macOS How To Migrate Your Fonts and Fonts Collections

I do not migrate my complete user profile when I upgrade to a new macOS, I prefer to start clean. Less problems this way, less trouble shooting.

One thing I find annoying is I have to lug my Fonts from the previous OS to the new one. I have over 700 Fonts in my FontBook and they are all ORGANIZED into Collections.

I'll show you how to bring in all your fonts AND your Fonts Collections into your new system, follow along.

Obviously you keep a copy/clone of your old OS boot drive just in case something does not work in the new one and you need access to a specific app: boot from the clone and  PRONTO! You're in business.

1) Start your computer from the new OS boot drive. Mount your old OS boot drive.

2) Go to your previous OS home folder / Library / Fonts. Copy all the Fonts content from that folder and Paste it into the new OS home folder / Library / Fonts.

3) Go to your previous home folder / Library / FontCollections. Copy all the FontCollections content from that folder and Paste it into the new OS home folder / Library / FontCollections.

Copy from old OS boot drive / Users / "your user" / Library / Fonts

(And then do the same with FontCollections)

Paste to new OS Home folder / Library / Fonts

(And then do the same with FontCollections)

4) Open Font Book and check that everything is in order.

5) Enjoy!  You are welcome!

Note: if you do not see the Library folder, select your Home folder in the Finder Sidebar, then Select View, Show View Options, check the box "Show Library Folder".

Apple macOS 10.14 Mojave is up and running!

Mojave is now running on cMP 5,1 Intel 6 core 3.46GHz, Radeon 7950 (Metal compatible), 32GB RAM. It needed a firmware update prior to install.

After that was done, Mojave installed just fine. I made sure to disconnect all RAID and single media drives just in case. 

Done installing.

Firmware has been updated to Boot ROM Version 138.0.0.0.0

Only thing not working is Airdrop sharing. Apparently cMP 2012 are not compatible. 

AirDrop system requirements

To share between a Mac and an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you need any of these devices and operating systems:

• Mac from 2012 or later (excluding the mid-2012 Mac Pro) using OS X Yosemite or later 

That's a real drag Apple!

Working on a short and small multicam project in FCPX 10.4.3 with 4K footage in a 1080p Timeline. I'm letting FCPX transcode the XAVC Long GOP and h264 originals to ProRes422.

Slowly working with the originals until all the transcoding is finished in the background. I can perform basic editing in Multicam mode without much problem although it is pretty sluggish each time I stop/play or try to scrub.

After transcode and waveform generation is completed, everything is very responsive. Moving quickly through the first cut. No weird behavior, no hangs to report.

Exporting a h264 one pass TC screener via Send To Compressor was at first about real time: 15min. Timeline compressed in 15min. After the second and third export for screener 2 and 3 the time went down to 8-7min so half real time. Not too bad.

Just tried a few BruceX exports and got 44sec. Not great, not too disgusting either.

Random "Modified File" message in FCPX - Offline Media.

I'm being hit by a random media getting offlined by FCPX. The Clips show the Message: "Modified File", even though nothing changed to my knowledge.

Relinking doesn't work, weirdly. FCPX shows the proper file name, but trying to reconnect to the actual media does not work.

I thought of re-importing and manually replacing the clips, but what seems to miraculously work is to actually drag the offending media file from the Finder into the Browser.

All of a sudden the media gets recognized and the clips are re-linked and online again.

Quid?

Getting Stuck With Apple's iOS "Apple media terms and conditions have changed" Blank Page / Nothing Happens

This stupid bug has been going for a while now, tracing back to iOS 8, people -me included- are still facing this with iOS 11.

At some point Apple updates its Terms and Conditions and forces you to accept them in order to download new apps from the App Store.

But again and again when the user clicks the OK button she is faced with a BLANK SCREEN. Nothing happens. And after quitting the App Store and trying to download again, same scenario. BLANK SCREEN nothing happens.

Like other users I've tried everything: quit the App Store, log-out, log-in, restart the device, wait for 5min., wait for 10min., in any order, NOTHING WORKS.

- This is the ONLY THING THAT WORKED for me - WARNING you must have access to an Apple Computer.

Create a new account, open App Store on your Mac, log-in WITH THE SAME CREDENTIALS you use on your iOS device.

Download a random App. At which point Apple will flash the "Apple media terms and conditions have changed" message. Click OK, log-out.

DONE!

Now if you go back to your iOS device, the message WILL NOT SHOW since you've already accepted the terms on your computer. Is this STUPID or what?

Really Apple, really?

