event will be represented by a folder so you'll want to take the ones associated with your project, similarly in the final cut projects folder any project will be represented by a folder of the same name, you'll want to take those as well, just make sure you don't get the projects mixed up with the events.
When you want to get the project back into Final Cut Pro X you just move the events back into the events folder and the projects back into the projects folder, when you open final cut pro x back up again they will be there just like you left them.
 
Ripple has an additional set of tutorials that cover media management only. You might watch those as well. They will help you to understand what goes where, how to properly duplicate, share and restore projects as well as a strategy for archival.

The short answer to your question is this; no not duplicate projects from the finder. Do it strictly in FCPX. If you already have a drive for your archive and it is mounted on your system, open FCPX, look to the project pane and drag the PROJECT on to that drive's icon just above it. A dialog box will appear prompting you to chose one of three duplication methods. Choose the one that suits you. For an archive you may prefer copy the project and all referenced events, which will do precisely that, copy EVERYTHING in every event referenced or you may choose to copy only only used media. All that is left to do is to leave FCPX running and wait for the process to complete.

If you have multiple drives on your system you may want to verify that everything is intact by quitting FCPX, dismounting all other volumes and relaunching FCPX to verify that all data is there and every reference is online. Then you are done.
 
Hi!

You should look for "Final Cut Events" and "Final Cut Projects" folders on you working drive. If it is you system drive, you may find both in your "Movies" folder. This structure is essential for FCPX.
Usually your media files, proxies, renders, etc are stored in "Final Cut Events/YourEventName" and your edits, timelines, etc are stored in "Final Cut Projects/YourProjectName".

The trick is where your "ingest" is sitting. Personally I have a habit of dropping all source media into corresponding event folder to keep it all together. It simplifies copying and moving - you just need to copy Event and Project folders. If you have your source files (ingest from camera or recorder) sitting somewhere else, you may collect and move it to the event folder. Just check it in FCPX and reconnect media files if necessary.

Besides all that you may copy/move your jobs in and out freely and safely. The only issue you may get is missing links to media files which is easy to reconnect. To make your data accessible in FCPX simply move/copy your Event and Project folders into "Final Cut Events" and "Final Cut Projects" on your working drive. FCPX only looks in there for a data. Nowhere else. So, to free up some memory and speed-up FCPX you might want to separate current and archive projects and move archive projects and events out of FCPX folders.

You may end up having folder structure look like this:

Final Cut Events
(current events in FCPX)

Final Cut Events - Hidden
(archive events not seen by FCPX)

Final Cut Projects
(current projects in FCPX)

Final Cut Projects - Hidden
(archive projects not seen by FCPX)

I prefer EventManagerX to manage events and projects, but you always can do the same with bare hands:) Its also good idea to use folders in FCPX to group timelines (Projects) or clip libraries (Events).

Hope that helps!

PS: If you move your ingest (or anything else) into Event folder, FCPX will treat it as a part of an event, even though it does not know what those files are. It will copy or move your additional data together with the event. Pretty handy to drop CG, VFX, sound or other project stuff into Event!
 
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Craig W. Bickerstaff said:
Why not? For my purposes managing media from the finder has worked perfectly.
Click to expand...

I have been able to do limited media moving in the finder as well; temporary things like moving inactive projects and events in and out of FCPX without migrating them to other drives, but long term moves and duplication of projects is best done from inside the app.

The reason is that FCPX gives every asset, every copy of an asset and every reference to every asset and copy a unique and usually invisible tag. If we duplicate any of those unique tags unwittingly by manipulating events or projects from the finder, the database can get screwed and it may become difficult or impossible to recover short of rolling back to a pristine backup. The problem then becomes, if we also created our backup in the finder, that too may not contain a clean set of instructions that will work. Additionally, if your project is using assets from outside of it's own event, you may also fuck up other projects, events and even original assets as well. It can snowball quickly and have far reaching unintended consequences.

