[Ben Balser]

FCPX has no built-in “watch folder” type of function, unfortunately. You’d have to use some third party utility, or I don’t know if Apple Script works with FCPX. But yes, a watch folder function would be very much welcomed in FCPX.

[Ben Balser]

Don’t rely on the LUT crutch. Develop your color grading skills better. Bring saturation for flesh tones in the mid up a tad. Use chroma masks. But there’s no magic fix-skin-tone LUT. Aside from camera LUTs, look LUTs IMHO are way over rated. But if you’re really hooked on LUTs, shop around, there’s tons of them out there. Some free, some for sale.

[Ben Balser]

Remove Chrome totally from your system. Here’s why.

chromeisbad.com

Also, I’d update to macOS 14.5, and you’re on the latest FCPX so that helps.

[Ben Balser]

First, make sure background rendering is turned off.

Then, delete all render files.

Only then would I trash the pref files.

I’ve seen this once or twice, but many years ago.

What macOS and FCPX versions are you running?

Do you have the Chrome Browser installed?

Also, try creating a new Library, new Event, new Project. Then in the original, select all and copy. Then paste that into the new Project.

[Ben Balser]

Oh, that’s a tricky one. You’d need one keyed to key out the blue of the sky, and a second keyer to key out the white clouds. The thing that concerns me is that most birds have some white on them. You have to be careful keying out white, because so much of a video frame is also white that you want to keep. I’d also do this in Motion, it handles multiple keyers better than FCPX.

Something else I’d try, is doing all of this in Pixelmator Pro (or Photoshop). It has an intelligent color selector that would make this stuff a breeze. Then just let it process that across the whole video.

[Ben Balser]

So he tells you exactly where that happens, eh? Have you gone to that very spot in the FCPX project timeline to verify things?

[Ben Balser]

Yes, here’s the user manual about how to properly create multicam clips.

https://support.apple.com/guide/final-cut-pro/intro-to-multicam-editing-ver23c76439/mac

support.apple.com

Intro to multicam editing in Final Cut Pro for Mac

In Final Cut Pro for Mac, you can edit footage from multicamera shoots or other synced footage in real time.

[Ben Balser]

Yes, you always needed the RED Cinema Workflow software installed for FCP.

[Ben Balser]

I raised twin boys, yes, wish there was a command line to just shut them down at times… (sigh)

[Ben Balser]

Stick with Thunderbird! Apple Mail lacks many of Thunderbird’s functions, you’ll lose all of that, and Apple doesn’t make migrating emails over very easy. In fact it seems they try to covertly fight your ability to do this. I’m a HUGE Thunderbird fan, it will read data from your Apple Contacts, ZERO ISSUES, you do not need to use the Thunderbird calendar or address book, use the ones that come with macOS and TB will recognize them. Again, I’ve used Thunderbird for many years, never had issues with it accessing data from the macOS Contacts app.