This week on MacBreak Studio, I show Steve Martin from Ripple Training the answer to that question by using a common scenario: replacing temp music.
As editors, we often spend countless hours combing through stock video, image, and music libraries, searching for just the right content for our projects. Frequently, we use watermarked versions of this content pending client approval. Once approved, we need to replace this content with the final purchased media.
In the case of an image, video clip, or audio clip that is used just once in a project, you could simply import the new version and perform a replace edit.
However, if you've made significant modifications to the clip – transformations, effects, color correction, or audio adjustments in the case of a soundtrack – you will lose all those changes. Or, if you've used different portions of the same clip in many places in your project, you will have to perform multiple replace edits, and then slip the new content to match.
Now, while you could copy-paste attributes to the new clip (copy them, then replace edit, then paste attributes), a faster method is to simply relink the existing clips in your timeline to the new final media.
Here's where things can get a bit tricky if you have a managed library – i.e., all you media is contained inside the library bundle. You see, you can't relink a clip in the browser to a new clip in the library, because Final Cut Pro X can't “see” inside the library when using the Relink Media command.
But there's an easy fix to get around this issue – skip the import process completely! Simply relink to the new external media file, then consolidate the library to move that externally linked file into the library. Watch above for the details.
[Follow-on note: it has been pointed out to me, quite correctly that the reason the Consolidate command did not do anything in the video is that I had the Import checkbox checked in the Relink Media dialog – so that step is actually not necessary if you check the checkbox.]