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VirtualCameraCard (VCC)
I was asked a few days ago why it is not possible to import parts of long movies which are not cam files. Simple answer: it’s not possible.
But there is a trick, if the the movies are located inside a valid camera folder structure it will work.
VCC creates a sparsebundle with has a folder structure like a standard camera card.Normally movies created on computer, maybe on an HDR etc. can’t be imported partially. So you will do your selects inside the FCPX event browser.
This can be a good workflow since in most cases you just work with a link to the original files and the size of your event (i.e. Original Media folder) is kept small.
In case you want to convert the media the Original Media folder will grow by the full size of the converted file even if you only need a few sections of it.
With VCC you can collect the movies you partially want to import on a sparsebundle.
FCPX will see this sparse bundle as a camera file. So it will allow to import/convert portions of the movies.You can download it from here
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/VirtualCameraCard.dmg– Andreas
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools
X-Files Pro, tools for working with FCPX
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/index.html“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil -
4 Replies
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Nice one, Andreas.
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Once again, Andreas understands the real needs of editors and comes up with solutions that make our work easier.
This is a nice approach to the way I’m often being forced to work today – which is that I’m given content from others who don’t have the skills to know how to “package” their work properly.
They just shoot what they shoot, how they shoot it – then rely on the editor to figure out how to get it into an efficient workflow.
I’ve seen this more and more from agency types, young guns, rank amateurs, business owners, and others. who hand me “the video” and what I find when I open the card or thumb drive is a bunch of raw video file totally separated from any metadata.
Thanks for your efforts. They are appreciated.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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Here is another “tricky trick”.
I mentioned on another forum that you easily can convert a whole (media) drive into a “virtual cam card” by adding he mentioned folder structure.
This had been a bug in earlier FCPX versions. Nowadays you have to be a bit more aggressive to cause this error.Create a new folder and move all files of the drive into it.
Then create the cam card structure – as VCC does – including an empty .thm file.
Put a one frame .mov file into the “MOVIES” folder, name it “ZZZZZZZZ” or something with is at the end of the alphabet and doesn’t match any of your clips.This way the disk won’t show up in FCPX’s event browser. Pressing cmd-I will show all available media on the drive – regardless in which folder.
Import will be the same as you would have selected a file from a drive – means it will just import the whole clip either a link or if checked as a copy into the “Original Media”. Even though you can select ranges in the interface they will be ignored.Now the “tricky trick”. In Finder move the file(s) which you want to be handled as cam files to the “MOVIES” folder.
Now launch FCPX and press cmd-I.
In the import window switch to “Filmstrip View” and go back to the top and search for your “ZZZZZZZZ” movie. Every movie before this movie can be handled like a cam movie, all the rest behaves as normal.Have fun
AndreasSpherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools
X-Files Pro, tools for working with FCPX
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/index.html“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil -
I’ve added an update.
The new version also allows symbolic links. This is way faster than copying files.
You can can use them when you know your media files stay in place and are not changed. Sparsebundle sizes also will be dramatically smaller.I’ve also uploaded the small help file if you want to read upfront.
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/VCC.pdfNew version.
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/VirtualCameraCard.dmg– Andreas
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools
X-Files Pro, tools for working with FCPX
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/index.html“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
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