Does someone know if Apple Motion has the equivalent of After Effects "Guide Layer"?

A convenient way to build your graphics or animation is to bring a temp background layer in your timeline. Of course you don't want to render the background with the graphics, After Effects has a very convenient "stamping": right-click on your layer, select Guide Layer = the layer won't be rendered in the output.
I can't find something similar in Apple Motion and I spend my time turning the layer on and off. If someone has a solution, please let me know!

Need to update Sony AMA Plug-in for Media Composer 8.6.3

The joy of tracking software across multiple manufacturers websites to keep your editing station going. Today: Avid Media Composer 8.6.3.

Dang!

- How to check installed plug-ins in MC:
Project window / Info

This is what I have:

AMA Plugin Info:

 MediaCollector MVP Plug-InAvid Technology, Inc. 2.1.1.3415

 AS-11 Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.5.0.3431

 AVCHD MSP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.3.9.3435

 Avid MXF MSP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 2.1.1.3414

 MSP_MXF Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.15.5.3452

 WaveAiff Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.4.1.3414

 AVCHD MVP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.3.9.3435

 AS-02 Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.6.0.3452

 Avid Image Sequencer Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.2.1.3414

 QuickTime Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.6.7.3444

 MVP_CanonXF64 CANON INC. 2.0

 RED R3D Plug-In (R3DSDK v4.6) Avid Technology, Inc. 1.11.0.6745

 MVP_MSP_SonyXDCAMEX_64bit Sony Corporation 1.9001

 SonyXDCAM_64bit Sony Corporation 3.4000.0.381

So these two underlined Sony XDCAM 64bit have to go.

- AMA Plug-ins folder location (on Mac OS X 101.10.5 Yosemite):
Boot HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/AVX2_Plug-ins/AMA

Actual folder content. Two Sony XDCAM Plug-ins in there. Bye now.

Avid AMA Support Page:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/en394827

Avid AMA Plug-ins Compatibility Chart:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/Media-Composer-AMA-Plugin-Compatibility-Chart

Sony Software Download page:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/software_for_sony_equipment

Sony XAVC / XDCAM AMA Plug-in Download Page - Version 3.51 is the one for MC 8.6:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/pdzk-ma2

Now installed, and showing the proper version in MC:

MVP_MSP_SonyXDCAMEX_64bit Sony Corporation 1.9300

SonyXDCAM_64bit Sony Corporation 3.5100.0.398

FCPX nothing happens when trying to import ProRes from Sony FS7 XDCA - XDROOT

Odd behavior from FCPX when trying to import ProRes footage from the FS7 / XDCA recorder.
The XDROOT folder structure is intact. It has been copied from the Sony card to HD. The card has been freshly formatted, there is no other footage on the card.
FCPX just hangs (nothing happens - rolling ball) when looking at the folder from Import window.
On the other hand, directly drag and drop the .mov file from the XDROOT/Clip works just fine.
Any ideas?

Using Import from FCPX... Stuck there, nothing happens.

Drop & dragging the .mov file works fine though.

Note: Premiere sees the file inside the XDROOT, so does Resolve.

Error 503 from App Store

Today I get an Error 503 from the App Store, and I cannot update. Hmmm...

Update: Looks like the update went through, even though the message kept popping several times. Back to work.

Premiere vs. FCPX - Part 4

When there are lots of media files inside a folder (I have folders with 800 files in them) Premiere does not load all media and skips files (randomly? I can't tell...) That's NOT GOOD! How am I supposed to track what's been ingested, and of what's not???

I talked to the DP and he was referring to a particular shot that I had not seen in my bins. Bizarre, I had to go back to the drive to look at the original media, and bingo! The shot was there and it had not been imported! I had to go through all my import bins, and I found out a bunch of files that were missing, I had to re-import them one by one. Adobe you MUST FIX this!

---

Now, what?  I needed to use my media drive onto another machine, when I came back to continue editing in Premiere it lost track of some files... Why is that?  It's the same drive, same folders, same folder structure. How is that possible? Got the relink window open waiting for me to point at media files... Forget this.

OK so after I closed everything and restarted and launched Premiere and opened the project again, the third time Premiere started finding the missing media by itself, good.  Now it's recreating waveform and all this crap, so I got to wait.   All right, the cut is back, at least nothing is missing.

Export XML in FCPX stalls / seems to freeze

Quick note re. Export XML in FCPX: it can take a while!

Sometimes one can feel that it's frozen and that something is wrong, but it just needs some time to complete.

As an example I have this 4min. cut that took over 5min. to export to XML.  That's a long time!

At first I thought something was wrong because the Export bar was stuck at 25% and FCPX icon was bouncing from the Dock.

Stuck there for 5min.

But after patiently waiting for 5min. it went through. I suppose the more complex your Project, the longer it takes to complete.

How to reveal dupe material in FCPX?

Gosh I find myself in need of making sure I'm not using the same material twice in a cut.  I'm cutting this project in FCPX, and darn it! I can't figure a way to do it!

There is Dupe Detection in Avid, Show Duplicate Frames in FCP7, Show Duplicate Frame Markers in Premiere, where is dupe detection in FCPX???

Nowhere! Ooh!... Lament.