[Moira Elefson]

Oliver,

Thank you for your post. It helped a little, but I really still don’t understand all the various ancillary files/folders that which Adobe puts on your computer. Could you list these, and where you keep them? All the tutorials in the world haven’t answered this question. I’m overwhelmed. Some seem to be inaccessible to me (in the Library folder) and others are easier to locate and manage (auto-saves).

So far, I know there are:
1. Project files
2. Auto-saves
3. (your media)
4. peak files?
5. cache files?

It seems that Adobe automatically puts an “Adobe” folder in your documents folder, which houses your profile, etc. Should I just leave all that be?

thank you!

[Moira Elefson]

Thanks guys for your thoughts.

That sounds wise to organize media files on a project basis, but still I do not understand how to organize my SYSTEM as it relates to Adobe apps. Certain files are to be left on the local disk, like “adobe profiles” folders etc. Does anyone have a schematic of how they do their system?

There are “cache files” for example. . . “auto-saves” and “profiles” and “peak files” and “render files” etc etc. I use Adobe apps as tools but definitely am not a computer-lover per se. I just want an elegant way to organize everything.

Thank you very much! Any images you could provide would be even better:)

[Moira Elefson]

Thanks for the feedback. What is the “repository” to which you refer? I am planning to have all computers in the farm refer to the same plugins and fonts and have the same paths to the source clips and resulting renders.

[Moira Elefson]

Hey John, Did you ever get any feedback on setting up a small render farm at home? I’m in a similar situation with a small company I work with and am trying to do the same thing – set up maybe 2 or 3 stand-alone honking fast machines to help with our load. Our projects are mostly AE with few companies handle and rarely large enough to send off to Hollywood or Europe for massive rendering. Plus we like being able to quickly make changes, since our clients are often fickle and deadlines often move closer when we least expect it. Thanks!

[Moira Elefson]

In FCPX you can right-click the file and choose the option to “Reveal In Finder” (Shift/Command/R). That will show you the file inside the library.fcpbundle from the Finder where you can choose to open the file in Photoshop. Alternatively you could locate the library.fcpbundle file in Finder, right-click and “Show Package Contents”, then navigate to the .psd file in the contents of the library bundle to edit it.

[Moira Elefson]

Whatever method you choose make sure that you backup your media files in case the media files you’re using become compromised.

[Moira Elefson]

There are many reasons you may want to keep your media files separate from your library.fcpbundle file. Perhaps you’re collaborating with other editors that are using the media files on a network drive or perhaps you already have all your media files on your hard drive and it would be redundant to copy those files into your library bundle.

[Moira Elefson]

Hmmm. That’s odd. I’m just doing the same reinstall now and I easily found my receipts in Bootdrive/Library/Receipts. Not in your use library. I’m running 10.7.5 so maybe it is a little different.

[Moira Elefson]

That worked great 🙂 Is there a similar expression though that would chain to the rotation of an object (like a jaw) instead of the Y movement?

[Moira Elefson]

The distributed processing that is available in Compressor.app will most likely not benefit much in regards to performance when only two MacBooks are being used in the cluster, especially when the second MacBook in consideration is only a duo core. If you want to try it in Compressor.app then you need to connect the computers through a network. With one one FW port available you will most likely be better off connecting a FW800 HD.

On quad-core MacBook Pro you could setup 2 instances of a quick cluster in Compressor 4 which should boost performance. To do that you Send To Compressor from FCPX then in Compressor 4 go to Apple Qmaster menu and select Share This Computer. From Apple Qmaster Sharing window check the box to Share this computer as QuickCluster with services then in the Services section check the box for Compressor. Click the options button for the Compressor service and select 2 instances for a quad-core Mac. Name the cluster and click OK.