1,0001 Mac/OS X/FCP Questions

[GmElliott]

Well my switch from the PC platform to the Mac is officially complete. I finished up the last wedding I was working on so I moved all my PC stuff off the desk and moved the Mac Pro, Cinema Display, etc in it's place.

I'll be starting my next wedding edit this week entirely on the Mac system with FCP Studio. I've been training like a mad man for the last 2 months but I'm well aware there is a difference between taught knowledge and "applied" knowledge (aka experience). Here's hoping for a snag-free edit.

Anyway this official "transition" so to speak brings up a bunch of new questions. I'll do my best to organize my thoughts/questions:



1) FTP software; I've been using CUTE FTP for the PC for the last few years. I love it's straight-forward easy to use interface. I don't believe CUTE is available for the Mac so what is the best alternative(s).

Does OSX has built-in FTP support and if so is it enough for basic uploading and managing server content?

2) Graphic Editing/Processing/Sorting software; Several times a month I'm required to sort through thousands of high res. still images and calalog them into bins of keepers and trash. I've found ACDSee Pro to be the most intuitive and powerfull program to handle this sort of organizing. I know Photoshop CS and a host of other programs can thrumbnail images but they all seem to have a great deal of overhead and run terribly slow. Not only is ACDSee fast, it has the ability to view each image FULL Screen and use the scroll wheel on the mouse to advance to the next image. There is a keystroke you hit on the keyboard to "tag" the image then I can simply go back to my "tagged" bin and move the selected images to a remote folder to be designated as the "keepers".

Can Aperature function like this? I know it has a rating system with stars, but does it have a quick and easy way to scroll through images and tag them as keepers with a quick keystroke? On a somewhat unrelated note I was messing around with Aperature last night and it doesn't seem to have a zoom tool, to zoom past 100 percent. I know it has a magnifying tool, but no way to zoom the image beyond 100 percent as a whole?

Lastly I need Photoshop CS2 as well but have been holding out on buying it till they release a universal binary version. Any idea of when that will be available?


3) NTFS compatability; I connected an external drive to my Mac last night. Beings it was formated NTFS for use on my PC I only expected to be able to read the data, not actually drag the files to the Mac Pro. To my delight I was indeed able to drag the files over without a hitch. Oddly, I don't remember being able to do this with an NTFS formatted partition on my Mac Book Pro when I was dual booting it with Boot Camp.
What's the verdict on this? Why didn't it work before but now works fine?
(Not that I'm complaining) :wink:


4) Vegas DV-AVI Compatability on FCP Timeline; I used the method described in #3 to move some DV-AVI files off my external drive on to my Mac Pro. I've done this in the past and was able to simply drop them directly into a FCP timeline without a hitch. Last night I was able to do so but it threw a warning message that read something like "Media Performance Warning- files are not optimized for FCP so it is suggested you recapture or use media manager to create copies". It also mentioned something about decrease in performance for multiple streams. Odd...I never got that warning the first time I tried it on my Mac Book Pro. Now the Mac Pro desktop seems to be complaining a bit. Well I pressed on anyway and dropped those files on the timeline and they indeed gave me the dark grey bars (ie "Compatable"). I did a little bit of cutting and it seemed fine.
I'm getting ready to start an ENTIRE wedding edit using these Vegas captured AVI files- will this become a problem in the future? Any idea why FCP on the Mac Pro desktop threw this warning message and my Mac Book Pro laptop didn't?


5) Motion Tab in FCP; I was experimenting with animating photographs in FCP (simple Ken Burns style). I noticed that if I use the "Show Wireframe" option the biggest difference between doing it in Vegas with Pan/Crop and doing it in FCP with Motion is the fact that FCP's Motion tab doesn't automatically give you the initial keyframe.

For example in Vegas's Pan/Crop you simply move your playhead to the end (for example) and drag the bounding box to create a zoom, and poof your done. I tried that in FCP only to realize I zoomed the clip- but for the ENTIRE length (ie it had no starting keyframe). So if I'm understanding this correctly- you had to add an initial keyframe to whatever attribute your going to animate. In other words if I'm going to do a zoom and a slight twist I have to add initial keyframes to "scale" and "rotation"...is this correct?

