[Kyrina Bluerose]

Oooh, yes! Transform – I was able to achieve it keyframing transform – worked so much better.

At 12.5% viewing, dragging the KB start box seems to hit invisible bumper-margins on the sides, and once that happens, you can’t get it to go back to 16:9 – and moving it around just keeps changing aspect ratio. Does this happen for you too?

As for the other problem – I think the project I am doing is pushing the limits of my small/weak/old machine. Now I have to wait and do other things while it renders each change. I can’t mix my SFX in the main project so I bounce the latest edit to mp4, reimport to new project and do SFX edits there. Music I will just have the composer do, then marry them after. BTW, I was encouraged to enter it into festivals by an animation director rather than just post on youtube, so it seems worth all the problems!

☺ Thanks again for all your help; you rock.

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Thank you! Can’t believe you would remember this post after all this time. I just re-shot the clip I needed. AND had to re-create the original artwork to do so-but I took that as an opportunity to practice learning time-lapse.

OK, so That would be a cool addition to effects – to be able to have more controls over water pane. It would be super handy if ever looking through a moving car windshield – wouldn’t want to rotate the frame if the people would be upside down, and camera op/cinematographer may not know to shoot upside down. Or creepy horror movie where some things aren’t as they should be… Lots of potential uses.

Thank you!

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

thanks, Jeff!

I came home to find my computer had crashed–>off. I had saved 3 similar sessions with names at the same time. Two are still there, the third – no trace. Didn’t have the same problem with the other two. No idea why the third was different in the transparency issue or in vanishing. Hopefully it will be fine to re-create, but if I run into trouble, I will absolutely try the layer mask idea.

I wasn’t going for pure black, but the entire area that was selected and not removed became transparent equally which I thought weird.

Cheers!

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Joe – you rock.

forgive my delay. a solid week of battling tech fried my circuits and I needed to make the space available in the bio-drive to look at this again.

[Joe Marler] “try your data and library on another machine.”

Well, I ran it on another machine from my 6TB. no change. Saved whole library and files to a SSD & it ran OK off that on another machine.

I may have figured something out.

[Joe Marler] “My gut feel is there’s something wrong with your machine”
As likely and imminent as that is, I don’t think that’s the case here. You’re right too, though – I think my machine is too small/slow to keep up with all that I’m asking of it. I’m doing my first animation, blending stop-motion frames with modified video clips. There is keyframing, effects, and multiple layers in the timeline.

I think what happened was a backlog of rendering jammed up, and in conjunction with Force Quitting, troubleshooting, I got a loop somewhere that didn’t show up. A lot of the troubleshooting I did was something to stop rendering files. I decided, even though I still don’t precisely or thoroughly understand rendering and render files (I’m pretty new here, still learning how to use – never did any video editing that wasn’t music editing before 2018), that they might be important. I selected and rendered each clip separately, set the render setting back to on, watched a big chunk of impact entertainment panel discussions, did a reboot and it is running smoothly again. The little dots disappeared too. So now when I am working, I let it completely render before doing too much more. Making a change toward the beginning of the clip takes much longer to render the rest of it out, than at the end. This is making for slow-going, but at least it works well enough to finish this project and save up for a stronger machine.

[Joe Marler] “Whether the timeline is rendered or not rendered is likely unrelated to this problem.”

There very well may be additional layers to this problem, but rendering it all out seems to drastically helped. Why it was stuck could be a lingering problem, manifesting again later somehow.

Opening previous libraries are still wonky, but not nearly as bad. I think what I was seeing was somehow related to the rendering loop whatever, and what i’m left with is projects created on an older version and not every tiny thing is compatible. Or there are fragments of a problem floating around to hunt down in the future.

[Joe Marler] “Blackmagic “

I’m going to shut down the system before sleep, and after booting tomorrow, will run Blackmagic again and compare the results. That seems a useful tool; thank you.

THANK YOU for sticking with this one and making so many suggestions!

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

[Joby Anthony Jr] “Joe’s troubleshooting tips and +1 for hanging in there with you”

ABSOLUTELY. Above and beyond, generous, and respectful. So often through life are the “quick fixers” who bail as soon as they do one thing which may or may not have been appropriate or successful.