When media management within FCPX is as easy as a single drag and drop, why would you even want to do multiple, manual moves in the finder? With the larger amount of effort required and the likelihood of screwing the pooch being as high as it is, it is kind of a no brainer.

None the less I have been tempted to skip launching (and re-launching) the app with the thoughts of saving some hassle only to find that I hosed myself. That is why I advocate against it.

The only upside for me has been that in screwing things up any number of ways, I have been able to gain a small amount of additional insight into how to keep things straight. Consequently, I feel emboldened at times to do even more in the finder... but I am learning to resist. ;-)
 
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Thanks all!

After I checked this thread, I copied back the event and project folders into the Movies/Final Cut Projects and Final Cut Events folder and voilá... it appeared in the FCPX. If I moved them, it disappeared.... Quite simple :)

Two questions however:
1, can I do the same trick with an external hard drive also? Will FCPX recognize the Final Cut Projects and Events folder on my external drive too?
2, how could I archive a project if we're talking about a feature film? In that case the event folders, project folder, renders etc... would be quite huge. What would be the most useful and economical way to archive that?
 
Yes, you can do it with any volume mounted. I organise all my drives (Mac Pro bays, fibre HDDs, shelfs of disconnected archive HDDs) as mentioned, and move data around on/off states as needed. (1)
Personally, when its all done, I prefer to export all possible XMLs, sort and carefully separate folders with different data (like ingests, audio, CG, etc) and then copy it to any number of volumes. You also can have your Event on one volume, Project on another and source clips on other 3 different volumes. If you mount all the volumes you need, it should be work-able in FCPX. (2)

PS There's a good chance that you won't need ALL of your data for the future edit. E.g.: you might re-edit graded version using only set of files that you have from colourist. You dont need to obey Event or Project integrity on that as well - if there's only 50 files online from 2000, but thats enough for the edit - who cares? :) That's why I tend to split and sort data when it's done...
 
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I strongly suggest Event Manager X if you are working with limite resources in regards to external backup/space.
 
For every event (project) I create a new "disk image". This acts like a external hard drive and I can drag and drop it anywhere I want. This disk image is my startdrive for FCPX and all the clips and other media for the project. To not make it bigger then necessary I create a very big disk image (let´s say 500GB), but I choose the format type which grows with its content. I don´t know the exact name for it in the english dialog from disk utility, but I guess it´s something like "growing".
 
Little bit off topic....

Can I edit DNxHD with FCPX?

I'm going to shoot on BMCC in RAW(cinemaDNG) and the post will be done in a pc-mac environment. I'm going to edit in FCPX, but VFX, color grading will be done on a PC. And Resolve on PC doesn't support ProRes transcode (for editing in FCPX...) and on my MBP 13" I cannot use Resolve for transcoding CinemaDNG into ProRes.... So I need to do it on the PC, but that only transcodes to DNxHD for editing...
 
As long as you have the DNxHD codec in the same system as FCPX, yes.
I guess your doing it all on the PC from Cinema DNG to DNxHD?
Then finishing on FCPX with the DNxHD files?
 
You can't do it with MXF files. This can only be done by rewrapping (or exporting) the DNxHD files as Quicktime. You can use the codec, but you can't use the original avid files.
 
Another PROBLEM -- hopefully a work around: I have been asked for deliverables as Linear DPX files....Well, i can't export from FCPx as Linear DPX.....this is for a 4k or 3180x2160 output....

What would be the best way to do this? For now, seems only way to do is export prores 4k and then take to Apple Color and export Linear DPX....I don't yet have Resolve, but coming and integrated in maybe 4 months....so that is not a solution for me as of yet....any other work arounds that don't skin me on resolution each time i transcode?
 
M Most said:
You can't do it with MXF files. This can only be done by rewrapping (or exporting) the DNxHD files as Quicktime. You can use the codec, but you can't use the original avid files.
Click to expand...


That I know but I did he mention MXF and editing with Avid?

From the PC side, isn't DNxHD in a QT container?

Id have to check when I get to work tomorrow.
 
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