[Ben Balser]

It is the default written into the FCPX application preferences. It’s not a project or library preference.

[Ben Balser]

Actually, the only one I’d trust is McAfee, which is why so many hacks claim to be McAfee.

[Ben Balser]

Most of the time the standard H.264 in the standard Export File preset works just fine for those types of things.

But yes, if you need something more specific or different, you’d need Compressor to go in and tweak something custom like that, if needed at all.

[Ben Balser]

Optimized or Proxy media will have zero effect on your output. Unless you have your Canvas menu set to use proxies, then all you get is proxy quality. Be sure it’s set to Original/Optimized before exporting. Also, you may want to delete all the render files for that library before exporting (be sure background rendering is turned off, and never gets turned on every again).

[Ben Balser]

MotionVFX makes mO2 (soon to be replaced with mO3 in production now), nothing better, really, to build your own easily.

MotionVFX may also have some templates to choose from similar to this.

Or use Motion’s native support for USDZ files and build your own.

https://support.apple.com/guide/motion/intro-to-3d-objects-motna7ed1f77/mac

[Ben Balser]

Yep, bunch of us having this with either the macOS 13.3.0 or more often with the 13.3.1 updates.

Here’s the thread you want to join in on.

https://creativecow.net/forums/thread/au-eval-bug-in-fcpx-since-ventura-13-3-1-update/

AU Eval Bug in FCPX since Ventura 13.3.1 update

[Ben Balser]

P.S. I also found I had to remove the recently installed Screens4 app before FCP started working again.

[Ben Balser]

Found the solution. I had recently installed Screens 4. Uninstalled it, and everything is now fine. But yes, there is an AU Validation issue. Mine hung up on various different AudioUnits, including Apple’s own SoundIsolation AU. I really don’t think it’s specific AUs, it’s something buggy in Ventura 13.3.1.

[Ben Balser]

First, don’t ever try to compare the two NLEs at all, they are so vasty different, it won’t work.

PPro gives you a “project file” which is just that. A flat data-base file with info about the project, no media is involved.

FCPX give you a “Library” which is a vastly different animal. All media is (there’s an option to keep it external) inside of it, along with all cache files, etc. So there’s no “file” that balloons up, it is a “Library.bundle” technically speaking. You can (very carefully) right-click an FCPX Library and chose “Show Package Contents”. Just don’t mess with anything inside of there unless you absolutely know what you’re doing. But that is how to look inside the bundle.

You do have automatic backups of the project data in FCPX. Look in your Movies folder, for a folder called “Final Cut Backups.” These are what you’re more used to in PPro, they’re just time stamped backups of the data. You can revert back to any of these at any time by double-clicking one. It will open and be independent of your original. You could sync that folder to an online storage service if you wanted to. And like PPro, none of your media is included, so you’d want to back that up also, meaning, like any computer system that you make a living off of, it should have nightly back-ups running to a back-up drive, in case your drive itself fails.

If you wanted to, you could set the Library to store media in an external location, but you’re still using the same amount of drive space. Media inside or outside of the Library doesn’t save nor use any extra space, media files are media files.

[Ben Balser]

When you say FCP won’t show pixel size, you’re using the closed captioning function, which is not the same as sub-titles. So, as a former broadcaster, do they want “sub-titles” which are burned in, or “closed captioning” which is coded, thus you don’t have control over things like font size, because it is a strict technical standard that the FCC will not let you deviate from. But for regular text, yes, you can specify font size.

If you need “sub-titles”, there are templates available for that for FCPX, plus making a sub-title template yourself in Motion would be super easy.