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  • Final Cut X… Need some suggestions for interface on 13″ MBP

    Posted by Luke Pighetti on February 4, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    Hey all,

    I am using Final Cut Pro X on a 13″ MBP.

    I just started using the video scopes to aid in color correction.

    I’m extremely frustrated with the event browser. It can’t be collapsed as far as I can tell and it makes it impossible to really experience the canvas while doing color corrections.

    Here’s what my interface looks like. Does anyone have any suggestions? Can inspector be detached for color correction purposes only?

    Full res screen shot can be seen here:

    https://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6755/screenshot20120204at115.png

    Olof Ekbergh replied 14 years, 3 months ago 6 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • Michael Sacci

    February 4, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    By biggest gripe about X is the use of screen real-estate. But You really have to come to grips that if you need to do color correction you need to get an external 24′ computer monitor, even with that I find everything too small. X has a 2 monitor mode but it even more frustrating screen use wide. IMO. But I believe you can send the event browser over to the 13″ and have more round for monitor and scopes on the 2nd display.

  • Bill Davis

    February 4, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    Hover your cursor over the vertical line between the EB and the viewer and you should be able to expand left to give more space to the Viewer and scope.

    Also hover your cursor over the boundry between the timeline and the viewer and you should be able to drag down to expand the vertical size of the monitoring array.

    No, you can’t “fully collapse” them. But you should be able to make the upper right screen array larger.

    “Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

  • Luke Pighetti

    February 4, 2012 at 9:38 pm

    Thank you both. In that screen shot, the event browser was adjusted to be as small as possible using the method Bill Davis suggested.

  • Jim Giberti

    February 5, 2012 at 12:56 am

    Hey Luke,

    Probably not what you want to hear, but you simply need a bigger monitor to do detail work.
    I have no problem with the screen real estate in X, in fact I like the layout.

    Here’s a grab of what I’m editing right now, with scopes on and on a 27″ monitor. At 76% of a full 1080 image it’s larger than the image we’d be grading on a 14″ or 17″ broadcast CRT.

    Here’s the project without scopes and it’s a nearly full 1080 image to work with.

    The 13″ can be a great production tool but it can’t be an all-in-one box given the size. Add a second monitor and you’re in business.

    Jim

  • Luke Pighetti

    February 5, 2012 at 1:04 am

    Thanks Jim,

    I suppose it’s a bit like trying to do brain surgery with a swiss army knife. I think I’m just going to push through the pain until I can convince myself to buy an external monitor, or just start using the 27″ iMac’s in the media lab at school.

    I do feel like this would be a non-issue for me if I could hide the event browser. Shouldawouldacoulda.

    Thanks again
    Luke

  • Jeremy Garchow

    February 5, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Make sure you send feedback to Apple.

  • Olof Ekbergh

    February 5, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    I use a HDMI external monitor hooked up with an adaptor cable, from my MBP or even one of my MP’s in the suite, when using FCPX to try grading. The JVC pro SDI monitors also have HDMI input. This is not the same as using an AJA, Matrox or BM solution, but it is better than nothing.

    You can even do this in many hotel room TV’s when on the road. It is not as good as when the External monitoring will work with my MX02, but it works quite well. I often do this on the road to review footage.

    I put the viewer on the second display (the HDMI one) this makes for pretty good real estate.

    If you send bars to the monitor and have a blue gel you can even calibrate the HDMI monitor, not as well as a real pro monitor. But you can get pretty close. I do this in my suite comparing it to bars on a calibrated real pro SDI monitor.

    Soon we don’t have to worry about this as there will be many compact external pro monitoring solutions. And this is really the only way to accurately grade.

    Olof Ekbergh

  • Luke Pighetti

    February 5, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    Can you give any tips for matching exposure, white balance and color correction across clips? I’m shooting with a Pentax K-x and there is no full manual control over video, so I need to spend extra time getting all clips to match in overall appearance.

    If there is a good thread about this already I don’t want to cause redundancy, but any direction would be very much appreciated.

  • Olof Ekbergh

    February 5, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    Luke, the quickest but maybe not the best is the match color adjustment in FCPX.

    Other than that use your scopes and eye on the best monitoring setup you have.

    First, adjust the contrast so the scopes match. Color casts tend to be in the highlights, so a slight adjustment there is a good start, then possible a little in the mids. This is a very crude description of cc. There are many excellent tutorials on the web.

    Olof Ekbergh

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