events consolidation merging and duplicating etc…

[Anita Sancha]

Hi..

What is the way to consolidate files? I have managed to sort out the project and it has clip files on 4 different events and 3 drives. So what is the proper way to consolidate for archiving without FCPX just creating copies of yet more clips. I am so short of hard drive (project uses 356gb of clips) that it cant combine events into one as it makes yet a further file and then delete the ones it has been told to combine.

Thanks

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Jeremy Garchow]

Not to sound pedantic, but I think it’s a good idea to read the manual on this. It is pretty clear in the differences between Consolidate, Organize, and Merge, and it is also a quick read.

Perhaps you just needed to Organize as that brings everything to the Event from external sources.

If you need one clip, you can also drag that clip to the current Event and then Organize, if in fact you want to Organize.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Jeremy

[Anita Sancha]

Hi… I think I am getting to the bottom of this..

I think consolidate does mean put everything together in one place.

consolidate
.
combine (a number of things) into a single more effective or coherent whole.
“all manufacturing activities have been consolidated in new premises”
synonyms: combine, unite, merge, integrate, amalgamate, fuse, blend, mingle, marry, synthesize, bring together;

What consolidate did was to duplicate and make copies of most of the files.

i.e a multiclip called”test” became “test copy” then “test copy of” and “test copy of that!!!???

Anyway I have tested and trained myself on what FCPX is doing on a laptop with just a few short files and it does seem that this project has got corrupted. Perhaps because the drive was short of memory or ????

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Anita Sancha]

Hi…

Well how in a test of modifying consolidating, organising, moving from one drive to another via duplicating and hoping that copying to new event folder would take ALL the clips and (only 1 instance of it)and put it into another drive for archiving do to I get to this image ? with just 2 files in the project used several times by copying from one project to another. Surely it knows that i have only used 2 clips originally.

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Jeremy Garchow]

[anita sancha] “I think consolidate does mean put everything together in one place.”

The way Apple uses it means that you put everything on one drive, but you keep the Event structure in tact and it also leaves a copy on the original drive.

Avid has a different way of consolidating.

At first I thought you were trying to move Events to one drive.

After reading your latest post, are you trying to do media manage a Project?

Tell me exactly what you are trying to do.

[Anita Sancha]

Hi..

I have a mac pro with 5 drives mostly large 750gb to 4TB
mac book retina 1tb latest laptop top spec.

I had about 120 HD clips (350gb) (3 cameras multi clipped) to make into a short video (4 min) with many psds and overlays of after effects alpha animations… which were often dragged and dropped onto the timeline.

I think I have managed to archive the project …( although I now realise I have to add some more to it !)….some of the clips were not copied to the duplicated archive events folder . and are still showing up in the modify reference events and are showing as clips missing yet they are there. yet it was told to duplicate.

However I think it is they way I am managing the projects and events that is causing the problems.:-

Mostly the errors start when I make duplicates of the projects in numerical order in order to sort of back them up. i.e project 01 project 02 project 03 ( like AE does a incremental save.) I then feel happy that I can revert. I got to project 14 !!! Even though I do have time machine!!!! But I do delete the early ones keeping the last 4 or so most recent.

I then run out of drive space and then need to duplicate events and projects to start on another drive. Sometimes I try and do a clean duplicate of the project and use copy clips to a new event. And then delete all the other projects and events….But it does not always move ALL of the clips. It might move say 119 and leave 3!!!

So I need some sort of clean up stratagem there, because if I try and relink the clips it makes test01.mov clip into test 01 copy .mov …. test 01 copy copy .mov etc.

So starting with problem 1

why does FCPX not copy ALL of the clips in a duplicated project and events to another place correctly.
why does it not TELL me which clip are missing and giving these a NAME instead of just a warning triangle. in modify references

Just 2 of my problems……

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Bill Davis]

[anita sancha] “So starting with problem 1

why does FCPX not copy ALL of the clips in a duplicated project and events to another place correctly.
why does it not TELL me which clip are missing and giving these a NAME instead of just a warning triangle. in modify references

Just 2 of my problems……

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.
“

Anita,

With all due respect, the actual problem is that you started on an extremely complex and lengthy project without knowing much about how the wider X digital asset management ecosystem works. I see that alot. It’s the common “I’m an experienced editor, so I bet I can just dive in and operate this on a big project and learn as I go.”

It’s a poor process for learning X. Because while the timeline stuff can be done that way – the front end and back end organization is MUCH more complex than the timeline operations – as you have painfully learned.

