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FCPX proxy workflow with full HD proxies?
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You can make your own proxies in any codec/resolution that you want and forego the automatic FCPX settings.
All you need to do is make sure the original clips and the proxies you make match identically in their audio channel configuration, starting timecode, frame rate and duration and you can Relink Event Files to originals or any proxy format you choose. This is *not* using FCPX’s own proxy mode but staying in Original Media mode and using the Relink Event Files command to toggle between the original media and your proxies.
The simplest way to do it is to create a folder called Proxies and encode all of your clips to that folder, keeping the same original media name. Then toggling back and forth is very easy because the names match and relink will automatically reconnect all clips in the folder.
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James-
Thanks for posting this. I have seen this mentioned before, but whenever I try to do this, really weird things happen, like my original media gets replaced with Proxy transcodes and then I can’t reconnect back to the original media.
I would say to be careful and test test, but if you know of a surefire workflow, I’d love to hear it.
Jeremy
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Wouldn’t you also need to have a similar frame size? Would all of your scaling and position effects translate accurately?
I haven’t found that I need to use proxy. Our shop uses xdcam ex at 35mbs, so I can put most projects on my second internal drive on my laptop.
The one time I wanted to use proxy was a project with a lot of multicam (5 streams) and my computer started having trouble with anything above 3 streams. I found however that I needed to create proxies of every bit of footage, not just my multiclips, and that bummed me out, so I just lived with the stuttering in the angle viewer.
Honestly, if you’re going to need to create proxies to edit more than a couple of multicam streams, wouldn’t it be better for fcpx to create a multicam clip that rendered down all the streams into one clip that would play in the angle editor? But I’m getting off topic…
If I were dealing with full prores files, I’d be tempted to use compressor to create full hd proxies in a more compressed format, and simply relinking the files back to the full prores when finished.
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Don’t live your life in a secondary storyline.Mark Morache
FCPX/FCP7/Xpri/Avid
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Mark Morache] “Wouldn’t you also need to have a similar frame size? Would all of your scaling and position effects translate accurately?”
No as fcpx has methods to handle this in the transform.
[Mark Morache] “If I were dealing with full prores files, I’d be tempted to use compressor to create full hd proxies in a more compressed format, and simply relinking the files back to the full prores when finished.”
This is the conundrum. James has success with it, I don’t.
I have gotten to the point where a Proxy files replaces the original h264 (or whatever) file in the Event > Original Media folder.
You then have to reimport the orig file and reconnect manually. It’s not pretty.
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That is exactly my experience. I have to move original files from the Events/Original Media folder before relinking, because as I relink to proxy, all the original media is lost (not even in thrash, gone) and links to proxy take their place.
in the end i will store both versions in separate locations outside of fcpx structure and relink manually, the same old Legacy way 🙂
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This is storing outside of the Original Media folder i.e. not copy on import. And not using the Proxy mode of FCPX- stick with Original Media at all times, simply force relink to the proxies you’ve made with the same file names. And keep in separate folders.
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[James Cude] “This is storing outside of the Original Media folder i.e. not copy on import. And not using the Proxy mode of FCPX- stick with Original Media at all times, simply force relink to the proxies you’ve made with the same file names. And keep in separate folders.”
Yes, but if you have cameras that get rewrapped, you have to remember to drag the media out of the Event folder.
It would be much easier if FCPX gave us an option to make full res HD proxys, or even ProRes LT would be a welcome option.
This way I can keep working while FCPX does all the mundane stuff for me.
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Sure but you’d have to touch those clips anyway to make your own proxies. Agreed that it would be ideal if you could control the exact size/codec/compression of proxies directly with FCPX’s proxy creation method. But the original poster was looking for a way to get better proxies with the app we have.
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[James Cude] “Sure but you’d have to touch those clips anyway to make your own proxies. Agreed that it would be ideal if you could control the exact size/codec/compression of proxies directly with FCPX’s proxy creation method. But the original poster was looking for a way to get better proxies with the app we have.”
I’m just saying, be careful.
It doesn’t take much to completely blow away all of your imported footage and replace it with proxy footage.
There’s a super specific way to do this, and it’s not as easy “relink to your own proxies”.
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