FCPX Export to Image Sequence Long Time ?

I've got 720p 60fps and 24fps clip with one mono audio clip, one overlay clip.
All background render has been completed.
Vid is 30 sec long.
Exporting to .PNG is taking forever. After 40 min. only 75% of it is complete.
I just bought a new iMac 2012 and added 32GB RAM and was hoping for a faster render time.

Any ideas why this is taking so long? QTpro only takes like a minute to export an image sequence, I don't get it.

Thanks in advance.

You're right. QT Pro 7 is much faster. I did a 30 second export from FCP X and from a QT from QT7 and it took about 20 minutes longer out of FCP X (and tied it up during the export.) My suggestion would be to use QT 7 or to use something like Compressor, Photoshop, After Effects or Graphic Converter for even greater control. The Image Sequence out of FCP X is primitive at best. There is no control over quality setting or file naming. The PNG's that came out of FCP X were 4 mbs each whereas the ones out of QT Pro were about 1.2 mbs.

This is another example of a half-arsed implementation from Apple regarding Image Sequences:

1) Import: No Image Sequence import function! (Compare with After Effects for how it should be done)
2) Export is slow
3) Export has no naming options (it doesn't even use the project name in the file name!)
4) Export has no quality adjustment settings (what if I don't need uncompressed PNGs?)

Since image Sequences are one of the main file types for Visual Effects workflows, I suggest Apple spend a little more love on this subject.

Suggest you use feedback to voice your concern.

Will do.

Just because I was curious, I tried the other methods I suggested and here are the results:

Machine: MacPro 2,1 with 24gb ram, CalDigit Raid, 8 cores, ATI 4780 card
Test File: 30 second ProRes 422 720p (220 mb)
Programs Tried:
QT 7 Pro
Adobe After Effects CS 5.5
Adobe Media Encoder CS 5.5
Adobe Photoshop CS 5.5
Final Cut X 10.0.4
Compressor 4
MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b2



1) None of the programs allowed you to alter the quality level (much to my chagrin) apart from checking off whether you want Interlaced or None (except MPEG Streamclip, which appears to have more controls)

2) After Effects, Photoshop, Adobe Media Encoder, MPEG Streamclip and QT7 all put out similarly sized (1.1 - 1.4 mb) file sizes and took around 5-6 minutes for the complete output

3) FCPX and Compressor both put out large PNG files (4.8 to 4.9 mb) and took around 25 minutes to output.

4) Graphics Converter was somewhat larger 1.4-1.7 mbs and took about 6 minutes too. But the file names were funky.

5) AE was set to render multiple frames simultaneously but performed about like QT7.

6) Photoshop is cumbersome and contains too many steps that could cause output problems.

7) I would recommend Automator to rename your sequence to the best form

Favorite methods (in order of preference):
1) QT7: very simple interface, easy program to open
2) Adobe Media Encoder: more complex interface, but rips quick (5:30) and is flexible
2a) MPEG Streamclip: free program, quality controls
3) After Effects (better naming controls): more complex series of steps but allows ultimate flexibility
4) FCPX: easy interface but large export size, time consuming; file name does not include Project Name (e.g. frame-00000.png etc.) and would need to be renamed in order to be useful
5) Compressor: more steps out of FCPX, slow as FCPX (didn't try QMaster), large file sizes, same file naming problems
6) Graphic Converter: funky interface and results

It appears that QT7, AME, MPEG Streamclip, AE and possibly Graphic Converter all share the same QT render engine and that FCPX and Compressor are in their own sandbox with Core Image. If anyone knows more about the tech behind this, I'd be curious...

And if anyone has any better methods, feel free to share!

Try doing it with Compressor. You have tons of control, top quality, but you may trade quality off for time.