Faster Way to Re-Export on Tiny Change? (text title date wrong!)

Hi I have been using FCPX since it came out, but have not yet found a way of making a tiny change without having to do ALL the processing again...

on my system that is 2 hours + 12 hours for one output + further 6 hours for the DVD output.

I'm editing late at night and recently I've been getting my dates muddled up and so am again wondering... is there just a quick way to re-export the file? Does it really have to go through all that work again?

An analogy to try to explain myself: if I have a word doc and I cut and paste 300 pages into it, it's going to take a while for that word doc to save, the first time I save it..... but if I go and change 1 word, it's not going to take as long as the first time to save.

So the question is am I missing something that's right under my nose which means exports will be quicker a second time around if I've only changed something tiny?

Firstly, I always export this kind of stuff to ProRes so I have a master file. If you do this then you can just export the part you changed, bring in the ProRes final as it's own sequence, add the change over the top and re-export. Since FCPX is pretty good about ProRes files it should be fast.

Even if you haven't exported to ProRes, you may get away with what ever you have by using the same technique, especially if it's going to DVD as the final output which tends to trash quality anyway.

So, just to clarify:

1) Export your original sequence (you've done this already)

2) You find you need to make a tiny change, make the change and export only that section

3) Bring in your original full export

4) Bring in your exported change & overlay at the right time code

5) Export the new sequence which will no longer need any colour changes, noise reduction or transcoding etc so should render much faster.

12 hours to export the master file? Ouch.

First of all that is a really really long time. What kind of mac are you on, and what do you think is taking all the time? I working on a 1.5 film and it took and on my MBPR it took about 30 minutes to render and make a DVD, and 4 hours to make a 1080 BluRay. I never made a master file but based on those numbers I'm guessing it would take about an hour to do so.

In regards to a fix, you could indeed export just the section you needed and copy and paste over the bad portion using QuickTime 7. Your best bet is to switch FCPX timeline to frames, make an exact range selection of the frames you need, nothing those frames. Then export a master of that range. Then in QuickTime 7 you need to open your original movie, and make that exact range selection again, and copy and paste your fix. If you did everything correction it should line up perfectly.

Let me know if you need more help.

Hi, thanks for the answers

The exported clips are 1.5 to 2.5 hours long.

The "template" project has titles at the beginning 1 lower third, and minimal credits at the end.
I import my camera clip into this, no colour corrections or effects or anything fancier than a cross-fade, but I have imported the PA desk sound and aligned it with the camera image.

I always export to proRes422 (that's the 2 in the above equation)

I then have to change that to a useable format for Vimeo etc.... 1280x720, that's what takes 12 hours

And it's the 1280 I then change to DVD format once the 1280 is done.

I'd appreciate not having to do it all again each time I see I've made a little mistake...

I've tried exporting just little bits and aligning them with the original export...
This option seems rather labour intensive to me. If that's my choice. I may be better off leaving the computer (2.93Ghz intel core duo) to work whilst I go off and do something else.

Oh I got it. 2 hours to export. What Mac do you have?

Let me tell you what we do in a similar workflow and see if this helps. We used to do the ProRes and then transcode workflow, but found that we saved hours (yes hours) by exporting directly to the destination format from FCPX.

1. First we edit as normal and we never turn on background rendering. We typically color correct every shot but it doesn't seem to add to any of the export time.

2. Rather than create a ProRes version first, we actually export directly to 720p x264 encoder, using a custom made compressor preset, which exports in less than half the time of "fast" h264, or one quarter the time of "better quality" h264. The x264 single pass quality at 2000 kps is very good. Then we manually upload to our host. Here is some info on it:

www.larryjordan.biz/compressor-x264-improve-video/

3. We will then create a DVD right from FCPX (yes less menu customization, but hasn't been a problem with us), which again is faster than going ProRes first and then to DVD.

4. Finally if needed we export a ProRes "backup" file which will take considerably longer than any of the above steps, but at this point it has been deemed ready for production.

What Mac do you have?

2.93Ghz intel core duo must've had it a good number of years now.....ah yes, imac 24 inch early 2009 6GB RAM with mavericks

All the tests I did a couple of years ago had the direct exports with the 3x thingyamyjig crash and when they did work, they took longer than my current system. so I always export to proRes and then let compressor do the work after that. I didn't like sending a file to export and waiting hours on end only to find the export had failed.

I've set in place some applescripts to launch one thing after another so I don't have to do anything other than wait, so its not a massive problem... I just wanted to check I wasn't missing out on a trick for the times when I just have to correct a date, obviously I'm better off making sure it's right before I export it the first time

highab wrote: 2.93Ghz intel core duo must've had it a good number of years now.....ah yes, imac 24 inch early 2009 6GB RAM with mavericks

Oh your export times make sense now. FCPX is almost completely dependent on the GPU. And the GPU on that Mac is just barely qualified for FCPX and is about 1/20 the speed of something like a recent iMac. If you get a newer iMac you will see a tremendous increase in speed.

The mac I gave you the info about is on its last legs.... now running from an external HDD because the internal one gave up on me.

So GPU is the thing I need to make sure is hi-spec on the new mac we buy? We won't have a massive budget, but enough to upgrade the important bits.

Also, is a fusion drive worth it for FCPX?

A few things to consider:

1. Don't run an OS or apps from an external drive if that drive is connected over FireWire or (even worse) USB. This will considerably slow your system down. System drives should be internal, media drives external or at least different from the system drive.

2. No, a Fusion drive will do nothing for FCP X.

3. Don't change bits and pieces in al old Mac, that's pretty useless. Get a new iMac or a used recent iMac with AT LEAST 8 GB of RAM (16 GB is much better) and you will notice a huge difference from your current setup

- Ronny

Thanks!