Relinking and Proxies

I'm doing several large multi cam edits. I keep my master ProRes media offline and import the files as proxies, then do my editing.

Some shots need stabilised and I use the Warp Stabilizer in After Effects for this, stabilising the offline master ProRes files.

How do I relink the new stabilised master files? If I use the relink dialog and choose the new stabilised offline files, will FCPX create new proxies automatically?

Relinking to files that have not been imported in your Event folder is not a good workflow in this case. This is what I would do to be safe:

Import the stabilized master files in your Event.
Replace the original files in your timeline with the stabilized files.
Transcode the master files in your Event to Proxy.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Regarding replacing the original files in my timeline with the stabilised versions - what's the best way of doing this without messing the edit up? Do I replace them in the multi cam edit, or the project timeline? Obviously want to keep the edits and any effects, scaling etc.

Oh now I realize you are in a multicam project. Well that depends...

You should have stabilized your original media in AE BEFORE doing the multicam. Then you would have worked with the satbilized files from the start. But it may still work.

- Have you imported the entire original ProRes files in AE for stabilizing? I mean: are the stabilized files exported from AE exactly the same length as the original clips?

- Have you made any color corrections or scaling effects in the multicam angle editor?

The Stabilized shots are exactly the same length as the original clips. I have done some scaling in the multicam angle editor, which I will have to tweak once the stabilised footage is brought in - to hide any edges from the stabilisation process.

Okay, if that's the case you can go both ways:

Either you relink the original clips in the Event Browser to the stabilized clips from AE. You won't have any Proxies doing this.

Or you import the stabilized clips in your Event and you replace the original clips in the Angle Editor with the stabilized clips. Then you can create Proxies from the imported stabilized clips in the Event Browser and you will be able to continue using Proxies.

To make sure you don't run into any unexpected problems due to the fact that you have exported new files out of AE, duplicate your multicam project before making any changes and work on the duplicate.

Great - thanks! Would it not be better to replace the clips in the multi cam edit, since there they are full length and I can just snap them in, rather than in the angle editor where different parts of one clip might be used several times?

We might use a different terminology here. In my terminology the angle editor is where you see your original full-length angles, the multicam edit is where you have made your cuts while switching between the different angles. So yes, replace the full length clips.

Ah, we are talking about the same thing! Thanks for all your help with this.