[Joby Anthony Jr] “6TB external drive only had 3GB of available”

lol typo my bad 3TB of 6 avail.

[Joby Anthony Jr] “brand new 2 min. clip from your 80D. Import it to the mini and create a new library on the mini, etc.”

yes, did this. worked smoothly. Slowly I added effects and such, but never did so much that it slowed down.

thank you for your suggestions! I may have figured it out?!?!

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for hanging in.

[Joe Marler] “click View>Proxy. Just trying to cover every base.”
Yes, good to cover all bases. Yes, have been creating and viewing proxies. I’m not offended. Sometimes the readers are on the person’s head as they look everywhere.

I deleted and reinstalled FCPX, no change.

I haven’t yet put the library on another hard drive on another machine. I ran it on Wednesday from my 6tb. Since, I’ve put the library on my 2TB drive and ran it from there (on my machine). A friend offered to load it on his drive and try it on his computer, but nobody in my area is going out unless necessary because of the fires. Not too much in danger where I am in Venice/Marina, but the smoke always gets carried out to the ocean and it’s really thick here so it’s an inside day, and still bad allergies.

I started using the Canon Digital Professional 4 software recently, possible coincidentally, possibly related to issues. Any problem inherent in media coming out of that? I didn’t load everything straight from SD card – some was wireless. It’s probably just coincidental since the worst of it was after a few days of using it.

I’m not sure why the behavior is happening suddenly across different libraries, or why it will be somewhat inconsistent, running a group of frames fine sometimes.

Little dots are not going away, nothing is rendering – perhaps because i deleted all render files?

[Joe Marler] “greyed out”
First time it wasn’t. Second time it was (had selected project in browser not clips in timeline). Wrote reply. Went back, tried selecting all, then it was available to click, no change.

Opening BMD from applications folder – I see the time I reinstalled FCPX is there, but somehow without my involvement, the rest of the bundle and other mac apps I don’t use updated at 6am. Today, I’ve been delaying the update queries (I like to wait to do any system updates like Mojave until after big projects-just in case) since I don’t have it set to automatically do updates. odd. It also is taking a lot longer to reboot now. No problems using Word, Logic, or Chrome.

BMD: mac>mac HD>users>me>documents – correct? I don’t use those folders, just fyi – I keep all my stuff on my 6TB, and programs use those folders as they do.

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

It is SO very kind of you to take so much time to help with this – even if we can’t fix it, I sincerely appreciate what you are doing for me!

I’m trying to upload a screenshot of the about this mac and the BMD scan and now that isn’t working either! Oh and now my internet is gone. sigh. I should walk down to the ocean and back.
Mac Mini Late 2012
bought it new in 2013
High Sierra 10.13.6
Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Startup Disk Macintosh HD
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
Very basic. I’m no tech whiz or know much about modifying computers; simply trying to use one.

Playback isn’t showing black frames – holding on one every 16 frames, skipping ahead to the next one, holding that – and the clock/counter reflects that. Once in a while, here and there it runs smoothly- but it is increasingly rare. Even the long clip of a single photo with no effects is skipping. yes, normal playback – using space bar or L.
Copied entire folder with all media and library to a second external just in case i mess anything up.
The same problem is in every project in every library now.
There are little dots spanning the entire length of all projects.
The check is in the circle and reveals no background tasks running.
I did remove effects on the snapshot yesterday and it did nothing. I was very careful.
I deleted that snapshot at the end of the night.
Created another today, but now, delete effects is greyed out.
Are all these problems due to having the student version?
Trying to do BMD on “system drive” but a) i don’t know exactly what that is, which in the list to choose from, and the ones I choose (Mac mini, Mac hard drive, folder labeled System) flash a message “disk speed test cannot be run on the selected location because it is read only.” I’ll attach a screen shot of the run I did on the external 6TB.
Opening the library from a 2TB exHD: same problems.
Created Test library, followed directions carefully, same problems. (some missing/red) Remove effects not greyed out, clicked it, nothing happened. effects still there, dots still there, background tasks silent, check in circle.
Opened other libraries that worked fine last I saw them, same problems and then some. Looked much worse.
A friend will try running it this afternoon.
I will also try a complete reinstall of FCPX.
I’m really anxious to finish this project before I lose my ideas and momentum – which is starting to happen.
Thanks for your help again; really appreciate it.