In X if you don’t have a well developed strategy for where you’ll store and archive your assets, events and projects, and even ancillary files like graphics and art – it can cause you much grief later – because once you build your database – the database becomes a cohesive THING – and it can’t just be dragged around like a folder. It sits at the heart of a web of connections, and if you move the central hub – ALL it’s connectons need to be re-configured.

This is simple on a project with a dozen assets – but totally non-trivial with a project such as yours that has hundreds and hundreds of assets.

You need to understand WHEN to store internally (inside root level Projects and Events – and when it’s smarter to store things externally via disk archives or sparse bundles – and when it makes more sense to reference assets or to bring assets directly into Events as local clips.

I honestly think the biggest problem folks who struggle with X have, is that when they’re learning to use it – they focus on the timeline. In X that’s barely HALF the power of the program.

Now to specifics.

If I were you. I’d start with a blank piece of paper. Draw a diagram starting with pictures of the drives you have available – then boxes representing your source footage libraries – be they cards or drives or sparse bundles or whatever. Then draw boxes for the Event & Project Libraries you want to maintain (on whatever drives) and workout a FLOW between them. Idealize the structure of where you want things to be. Where’s your main Event and Project? Where are the backups of the same? What (if anything) will you need to store on your root system drive? Hint, the closer to “nothing” this is, the better your complex work will go!

For example, I see people all the time who store SOME assets on their root drive – but store others as references. If an editor keeps doing that – they can build huge but unnecessarily diverse stored “pools” of assets without much rhyme or reason – and then you’re kinda where you are – you need an equally HUGE blank drive environment in order to consolidate the mess.

When you start to intuitively understand the storage structure of X – and why it was built the way it was (centralized database accessibility for diverse and remote events and projects) you’ll start to appreciate it more.

I know it’s easy to get impatient. But right now, it’s like you just want to start cooking, but you’ve got the ingredients stored in cabinets in a dozen rooms – some close and some far away – and you’ve GOT to step back and get things consolidated. I see you understand this, but unfortunately you’ve already started the cooking process and you’re surrounded by a kitchen mess where it’s difficult to see the patterns in the chaos..

The good news, is that if you stick with this and get is sorted out, you’ll discover that when you go to cook in the future – the instant you want paprika or 1 tbsp of butter or exactly four and a half ounces of red snapper – you’ll be able with a couple of keystrokes to have PRECISELY that delivered to your hand instantly.

And you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to cook when you no longer have to even turn to reach into a cupboard for anything.

It’s tough to be Edison – in the middle of how NOT to make a light bulb. But with time and patience, you’ll get there.

I’d go with Paper – (or, perhaps a killer workflow diagramming tool like OmniGraffle) or whatever works for you. But I would NOT keep flailing until you go back and define the shape of what you need to build to organize your project.

Because it’s ten times more difficult to get somewhere you haven’t been before – if you don’t have a map.

Good luck.

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.

[Anita Sancha]

Hi. Thanks…

Yup I’m sure you are right… Learned a million million things about fcpx in last few weeks.

Having archived the latest project and archived it.. Is there a way of resetting FCPX back to default so the database renders links etc… Are reset! E.g. Trash the whole programme and reinstall or is there another way to clear it’s muddled database…

Anita

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Jeremy Garchow]

[anita sancha] “I then run out of drive space and then need to duplicate events and projects to start on another drive. Sometimes I try and do a clean duplicate of the project and use copy clips to a new event. And then delete all the other projects and events….But it does not always move ALL of the clips. It might move say 119 and leave 3!!!”

I think this is part, a big part, of the problem.

All you need to do is keep versioning Projects. There’s no reason to create new Events and delete media. Just keep the first Event until the end when you want to make a new event with only the used media from the Project.

In Avid land, this is known as consolidate. Consolidate in fcpx means something totally different.

Once you are complete, you can choose to “Duplicate Project + Used Media”.

This will create a new Project and new Event with only the media in your final Project on a destination hard drive of your choice.

Fcpx isn’t perfect here. Sometimes, if you use compound clips, weird pieces of media tag along that might not be in the Project. I am hoping the next version of X cleans up these weird database issues.

Also, to clear space, you should try deleting render files. This is done through the File menu and can be done on both Projects and Events.

[Bill Davis]

As usual, Jeremy is spot on.

Trashing your render files is an excellent way to reclaim hard drive space and it’s completely non-destructive since you can re-render things at will.

You might be shocked at the amount of space you recover this way – since render files are the primary asset class in X that’s not referenced back to the source footage – but full-sized stand alone content files.

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.