About Final Cut Pro X Workflows

Describes how Final Cut Pro X exchanges data with other applications.

At a Glance

Final Cut Pro X works with other applications in various workflows, for example:

An application ingests footage from an external device for editing in Final Cut Pro X.
An application that performs color grading or graphic composting on a Final Cut Pro X edit result.
An asset management system manages the media assets used by Final Cut Pro X.

Final Cut Pro X exchanges media data and edit descriptions with other applications as shown in Figure I-1 .

Figure I-1 Final Cut Pro X workflow

Final Cut Pro X exchanges media data and edit descriptions with other applications through importing and exporting:

Importing—incorporating media assets, along with additional information such as metadata and rough cuts, from another application into Final Cut Pro X.Relevant Chapter: Importing
Exporting—delivering edits from Final Cut Pro X to another application as rendered media and/or a description of the edits.Relevant Chapter: Exporting

In both cases, you use Final Cut Pro X XML Format (FCPXML) to represent rough cuts, edit descriptions, and metadata.

Relevant Document: Final Cut Pro X XML Format

Final Cut Pro X interacts with another application through Apple events requesting information or triggering an action to automate the exchange. Your application must respond to incoming Apple events.

Relevant Document: Cocoa Scripting Guide

In particular, to control the export process, Final Cut Pro X uses the events and classes defined in the ProVideo Asset Management scripting terminology suite.

Relevant Section: Scripting Definition

Relevant Appendix: Appendix A: ProVideo Asset Management Suite

Starting with Final Cut Pro 10.3, you can use the following:

Drag-and-drop—Drag and drop libraries, projects, events, and clips between Final Cut Pro X and another application that supports drag-and-drop functionality. The dragged objects are represented as XML in the pasteboard.Relevant Sections: Drag-and-Drop Import and Drag-and-Drop Export
Incremental Import—Import FCPXML into one or more existing events by adding new clips or replacing existing clips. (This is now the default behavior in Final Cut Pro X regardless of the imported FCPXML’s DTD version.)Relevant Section: Importing FCPXML Documents

The following custom share destination enhancements were added after Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2:

Library archive integration (Final Cut Pro X v10.2.2)—Include an archive of the library, excluding media and temporary files, along with the FCPXML in the export output.
FCPXML DTD version (Final Cut Pro X v10.2)—Export FCPXML in either the current FCPXML DTD version or the previous FCPXML DTD version.

Relevant Sections: Custom Share Destination

Prerequisites

In addition to experience with Final Cut Pro X, it is assumed that you are familiar with:

Final Cut Pro X XML Format (FCPXML)
Cocoa Scripting support for handling Apple events
How to implement drag-and-drop

About Final Cut Pro X Workflows

At a Glance

Prerequisites

See Also