I think I did something stupid

Heck of a title for a first post!

I'm somewhat new to FCP but I'm working on a rather large 2-hour multicamera video shoot, with multiple files from multiple cameras. I had imported and allowed FCP to render optimized and proxy media for everything -- took all day.

When I started trying to create the multiclips I was having a heck of a time keeping track of which camera was which because the shoot happened across two days and there were so many files. So within the library I renamed each clip from the original GoPro and other camera naming conventions to "cameraAfile01" and so forth. Then I created the multiclips, synced it all up, got it where I liked it, but now when I save the master file, I'm getting it in low-res instead of high-res. I assume this is because I renamed the files in the library. The file its creating is 1920 x 1080 but the image is pixellated.

Is there a way to fix this? Nothing shows as missing, I'm not getting the red screens, etc. I have not touched the original media just renamed the files in the library.

Are you sure you are viewing the original media? Check in the top right corner of your display monitor where is says "View" (next to the zoom level) and select Optimized/Original instead of Proxy.

Yes ... if I change that to optimized/original I can still see the clips in the angle viewer. But that would not make a difference when you share the master file, would it?

I tried it as a ProRes 422 and as an h.264 file and the resulting mov file still looks pixelated.

This is really stumping me. If I create a new project off the same library, and drag a small piece of one of the clips to it and share the master file, it's hires and sharp as a tack.

Then I took two small pieces of clips and did a short multiclip and switched back and forth a few times, shared it and got a sharp hi-res result.

But sharing the big multiclip yields a large low-res file. Can a bad file within a multiclip somehow affect the entire resolution of the finished product?

I can redo the whole thing but don't want to do that because it was a lot of work and because I don't want to repeat it and fall victim to the same issue. I renamed the files before I made the original multiclip.

Okay ... I created a new library and copied the offending multiclip over to it, quit the program, reopened the program and tried sharing the master file again. It worked this time. No idea what changed or why ... but appreciate the input.

Ok for a start, multicam in FCPX is not the same as multicam in other version, syncing is not required, it is useful to sync in some cases, in others not, so syncing is now optional.

Multicam is really just a compound clip that is really nothing less than tracks, if you open a multicam clip, it opens into tracks, and you can move clips into and out of the track, so if you run into trouble create a 2 angle multicam and start adding more angles and shift them around until you are happy.

Where there is no video, the angle will play video black, no biggie, by far this is the greatest aspect of multicam, it is not multicam, but it is, it can be, you have the power to decide what goes into what angle.

By going into the metadata and setting clips with camera names, this becomes the data FCPX uses to decide what goes into what "track" or angle of a multicam.

Sure syncing is great, if it is what you need, yay, but it is not going to stop working if there is no sync, you can sync via marker, audio, any number of ways, but the moral of the oral is that multicam is just stacked compound clips in tracks, just that Apple calls them angles!!!

Hi Vic,

As Matias said, switching from Original Media to Proxy Media makes a huge difference as to the quality of your exported master.

When you Share your Project while using Proxy Media, the master file will be in Proxy resolution. When you Share your Project while using Original/Optimized Media, the master file will be in full resolution. This has nothing to do with wether you are editing a multicam project or a regular project.

When you copied the files over to a new Library, the only thing that changed is that your Project View settings were reset to Original Media by default. That's why you got the better quality when exporting.

What you did is not stupid, it's a typical beginners error. Next time you work with Proxy Media, make sure to swicth back to Original/Optimized media before sharing your Project and you will have no problems at all.

- Ronny

Thanks for the information!

I probably misused the word sync there, I let the program line up the various camera angles and then added remixed audio later on another track, which I should have done earlier when I created the multiclip.

I guess I'm a little hazy on the correct workflow for this. Working with a lot of different angles, it's best to view everything in proxy mode while editing, but then there is a point when you need to exit proxy mode before creating the master file? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding where that setting gets changed.

No you can re-sync at any point, there is no right or wrong way, multi-cam is changing how you edit, FCPX is changing how you edit, most of the editing is done in the browser, in how you reject, favorite, keyword ranges, that is editing, as it reduces the clutter of clips into more manageable sources.

The point is sync is not 100% the be all and end all of multi-cam, it will work with or without sync, how you design the multi-cam layout is really a fancy editing decision all on it's own.

Why multi-cam? Why not just stack on the timeline, then slip/slide and them group that range into a compound clip? I wish the name would change to multi-angle editor, as it is not about cameras anymore, it is about media, and well it can be video or audio, both, it can be video derived or a .mov animation, that is the power of FCPX!!

You are free to design the edit how you want, not stuck to old fashioned useless track based systems that no longer function in the new media work-space!!

Wether you should work with Proxy media or not entirely depends on your system. Maybe it would be useful to explain the difference between Original/Optimized/Proxy media.

- Original media is the media that you import from your Camera/Camea Folder. This can be any given format. Some camera formats such as ProRes or XDCAM HD are easy to edit, other formats such as AVCHD, H.264 and the likes are much more demanding on your system because they are heavily compressed. When you have imported your native clips, you create your multiclip and you can easily play and cut the multiclip on your system, you can keep working with the Original (native) media and you don't need to create Optimized or Proxy media at all.

- If your system has trouble handling the native media, you can create Optimized media. You don't need to do this while you import the files, you can do this in the Browser after the import process. Just select the imported clips, R-click the selection and choose Transcode Media > Optimized Media and let FCP X create the optimized media for you. When you optimize your native files, you actually create ProRes 422 media for every native file. As ProRes 422 is a very edit-friendly format, you should be able to play back and cut your multiclip much easier using Optimized media.

*** To work with Optimized media, you don't need to change anything in FCP X. Once the optimized files are created, FCP X simply uses the optimized files instead of the original files.

- If your system still cannot handle Optimized media, you can convert your native files to Proxy media. You don't need to do this while you import the files, you can do this in the Browser after the import process. Just select the imported clips, R-click the selection and choose Transcode Media > Proxy Media and let FCP X create the Proxy media for you. When you convert your media to Proxy media, you actually create ProRes 422 Proxy media for every native file. As ProRes 422 Proxy is only half the resolution of your native media, you should be able to play back and cut your multiclip without any problems even on a slow system.

*** To work with Proxy media you need to select "Use Proxy Media" in your Viewer > Media settings. And here is where it can be confusing: when you work with Proxy media you work with lower resolution files. This means that when you share your project and you don't switch back to Original/Optimized media before sharing your Project, your exported video will be in half resolution. This is what you have done. To export at full quality, you should change your Viewer > Media settings back to Original/Optimized media. Then your exported video will be in full resolution.

- Ronny

That's a perfect explanation, Ronny, thanks so much.

FCPX is so fast it can often edit camera-native material without generating either proxy or optimized material. My tests show the frame rate when fast forwarding in the timeline is 20x faster than Premiere CC -- on identical hardware and using the same media.

However GoPro and DJI video is highly compressed, and H264 4k is even worse, and multicam adds yet another burden. It is common to use optimized and/or proxy with these. However you need not necessarily use both. I often just use proxy, which is faster to generate than optimized and takes much less space. Others may have differing advice on this.

If you have a large shooting ratio, you don't necessarily need to create optimized/proxy media for everything. You can sometimes import with "leave files in place", not generate those, in the event browser mark your favorite clips, then just generate optimized or proxy media for those. The feasibility of this varies on your computer, codecs, and type of project.

I'm working on a project consisting of 2.2TB (about 5,700 clips) of mixed 1080p and 4k H264 content and the final product will probably be only 5 min. I don't intended to generate proxy/optimized media for all that, and fortunately my 2015 iMac 27 is fast enough I don't need to.

It is non-intuitive that setting the VIEWER to proxy affects the exported file resolution, but it does. You just learn to switch it back to optimized/original before exporting.