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Keeping Avid’s Bins & Windows Organised (FCP-like) on a Macbook Pro?
Hi, Everyone.
I’m slowly getting comfortable with Avid after 12+ years as an FCP editor, however something’s driving me nuts. When I would use FCP 7, all the windows were perfectly proportioned to fill my 17 inch macbook pro’s screen. It was very difficult to make everything disorganised and have windows covering other windows. However, with, Avid, everything’s always a complete mess with windows piled up all over the place, hiding each other, making me constantly want to hook an additional monitor up to my laptop. There are several reasons I get disorganised in Avid (unless I’m missing something).
A. Bins must be popped open. You can’t twirl them down to see and access their contents, therefore bins and other windows are constantly blocking other windows. I know their are tabs, but you still have to spend the time docking a tab after the bin is popped open, and honestly I find it so awkward working with the tabs that I don’t bother.
B. While Avid has workspaces, nothing seems to snap to the correct position as it did in FCP 7. I’m always having to do a lot of fiddling around to fix my workspace.
C. In order to work on a sequence, you have to have its bin open… just eating up screen real estate for no reason.
I must be missing something very important, as I can’t believe Avid editors would put up with all this chaos. Now, I know there will probably be people who will simply say, “use another monitor”, but that’s not the answer I’m looking/hoping for. FCP worked beautifully on a macbook pro. Avid should be able to do the same. What’s the trick to prevent oneself from bins constantly obscuring windows? Someone should do a tutorial on this.
P.S. Related to onscreen organisation…Avid only seems to have 2 levels of organisation: folders and bins. You can’t put folders in folders and you can’t put bins inside bins. Am I missing something? This forces you to have overly long lists of assets. It’s very difficult to organise. In FCP, you could have bins (folders) inside bins. I know Avid’s bins work completely differently and in Avid, it wouldn’t be good to have bins inside bins, but are their any hidden tricks to organising it all?
Any help in this department would be super appreciated. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Scott
Film Editor, London UK
http://www.scottclementseditor.com -
5 Replies
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A. That is true, bins need to be popped open. That is because they are actual separate files. If you look at a project on the FINDER level, you will notes that each bin is a separate item, and folder are folders. How things are organized there are how they are organized inside Avid. Unlike FCP, where the project file is a single thing, therefor you can twirl down bins.
B. Yeah, you do have to move things about on your own, and nothing snaps. Just how Avid is…
C. Make the bin small…make it a tab in a lot of other bins. I tend to put it down in the lower left, below the project main Browser. And tab it with my RENDERS bin…that I also have to have open to store titles and speed changes.
[Scott Clements] “Avid only seems to have 2 levels of organisation: folders and bins. You can’t put folders in folders and you can’t put bins inside bins. Am I missing something?”
Yes. You can put folders in folders. I do it all the time. Looking at my screen now where I have an EDITORS folder, then folders for each of us editors, and in there where we keep our work bins.
[Scott Clements] “I must be missing something very important, as I can’t believe Avid editors would put up with all this chaos.”
I don’t see it as chaos…I find it very good. One BIG thing this helps is when you have shared projects. The first person who opens a bin then OWNS the bin, meaning only they can make changes to it. Someone else can open the same bin, but it is locked to us..we can’t change anything. This only works if you have separate files for each bin. Plus we can put folders in folders and all sorts of things. And if we want, make folders on the finder level and put bins in there…organize there. The changes will be reflected in the Avid project.
[Scott Clements] “What’s the trick to prevent oneself from bins constantly obscuring windows?”
Tabbed bins. Something new to MC 6…or was it 5? Now Avid can have bins that are all tied to one window, and separated by tabs. Sure, when you first open the bin it will cover things, but then just drag it to another bin and bam, it’s a tab.
[Scott Clements] ” Someone should do a tutorial on this.”
I am planning on it, when I am less busy.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Hey, Shane.
Thanks so much for clearing up all those questions I had. I eagerly await your planned tutorial on this. I think a lot of new Avid converts, using macbook pros will have a lot of the same questions.
-Scott
Film Editor, London UK
http://www.scottclementseditor.com -
[Scott Clements] ” I think a lot of new Avid converts, using macbook pros will have a lot of the same questions.”
Get another monitor. Unlike FCP, Avid works best with two monitors. Even a small 17″ one.
🙂
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Scott — I know how you feel. I’ve been on FCP for the past 12 years as well. Making the transition to Avid as FCP7 dies a slow death. I’m surprised at how limited Avid is in terms of keeping a project organized onscreen (on a Finder level it’s great) and at the UI’s inconsistencies. (I know, FCP is not without it’s ‘idiosyncrasies’ too)
I’m willing to put my grumpiness down to unfamiliarity and I’m trying hard to avoid the knee-jerk whinge of “but FCP can do this, why can’t Avid”. But the fact remains that, even with the additional real estate of a 24 inch Cinema Display linked to my Macbook Pro, the screen looks like butt. The faster I cut, the messier the screen becomes and the more time I spend opening, closing, moving, hunting bins that get splattered across the screens. Sure, the tabbed bins are ok… But is this as good as it gets? Is this all that the fabled land of Avid has to offer when I’m looking for a quick way to isolate selects from sequences? Did the guy who cut Argo – he of Oscar worthiness – did even he have to put up with this? [shmarm is in full effect here, no harm intended]
Shane, I appreciate your insight and suggestions. I guess there are just fundamental differences in the way one edits and what one tolerates in the Avid environment. And us Avid newbies gotta just suck it up. A little clutter never hurt anyone, right? Sign me up for that tutorial, by the way 😉
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Editor • Director
http://www.tinypalace.net -
So glad you understand my view on things, John. Regarding this issue, last week at BVE trade show in London, I went up to the Avid booth and asked them about this very issue. They told me that you had to use a combination of tabbed bins in conjunction with saved bin layouts that were tied to saved work spaces. I guess if you really knew how those things worked together you could keep clutter down a lot more, but it seems like a lot of unnecessary work. In order to reduce the amount of bins popping out, you must open all your bins for a project to start, then tab them and save that as a bin layout. This would reduce the amount of having to shift things around during the edit.
Film Editor, London UK
http://www.scottclementseditor.com
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