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How do Drop Zones work in 10.1?
A slightly loaded question but I’m hoping someone here can give a definitive answer.
In the early days of FCP X I made quite a few Motion templates that relied on Drop Zones but after a while I had to give up because the implementation seemed to change with almost every release. What would work in one version wouldn’t work in another and vice versa.
Unfortunately Apple didn’t document much of what was happening and the latest release notes on the subject (which relate to 10.0.8) don’t go into a great deal of detail:
“Drop zones no longer reset to the first frame of video after application restart”
So my questions are as follows:
Are you now having 100% reliable results with Drop Zones?
And if so, what kinds of actions are supported and which aren’t?
And, more generally, are you now confident that Apple have bedded down the procedure for the foreseeable future?
Any input would be very much appreciated.
Many thanks.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
7 Replies
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I used a template in 10.0.9 a few months ago and after insane testing and conversation, it seemed that it synced up the playheads. ( In and out were meaningless I believe.) IOW, the playhead in the sequence and the playhead in the event. Actually pretty smart. Wish they could bring that “replace” feature back for editing!
So give that a whirl and see if you get consistent results.
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Thanks very much, Bret. I do remember you asking more or less this question a while back.
I did notice that your technique seemed to work at the time. Does it still work the same way in 10.1?
Does the technique of selecting a clip from the timeline no longer work, do we know? It used to be the one failsafe method, but now it seems it’s a browser based solution instead.
I guess I’m hoping for a census here as regards user perception of this feature. It take it from your response that you’re probably not 100% confident about the approved method – not least because it’s not documented.
I’m guessing a lot of users were probably unaware of the problem that the 10.0.8 bug fix resolved, for example. I think I’d given up on Drop Zones before the point at which that bug became apparent.
Is there anybody who is completely sure that they know how it works?
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
I went back and played with some templates. The “sports” titles included. It doesn’t sync up the playheads. I was mistaken. Wherever you click in the clip to be inserted will sync with the in point for the drop zone, and where the playhead is in the sequence is inconsequential. So it’s near ridiculously hard to get what you want. You’ll have to do a bit of back timing. Or just keep clicking around until you get it right, and then hit apply.
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[Bret Williams] “So it’s near ridiculously hard to get what you want.”
Many thanks for pursuing this, Bret. I feel your pain. This is so frustrating.
I used to spend hours every few months trying to work out what Apple had done with this, given that with each new version they seemed to have changed their minds completely about how it should work. (I even tried to maintain regular updates as the the current status on another forum that shall remain nameless here but eventually gave it up as a bad job.)
As you say, the current system seems entirely unworkable. At least when we could pick from a clip edited into the timeline there was a measure of precise control, even if it was a bit clunky. There was a point at which selecting from a compound clip would work too, if I remember correctly. Going back (?) to a browser-based solution doesn’t seem to have helped at all.
One huge irritation that I encountered at one point, which made testing a nightmare, was that everything seemed to be working fine within FCP X itself but when you exported you got a completely different result.
I guess not that many people apart from you and me have tried to analyse this very much, but if anybody is frustrated with the current implementation, please do take the time to submit feedback.
Apple really can’t go on like this, chopping and changing and never settling on a system that works. At the very least they owe us a clear set of instructions as to the current state of play at any one time.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Hey Simon – try this – set the event browser to list view and then…
1. make a selection in the event browser with the in point the first frame of the segment you want in the drop zone
2. make the selection a favorite
3. in the timeline, place the playhead at the beginning of the clip with the drop zone using the up/down arrows
4. click on the drop zone icon in the inspector
5. go to event browser and click on the favorite you created in step two from the list view. You are clicking on the favorite in the list where the green star is, not in the filmstrip. It should show up in the left window in the “select source clip” interface and the same frame should show up in the right window inside the drop zone. You might have to click it twice
6. click on ‘apply clip”It seems to work properly this way.
anickt
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Hi Nick
Yes, that does seem like a simple and efficient solution – and one that gives reliable results. Thanks for sharing.
Many thanks.
S.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
If we could just “open in motion” then we’d be able to pick a clip and then slip/slide to our hearts delight. But why oh why would we ever need anything but a one way trip from motion to X? 🙂
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