Another difference I noticed was Vegas tends to try and conform the file when dropped in the timeline. In other words if it's a half res WMV or MPG1 it'll scale it automatically to fit the timeline's resolution. I dropped an iPod res MPG4 on a DV-NTSC timeline in FCP and it displayed as a tiny little video floating in a larger black frame. Understandable beings it's not matching the res of the sequence preset. However what's the best way to get it to fit the screen? Simply use the "Scale" dialog under the Motion tab?


6) Workflow For Keeping Projects on External Drives; I'd like to keep the majority of my FCP projects tucked neatly on their own external hard drives. This enables me to take the project with me on the road if necessary to continue the project on my Mac Book Pro. Now, if I have the HD connected I can go into FCP's system properties and select the external drive to house my capture scratch, render files, etc. However what if I start another project that ISN'T on this external drive- it will have to reset my capture scratch, and render file locations. Then what happens when I reconnect my HD? Will it then have to be manually switched back?

Does the FCP project file contain the information to know where to look for the render files etc- or is this a setting that System Preferences resides over and requires constant changing back and forth? I may have failed at explaining that clearly- in short I want to have 1 or 2 projects per HD and be able to plug them in and start working on them without having to reconfigure FCP- is this possible (keeping in mind I'll be switching between more than one computer with these external drives)?

[MediaConcepts]

1) FTP software; I've been using CUTE FTP for the PC for the last few years. I love it's straight-forward easy to use interface. I don't believe CUTE is available for the Mac so what is the best alternative(s).

Fetch (http://www.fetchsoftworks.com/)


2) Graphic Editing/Processing/Sorting software; Several times a month I'm required to sort through thousands of high res. still images and calalog them into bins of keepers and trash. I've found ACDSee Pro to be the most intuitive and powerfull program to handle this sort of organizing. I know Photoshop CS and a host of other programs can thrumbnail images but they all seem to have a great deal of overhead and run terribly slow. Not only is ACDSee fast, it has the ability to view each image FULL Screen and use the scroll wheel on the mouse to advance to the next image. There is a keystroke you hit on the keyboard to "tag" the image then I can simply go back to my "tagged" bin and move the selected images to a remote folder to be designated as the "keepers".

Can Aperature function like this? I know it has a rating system with stars, but does it have a quick and easy way to scroll through images and tag them as keepers with a quick keystroke? On a somewhat unrelated note I was messing around with Aperature last night and it doesn't seem to have a zoom tool, to zoom past 100 percent. I know it has a magnifying tool, but no way to zoom the image beyond 100 percent as a whole?

I think that's what Aperture was designed for.


Lastly I need Photoshop CS2 as well but have been holding out on buying it till they release a universal binary version. Any idea of when that will be available?

Nope, sorry.




5) Motion Tab in FCP; I was experimenting with animating photographs in FCP (simple Ken Burns style). I noticed that if I use the "Show Wireframe" option the biggest difference between doing it in Vegas with Pan/Crop and doing it in FCP with Motion is the fact that FCP's Motion tab doesn't automatically give you the initial keyframe.

For example in Vegas's Pan/Crop you simply move your playhead to the end (for example) and drag the bounding box to create a zoom, and poof your done. I tried that in FCP only to realize I zoomed the clip- but for the ENTIRE length (ie it had no starting keyframe). So if I'm understanding this correctly- you had to add an initial keyframe to whatever attribute your going to animate. In other words if I'm going to do a zoom and a slight twist I have to add initial keyframes to "scale" and "rotation"...is this correct?



Yes, you have to add the first keyframe. Shortcut keys while in the motion tab - Shift I to go to the beginning of the clip, Shift O to go to the end of the clip. Even if there's a transition.



Another difference I noticed was Vegas tends to try and conform the file when dropped in the timeline. In other words if it's a half res WMV or MPG1 it'll scale it automatically to fit the timeline's resolution. I dropped an iPod res MPG4 on a DV-NTSC timeline in FCP and it displayed as a tiny little video floating in a larger black frame. Understandable beings it's not matching the res of the sequence preset. However what's the best way to get it to fit the screen? Simply use the "Scale" dialog under the Motion tab?


You can scale up but the quality will suffer.



6) Workflow For Keeping Projects on External Drives; I'd like to keep the majority of my FCP projects tucked neatly on their own external hard drives. This enables me to take the project with me on the road if necessary to continue the project on my Mac Book Pro. Now, if I have the HD connected I can go into FCP's system properties and select the external drive to house my capture scratch, render files, etc. However what if I start another project that ISN'T on this external drive- it will have to reset my capture scratch, and render file locations. Then what happens when I reconnect my HD? Will it then have to be manually switched back?


Yup. You have to choose your scratch drives whenever you switch to a different project. FCP automagically uses the scratch drive for the last project you were working on.



Does the FCP project file contain the information to know where to look for the render files etc- or is this a setting that System Preferences resides over and requires constant changing back and forth? I may have failed at explaining that clearly- in short I want to have 1 or 2 projects per HD and be able to plug them in and start working on them without having to reconfigure FCP- is this possible (keeping in mind I'll be switching between more than one computer with these external drives)?

No. FCP will look for the correct files but it's better to select the correct drive and folder when you start.

Sorry I didn't answer all of your questions.

Joe

[RatVega]

Well my switch from the PC platform to the Mac is officially complete. I finished up the last wedding I was working on so I moved all my PC stuff off the desk and moved the Mac Pro, Cinema Display, etc in it's place.

I'll be starting my next wedding edit this week entirely on the Mac system with FCP Studio. I've been training like a mad man for the last 2 months but I'm well aware there is a difference between taught knowledge and "applied" knowledge (aka experience). Here's hoping for a snag-free edit.

Anyway this official "transition" so to speak brings up a bunch of new questions. I'll do my best to organize my thoughts/questions:



1) FTP software; I've been using CUTE FTP for the PC for the last few years. I love it's straight-forward easy to use interface. I don't believe CUTE is available for the Mac so what is the best alternative(s).

Does OSX has built-in FTP support and if so is it enough for basic uploading and managing server content?

No. There are a number of shareware/freeware FTP clients, I am currently using Transmit from Panic software (www.panic.com (http://www.panic.com)) and it's pretty good.

2) Graphic Editing/Processing/Sorting software; Several times a month I'm required to sort through thousands of high res. still images and calalog them into bins of keepers and trash. I've found ACDSee Pro to be the most intuitive and powerfull program to handle this sort of organizing. I know Photoshop CS and a host of other programs can thrumbnail images but they all seem to have a great deal of overhead and run terribly slow. Not only is ACDSee fast, it has the ability to view each image FULL Screen and use the scroll wheel on the mouse to advance to the next image. There is a keystroke you hit on the keyboard to "tag" the image then I can simply go back to my "tagged" bin and move the selected images to a remote folder to be designated as the "keepers".

Can Aperature function like this? I know it has a rating system with stars, but does it have a quick and easy way to scroll through images and tag them as keepers with a quick keystroke? On a somewhat unrelated note I was messing around with Aperature last night and it doesn't seem to have a zoom tool, to zoom past 100 percent. I know it has a magnifying tool, but no way to zoom the image beyond 100 percent as a whole?

This is the niche of Aperture. Although it has some nice photo-fixing tools, it's primarily a photo database. I have only had my copy open a few times (it won't animate or composite my work... go figure...) so I'll yield on details to a power user.

Lastly I need Photoshop CS2 as well but have been holding out on buying it till they release a universal binary version. Any idea of when that will be available?

None whatsoever... we're talking Adobe here.

3) NTFS compatability; I connected an external drive to my Mac last night. Beings it was formated NTFS for use on my PC I only expected to be able to read the data, not actually drag the files to the Mac Pro. To my delight I was indeed able to drag the files over without a hitch. Oddly, I don't remember being able to do this with an NTFS formatted partition on my Mac Book Pro when I was dual booting it with Boot Camp.
What's the verdict on this? Why didn't it work before but now works fine?
(Not that I'm complaining) :wink:

Again, I'll yield to a cross-platform authority... What I do know is that OS X has taken us a long ways in terms of file compatibility. I mounted a Maxtor USB drive from a PC yesterday and drug the entire contents to one of my G5 drives without incident. I have no idea what the formatting was but I got the footage as if it was from another Mac. We have also networked with visiting PCs without any problems.

4) Vegas DV-AVI Compatability on FCP Timeline; I used the method described in #3 to move some DV-AVI files off my external drive on to my Mac Pro. I've done this in the past and was able to simply drop them directly into a FCP timeline without a hitch. Last night I was able to do so but it threw a warning message that read something like "Media Performance Warning- files are not optimized for FCP so it is suggested you recapture or use media manager to create copies". It also mentioned something about decrease in performance for multiple streams. Odd...I never got that warning the first time I tried it on my Mac Book Pro. Now the Mac Pro desktop seems to be complaining a bit. Well I pressed on anyway and dropped those files on the timeline and they indeed gave me the dark grey bars (ie "Compatable"). I did a little bit of cutting and it seemed fine.
I'm getting ready to start an ENTIRE wedding edit using these Vegas captured AVI files- will this become a problem in the future? Any idea why FCP on the Mac Pro desktop threw this warning message and my Mac Book Pro laptop didn't?

It most likely has to do with the audio you're working with or the preset of the timeline. You'll get the same thing sort of thing from iMovie footage (.dv, muxed audio) or footage that includes 32KHz/12-bit audio.

Try this: Create a new sequence from one of the clips using the Make Multiclip Sequence command available by Control-clicking on the clip. Don't worry about the set-up, just give it a OK to whatever the default control window suggests. Then delete the folder and clip that was created, open the new sequence, and delete the clip in the timeline. The result is FCPs best shot at "auto-conforming" the timeline to the clip. If it still wants a render, then it's probably something in how it was captured. The fact that you didn't see this on your MBP is probably coincidental.

5) Motion Tab in FCP; I was experimenting with animating photographs in FCP (simple Ken Burns style). I noticed that if I use the "Show Wireframe" option the biggest difference between doing it in Vegas with Pan/Crop and doing it in FCP with Motion is the fact that FCP's Motion tab doesn't automatically give you the initial keyframe.

For example in Vegas's Pan/Crop you simply move your playhead to the end (for example) and drag the bounding box to create a zoom, and poof your done. I tried that in FCP only to realize I zoomed the clip- but for the ENTIRE length (ie it had no starting keyframe). So if I'm understanding this correctly- you had to add an initial keyframe to whatever attribute your going to animate. In other words if I'm going to do a zoom and a slight twist I have to add initial keyframes to "scale" and "rotation"...is this correct?

Yes. FCP doesn't know what your intentions are in terms of where/how you move a clip until it sees a keyframe as a reference. You can use the little keyframe button in Canvas (or Control+K) at the start of the clip (or wherever) to set all the motion keyframes at once then make your moves.
Another difference I noticed was Vegas tends to try and conform the file when dropped in the timeline. In other words if it's a half res WMV or MPG1 it'll scale it automatically to fit the timeline's resolution. I dropped an iPod res MPG4 on a DV-NTSC timeline in FCP and it displayed as a tiny little video floating in a larger black frame. Understandable beings it's not matching the res of the sequence preset. However what's the best way to get it to fit the screen? Simply use the "Scale" dialog under the Motion tab?

Refer to my "auto-conforming" comments above. Whatever hits the timeline first will generally "set the standard". If the image is comparitively "odd" (like a 300 x 110 still) then the timeline usually tries to keep it in the system default format (you set this in the easy set-up) and scales the image accordingly.

The fast/easy adjust is on the Motion tab or dragging the wireframe in the Canvas. As an aside, if you're working with stills from different sources and having square/non-square pixel issues, you can adjust them easily using the aspect ratio slider in the Distort section of the Motion tab. DV footage and timeline stills will be 0, something coming unadjusted from Pshop will likely be -12.5. Setting it to 0 will make your circles round...

6) Workflow For Keeping Projects on External Drives; I'd like to keep the majority of my FCP projects tucked neatly on their own external hard drives. This enables me to take the project with me on the road if necessary to continue the project on my Mac Book Pro. Now, if I have the HD connected I can go into FCP's system properties and select the external drive to house my capture scratch, render files, etc. However what if I start another project that ISN'T on this external drive- it will have to reset my capture scratch, and render file locations. Then what happens when I reconnect my HD? Will it then have to be manually switched back?

Yes. The "scratch" tracking is done at the application level rather than the project level. The only reason I can see for this being so is the ability we have to bring up multiple projects at the same time and drag sequences and/or assets around. That might otherwise get really weird...

At least with the later versions of FCP it tells you your scratch volume isn't mounted and asks for an alternative; it used to silently default to the user's personal storage...
Does the FCP project file contain the information to know where to look for the render files etc- or is this a setting that System Preferences resides over and requires constant changing back and forth? I may have failed at explaining that clearly- in short I want to have 1 or 2 projects per HD and be able to plug them in and start working on them without having to reconfigure FCP- is this possible (keeping in mind I'll be switching between more than one computer with these external drives)?

see above... :sad-smiley-018:


One way I have used to deal with the multiple projects per disk volume issue is to make a common scratch area for the volume. FCP will take care of "folderizing" all the render and autosave files.

