Scratch Sperber
Forum Replies Created
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I bailed on FCPX entirely; we went to Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Much easier transition and meets our needs better. Mouse scrolls fine there too. Thanks for the help and suggestions, everyone; see you on the other side!
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Thank you! I kept missing that. There’s not an appearance preference for font size that I’m also missing, is there…?
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Yep, in Font Book. It’s actually Copperplate Gothic Light and Copperplate Gothic Bold that I was using — both have only “regular” under them. In addition to seeing those, I also see Copperplate (with light, regular and bold available) — I synced that from Adobe Typekit. Problem is, it’s a different font so it changes the look of all the titles. The titles look fine in Copperplate Gothic Bold, it’s just that I can’t get rid of the annoying message.
Validated font through Font Book; no duplicates; font is in computer, not user; shows in finder as Copperplate Gothic Light.ttf but I added that extension myself — previously it had no extension. Copperplate is .ttc — I tried that extension too but it didn’t work either.
I’d reinstall font but I have no idea where it came from; it’s been on the computer for years and I can’t find an exact match online.
Oh well, there are bigger problems out there; this is manageable. Thanks.
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Sorry, I wasn’t clear — I have the fonts on my computer; my computer is a Mac, running El Capitan. But thanks for trying!
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[Jeff Kirkland] “I’d personally opt to copy the cards to the shared storage using something like EditReady to rewrap the files.”
Our production flow is really a factory, so we want to avoid that extra step. We import footage from each camera (up to 30 a day), edit each camera into its own project, and we’re done with it. Folder and file names in the finder are messy, true, but in the rare event that we need to access the raw footage again, we can use FCP to locate clips.
I did test the two formats in a timeline, no issues at all.
One annoyance I’ve found though —
Is it really necessary to store the libraries in a different media space/drive from the from media files? We are using EditShare as our media server solution, and they recommend this, and I’ve always done it this way with other NLEs. We are creating our libraries in a “PROJECTS” media space, and importing media from SD cards as external media (not managed inside library) to “DRIVER FOOTAGE” (copied to library, not left in place) But FCPX is making this difficult:When we make a new library in the “PROJECTS” media space, the storage location for media always defaults to “PROJECTS.” Selecting “modify settings” and choosing “DRIVER FOOTAGE” doesn’t work; the storage location for media stays as “PROJECTS.” [This may be a bug.] We have to first modify storage settings from “PROJECTS” to Library,” hit “OK,” then go back and do it all again, choosing “DRIVER FOOTAGE.”
… every single time we make a new library.
Would be much easier to let it all live in the same media space/drive. Thoughts?
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(This discussion has migrated to storage and file types, but I’ll keep it here for now.)
We chose AVCHD with the understanding it was higher quality and easier to edit natively in FCPX. Is this not true? I just did a quick test, and didn’t see any difference editing, but FCP had a much harder time letting go of the SD cards after importing mp4 files. May be unrelated, but I had to force quit twice to stop spinning beach ball after import.
I thought “leave in place” required you to copy the mp4 files off the SD card and to a hard drive first. Otherwise FCP would be looking for the original files on the SD cards, right? Am I misunderstanding something?
Manually copying mp4 files to our storage drive and then “leaving in place” seems like a slower workflow. Especially since we are working factory style, importing from 20-30 cards every day via two 4-card reader hubs on two different macs.
I don’t see a real difference finding the original files in the finder between the two — we are not storing media in the library but in an external location. It’s a mess in the finder either way, since we’ll have duplicate clip names/numbers from 20 different cameras every day. So finding original files in the finder isn’t pretty. Luckily FCP, with the search and filter features, makes this a lot easier so maybe we won’t have to go to finder much at all anymore.
Head spinning from trying to come up with new workflow for sharing projects and templates, since FCP X doesn’t allow the level of simultaneous sharing that FCP7 did. Time to let it all bubble in the background for a bit now.
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[Mark Smith] “I have an MM2 and it will skim clips if I swipe horizontally.”
Does it do a smooth variable speed skimming, based on how fast you swipe? I can two-finger swipe my MM1 in the timeline only, but it doesn’t skim — just jumps to next clip (even when snapping is off).
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Great to know. Will try a trackpad; sounds like that could work.
We have the Canon XA30s set to shoot HD 1920×1080, 59.94P, at 28 Mbps — nowhere near as demanding as 4k as far as I know. Since our effects are minimal, we’re not optimizing on import (the file size difference of the ProRes vs. native was mind boggling) and that seems to work fine so far. Everything runs super snappy on our Mac Pros: 3.5 Ghz 6-core processors, dual video cards, and 16GB RAM. Hope that holds up as we add lots more media. Our external shared storage was designed to be speedy for editing HD, time to put it to the test finally.
Still exploring best practice for workflow, but definitely not leaving files in place. FCP seems to be playing nicely when copying them over.
The Better Touch Tool is pretty cool, can assign JKL and more to gestures, and gets me a lot closer to what I want, but can’t really do the true touch based skimming I’m looking for. I prefer keyboard editing in general, so most of what BTT offers isn’t relevant. Great tool though, for anyone who does want to create customized gestures.
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Good suggestions and info, thanks.
[Joe Marler] “…there is a “continuous playback” option that continues across clip boundaries. Using this and JKL…”
JKL hasn’t been my favorite for our workflow, but maybe old dogs can learn new tricks. Finger skimming’s felt more controllable. OTOH, continuous playback would feel more like the linear tape ingest we did up until this year. Which could be good, or bad. TBD. Tape is dead, long live clips.
(For context: We make individualized travelogues for 20-30 wilderness bus tours every day. We get about 15-20 minutes of footage from each bus, shot by bus driver interpretive guides (aka, not videographers). We skim VERY rapidly through the clips but need smooth variable skimming, to find the usable parts and see where the caribou lifts its head, or the moose calf turns toward the camera, etc. Slow down skimming speed, mark in, skim ahead, mark out, insert clip into appropriate gap in template of stock landscape footage. Repeat for the rest of that tour. Remove gaps in timeline, adjust edit points, add corrective filters as needed, add transitions, add canned music, backtime last music piece, done. Repeat for tours 2-30. We rarely play clips in real time unless there is some amazing footage, or we have the rare luxury of making an actual edited sequence.)
Yes, I know. But I do get to live and work in a gorgeous place for five months a year, so let’s move on.
In FCP 7, we had this down to a super fast workflow, using locked music tracks, fast mouse skimming, keyboard commands… Moving to FCP X is a hurdle, since some of the features hinder more than help us. And of course file sharing on our NAS is different due to library structure, so we need a new file management process… but we’ll figure it out.
tl;dr: I work in a video factory and have to skim through a lot of footage at variable speeds, but mostly super fast, and still see entire content while skimming.
[Joe Marler] “If you want touch-based skimming, that works right now with the trackpad. The Magic Trackpad 2 is pretty good, so that’s one option.”
Do you get decent, smooth, variable speed skimming on clips in the browser with the Magic Trackpad 2? (Our footage is AVCHD at 28 Mbps, on fairly beefy Mac Pros so performance shouldn’t be an issue.)
Better Touch tools looks promising, thanks for that. I’ll give it a try.