[Jeff Kirkland]

Playing with FCPX and El Capitan on a spare iMac, there’s definitely a bug or three lurking. Not just in the third party apps but in FCPX itself. Not big things but lots of instability, graphics glitches, and things just not quite working right.

I always recommend holding off before upgrading an operating system, but it’s definitely a wise thing to do in this case. Hopefully we’ll see an FCPX update soon because performance definitely feels a lot snappier running on 10.11.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

When El Capitan was released, they sent an email to users warning of the issue and saying opening the LUT Manager would fix it. Good to see you figured it out.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

Tripod mode pretty much does what it says on the tin… It’ll try to give you a locked off shot, but if you’ve kept the motorcyclist close enough to the centre of the frame as you shot, it might be enough to stabilise the shot and get the result you need without using TrackX.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

True, although in my head we didn’t see the door in the shot, just the effect of it opening. And you’d need to think about what the light looks like if it’s supposed to illuminate (or not) any other objects in the room. And are there dust particles suspended in the air. And is it artificial light, sunlight, weird alien science light….

Fortunately, something on the screen for one second doesn’t have to be nearly as convincing as something on the screen for 10 seconds.

But yes, I can imagine having to roto lots of layers of light if there were other objects visible and you needed to emulate falloff, etc. A lot of work for something that could probably have been practically emulated with a real light and a flag on set.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I’m guessing this is one of those situations where some muppet actually said “We’ll fix it in post” out loud, and everyone listened? The most convincing way to do it would be to have done it practically on set.

It’s a hard one to answer without seeing the footage and knowing the context. The shaft of light from a door looks very different in a horror film compared to a romantic comedy for example.

Anyway, if I was short on time, I’d start by looking at footage of something that has the effect I want, frame by frame. Then I’d comp, blend, and animate a highly feathered block of white into the frame and emulate the shaft of light as best I could.

If I had more time, I’d experiment with dropping the footage into a 3D environment and letting virtual light spill in from an opening virtual door.

You say the door bursts open so the light is pretty much going to be instant on so there’s probably not a lot of animation to do, just an initial fade in – and maybe widening of the light – to simulate the door opening and getting the compositing mode right.

But that’s all said without having any idea of the starting image or the final effect you’re trying to achieve.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

Yep – that’s exactly what it can do. In a recent update, they added the ability to track an object and keep it in the centre of the frame (or whatever offset you choose, I guess). It’s intended for keeping wandering presenters locked to the centre of a small picture-in-picture frame but useful for a whole host of things 🙂

You can see the demo here: https://vimeo.com/124021177

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

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[Jeff Kirkland]

The TrackX plugin from CoreMelt can do that automatically for you.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

If you change the library and cache settings FCPX will start using the new location for import and rendering, etc from then on but everything prior to the change will stay on the old location unless you choose to consolidate it.

I think that’s what you’re trying to achieve.

Hope that makes sense – haven’t had my morning coffee yet.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I’m based in a 25p country so I don’t quite have the same conform issues that some other editors do, but I do deal with a lot of U.S. originated footage so I’m constantly shoving 30p into a 25p timeline.

I’d say the result is fine 90% of the time (or maybe I’m just not all that fussy – not sure) so I’m very happy to learn of this new conform option as now I might be able to deal with that last 10% inside FCPX.

Gotta love any day when I learn something cool and useful.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

The existence of the conform control was a new one on me as well…. I guess it’s been too long since I actually read the FCPX user guide.

Meanwhile, to save Adam creating yet another thread about what, I assume, is essentially the same multi-framerate question, FCPX doesn’t really care much about what combination of footage you’re dropping into the timeline. That’s not to say there aren’t ever issues, but they are few and far between.

Did something specific go wrong when you imported all the footage, tried to make your multiclip, etc? I just figure we’ll be able to help better if you let us know what exactly went wrong when you combined the 30 & 24fps footage.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland