Final Cut Blues

[Francis Hughes]

Im gonna be honest I can answer most of those apart from 8

“8)Free Choice Cut-N-Paste- When I cut and paste a clip, why can’t I select what track I would like to paste on. If I copy from v1 but want to paste to v4 I don’t have a choice!?”

If you look at the options for each track on the timeline, where the mute is, the last option on the right is what you need.
If you deselect (by clicking it once, it will grey out) You will tell final cut to not to paste on to that track. This also works for the Audio tracks as well. E.g Say we want to paste on to Video Track Two and not Video Track One. You would deselect the icon on Video Track One and then cmd + V and you will see that it puts the video on to Track Two. If your pasting audio as well you will need to deselect Tracks one and two to put the audio on tracks 3 and 4 for our example. An Additional not Final Cut will always try to paste to to lowest track it can so if you tell it not to paste to track one it will auto paste to track 2, so you dont need to deselect all the other video tracks.

That makes sense to me, but im not that good a explaining things so let me know if your more confused by reading the above.

[Lars Fuchs]

Here are my 2¢”

[Quincy Boardman] ”
1)Single click option- Instead of double clicking (or a single click + return key) to open a timelined clip in the viewer, why can’t it be just a single click like in Premiere or even imovie 🙂

This is just a user-preference question. For instance, Avid uses double-click too, so I like the double-click. FWI, Avid adds the option-double-click to open in a separate viewer window, which I like.

2)Interpret Footage option- Seems to me, Adobe (Premiere and After Effects) kicks some serious FCP butt on this feature. Instantly change your frame size and frame rate on any clip without loading it into a new sequence or exporting.

I agree, this would be a nice feature. FCP does allow you to freely mix different frame sizes and rates on the timeline; the autoscaling-to-fit-frame-size is a switchable user option. One area where this feature might be handy would be in correcting pixel aspect ratio. Otherwise I wonder how useful it actually is. Could you elaborate on how you envision using it?

3)Rate stretch tool-I know there is the fit to fill option which does essentially the same thing but takes about 10 times as long to do.

I agree with you on this one, too. I find FCP’s time-remapping functionality very disappointing.

4)Clip usage info-what is a quick way to know which, of the thousands of clips in my bin, i have used, and how many times I have used them?

Again a good idea. If anybody knows a technique for this, I’d love to hear it. Avid has something like this: “Select media relatives”. Maybe there’s some sort of XML tool?

5)Convenient search option-Lets face it, Adobe has always had great search options in their clip browsers and effect pannels… where is final cuts? (Apple+F is not a convenient method)

This I disagree with. I’m quite satisfied with Apple-F. I use AfterEffects, but not premiere. nevertheless, I don’t think I know what you’re referring to as far as Adobe’s search functionality. The seach in FCP is way better than avid’s, generally. Except for the Bin-sift tool, but the search function comes awfully close to the same thing.

6)Spaces goofiness- While using FCP, and moving back and forth from other applications using Spaces, sometimes the FCP windows will be thrown all over the place. Timeline in bottom space, browser elsewhere etc etc…

I’m still on 10.4, so don’t have an opinion on ‘Spaces’. But you’re favorite window layouts can be assigned hot-keys. In fact, the first several (can’t remember the # offhand, 3 or 4 though) saved window layouts (counting alphabetically) have default hotkeys assigned. If you look on the “load window layout” menu, you’ll see the hotkeys. If Spaces throws your FCP layout out of whack, justs hit the layout hotkey to bring it all back to order.

7)Limited timeline- How come FCP decides where to put the automatic In-Out points on still pictures/ Color Solids?… Right in the middle? If I want a color solid that goes my entire timeline, why do I have to open it in the viewer (by double clicking it haha) and lengthen its duration? Same goes with .psd files??? Limited durations?

I think this is also a user preference. Its a fairly arbitrary decision where to mark ins and outs, and doing it another way would just annoy somebody else. However, you don’t have to change the mark point of a solid or .psd file in the viewer. There are a number of other ways.

For example, to make a solid fill the whole timeline, simply edit the generator into your timeline with its default marks (10 seconds, I seem to recall). Then select the leading edge of the clip, hit ‘home’ to move the cursor to the top, and hit ‘e’ for extend. repeat for the trailing edge of the clip.

Alternately, you could delete the marks in the viewer (option-x) and mark your entire timeline in the sequence (‘x’) and overwrite.

There are other ways I’m sure, these are just two I can think of quick without opening FCP.

8)Free Choice Cut-N-Paste- When I cut and paste a clip, why can’t I select what track I would like to paste on. If I copy from v1 but want to paste to v4 I don’t have a choice!?

already answered in previous post by Francis. THANKS! I didn’t know that. Excellent tip.

9)Audio or Video only- I know I know… I can disconnect the a1 from A1 and a2 from A2, but can’t there be an easier way to drag down video only? Or audio only?

I’ll have to look into this, but all of the audio and video track assignments have hotkeys, so this shouldn’t be too troublesome.

10)Scroll Position- Lame how in FCP you have to type in your positioning in the motion effects tab. Seems like there should be arrow/scroll options…Like After Effects”

I don’t understand your issue here. Could you elaborate?

[Quincy Boardman]

Thank you for the posts! They have been some help so far.

Lars I really appreciate you going through each of my 10 deadly questions 🙂 I wasn’t expecting that at all so I really really am thankful for that! To clarify a few of my points:

I agree, this would be a nice feature. FCP does allow you to freely mix different frame sizes and rates on the timeline; the autoscaling-to-fit-frame-size is a switchable user option. One area where this feature might be handy would be in correcting pixel aspect ratio. Otherwise I wonder how useful it actually is. Could you elaborate on how you envision using it?

I recently was sent some PAL footage of a snowboarding tournament in New Zealand, and I need three quick clips of that footage. I dont need audio or anything else. Just the video. In premiere I am able to right click and select interpret footage and change my frame size and rate instantly. I can’t figure out an easy way to do this in FCP. I have had it a few times when pixel aspect ratios that are sent to me are screwy…..

10)Scroll Position- Lame how in FCP you have to type in your positioning in the motion effects tab. Seems like there should be arrow/scroll options…Like After Effects”

I don’t understand your issue here. Could you elaborate?
I have been working with hundreds of photos in my current project, and I like how in After Effects you can use the scroll on your mouse to move your center of your clip. In FCP it is either drag in the canvas or type in the exact amount. I would like to be able to slowly nudge it to where it needs to be… Maybe i’m too particular on this option hahah who knows.

As to your other responses, I can see your point of view as well 🙂 the Apple+F key is nice but I like how in After Effects, it automatically filters out everything else you aren’t searching for and leaves you with only related options all while still in the browser/effects panel. FCP isn’t quite as convenient i think. (Heaven forbid if I have to press a search button before getting me result haha)

Maybe you could help me with another one of my problems???
How come, when I’m looking for a font, there is not preview or anything similar?? I have to open up my font book to find my font, then go back to FCP to select it? Dang!

Francis, Thank you for the cut and paste tip as well! Wish it were even easier but then again, a painter still has to mix his own paints (i think….)

Thanks!

[Walter Biscardi]

[Quincy Boardman] “1)Single click option- Instead of double clicking (or a single click + return key) to open a timelined clip in the viewer, why can’t it be just a single click like in Premiere or even imovie 🙂 “

I disagree with this request. It’s too easy to single click anywhere on the desktop and be moving clips into the Viewer. I like the double click to ensure I’m moving in the actual clip that I want.

[Quincy Boardman] “Instantly change your frame size and frame rate on any clip without loading it into a new sequence or exporting.”

FCP does auto scale and auto distort any clip brought into a timeline. This is a User Preference that I actually turn off. What does this feature not do that you want it to do?

[Quincy Boardman] “3)Rate stretch tool-I know there is the fit to fill option which does essentially the same thing but takes about 10 times as long to do. “

Yes, a simple “Click to Fit” button would be nice, but honestly, FCP completely sucks at speed management so they would have to completely fix that first. If you did a “Click to Fit” in the timeline, FCP would push or pull all the media around what you’re changing. I’ve never understood why Apple designed the speed changes to be managed the way they are in the timeline, they’re just terrible.

[Quincy Boardman] “4)Clip usage info-what is a quick way to know which, of the thousands of clips in my bin, i have used, and how many times I have used them?
“

That is a must and should be an easy enough column to add to the Browser. No clue why it’s not implemented already. Oh wait, yes I do, the FCP Beta Team is smaller than the amount of fingers you have on your hands. Just a couple of folks telling Apple what they want to see so the rest of us have to wait years to see something as simple as this request get implimented. Maybe we’re not supposed to know what we’re using in a project?

[Quincy Boardman] “5)Convenient search option-Lets face it, Adobe has always had great search options in their clip browsers and effect pannels… where is final cuts? (Apple+F is not a convenient method) “

I’ve been using Adobe products for about 15 years now and I have no clue what you’re talking about. Apple+F is what I use. It’s really easy and fast. I absolutely HATE Adobe’s browser panel.

[Quincy Boardman] “6)Spaces goofiness- While using FCP, and moving back and forth from other applications using Spaces, sometimes the FCP windows will be thrown all over the place. Timeline in bottom space, browser elsewhere etc etc… “

I would NOT recommend anyone use Spaces with ProApps period.

[Quincy Boardman] “7)Limited timeline- How come FCP decides where to put the automatic In-Out points on still pictures/ Color Solids?… Right in the middle? If I want a color solid that goes my entire timeline, why do I have to open it in the viewer (by double clicking it haha) and lengthen its duration? Same goes with .psd files??? Limited durations?
“

For Pictures: You can control this before you bring in the images in your System Settings / Timeline Options. You can also set the duration in your Browser before you edit it into the timeline.

For Color Solids, you just change the length in your Viewer before you edit it in.

Finally, what’s so difficult about double clicking anything into the Viewer to change the length? Double click, change the length, hit F10 to edit the clip in. Takes 5 seconds.

[Quincy Boardman] “8)Free Choice Cut-N-Paste- When I cut and paste a clip, why can’t I select what track I would like to paste on. If I copy from v1 but want to paste to v4 I don’t have a choice!? “

Option Click the track you want to paste in to. This is covered in the manual and has been covered numerous times here.

[Quincy Boardman] “10)Scroll Position- Lame how in FCP you have to type in your positioning in the motion effects tab. Seems like there should be arrow/scroll options…Like After Effects “

Wireframe mode, use the arrow tool to rough in your position. Then type in your final positions to ensure you’re on the correct scan line. I don’t find this lame at all, just a function of what it is. Yes the Adobe scroll is nice, but I always have to type in a final position to ensure we end up on the correct scan line.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Francis Hughes]

WooHoo I gave an answer that was useful, I’m gonna sleep well tonight.

Mostly I just click stuff and see what happens, its only software you can break it. Even if you do you can just reinstall it.

[Quincy Boardman]

I wish media was to the point where you guys could just read my mind instead hahah…. I’ll leave that up to mr. jobs…..

Walter, by the single click option, I will explain using an example-
Lets say I am in the time line, and I would like to change the scale size of a particular clip. Double click the clip and it opens in the viewer, or single click and hit return. It makes so much more sense to me to click once and there it is in the viewer. Sometimes I will be editing key frames, and for some reason my playhead goes one step too far or my double click wasn’t good enough and suddenly i have made the changes to a completely different clip. I guess it just makes more sense to me… and I have been known to have a goofy thought process 🙂
As far as the Rate Stretch tool is concerned, I couldn’t agree with you more!!! I have always wondered why the speed setting effect the entire time line!!
I think maybe I was still unclear about the search option I am wanting in FCP. I have added a screenshot of After Effects to illustrate my point.
I like how it automatically eliminates everything irrelevant without me having to even complete my typing. Haha its like it finishes your typing for you hahaha

And for the still clips, color solids, slugs etc…. It just makes more sense to me to be able to grab the tail and drag it as long as you want than to add another step into the process which takes 5 more seconds.

Copy and paste- yea option click does help the cause, but seems easier to just right click right where you want to paste, on the track you want to paste and then paste it!

You make good points on most everything else!

hope that all makes sense…. Thank you so much for your reply though!!! You are a huge help for all FCP users here! Thank you!

[Rafael Amador]

[Quincy Boardman] “2)Interpret Footage option- Seems to me, Adobe (Premiere and After Effects) kicks some serious FCP butt on this feature. Instantly change your frame size and frame rate on any clip without loading it into a new sequence or exporting. “
Hi Quincy,
About this I’m very happy who FC works. FC is a video editing tool and I believe that the properties shown in the Browser have to match the real properties of the footage.
You say that AE and PP can change those properties with the “Interpret footage” without dropping the footage in a sequence or exporting.
To change the time base in the fly is not a big deal, is just a “conform” to a different time base. The clip will be played slower or faster up to the changes done.
To change pixels aspect, no problem. FC can do it too. Your picture will look stretched horizontally or vertically depending of the pixels you choose.
In those two cases is just a matter of reading the original file in a different fashion.
But what is impossible is that you change the size of a file without any rendering. You my change it in the “interpret footage’ window, but those changes can’t have effect unless you render or export somehow with the new parameters.

I agree with you that there are many things that can be improved in FC. Although functions that could make your your working more pleasant, possibly could annoy somebody else. Depends of your workflow, depends of your habits (some times acquired after many years editing, and difficult to change) and depending of your work environment.
Quite often after filming, I select the pictures, write the text of the movie (directly in the time line as subtitles) and edit all at once. Very little times I have somebody looking over my shoulder waiting for me to finish. I really don’t miss tools that lets me work much faster. But this is just my particular case.

If I would have a job, like the one that you took, that made me update my self to work faster and more efficiently, I also would learn in two weeks more that I’ve learnt in the last 6 years, and probably I would also discover and suffer the shortcomings of FC.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alex Elkins]

Just had a quick scan through the posts so someone may have answered these.