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Thank you!

Haven’t learned any color correcting yet so hopefully this will be a good intro. I’ve just been trying to use the basic dots in the inspector and eyeball it. Looking forward to learning how to bring two clips into the viewer for sure – that would be helpful in many cases. Hopefully I’ll be able to use FCPX again soon.

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

WOW; thank you so much for all your detailed help/info! So generous.
Had to psych myself up to try to figure this out and start looking at it.
The playback and incorrect display persists without any rendering activity listed.

Mac 10.13.6
2.5GHz i5 Intel
16GB 1333MHz DDR3
500GB SATA 170GB avail
6TB ex Seagate HD 3GB avail
Canon 80D
Insignia SD card reader
FCPX 10.4.3 (standard issue, no aftermarket mods yet)
LPX 10.4.2

All media on the external, library, audio – all in one place. I don’t work off SD card – save to exHD first. Created optimized and proxy on import.

My project isn’t what I’d call huge. Many layers, but under 2 minutes. Animated. My backup external to my main external is only 2TB (need new one asap) so only copy is on the 6TB. HFS journaled yes.

History – recent gradual slowdown, over a couple days. I can’t remember exactly, since it was gradual, what I imported that may have caused anything. I keep importing as I create. I deleted the SFX from LPX (no edits anyway) and the SFX from freesounds. (they may still be there in “rejected”?)

Don’t believe there is any AVCHD – all came from the 80D, so .mov and Mp4 most likely. Some was time-lapse, some were photos, some were video. 24 FHD, some may have been 60HD. May have “left files in place” since media was in same folder as library, thought extra copies would slow it down.

-OK, downloaded Apple Pro Video Formats. (Do I do something with it?)
-Copied FCPX backups.
-Deleted render files and proxies.
-Closed, opened, playback still is still skipping by 16 frames on average.
-I noticed there is a line of dots across the top of the timeline. I am new at this, but i don’t remember them being there this whole time. The check is in the circle, no background activities active.
-Created snapshot, removed effects. same skipping, still about every 16 frames. Water pane was still there, isn’t that an effect? Placing playhead still has slow/no response.
-Apple diagnostics showed nothing. Same problems.
-Disk repair on mac HD & 6TB ex HD, no problems detected. re-boot seemed to take longer, thumbnails of desktop icons took longer, opening chrome/loading pages took longer, and no change to the FC problems. Unusable lags.
-Spotlight indexes: don’t know what to put in with the + so just put in my 6TB exHD, then hit -.
-brought my entire external HD (couldn’t bounce/share project) to someone else’s mac and had the same issues so think it might be a bug in the library?
-Opened a different library; similar problems, PLUS it appears disturbingly wonky different from what it looked like before. I had to “update” to be compatible with the later version of FC; perhaps therein lies the problem there, but the new project was begun in new version. Sure hope the artist won’t want any changes; I’d be so screwed.
-BM disc test – selected exHD and both meters run, but after the first cycle one of each, nothing below is changing, and the speedometers keep alternating. Is it finished? There are some green checks and white x’s. I suppose I’ll just let it keep running and check back on it later.

In summary, I’ve done every thing on the list the best I can figure out how and no change. I’m feeling confused, overwhelmed, demoralized, wasting my time not learning anything. That describes half the time I’ve spent on FCPX in totality. I’ve had this new FCPX not very long. It was working fine (better than the cracked one I started on to decide if I wanted to buy it) and now it’s not. I have no idea why, and no idea how to make it work. I feel badly I’ve wasted your time and generosity trying to help me. I don’t know what to do, but am grateful for the time you took advising me.

Sorry this is long; I tried to be thorough and clear.
Thanks again.

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Thanks, Joby!
All good suggestions. Will try them when I can get my program useable again. May just have to re-shoot what I need there already flipped.
Surprised there isn’t a way to change the water direction in the inspector – everything else is there…
🙂