Alternative capture software

[Craig Ennis]

I haven’t had much time to really look at FCPX, I have kinda knee-jerk hated it but i’m noticing little features like the ones you mentioned that I really quite like.

[Craig Ennis]

much obliged, this info is invaluable

[T. Payton]

Thanks for the detail, I think we can help.

[craig ennis] “the initial problem that we are having is that when a student creates a new event the event folder and all the scratch is designated read only to al other users. sometimes during group work other group members my try to log in and access the project and are not able to.”

Ahh I see the trouble. FCP X storage for projects and events is based on a drive, not a location within that drive. However when saving to a startup drive, FCP X stores events and projects in a users home directory “movie” folder. You can tell you are storing in a users home folder because there will be a little “house” icon in the events library. The issue you are probably having is saving to that home directory because it has permissions just for that single user.

BTW: And there is no longer any specific “scratch drive” in FCP X. FCP X has now streamlined media/rendrer files, etc. with Events and Projects. Events are now containers for media, and projects are containers for timelines (however you can store timelines called compound clips in an event).

There are several ways multiple users (each with their own account) on a single machine to see the same FCP X events and projects. The recommended way to run FCP X is with an internal or external media drive of some kind. However, it appears that you don’t have that as an option. Therefore as a workaround you can create a disk image on your startup drive to serve as your media drive. Create a Disk Image in Disk Utility and make sure it is set to “sparce image” like below. Create it at the root of your startup drive.

Then you just need to double click the Disk Image and it will mount and be accessible to FCP X. (You can do this after FCP X launches) Now in FCP X, instruct everyone to create events and projects in that media drive.

For an even better solution make a media drive for each student. You’ll have to tell them to be on the honor system regarding not opening other media drives, but it would ensure everyone is only loading their projects.

There could be some more complexity to your network, but this should at least get you going in the right direction.

p.s. You could conceivably store that Disk Image “media drive” on your network. But unless it is blazing it will be a frustrating experience.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[T. Payton]

Oh one more thing…

FCP X is a very different animal in the eyes of us who have used other NLEs. But it was designed to a better way to edit stories. Simpler yes. But unbelievably efficient and very well thought out. (it still has bugs however.) Therefore think of FCP X as not only a new editor but a wholly different kind of App (drive based, not file based, always in ripple mode, will manage media for you, etc.) and it will take some time to get used to it and see the advantages.

I would highly recommend the PeachPit Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro X. This is Apple sanctioned, comes with a bunch of different types of media to edit with and is frankly fantastic. More in-depth and exhaustive than any of the video training I have watch. Work through this and you’ll be an FCP X expert and you can support your students much better.

https://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0132777398

If you don’t like to read, Ripple Training’s FCP X is also excellent:

https://www.rippletraining.com/categories/final-cut-studio-courses/final-cut-pro-products/final-cut-pro-10-core-training.html

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Ian Bailey]

[Andy Neil] “If the students each have their own Rugged, then why do you have to do anything special for them to use FCPX? Why not just plug it in and let them build their projects on the Rugged drive?”

We consider there to be enough room for two projects on each Rugged. So creating the two sparse images allows them to keep the Events and Projects from each project completely separate.

[Ian Bailey]

When you create your sparse image, don’t forget to set the maximum size in the Size field (see image a couple of posts back).

As an example: we use firewire drives that are 500GB in size. To allow for two projects on each, I create two sparse images with a max. size of 245GB each. When they are empty, they are around 300MB in size and obviously grow as media is imported.

I really prefer this way of working to having to set-up scratch disks. The student can go to any Mac in the building, plug in the hard drive, open the sparse image that contains their work and then launch FCPX.

[Andy Neil]

Is that to prevent them from having access to both projects at the same time?

Unless you have two students sharing one drive, I don’t understand why you’d want to go through the trouble. Except maybe as a way to prevent them from having one project get so large they don’t have room for the second project.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[T. Payton]

I hear what you are saying, however, help me understand, how would that be any different from each student having their own external drive and then using it normally without using sparse images?

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque