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Blade
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[Brett Sherman] “Yes. That’s why I changed the keyboard shortcut for the B-key from “Blade Tool” to “Blade”. Now it works as it should have from the beginning. Took me about 1 minute to figure it out.”
Simply holding the B-key (or any other tool’s shortcut for that matter), clicking, and then letting go would do the same btw, without having to change anything. ????
– RK
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[Bill Davis] “The Splitty McSplittyface Tool would be even better…”
That literally would’ve made me laugh out loud if I wasn’t reading this on my phone in a public bathroom.
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[Bill Davis] “The Splitty McSplittyface Tool would be even better…”
WINNER!
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Andrew Kimery] “My partying linguistic gift “Farmok and Jalad at Tanagra””
Best Trek reference on the Cow, EVER!
Shawn
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[Shawn Miller] “[Andrew Kimery] “My partying linguistic gift “Farmok and Jalad at Tanagra””
Best Trek reference on the Cow, EVER!”
Even misspelled. ???? But yes, absolutely stellar.
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It’s called blade because to this day, people who make and watch movies still refer to the silent film mechanism of the “cut.” “That superhero movie had too many cuts!” “That art movie had a really long shot with no cuts!” In fact, people use the movie metaphor in everyday life: “So I get my money from the ATM. CUT TO, I’m home … and I suddenly realize I don’t have my card!”
They could use a scissor icon instead of blade. It’s still a cut. What is the quick read, obvious consumer icon for “add edit?” And anyway, “add edit” is two words instead of one. Avid was a pro tool from day one, and the GUI looks it.
“Splice” DOES apply to both film and tape (back when cut tape with a razor blade!) But it hasn’t entered the vernacular as a term for “transition to” or “jump to.” It has largely remained a tech term, as in gene-splicing or wire-splicing or tree-splicing.
BTW in FCPX you don’t have to leave/enter a “mode” to make a cut. You can use the basic “Selection” tool cursor, hovering over a clip, and hold down “b” then click … and you have made an “add edit.” You then release the “b” and the cursor is still in the “a” or Selection tool mode.
My language complaint is with Library, Event and Project. You can explain “Library” to people, sort of: “Okay, everything is in there; media, output, edit decisions. It’s like a Library – everything you need to know.” Fine.
But then there is “Event” which is really just a bin or a folder. This is clearly a holdover from iPhoto and iMovie, where Apple presumed a consumer would shoot an “event” such as a wedding, a birthday, a wild day of skateboarding or a vacation. Silly, and a bit demeaning to the serious hobbyist, much less to a pro. After all, they didn’t call the app Final Cut Family!
But far worse is “Project.” Why eliminate “sequence,” which has always made sense in movies, video, slide shows, stories? They could have used “Timeline,” which may sound technical to a consumer, but at least contains the logic of what a sequence IS. “Let me make a shorter version of the birthday video. I’ll start a new Timeline.”
But when does anyone, in the middle of work, say, “Let me start a new project?” “What, you’re bored with editing the birthday? So let’s go out to the garage and build a canoe!” Project is just stupid IMO.
Still, I don’t let Avid off the hook. They were the original abuser of mixed metaphors, with their “Source” and “Record” windows coming from tape editing, while their timeline & tracks have NOTHING to do with tape and are in fact a visual depiction of strips of film (picture and audio track) running in sync, under a “playhead” through a ganged synchronizer. Except the timeline is governed by “timecode” – back to tape again! And “Bin” also comes from film … although “trim bins” in film editing only held smaller numbers of short clips and sequences. Where are the “cores” and “reels” that hold larger collections of outtakes, assemblies and such? As I said, nobody gets off the hook.
Doug D
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As inconsistent as the metaphors are, it must be even crazier translating the terms to other languages, which may not have adopted the same film or videotape terminology as in English in all cases.
Anyone from Europe or the rest of the world care to chime in?
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[Gabriel Spaulding] “I see where you’re coming from but slicing a clip is a fundamental editing requirement.”
then why not call it slice?
you’ve used that word a couple of times so maybe it’s the more natural term? -
[Douglas K. Dempsey] “But then there is “Event” which is really just a bin or a folder”
Not at all, to my thinking.
It’s all semantics, of course. But I’ve seen so many X editors who use “events” in such interesting ways, that I LOVE the fact that it’s now becoming separated from the old GUI folder/bin visual conceptualization..
I say that partly because I still see TONS of “new to X editors” who come in thinking “folders” is how we organize things – and I think holding onto bins and folders thinking actually slows them down. It’s usually not until they start to think more in terms of “keywords”” as an overall organizing principal – and leave “folders” mentally behind that they start “getting it” about how X works. As everyone who uses X knows, a Folder is a location idea. And no “location” is expected to be a thing that inter-connects with OTHER locations – which is precisely what X’s keyword system is BRILLIANT at.
Basically, a FOLDER stores “items”. An Event on the other hand, aggregates things that enable Connections.
Folders (even smart ones” are way dumber than keywords IMO.
So it’s time to mentally move on, the terminology change helps that, IMO.
YMMV.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
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Bill, I acknowledge that once you use events as intended, with keywords, smart collections etc … it really is a different way of thinking. So calling it merely a folder is inaccurate. Sorry.
I am just weighing in on this discussion of odd names in NLEs, as designers struggle with what metaphor they should use. And ion my argument, I stripped away most of an Event’s function, to look at the base function that IS similar to a “bin.” When you first encounter an Event in FCPX, it is a “location” where you are asked to “store” media that you import. Later, you find that you can take an item out of “Event A” and drag it in to “Event B.” It is no longer in A. It now reside in B. THAT basic function is similar to a bin. And I do not believe that, event though this aspect of the FCPX database organizational power does more than a mere bin … that “Event” is an appropriate name. Again, Event started as a folder in iPhoto and is silly in FCPX.
Doug D
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