Final Cut Pro X: Saving Your Projects
This guide will give you step-by-step instructions to saving your video projects within Final Cut Pro X in Time Based Media.
Useful Information
Final Cut Pro X saves your projects, as default, to your Movies folder in your Finder. This is fine if you have your own Apple computer, but if left in the Movies folder in Time Based Media, all your hard work will be deleted. You might be aware that the iMac workstations around the rest of the campus do not have a Movies folder, they have a MyVideos in place of it. If your work is saved in this location (MyVideos) your work can be accessed on any other iMac, with exception to Time Based Media, and when you log off and back in your work will still be there until you delete it. However Final Cut Pro can not save in a folder called MyVideos, Final Cut Pro X can only save your Events and Projects in the Movies folder (with exception to portable hard drives, which I will mention later on).
If you do not have an external hard drive, here is a workaround guide.
Guide
When you open Final Cut Pro X for the first time, you will need to import footage from either a video camera or other media.
If you are importing from an SDHC card, you will need to create a new Event to contain your media. At this stage, if you have a portable hard drive, you can select the "Save to:" drop down menu and select your own hard drive. Final Cut will then make an Events folder within your hard drive.
Once you import your media, Final Cut Pro X will create an Events folder in your Movies folder if your are saving to the Macintosh HD (Hard Drive).
Your media is stored within your Events folder. It is important that the structure of the Final Cut Events folder remains in-tacted.
To edit your video, you will need to create a project.
Once you create a Project, a Final Cut Project folder will appear in the Movies Folder
You can also create a new project in the Project Library and save it to a portable hard drive.
Again, the file structure of the Final Cut Projects folder is importan and must remain in-tacted.
If you add text titles for Final Cut Pro X, Final Cut will add another folder to your Movies folder call Motion Templates.
If you do not have a portable hard drive you will need to move these folders to a different location after quitting Final Cut Pro X.
You can move these folders to the TBM folder if you have access, or to "mydocuments".
When you log back onto an iMac in Time Based Media, move the folders back to the Movies folder and then open Final Cut Pro X. You will not need to take this step if you have saved these on your own portable hard drive.
Trouble Shooting
Q: Can I move CurrentVersion.fcpproject to my friends computer?
A: No, this wont work. If you want to share your project, you will need to have given them your Final Cut Events and Final Cut Projects folders.
Q: My media seems to have gone offline, how can i reconnect my media?
A: Unfortunately you cannot reconnect your footage. You will need to move all of the media back to wherever you moved them from. If you have moved any of the other folders or renamed anything, you will need to rename and move everything back to how it was originally.
Tip
If you are importing from a video camera using MiniDV or media on your hard drive, click on the "Copy files to Final Cut Events folder". That way your media will be locked to your Events folder.