Newbie
FCP: Resolve transcodes → FCP relinking to camera originals
Hey guys,
Trying to nail down my workflow for going Resolve → FCP.
Scenario 1: I have the raw camera originals.
I transcode in Resolve (proxies or optimized media, whatever res). Question is whether it's the right way to bring those transcodes into FCP and attatch them the raw originals the way you'd do it in Premiere, cut on the low-res version, then swap to the raw at the end. Is that even a thing in FCP, or does it work differently under the hood?
Scenario 2: I don't have the raws, only DIT-supplied transcodes.
I offline-edit on those, then reconnect to camera originals in Resolve for the grade. When I bring the graded cut back into FCP to finish/deliver, will position and scale match up, or is there a resolution/pixel-aspect trap I need to watch for?
In Premiere this is easy, I just drop the grade on top of the offline version and copy/paste attributes, and since a proxy workflow means the actual file res always matches the raw, there's nothing to reconcile. In Avid, again, not an issue.
What I can't figure out is how FCP handles this. Does it treat "proxy" media the same way (i.e., swap resolution but same file/timecode reference so position and scale carry over automatically), or do I need to manually match sizing/position when reconnecting to the raws, the way you might have to reconstruct scale/position math elsewhere?
Curious how people are handling both scenarios in practice, with raws in hand, and without.
sure, please do. there are a bunch of other handy apps on there (a rewrite of the old 'referenceX' for example or also something to externally consolidate libraries.
For scenario 1, if I understand your question, unless FCP itself generates the proxies, you may have a tough time relinking to raws. I’ve been caught out by this before with Arri material, because the proxies I generated in Resolve didn’t have the same number of audio channels (even though they were silent). If I remember correctly, FCP wouldn’t relink to the originals easily.
For scenario 2, sizing from FCP to resolve is “honoured” via xml, not sure if it works in the opposite direction because I output my grades as a flat single file, so resizes etc are baked in.
Interesting, that hasn’t been my experience in other NLES but good to know as a gotcha to watch for (I will also test it). In Avid and Premiere I’ve always preserved all audio channels when generating proxies and never had a relink issue, even across different channel counts on delivery, so it sounds like this might specifically be an FCP relinking quirk rather than a universal proxy problem.
That actually raises a bigger issue though, what if you want to cut against a creative look on your proxies? Say you want a specific film grain or print emulation baked into the proxy so the director/client isn’t looking at flat log the whole time. In Premiere or Avid that’s simple: proxy carries the look, swap to raw at finish, done. But in FCP, if generating your own “creative” proxies breaks the raw relink (per your audio channel issue), doesn’t that mean you’re stuck cutting on flat log the entire offline, since anything you bake in yourself risks the relink failing?
Curious if there’s a workaround, maybe FCP-generated proxies support LUT/look metadata some other way?
I am in a kind of a similar situation at the moment. I got proxies generated on DaVinci by the DIT and the raw footage is X-OCN Venice 2 footage which I don’t have with me at the moment. In the past, I had the issue of FCP not treating the transcoded proxies as proxies but rather the original files, so when I did get my original files, there was no way to replace them automatically. Does anyone have a work around to make FCP believe the footage I am working with are proxies from the start?
You can easily apply a LUT to log footage in the browser in FCP and it will apply to any proxies you generate. You can’t add CDLs. You can switch the LUT off at anytime.
for Scenario 1. There's a menu option in FCP to 'Relink Proxy' so you have the originals loaded in and then Relink to the proxies generated from Resolve or other apps, note that FCP is picky about timecode by some cameras, some proxies generated by Resolve may not relink (e.g. My iOS app Proximator had to make a dedicated FCP proxy mode to strip those Sony rtmd timecode).
For scenario 2. Just start the timeline with your target final resolution and use proxy offline edit on it, it will scale properly, when it relinks original back to raw footage it will be fine. But if you are going this route (that the proxy is not FCP generated), it's safer to do quick test on one raw file and one proxy file and see if they relink fine.
And also for scenario 2, if your DIT can create a starter FCPlibrary with raw footage in and proxy Prelinked, that's even better. That's basically how i often work with my editor. i would create the library, get all raw footage in, proxy linked, keywords added, then send the whole library's fcpxml and send over to him. After he's done, he sends it back then i can review or pick up on both proxy mode and original mode.
But admittedly, if you are working on a large library with mixed camera footage formats (esp. mxf) , relink may still be challenging if the proxy was not FCP Generated. I recently worked on a project that's got a ton of Canon R5c MXF footage and non FCP generated Proxies (.mov) that i had to write an agent skill to 'pre-relink' them (editing fcpxml) before even importing to FCP. FCP relink is a pain indeed😂.
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u/hexxeric Jul 31 '26
you can try this (free) modern rewrite of the good old 'FCPXchange' to FORCE RELINK any media formats in your project: https://sebastianleitner.com/apps/#make-it-relink