4) Clip usage info…
Bottom left corner of the timeline there’s a little arrow. Click that and then tick ‘Show duplicate frames’. This will then mark your clips in the timeline with a colour which indicates where there are any frames that appear more than once in the timeline.
However I do really feel that this is a terrible way of telling you that you’ve used clips more than once! A simple tick in a browser column would be easier. Something I like to do if there’s a clip I think I may have used twice if select the timeline, press Apple+F and then search for the name of the clip you might have used twice. If you have, there will be two clips highlighted in the timeline – again, not ideal, but it’s a way to do it.

9)Audio or Video only
I prefer the shortcuts Shift+F5 to lock the audio tracks (Shift+F4 to lock video tracks), then F10 to overwrite edit the video/audio only into the timeline – doesn’t work for when you need to do an insert edit. For that, the best I’ve found is to press Shift+F7 then Shift+F8 to de-select an audio destination for channels 1+2. This obviously only works as long as your sound is recorded with only two channels. I don’t think there’s a ‘Clear all audio destinations’ shortcut but I hope someone can correct me on that.

One of my favourite time-savers is Option+H (opens the keyboard layout window). From there you can search for a shortcut you think might exist (incidentally it searches in the way that the AE search tool works, not the Apple+F way), and also add/change shortcuts to suit your editing style.

Best,
Alex

[Peter Brauner]

4. Clip usage info…
I think this corresponds to the fact that the bins does not really know what´s in the timeline and what is not. If you drop a clip on the timeline directly from finder it won´t put the clip in the bin.
This is very strange to me. I think that the bin is what should keep track of everything in the project, like most other editing systems.
Even Motion does this in its media panel, everything that are used in the motion project is represented here.

Peter Brauner
VFX Artist
Effektfabriken
http://www.effektfabriken.se

[Andy Mees]

I’ll bite on a few (mostly just agreeing I’m afraid)…

“1)Single click option- Instead of double clicking (or a single click + return key) to open a timelined clip in the viewer, why can’t it be just a single click like in Premiere or even imovie :)”

How about no clicks at all? In FCP, setting the Playhead Sync mode to Open will keep the clip under the playhead in the Viewer so that you’re only ever adjusting the same clip you see in the Canvas. It strikes me as quite a good way to work.

“3)Rate stretch tool-I know there is the fit to fill option which does essentially the same thing but takes about 10 times as long to do.”

A real no brainer missing feature. I don’t know anyone who truly likes the way FCP handles, or rather restricts the handling of speed / time remapping. An obvious improvement (to my mind) would be able to grab an in or out point, hold down a modifier (s, for speed?) and drag the clip instance longer or shorter while maintaining its source duration … or have that as the default action when dragging a clips in or out point whilst in the Time Remap tool.

“4)Clip usage info-what is a quick way to know which, of the thousands of clips in my bin, i have used, and how many times I have used them?”

A simple Find >> Used/Unused can handle this although there’s no “how many times” count (surely once is enough to know not to use it again!) I’m surprised that Apple have still not added smart bin functionality to FCP as that too seems like a no brainer. That way you could set up bins that always display clips that match a certain search criteria, such as Used or Unused.

“5)Convenient search option-Lets face it, Adobe has always had great search options in their clip browsers and effect pannels… where is final cuts? (Apple+F is not a convenient method)”

I don’t find FCP’s search at all inconvenient per se, but would wholeheartedly agree that its way past time FCP was rewritten to utilize the interface paradigms that have become common in all modern Mac apps, such as the search/sift field

“7)Limited timeline- How come FCP decides where to put the automatic In-Out points on still pictures/ Color Solids?… Right in the middle? If I want a color solid that goes my entire timeline, why do I have to open it in the viewer (by double clicking it haha) and lengthen its duration? Same goes with .psd files??? Limited durations?”

Yes, FCP handles stills, generators etc as virtual clips and as such they have to be assigned some initial duration. That’s why they act as they do. Again I would agree with you on this one. FCP should be able to manage these clips dynamically such that one can simply edit and or drag them longer or shorter than their arbitrarily assigned 2 minute duration.

“9)Audio or Video only- I know I know… I can disconnect the a1 from A1 and a2 from A2, but can’t there be an easier way to drag down video only? Or audio only?”

Yes, something that should be doable as a modifier action, but not a permanent toggle.

“10)Scroll Position- Lame how in FCP you have to type in your positioning in the motion effects tab. Seems like there should be arrow/scroll options…Like After Effects”

Dragging / Nudging directly in the Canvas would seem to be the better way to handle this but no reason not to add such interface controls in the Motion tab too