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Beware the zero length gap!
Has anyone run into this.
Often I can’t get the clips to respond in the magnetic timeline the way I expect them to react to my clicking and dragging.
I’ve discovered little bits of zero length gap in my timeline.
When I look at my timeline in maximum zoom, it’s just barely visible, but it’s there.
Open up the timeline index, and you’ll see it!
I looked at the clip attributes in the info box, and sure enough, the length is zero!
It’s easy enough to remove them. Click the gap in the timeline index and hit the delete key, but why oh why does it do this?
Why I think I’m getting these:
In FCP7, I use the extend edit function all the time!
If there’s a hole in a track, I’ll select the edit at the start of the hole, jump to the end of the hole and hit the E key, and bingo, the hole is filled.
When I do that in FCPX, it leaves that little bit of gap in there.
Anyone know a fast and friendly way to fill the gap by extending the previous clip?
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
12 Replies
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You can roll it out with the trim tool. Beware the comma and period keys. We call them the Ms. Pac-Man edit tools. Select a clip in the timeline and tap period and watch what happens.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX”
and “Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
Tom… thanks for the reply.
As usual, I don’t think I’m being very clear.
I use the comma and period keys all the time. I like the pacman metaphor.
So I know that if I select an entire clip, the pacman keys bump the entire clip up or down the timeline a frame at a time. Ten frames if I hold the shift key.
If I select an edit, it will roll or extend the edit likewise.
Here’s my question: I’ve got a bit of gap between two clips. Selecting the gap and deleting it isn’t good because my timeline will collapse and I have my audio timed out. I simply want to roll the end of the first clip to the beginning of the third clip, eliminating the gap.
Using the trim tool, I select end of the first clip, making sure I have both sides of the edit selected (I press the key). I use the period key (with shift key pressed for speed) until that edit stops moving because it’s bumped into the beginning of the third clip.
It looks like I’ve extended the first clip to the beginning of the third clip, eliminating the gap.
I haven’t. There is a very small bit of gap that still lives between the two clips. You can barely see it if you zoom the timeline in to maximum view. You can also see it and delete it in the timeline index.
Is there a better way to extend the first clip to the third, and eliminate what’s in-between?
In FCP7, I could select an edit point, and move the timeline past several clips, and extend the edit as far as the media would let me go.
In FCX, it only extends as far as the next edit, and leaves a bit of zero length gap in there.
Perhaps my problem is that I’m still thinking with the old paradigm, and even though they give us the method of extending a clip (shift-x) they don’t intend for us to use it because there is a newer, smarter way to deal trimming.
Thanks for listening. My brain hurts.
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
These are gaps of less than one frame? A one frame gap can be rolled out for me to nothing. The pacnan edit overwrites the clip it moves into. Can’t ever remember wanting to do that. Occasionally might want to slide an edit but to leave a hole behind in the timeline seems weird. Wondered if that was causing the problem. I haven’t seen any subframe gaps, nor gaps I couldn’t roll out.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX”
and “Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
After you roll out an edit to make the gap nothing, check the timeline index. (SHFT-CMD-2) I think you will see in the list a gap that you can’t see in the timeline.
Select the gap in the timeline index, and open the inspector. (CMD-4). Select the “info” tab. It shows the info for the gap, and I see that the gap has a length of zero.
What’s up with that?
I think this was messing me up for making other trims and moving clips around the track, but now I’m not so sure. It looks like if there’s this invisible bit of gap between two clips, I can still roll the editpoint, and extend the clips before and after this invisible gap.
Perhaps it’s just an anomaly and doesn’t hurt anything, but I find it curious, and I’ll bet it might be one of the many reasons that things don’t always act like either I expect them to act, or how the manual says it should act.
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
Hi Mark,
That is certainly something to be aware off. Does the same happen when you use the other trim commands?
Trim End: Option-Right Bracket (])
Trim the end of the selected or topmost clip to the skimmer or playhead positionTrim Start: Option-Left Bracket ([)
Trim the clip start point to the skimmer or playhead positionTrim to Selection: Option-Backslash ()
Trim clip start and end points to the range selectionrobbert-jan
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Robert Jan…
The trim functions act normally for me. These all shorten clips.
I’m finding this issue when I extend the end of a clip.
If I want to extend the end of a clip, to the point where it rolls completely over another clip, it doesn’t.
It extend the end of the clip up to the point where it will leave exactly one frame of the clip you are rolling over.
If that clip you are rolling over is gap, it will leave a zero frame clip.
This might just be another time I need to rethink the way I edit, but I enjoy having full use of all the trimming controls, and I seem to keep bumping into walls where I expect to find doors.
———
I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
It may be zero frames long, but it probably has a length in subframes. As audio can be trimmed in units of 1/80th of a frame, you can end up with tiny gaps.
To measure these more accurately, in Editing Preferences, choose ‘HH:MM:SS:FF + Subframes’ from the Time Display pop-up. The Timeline Index and the main timecode display will now show measurements in subframes.
Alex
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Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, Londonalex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com & .com
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Ok, I can’t check right now but I understood from the manual the opt-right bracket would work. Select the clip you would want to extend, park the playhead on the beginning of the next clip and press opt-] but I could have misinterpreted that.
robbert-jan
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Alex… good tip. This is why I love these forums.
Alas, no. The gap does not have a subframe length! It’s exactly zero hours, zero minutes, zero frames and zero subframes.
And it’s very repeatable.
Add a bit of gap into a shot or between two shots with OPT-W. Press T to trim, and select the start of the gap. Hit “” to make sure you are performing a rolling edit, and roll it to the end of the gap, until it will roll no more. You can’t see it, but there’s a zero length gap there.
I’ll keep looking to see if it interferes with any functionality.
———
I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
I belie e the “extend edit” shortcut is Shift-x. Not at a FCPX machine now.
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