Good luck on cutting over to what is currently being described as "the ultimate desktop system"!

[Scott S]

I was always under the impression that you should keep your scratch disks seperate from your project folder so that's how mine is set up. I have a drive that contains the scratch stuff and then a bunch of project drives. If I know I have to use the project drive with a different computer, I copy the render files into the project folder so I don't have to re-render on the new machine.

Cheers,
Scott

[MediaConcepts]

I was always under the impression that you should keep your scratch disks seperate from your project folder so that's how mine is set up. I have a drive that contains the scratch stuff and then a bunch of project drives. If I know I have to use the project drive with a different computer, I copy the render files into the project folder so I don't have to re-render on the new machine.

Cheers,
Scott


I'm not sure about keeping your scratch disks seperate from your project folder, I just put everything* in one folder on a FW drive. That way I can take the drive home (for instance) and edit on my laptop and everything is there.

Here's how I do it. I create a folder, "09-08-06 Gibson". In that folder I create 2 folders, "FCP Files" and "Project Files". The FCP Files folder is my scratch disk for that project. When I'm completely done with the project, I delete the FCP Files folder and the BitVice or Compressor folder, leaving all of the project files including music, photoshop files and DVD files.

Joe

* My applications are on a different drive, is that what you were thinking of Scott?

[Postal Boy]

Good luck on cutting over to what is currently being described as "the ultimate desktop system"!

He he he...it still makes me laugh that they call it a "desktop system" when it has always been a workstation...

Wish my apps ran on their hardware...I still may do a MBP with dual boot options...

postal

[joemcmanus]

i haven't read the replies so i hope you aren't getting the same advice twice ;)

There is one name you NEED to know when learning FCP. Ken Stone. Look it up in Google and search his amazing FCP database.

For FTP programs and so much more, check out Version Tracker (again in google) - it is an OSX based search engine for all kinds of software and you will ALWAYS find what you need, usually share or freeware ;)

check out the paul crisp masks if you like to do masking.

Welcome to OSX Good to have you ;)

[gl]

1) FTP software; I've been using CUTE FTP for the PC for the last few years. I love it's straight-forward easy to use interface. I don't believe CUTE is available for the Mac so what is the best alternative(s).

Does OSX has built-in FTP support and if so is it enough for basic uploading and managing server content?


I also use Cute on the windows platform and find it simple and straight forward. My current favorite on the mac is Transmit. First of all because the company just makes great apps. But, I also like the simplicity and reliability of it. It costs $30 I think but it's worth it for the solid design.


2) Graphic Editing/Processing/Sorting software; Several times a month I'm required to sort through thousands of high res. still images and calalog them into bins of keepers and trash. I've found ACDSee Pro to be the most intuitive and powerfull program to handle this sort of organizing. I know Photoshop CS and a host of other programs can thrumbnail images but they all seem to have a great deal of overhead and run terribly slow. Not only is ACDSee fast, it has the ability to view each image FULL Screen and use the scroll wheel on the mouse to advance to the next image. There is a keystroke you hit on the keyboard to "tag" the image then I can simply go back to my "tagged" bin and move the selected images to a remote folder to be designated as the "keepers".

Can Aperature function like this? I know it has a rating system with stars, but does it have a quick and easy way to scroll through images and tag them as keepers with a quick keystroke? On a somewhat unrelated note I was messing around with Aperature last night and it doesn't seem to have a zoom tool, to zoom past 100 percent. I know it has a magnifying tool, but no way to zoom the image beyond 100 percent as a whole?


You want to zoom into or zoom out of? The Loop tool lets you magnify it more than 100%.

Lastly I need Photoshop CS2 as well but have been holding out on buying it till they release a universal binary version. Any idea of when that will be available?

Adobe has said Q1 2007 and/or Spring so take your pick on which you want to hang your hopes on. however, Many are finding the CS2 suite to be very useable on the MacPro. I use it on My MBP and while it's certainly not as fast as the bootcamp/PC side I find it very useable and do so everyday.