Apple's macOS Mojave 10.14 is Upon Us! How to make a bootable USB installer

Apple just released macOS 10.14 Mojave!

As Always: BACKUP EVERYTHING and DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR SYSTEM OR APPS IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROJECT.

Mojave is brand new, and even though it is stable a lot of plug-ins, apps and add-ons shenanigans are not yet 100% compatible. So BEWARE and TEST your stuff before diving-in. I have a Mule machine that I load with new installs for my own tests, and I'm very thorough and prudent. I won't upgrade my main system before some time.

Apple conveniently explains how to make a bootable USB flash drive installer with Mojave  in this support page, using the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal.

But first, download Mojave from the Apple Store, and Quit the installation when the installer opens.

Mojave install file is 5.7GB according to Apple.

Check that your computer and graphic card are on the list. 

For MacPro owners like myself, the upgraded graphic card must be Metal capable:
macOS Mojave requires a graphics card that supports Metal, an Apple technology that lets the system and apps efficiently tap into the capabilities of today’s graphics processors (GPUs). The graphics cards offered by Apple in Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012) don't have GPUs that support Metal, so these systems require upgraded graphics cards in order to install macOS Mojave.

And for some reason you must be on High Sierra before the upgrade:
Before you upgrade to macOS Mojave on these Mac Pro models, you need to update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and then make sure that your graphics card is compatible. You also need to turn off FileVault. First, use the Mac App Store to update your operating system to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. Don't upgrade your Mac Pro (Mid 2010) or Mac Pro (Mid 2012) to macOS Mojave directly from macOS versions prior to 10.13.6.

I will soon install Mojave on my second MacPro machine and will report any hiccups with my usual apps in future posts. Let me know how it performs on your system in the comments below. Cheers!

Publish to Vimeo from Frame.io, and Publish to YouTube and Facebook from there!

I use Frame.io for clients reviews, I use Vimeo for storing final videos.

New to Frame.io is the ability to push a (finished/approved) video to Vimeo - from within Frame.io!

You need to link your Vimeo account, of course, and there it is! I say: pretty cool feature!

When the video is on Vimeo, you have the capability from there to push it to Social Platforms, namely YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Mighty convenient if you ask me, when you have to have the same video on all platforms quickly.

How To Make an Unencrypted DCP with Resolve 15

DaVinci Resolve 15 offers Unencrypted DCP creation using Kakadu JPEG2000 for free. Until now we only had the paid easyDCP option available. EasyDCP is still the only option for 4K and Encrypted DCPs within Resolve.

For screenings and festivals purposes though, an unencrypted 2K DCP is great to have. Thanks to the guys at BMD you can easily make your own DCP directly within Resolve. In addition, one can also import the DCP newly created and add it into the Media Pool for instant checking, with the correct colors!

Before delivering your DCP you will need to copy the files to a portable drive that's compatible with DCP servers. More on this subject (and in-depth knowledge of DCP) on the wonderful website of Knut Erik Evensen.

Pretty cool, so how do we do this? When you have your film ready in Resolve Timeline, click on the Deliver page and choose Custom.

Browse to the location you want to render your DCP to. For Video, select Format = DCP, Codec = Kakadu JPEG2000, Type = you have three choices 2K DCI, 2K DCI Flat, 2K DCI Scope. Use what's best in your case.

Leave the Maximum bit rate at 211 Mbit/sec (default.)

Check Use interop packaging (it's the most compatible.) I note that there is nothing in the settings regarding the Frame Rate. Interop will only render a 24fps DCP. I had no problem doing so using a 23.98 timeline, so the rate conversion happens in the background, which is cool. I have not tried Subtitles.

Composition name, Click Browse. It opens the DCP Composition Name Generator with all the Metadata and naming already filled-in. Make sure to double check that it reflects your specific project. Make sure that Standard is set to OP (interop.)

For Audio, the default settings should work, Codec = Linear PCM, Output Track = make sure this reflects your tracks arrangement in the Timeline.

Add to the Render Queue, and Start Render! In my experience it takes around x3 real time to output a DCP with Resolve on my 2012 MacPro.

Voilà!

When your DCP is finished being created, go to the Media Tab, and add the DCP to the Media Pool. It shows in there just like a regular clip. You can check its Metadata, and Create a new Timeline using the DCP, from where yo can playback the DCP for checking everything is OK. On my machine, I have to use 1/2 resolution to have real time playback.

Alright so I had a post about using Premiere to check DCPs some time ago, this is another solution for DCP playback and creation. Enjoy!