[ This article was first published in the January, 2011, issue of
Larry’s Monthly Final Cut Studio Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]
I was researching for my latest webinar — Managing Projects with Multiple Video Formats — and discovered this great Compressor tip.
I’ve known for years that we can automate video compression using Droplets. And, in fact, I use droplets on almost a daily basis. What I DIDN’T know was that Droplets could contain multiple settings!
Very cool and very simple. Here’s how.
Open Compressor.
In the Settings tab, Command-click to select all the settings you want to build into a single Droplet.
As you can see here, these can be in different folders, and can even contain settings groups; such as the DVD Best Settings folder.
In this case, I’ve selected a total of four settings (two are located inside the folder).
Click the Droplet button in the top left corner of the Settings tab.
In the File Name dialog, give the Droplet a name that makes it easy for you to remember what it does. Notice that while I am storing the Droplet to my Desktop, the files that this generates are stored in the Compressed Files folder, which is located on my second drive.
In a few seconds, a Droplet icon appears on your Desktop.
When you open the Droplet, all your settings are listed on the right (I’ve highlighted them in blue to make them easier to see.
Each movie listed on the left — Yup, its our intrepid hummingbirds, again — will be compressed into the formats that are contained in the Droplet.
This is VERY cool – I can now easily consolidate all my various single-setting Droplets into one, which speeds getting my files compressed.
EXTRA CREDIT: For the adventurous, you can change the default naming convention for each setting so that it labels each file using the label template in the Settings window so you know which setting compressed each file.
I like this new feature a lot!
