FCP X: Change Project Settings

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Larry

Recently, I got an email from a reader asking how to change Project Properties in Final Cut Pro X. It isn’t hard, but there are a couple of hidden steps.

Most of the time, when you create a project, the settings are fine; especially when you let your Project auto-configure itself based upon the first clip you edit into it.

However, every so often, you edit the wrong type clip in first and the Project configures incorrectly, or you want to change the image size, or the render format. Here’s how.

Select the Project you want to change in the Project Library.

Then, either right-click the name of the project, type Command+J, or choose File > Project Properties.

This opens the Properties tab in the Inspector.

Clicking the Modify Event References button allows you view which Events are storing the media used in your Project. If you are using multiple Events, you can change their priority by dragging them up or down.

NOTE: Personally, I’ve never used this feature. However, it is nice to know it is here.

Click the Wrench icon in the lower right corner to open the Project Properties panel.

Here, you can change many of the settings of your project; including starting timecode and image size. However, once you have media edited into your Project, you are not able to change frame rate.

If you need to change the frame rate, the easiest thing to do is create a new Project, then copy the clips from the old Project and paste them into the new one.

NOTE: The best time to change project properties is when there are no clips edited into the sequence. When a sequence is empty, any property can be changed.

When you are happy with your revised settings, click OK.

Done.

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51 Responses to FCP X: Change Project Settings

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Tips For New FCPX Editors | Jonny Elwyn - Film Editor says:

March 19, 2013 at 9:29 am

[…] Jordan also has another excellent step by step guide on changing your project settings if you really need to… Most of the time, when you create a project, the settings are fine; […]
Milan says:

March 21, 2013 at 11:25 am

I’m editing together a 2 1/2 hour video of a school variety show destined for a DVD. Footage was mostly shot in 1080i but also in 720p. I converted all footage to ProRes 422 on import to FCP X. The 1080i footage looks good in FCP X but the 720p footage is soft, to the point of being unusable, unless I can better match it to the 1080i footage. (I believe the timeline is 1080i.) The 720p footage (from a .mov file) looks much sharper outside of FCP. Given my delivery format of DVD (don’t know how I’m going to do that from FCP X yet!), is there some way I can match the 720p and 1080i footage? Thanks very much.
Elias says:

April 19, 2013 at 5:19 am

Hi Larry!

Ive just bought the neat video home edition to use on a musikvideo ive done. However the home edition just works for 1280*720 so now I want to change the frame size on the video to 1280*720 from 1920*1080.

I tried to creat a new project and change the properties but when importing clips they are still in 1920*1080.
I also tried to import a clip in 1280*720 first. Any tips for me?

Best regards Elias
Larry Jordan says:

April 19, 2013 at 7:54 am

Elias:

I am completely confused here. There is no “Home Edition” of FCP X. The free trial supports all frame sizes, not just 1280×720.

Video will always import at the size it was shot. You change its size by changing Project Properties for that specific project. (File > Project Properties).

So, um, what are you really asking here?

Larry
Elias says:

April 19, 2013 at 10:08 am

Hi Larry!

Sorry if I dident make my question clear. I instald a plugin that only supports 1280*720.
And i want to change my clips in fcpx. Ive tried to change the propertys but the clips are still. 1920*1080.
Larry Jordan says:

April 19, 2013 at 10:13 am

Ah! You need to speak STRONGLY to the plug-in developer!

You can’t change the clips unless you rescale them using Compressor, which creates all new media. FCP X will scale them to the correct size, but not actually change the clips themselves.

Larry
Paul van Nierop says:

July 20, 2013 at 12:53 pm

Hi Larry,
Read your article on changing project settings. Would you please share your thoughts on the following: I have started a project with footage from 3 different cameras (Canon XF100=my own, CANON EOS and Sony small hand camera, type unknown. I converted all footage to ProRes422HQ, using Pavtube iMedia converter. When importing the EOS material, I found out, that the clips had h.264 as codec, although I ticked the optimized media box. Anyhow, I’m stuck with 2 codecs in 1 project. I tried everything to replace the h.264 codec for the ProRes422HQ, for rendering is very, very slow. Nothing seems to work.
I’m really getting desperate, since I had already made a lot of color corrections and Neat Video cleaning when I discovered the issue. I’m now working my way out by sharing the whole project and reimporting the output, but that has some disadvantages too.

Do you know any more efficient way out? Would be glad to hear your thoughts and/or those of other followers.
Paul
Jared says:

September 12, 2013 at 7:25 am

First, I see in your article that we can’t change the frame rate after the clips have been edited.

My questions is why is it that the project properties have the frame rate as 30p when the native frame rate with the video is 29.97.
Does the sequence not conform to the first video dropped in the timeline like you could in FCP7?
Max Federman says:

November 27, 2013 at 12:31 pm

Larry– please please help with this workflow question…

Often in FCP 7 I use a method of scaling video footage where I set the sequence to 720p and then drag in 1080p clips of the same frame rate. When dragged in, the 1080p clips read 66.7% in the Scale settings. This allows for various re-framing to take place in the sequence. As long as 100% is not exceeded, the quality comes out great.

Now in FCPx, I am trying to use this same technique and found your helpful post here explaining how to change the project settings. What’s troubling is that when I insert a 1080 clip into the 720 sequence, the 1080 clip reads 100% in the Scale rather than 66.7%. In this case I am trying to reframe a rudimentary 8mm film transfer. I am loving the time saving background tasks and direct to Blu-Ray function but until I get this size issue worked out I will have to work in another program.

Very appreciative of any help– thanks Larry– great tutorials by the way; your DVDSP tutorial saved me days of my life a handful of years ago!
Larry Jordan says:

November 27, 2013 at 10:18 pm

Easy – but different than FCP 7.

Select the clip you want to correctly scale in the Timeline of FCP X.

Open the Inspector and scroll down to Spatial Conform. Change it from Fit to None.

Done.

Larry