Trouble found with keeping large timelines in Compound Clips

[Oliver Peters]

[Timothy Payton] “I’m sure Apple never envisioned those many edits living in an event and therefore needing to be constantly saved (that is why the slowdown with every keypress). I’m confident they will get alot of the plumbing fixed soon.”

If that’s truly the case, they didn’t learn a thing from 12 years of FCP development and over 10 years of Lightworks, EMC and Avid development prior to that. “Objects” to be tracked have always been the source of slowdowns in any of these applications. Avid has a max number of files in their media files folders because of this and incorporated the “toggle playlength” to speed up working on long timelines eons ago.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Andy Neil]

My guess is that they didn’t anticipate this use of compound clips. Personally, I would create multiple projects as opposed to compound clips. I think storing previous edits in the event browser is sort of like trying to make FCPX behave like FCP7. Still, I suppose it’s to be expected when copy/paste from sequence to sequence was so simple in tab form, and now takes longer because you have to navigate out to the project library to a new sequence and then back again with copied material.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Timothy Payton] “Just to clarify on my findings, compound clips are great even for long form, the problem is when a bunch of them reside IN AN EVENT, which itself has alot of clips. Compound clips IN A PROJECT don’t seem to be a problem.
To illustration, check out the sizes of my project:
PROJECT: CurrentVersion.fcpproject : 87MB. That just stores the edits.
EVENT: CurrentVersion.fcpevent: 138 MB. That is a DB storing the edits and all the clips.”

Tim,

Let me revisit this, because I don’t understand your answer. It is my understanding that edited sequences are projects and only live in the projects folder. Compound clips made from projects or clips within a project only live in the project, the same as a nest in FCP 7. They are essentially invisible, unless you click to open the compound clip.

Events and the events folder house the clips. Compound clips within the events folder would only be things like synchronized clips. So, are you creating a compound clip in the Event by combining several clips and then loading and editing that? This is possible to do, from what I’ve seen, but it seems backwards, except maybe for multicam.

I’m confused because I don’t see a way to edit a project (sequence), turn it into a compound clip (nest) and then move that from the project to the event browsers and libraries. That’s how I understand your explanation. Would you clarify that? Thanks.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[T. Payton]

[Oliver Peters] “So, are you creating a compound clip in the Event by combining several clips and then loading and editing that? This is possible to do, from what I’ve seen, but it seems backwards, except maybe for multicam.”

Oliver – According the to the FCP manual compound clips have all the same functionality as projects and you can create a empty compound clip in an event to make a “sequence” so to speak. Just click in the event browser, deselect everything by command-shift a and then option-g to create a empty compound clip. I tag them with the keyword “sequence” so I can keep track of them easily. It is much easier to do in practice that it is even to describe here.

The difference between the edit living in a project and the edit living in an event is only the location of the database that stores the file. In a project the edit is the only thing in the database file, while if the edit is in an event it is part of the event database which also contains references to all your clips. The problem that I was describing comes because FCP X is saving with every keystoke to the database (to illustrate this, adjust the color board pucks with the keyboard and then try it again with the mouse and listen to your hard drive access, and notice the delay when using the keyboard) and for whatever reason this saving is bogged down when an edit lives in an event and isn’t bogged down when the edit is in a project.

My guess as why this slow down is happening is that because FCP X offers unlimited undos (not a hundred or a thousand, but unlimited), it is actually keeping a journal record in that database file of ever single change to a file. (!) If you watch the project and or event folder you can see this journal file being created often times. This has the advantage of not loosing your work, but the current disadvantage of some speed issues with large edits.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Oliver Peters]

[Timothy Payton] “According the to the FCP manual compound clips have all the same functionality as projects and you can create a empty compound clip in an event to make a “sequence” so to speak. Just click in the event browser, deselect everything by command-shift a and then option-g to create a empty compound clip. I tag them with the keyword “sequence” so I can keep track of them easily. It is much easier to do in practice that it is even to describe here.”

OK, cool. I understand how you got there now. I would suggest that this isn’t the way they intended anyone to work. At least not for complex edits.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com