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Any pitfalls to making one’s own 4444 proxy media?
I am new-ish to intermediate with FCPX. This is the workflow I am considering:
I am using After Effects to create media with an alpha channel. I am exporting this comp from AE via AME to Prores 4444 1080p. I am also exporting the same AE comp to Prores 4444 at 640×360. I then import the 1080p to FCPX (I’m using v 10.1.3) and generate a proxie (which has no alpha). I then quit FCPX and open the FCP project package and move the 640×360 version of the footage to the Proxy folder and overwrite the FCP-generated proxy file.
When I restart FCP, I end up with proxy media with alpha channel that seems to play back and scrub super smoothly, even when there is a video track behind it showing through the alpha. At full res there are many dropped frames making editing difficult (I’m on a fairly slow computer). So I plan to use this workflow and edit in proxy mode, and output the final piece in full-res 1080p and / or 720p.
Does anyone out there see any pitfalls with this method? I’d hate to go far down this road and have some overlooked problem crop up. Are there better ways to get proxys with alpha?
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3 Replies
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Nope.
You’re doing it correctly. As you’ve learned, so long as your “substitute” proxies are precisely the same files, just with alphas, you should be fine.
All X does is swap the pointers from one content pool to the new one. Everything else remains the same.
Just remember to switch out of Proxy and back to Original Media before you generate your master and you should be good to go.
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Fred,
As Bill said, the workflow is totally correct.
I’ve have a beta of an app which does a kind of “source sensitive” proxy creation means alpa channel is preserved when needed. But you need Compressor to be installed.
Usage is easy. Open a library, the app scans it for original media and creates proxies for each project inside the library. Proxies will be scaled down 960 X size if needed. Still image size is always 50 % of original dimensions.I you are interested drop me an email: kiel{at}spherico dot com.
– Andreas
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools“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 -
“so long as your “substitute” proxies are precisely the same files, just with alphas, you should be fine.”
By which you men making sure the file names are identical? Just checking I’ve got it right.
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