Being killed by inability to relink modified media

I'm really starting to lose my patience with Apple over FCPX. After months of looking at the positive side of things and drinking the Kool Aid, I'm starting to regret getting involved with it. Very, very often I build edits with precomped clips built in fcpx and other apps that often get changed themselves later from client notes. This is very common practice. Not being able to force a relink to changed media is breathtakingly stupid on Apple's part.

It's a different workflow. Importing and Replace Edit isn't horrible. I didnt alter originals in 7 as I wanted to track all my assets at each stage. Which is why I began using FCSvr to track and catalog everything. FCP X is built on the Final Cut Server database. With a central catalog system like that you don't alter an original, originals stay in tact. You have versions of each change made to an asset. Very common in that type of workflow.

Kool Aid? No one is acting on any delusions here. We're quite honest about what I'd does and doesn't do.

So, what specifically is your question?

Another thing to add to Ben's comment and part of my workflow is. Lots of times I need to go out to either motion or after effects (depending on what needs to be done) when I bring in my new clip I simply do a replace and add to audition. The benefit to this workflow it allows me with a client to see what I had before I fixed a shot or before I added an effect. This is great for match moved shots that allow me to show how something looked before and after. I agree it would be nice to force match media like in fcp7 but just a subtle tweak to your workflow allows for some great added features.

I really like auditions for this reason. I really do think it's an under used feature mainly because this workflow is so new.

I think that's how I'd like some future round-trip-to-motion work, too. Select a clip for tweaking in motion and have the tweaked clip replace and add to audition once saved in motion. The updated clip would also be added to the event associated with the project.

Um, Motion and AE do not tweak the original clip, at all. And I'd never want them to. Because that way your original is altered forever, you can never go back to it. They create projects, and you have to export a new clip. They don't actually alter the original.

If you've done enough work in this business, and run into enough mistakes, you learn that non-destructive editing is really the only way to go. Destructive editing leads to major headaches and lost jobs.

I think what @marchyman is saying is hopefully round trip will work like what i mentioned above, replace and add to audition with the new clip from motion or ae. I think this is kind of like what FCP7 does when you send a clip or group of clips to motion. It would replace the clip with a .motn file and it would create a sequence with your orginal media so you could always go back to it.

Maybe some day. For now, it ain't horrible.

Yep. No way would I want the original clip changed. I just like the idea of the new clip being automatically added to the timeline as an audition. As BenB said, maybe some day.

OK, I don't think I made myself clear. I'm not talking about original media, I'm talking about either previously edited masters and/or motion graphics (or still sequences) that have been imported, chopped into a new edit and then subsequently need up dating. Its impractical to audition/replace edit every single clip. Here's a couple of examples:

1. Often I will place a temp audio track beneath an edit which has not yet been purchased and has a 'preview' announcement every few seconds. This enables the client to see if they like the track and how it fits with the edit before its bought. The preview version is chopped with fades up and down added to fit with dialogue and action. Sometimes it has to be elongated as the original is not long enough so I find a bar that matches a later one in the track and append it with a cross fade. In FCP7 to update this track (which often sits in 3 or 4 edits) I relink it. A couple of clicks and job done. To do this in FCPX is unnecessarily time consuming.

2. A master edit which has been built needs to be used to create a presentation video with text rather than dialogue - think of a floating video drop zone, a text field and a simple camera move. The master is imported, cut into sections, retimed (as text takes longer to read than to listen to) and each section dropped into motion templates. Whilst in an ideal world the original master is locked that is often not the case as the two jobs work in conjunction with each other. If a change is made to the original master edit, it has to be recut and dropped into every template again. I could only replace the cuts that are changed but that would mean I then have 2 versions of master files (at least) referenced when a cleaner solution would be to replace the exported master file as I did in FCP7 (I still have a dup of the original in my projects folder so no non-destruction there). These presentation videos often run about 10 minutes long which is impractical to do in motion, especially when the whole template scenario in FCPX seems built for this kind of thing.

Hope that makes my problem clearer.

"In FCP7 to update this track (which often sits in 3 or 4 edits) I relink it."

Actually, it's as fast and as easy to import the new file and do a replace edit. Actually, fewer mouse clicks. It is easier an faster to do it this way in 7, as the paid for file is not the same length and needs the same tweaking.

As for number 2, I don't get it. What are you doing? Using the same Motion template in several sections with the same text? I am not understanding what it doing on there.

I understand what you're saying, but it's really not huge problems we're talking about here. Just minor tweaks.