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Wrong Clip Size
Final Cut is showing me the wrong frame size dimensions after relinking from a small proxy to the original media. I would like to reset the frame size on all clips in my library.
Let me backup for a moment. We cut large documentaries and thus have tons of footage. We can’t keep it all on the shared storage so we have created our own custom made proxies to roughcut with. The workflow is fantastic except for a strange bug I noticed recently. We import our 640×360 proxies for editing, then during onlining, we relink to the 3840×2160 original media. Yet Final Cut doesn’t update the clip info in the inspector.
This is causing two problems.
1) When trying to export a clip from the event for the animators, I get a 640 sized movie instead of 3840.
2) When applying one of my custom zoom effects to this clip, the quality degrades becoming fuzzy. Yet doing the same zoom with the transform controls does not degrade the image. It seems the frame size is impacting any applied effects.
SO… I am looking for a way to reset the clip frame sizes on all the clips in my library. How do I “kick” Final Cut into re-calculating the frame size of clips?
I tried coping the Project to a new library and XML looses many of my effects. Anyone have another idea?
Chad Greene : Mahoney Media : Minneapolis, Minnesota : 2×2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon, 12GB Ram, OS 10.11 FCPX, Kona-LHi
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4 Replies
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Instead of starting with 4k resolution, relinking to externally-generated proxies, editing, then relinking back to 4k, IF you started with proxies this will fix the timeline at the settings of the first clip added (640×360 in this case), if using an “automatic settings” project.
Simply relinking the clips back to 4k will not change the project characteristics. This in turn limits what resolution you can export.
You will need to create a new 4k manual project and copy/paste the entire timeline over. CMD+A to select all clips in the old timeline, CMD+C to copy, switch to new timeline, CMD+V to paste.
If all clips are the same frame rate and pixel aspect ratio this should work. If the proxy clips have different frame rates this could cause shifting of some edit points due to rate conforming issues. Larry Jordan mentioned this here: https://larryjordan.com/articles/fcp-x-conform-different-video-frame-rates/
Externally-generated proxies can work, but each case is unique. It’s best to first test it on a small dataset, scale up, then re-test the end-to-end workflow using all representative codecs and media types before committing to full scale production.
If there is any doubt about the video characteristics of the external proxies, this can be checked with a tool like Invisor. This allows side-by-side spreadsheet-like comparison of multiple files. E.g, you want certain key items like pixel aspect ratio and audio parameters to match up between your proxies and the original media: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/invisor-media-file-inspector/id442947586?mt=12
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Joe, if I read your email correctly, I believe you are suggesting we start with our 4K footage, then relink to Proxies for editing? Unfortunately that workflow does not work for us. We need to start with Proxies because not all original media is on the system from our 18 years of filming. We do set our Project setting manually so they are correct.
The event media and the video in the timeline are both showing the proxy frame size even after relinking to the original media. This small clip frame size is what I want to reset. Any ideas how I can do that?
Chad Greene : Mahoney Media : Minneapolis, Minnesota : 2×2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon, 12GB Ram, OS 10.11 FCPX, Kona-LHi
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[Chad Greene] “Joe, if I read your email correctly, I believe you are suggesting we start with our 4K footage, then relink to Proxies for editing?
No, I was just explaining one way it might have happened. It is understandable you’d want to start with proxy resolution in this case.
[Chad Greene] We do set our Project setting manually so they are correct.
In limited testing I’ve done it seems sometimes relinking to higher res media changes the project resolution and sometimes not. Maybe it doesn’t change if going from NTSC material to higher res, because it would be considered a category change. When relinking from FCPX-encoded 854×480 23.98 progressive to 1920×1080 23.98p, it seemed to change.
[Chad Greene] …The event media and the video in the timeline are both showing the proxy frame size even after relinking to the original media. This small clip frame size is what I want to reset. Any ideas how I can do that?”
As I said, you can copy/paste all clips in the low-res project to a manually-created 4k project. You can relink before doing this or afterwards.
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A common thing people might miss with scaling footage is unchecking the option in the inspector that offers to fill the frame for you. You want the “none” option checked there, then you can scale it correctly. blowing up footage that the computer has already scaled up to fill the frame, drastically hurts the apparent resolution.
I have had to do post-production zooms into 2k and 4k footage and beyond about 20 percent the softening in 2K footage gets noticeable. Sometimes I find the best sharpening tool to improve this is to use the “denies” plug-in with both setting options set to “low”. Try that and see if it helps.
Another technique I’ve used to give the impression of more sharpness is to add a duplicate video track above the real one, and change the blend mode and opacity of it to highlight just the blacks.
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