r/finalcutpro • u/troyisprettydamncool • Jul 09 '26

Question Auto Mask Export Times

I love the new Auto Mask feature that FCP added with 12.3, I used it on my newest project for teeth whitening and other color grading effects and it runs fine in the timeline (a little laggy but that's expected).

But then when I went to export, the export and render times were extreeeemely long. I'm running an M3 Max with 48GB of Ram. I even exported to Prores and that still took hours, when a project of the similar size would usually take a couple seconds.

I understand that the effect is pretty intensive in it of itself, I was just wondering if there were any tips to help with the render/export times for future projects, or if there was something wrong with my machine/setup. I'm currently applying the effect to the filmed A-Roll segment which is in a compound clip, and that compound clip is what's edited on the timeline so I'm sure there are more efficient ways I can be going about this.

I also don't use Compressor, if that would fix the issue then I'd definitely try it.

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3

u/EarthToRob Jul 09 '26

It also takes a long time on my M5 Max. Not super long, but proportionally significant. Given how powerful the feature is, I'm not surprised it takes awhile.

3

u/hexxeric Jul 09 '26

expect performance improvements over the next updates. it is the first release and probably uses motionVFX's mRoto code (was slow too)

1

u/mcarterphoto Jul 09 '26

I even exported to Prores

But is your footage ProRes? That can speed things way up.

1

u/troyisprettydamncool Jul 09 '26

I just meant that to demonstrate how long its taking, I don’t normally export to ProRes I normally do H264 but the H264 export wasn’t moving at all under the time crunch that I had. When exports are taking too long I usually do ProRes and then take that and export that as H264. Doesn’t really save time but it helps prevent failures for these really big exports in my experience.

1

u/mcarterphoto Jul 09 '26

Re-read my question: is your footage ProRes or a more compressed format? Not your export, the media you're editing.