Dana Calderwood

Q: Making FCPX "Portable"

After many years using Final Cut Express, and being less than good at managing clips and libraries,

I want to start the right way as I finally upgrade. 

 

I want to be able to have "everything" on an external hard drive.  90% of what I'll do will be on my desktop, but

I will occasionally want to work on the laptop.  I'm using El Capitan btw, on a 2012 iMac 16 GM ram, and 2011 Air.

 

Can someone guide me through doing the initial set-up properly?  The preference windows from the old

Final Cut are obviously not the same, and though I've been trolling and Googling, I'm less than confidant in

some of the information I'm reading specific to this issue.  I only want to do this ONCE, the right way, the first time.

I'll be purchasing the software this weekend and getting started!

 

Thanks in advance,

Dana

 

PS  Any tips on how to install the software on my two computers?  Is there a trick to it?

Posted on Jan 14, 2016 7:27 AM

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Q: Making FCPX "Portable"

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  • by Tom Wolsky,Helpful

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Jan 15, 2016 10:45 AM in response to Dana Calderwood
    Level 10 (118,212 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 15, 2016 10:45 AM in response to Dana Calderwood

    P.S. Download the app from the App Store. Copy it from one machine to another. Don't forget to run the download additional software on both machines. It's not that big. Mostly extra codecs.

     

    The simplest way to do what you want is to use what's called managed media, so your media in contained inside the library bundle. Get a good, fast external drive. Make a new library for each production. Save the library onto the external media drive. The default library properties is managed media, so you're really good to go as soon as you make the library. Everything you import goes into the library. Just take the drive from one machine to the machine. The only things to watch out for are items like fonts and extra plugins and such that might be on one machine and not on the other. Everything for the production, original media, optimized media, render files, proxies, whatever travel with the library.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jan 14, 2016 7:38 AM in response to Dana Calderwood
    Level 6 (12,085 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 14, 2016 7:38 AM in response to Dana Calderwood

    I will start with the last phrase:

     

     

    PS  Any tips on how to install the software on my two computers?  Is there a trick to it?

     

    No trick. As long you own and control both computers, you are allowed to buy once and install it on both. Either download from the purchases section of the App Store again, or put the application in a thumb drive and copy it to the other mac.

  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Jan 14, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Dana Calderwood
    Level 7 (21,800 points)
    Quicktime
    Jan 14, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Dana Calderwood

    Just to add that if you use any custom Motion effects, you should also copy the Motion Templates folder that is found in Movies from one computer. to the other.

     

    Russ

  • by Dana Calderwood,

    Dana Calderwood Dana Calderwood Jan 14, 2016 7:43 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 14, 2016 7:43 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Got it, thanks