3) NTFS compatability; I connected an external drive to my Mac last night. Beings it was formated NTFS for use on my PC I only expected to be able to read the data, not actually drag the files to the Mac Pro. To my delight I was indeed able to drag the files over without a hitch. Oddly, I don't remember being able to do this with an NTFS formatted partition on my Mac Book Pro when I was dual booting it with Boot Camp.
What's the verdict on this? Why didn't it work before but now works fine?
(Not that I'm complaining) :wink:


I can copy any file I like off of my Bootcamp partition and don't remember ever having a problem with that. I also use Macdrive on the PC side so all of my mac-formatted drives are available. I just don't have any problems sharing data back and forth.

4) Vegas DV-AVI Compatability on FCP Timeline; I used the method described in #3 to move some DV-AVI files off my external drive on to my Mac Pro. I've done this in the past and was able to simply drop them directly into a FCP timeline without a hitch. Last night I was able to do so but it threw a warning message that read something like "Media Performance Warning- files are not optimized for FCP so it is suggested you recapture or use media manager to create copies". It also mentioned something about decrease in performance for multiple streams. Odd...I never got that warning the first time I tried it on my Mac Book Pro. Now the Mac Pro desktop seems to be complaining a bit. Well I pressed on anyway and dropped those files on the timeline and they indeed gave me the dark grey bars (ie "Compatable"). I did a little bit of cutting and it seemed fine.
I'm getting ready to start an ENTIRE wedding edit using these Vegas captured AVI files- will this become a problem in the future? Any idea why FCP on the Mac Pro desktop threw this warning message and my Mac Book Pro laptop didn't?


I suggest the same approach Mr' Vega mentioned. Almost any issue like the mentioned can be tracked back to an incompatibility between the source and the sequence setting.

5) Motion Tab in FCP; I was experimenting with animating photographs in FCP (simple Ken Burns style). I noticed that if I use the "Show Wireframe" option the biggest difference between doing it in Vegas with Pan/Crop and doing it in FCP with Motion is the fact that FCP's Motion tab doesn't automatically give you the initial keyframe.

For example in Vegas's Pan/Crop you simply move your playhead to the end (for example) and drag the bounding box to create a zoom, and poof your done. I tried that in FCP only to realize I zoomed the clip- but for the ENTIRE length (ie it had no starting keyframe). So if I'm understanding this correctly- you had to add an initial keyframe to whatever attribute your going to animate. In other words if I'm going to do a zoom and a slight twist I have to add initial keyframes to "scale" and "rotation"...is this correct?


Yes, but I find that I can easily create an initial keyframe by just hitting 'k'.

Another difference I noticed was Vegas tends to try and conform the file when dropped in the timeline. In other words if it's a half res WMV or MPG1 it'll scale it automatically to fit the timeline's resolution. I dropped an iPod res MPG4 on a DV-NTSC timeline in FCP and it displayed as a tiny little video floating in a larger black frame. Understandable beings it's not matching the res of the sequence preset. However what's the best way to get it to fit the screen? Simply use the "Scale" dialog under the Motion tab?


*gulp* Yes that is a reasonable way to do it but, I would not be excited to see the results :uhoh:


6) Workflow For Keeping Projects on External Drives; I'd like to keep the majority of my FCP projects tucked neatly on their own external hard drives. This enables me to take the project with me on the road if necessary to continue the project on my Mac Book Pro. Now, if I have the HD connected I can go into FCP's system properties and select the external drive to house my capture scratch, render files, etc. However what if I start another project that ISN'T on this external drive- it will have to reset my capture scratch, and render file locations. Then what happens when I reconnect my HD? Will it then have to be manually switched back?

Does the FCP project file contain the information to know where to look for the render files etc- or is this a setting that System Preferences resides over and requires constant changing back and forth? I may have failed at explaining that clearly- in short I want to have 1 or 2 projects per HD and be able to plug them in and start working on them without having to reconfigure FCP- is this possible (keeping in mind I'll be switching between more than one computer with these external drives)?

Yes it is set as an application preference which is one of the few areas where Avid is still ahead of FCP. I find that to get around this the best approach for me is to simply arrange my HD storage to have projects on similar schedules be on the same drive. I also have a seperate drive for assets that span projects that I always keep online.

This area of media/project management is most likely the next focus of the FCP team. It's the real major sore in my opinion now.


-gl

[GmElliott]

Thank you everyone! I knew I loved this Mac forum!!!!

[tbanucci]

Hey GM-

For FTP software I highly recommend Transmit (panic.com). I've used all the others and this crushes them in terms of ease of use and ability to manipulate stuff without downloading it.

[GmElliott]

Yep I ended up buying Transmit. Thanks- it's great!