Final Cut Pro 10.2.3 refuses to launch

Today FCPX 10.2.3 got stuck on opening, displaying only an empty splash window and not loading anything... Frustrating.

Some users have reported that Audio Components can be creating such a problem when FCP does not start.

So I proceeded by elimination: pulling recently installed AUs from my Plug-Ins folder (in BootHD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components) to see if it helped.

Indeed I found my culprit: and audio component I installed a few weeks ago: "MIGIC.component."  After removing it, FCP started no problem.

How to import "Stereo" audio as two discrete Mono files in Premiere Pro

By default Premiere imports audio as Stereo. 

But when I get files with say a boom mike on CH1 and a lav on CH2, I want to bring the audio as two Mono files, so that I can adjust levels -among other things- separately.

Go to: Premiere Pro CC/Preferences/Audio, and set: Default Audio Tracks / Stereo Media to Mono.

Easier than to change it after import.

See picts. below.

Adobe help link:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/clips-channels-tracks.html

How to apply Adjustment Layers to a single Layer or Group in Photoshop? ...Clipping Mask!

The Adjustment Layers are great, but they modify all layers that are staked below. How to exclude some layers form the adjustment?

Easy: Select the Adjustment Layer, and "Create Clipping Mask" (Alt+Command+G) and the Adjustment Layer will now clip to the underlaying Layer or Group selectively, without altering other Groups or Layers.  Neat.

You can do the same by clicking on the left bottom icon of the Adjustment Layer Properties Panel:

Another way is to hover over the space between the Adjustment Layer and the Layer or Group below it in the Layer Panel, hold "Option" and you will see the Create Clipping Mask small icon. Click on it.

Note that it is reversible: you will now see the "reverse / undo" Create Clipping Mask icon, click on it and the Adjustment Layer is back to "normal" - affecting every layer below - mode.

How to mute working audio in FCPX without muting video as well

When round-tripping from FCPX to ProTools (or another audio editing/mixing app) and back, at the end of the mixing session, I bring my stereo DIAlog and MUSic stems into FCPX and sync them up.
Then I check proper sync against the working audio - still attached to the Video clips.
When all is good, it's time to mute the working audio.  But how to do it without muting image as well?
Normally you'd mute a clip by pressing "V", this mutes both audio and image.
To mute audio only, select all your clips, and Right Click (CTRL Click) Expand Audio Components
Then select only the audio portion of the clip and hit "V".  The audio component is selectively muted.  Right Click (CTRL Click) Collapse Audio Components, and Master away!

Resolve 12.5b broken Color Setting in the Dip To Color Dissolve (Yes I know it's beta.)

The Dip To Color Dissolve behaves erratically in Resolve 12.5b causing the app to crash. In the Inspector, the Color Setting doesn't show properly, any attempt at modifying the Color while in this state will result in a crash.

After several attempts at replacing the transition, the proper display of Color will show, and things will be fine - no more crash.  Eventually, after a crash, the Color setting will show its normal state.

Erratic behavior1:

 The Color setting has a slider and a box with "0.000" in it.

Erratic behavior2:

The Color setting displays a slider and a box with "--" in it.

Any attempt at modifying the Color in both cases will crash Resolve.

Normal behavior:

Here it shows its normal state, clicking on the rectangle opens the color wheel, and all is fine.

Color wheel pops-up on clicking the rectangle.

Premiere Pro 9.2 to Resolve 12.5b via FCP xml

Good news: Export Final Cut Pro xml works well.  Cuts are accurate, speed changes (including keyframing) are accurate, L and J cuts, scaling is accurate (including keyframing.)

All these work equally well on Merged Clips, ah!  I just transferred a small 30sec. project, so nothing big, we'll see how it goes with longer projects.

Retime preferences need to be reset in Resolve, as the Premiere settings do not translate.  No biggie.

Cross-dissolves translate perfectly and can be modified further into Resolve.

On the other hand, Dip to black dissolves translate fine, Dip to White dissolves turn into Dip to black dissolves for some reason.

You'd think: Easy enough to change them back to Dtwd I'll select the transition, open the Inspector, change Video Transition Style to something else, then select Dip to Color Dissolve again...  Nope.

Any attempt to change the transition either results in instant CRASH, or the BALL OF DEATH or if you're lucky enough to be able to open the Inspector panel, the Color Setting will CRASH Resolve. Interestingly enough, sometimes after the crash (but not always), the Color setting behaves properly... Go figure.

Note that after a crash, the Resolve Project comes back as it was the last time it was saved.  You will loose anything you've done between the last save and the crash. You've been warned.

I then tried to purely replace the Dip to Color Dissolve with the Resolve flavor... Well this transition appears to be BROKEN in 12.5b.  The Color setting behaves erratically, and when the Color does not appear, there is instead a slider with a box and "000" in it. Trying to change that value will crash.  Eventually after a few attempts replacing the Dtcd, the proper Color setting shows up: a rectangle with the selected color in it.  Clicking on the rectangle will open the color wheel.  So it's all Resolve fault.
http://humanuser.blogspot.com/2016/04/resolve-125b-broken-color-setting-in.html

Premultiply Alpha...

I just got bit by the Premultiply Alpha option in the Motion Export... Or so I thought:

What happened?  I edited my graphics into FCPX Timeline, and added Basic Titles above them, as seen in the below Timeline:

While cutting and previewing, all was fine (I never render in FCPX, Background Render is always turned OFF.)
After Exporting though, there were jumps in the background colors when the Titles appeared on-screen:

Clearly, before the Title shows up, the Background color is darker (wrong.)

When the Title pops up, the Background color changes.

Why you would ask?  Well, I had a semi transparent background in my Motion graphics, that's why.

OK, so I thought let's Export WITHOUT Premultiply Alpha.  I did and I got this:

Here it's all good, no changes before / after the Title.

Could it be that the proper way to export from Motion in this case is without Premultiply Alpha?  ...

Turns out, I should have added a Background to my graphics in FCPX!   Like so, in this case a Custom Generator (set to black):

The results:

All good this time!