Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Skimmer Issue

  • Skimmer Issue

    Posted by Scott Witthaus on June 24, 2014 at 1:20 am

    Hey all –

    I am starting a gig where the client needs a TC burn of some interviews to pick selects from. The first set is about one hour and ten minutes of material. Created the project, edited the clips, put them in a compound clip and then put a TC generator clip on top. Rendered, and all seemed cool. However, the skimmer no longer seems to work. Clip Skimming works, but plain old skimming does not. Anyone seen this with generator clips? Bug? Cutting on a late 2013 rMBP that is totally tricked out. Not the end of the world as I can drag the playhead about, but I kind of got used to skimming! Thanks in advance.

    Scott

    Scott Witthaus
    Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
    1708 Inc./Editorial
    Professor, VCU Brandcenter

    Craig Alan replied 11 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Jeremy Garchow

    June 24, 2014 at 2:16 am

    The skimmer disappears if you are in a transform mode (crop, position, etc) and forget to hit “done”.

    Switching in and out of another mode (like range tool and back) will clear it, or if you’re parked on the clip, hit done or enter on the keypad.

    Perhaps this may be the problem?

  • Scott Witthaus

    June 24, 2014 at 10:20 am

    (slap in forehead)

    Yup, that was it….

    Scott Witthaus
    Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
    1708 Inc./Editorial
    Professor, VCU Brandcenter

  • Craig Alan

    June 25, 2014 at 5:20 pm

    Ok I went through this myself. Your slap on the head suggests end user error, that it now makes sense. What is happening here? Is it that the transform tool keyframes according to where the playhead is not the skimmer?

    Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

  • Scott Witthaus

    June 25, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    I went ahead and reported it as a bug. Feels like one, anyway.

    Scott Witthaus
    Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
    1708 Inc./Editorial
    Professor, VCU Brandcenter

  • Bret Williams

    June 25, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    My guess is it just turns it off so people don’t get annoyed, since it would actually be impossible.

    When you’re in the transform or crop or distort tools you’re functioning in the viewer, where the skimmer does nothing. So it would get annoying to skim to a point in time, then leave the timeline up to the viewer where you’re now transforming a completely different frame.

    But true enough you can have the same error in the inspector, but it’s a bit more deliberate, unlike going into a whole separate transform mode designed for the sole purpose of adjusting or adding keyframes.

    In testing perhaps they found it less confusing and more accurate to turn off the skimmer. I know I do when I’m key framing anything anyway.

    To get the skimmer back, just go back to the regular arrow tool by pressing A. No need to press done, or deselect the transform button.

  • Craig Alan

    June 27, 2014 at 12:19 am

    I just tested this and it’s a bit more complicated than this and perhaps is a bug. If I engage transform from the pull down in the viewer, the skimmer still works. If I then activate different areas in the program browser/timeline/viewer, the done button will appear and disappear and the skimmer will work and not work. Couldn’t find a pattern but maybe there is one. So to me it’s buggy. I’ve also had the play (space key) stop working and other buggy behavior. For me, it all started with OS X 10.9.2 And 10.9.3. FC was more stable back in OS X 10.9.1 and earlier. I’ve tried deleting all FC system files and reinstalling FC. Doesn’t help at all.

    Now it could be that clicking into certain windows gets me out of the transform function and it needs to be reengaged or something.

    Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy