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Snapping Frustration and More
I’ve long since adapted to Final Cut from many years on AVID, and have no desire to revisit all those comparison wars. However, there are two very simple things that scratch at my nerves continuously during editing. Maybe someone here has a fix?
The first is snapping. FCP uses the button or the N key to toggle snapping on or off. AVID allowed you to hold the CONTROL key while dragging in the timeline to snap the piece you were dragging to the next edit point. It seems so minor, but knowing that snapping was off until I held the Control key made all the difference – I never had to guess or look away from the the point in the timeline I was studying to see if I was about to snap or not. In FCP I’m always finding snapping is off when I want it on and on when I want it off. Looking over to see what the snapping button indicates seems simple enough, but as we all know editing becomes extremely intricate and requires focus on exactly what you’re moving/adjusting in the timeline, and when you repeatedly have to look away from what you’re doing in the timeline to see the indicator it adds up to a day full of annoyance.
Any way to make FCP snapping conditional like it was in AVID, on when you’re holding the Control key for example? I’ve studied the button remapping and can’t see any way to do this.
Second is the simple ability to reveal a clip in its bin. Once you match frame a clip from the timeline into the source monitor, is there are function to then open the bin in which that clip lives and highlight it? This is also something AVID did with one button. I can’t imagine FCP doesn’ t do it, but I’ve been looking for years and can’t find the function.
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8 Replies
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[Jeff] “I’ve been looking for years and can’t find the function.”
shift-f, I think
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[Jeff] “Second is the simple ability to reveal a clip in its bin. Once you match frame a clip from the timeline into the source monitor, is there are function to then open the bin in which that clip lives and highlight it? This is also something AVID did with one button.”
I’m pretty sure it does highlight the clip in the bin, though it won’t open a particular bin or necessariy scroll your browser to that clip. Not that I’ve noticed anyway.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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one thing you can do (if you have programable keys or a jog and shuttle wheel like mine from contour) you can progran a button to be reactable i.e press would tap n, release would tap it again. there by creating your much wanted function.
no to mention the thing speeds me up soo much, worth the 80 bucks. i use it n dozens of programs for different reasons
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SNNNNNNNapping is just something you have to get used to. Toggling the N key is simple enough. If you don’t detect the behavior is on (you can tell if the clip isn’t snapping), just toggle the N key. I don’t look and see if the light is on or not – never have. While I’m focused on the edit, my finger often hovers over the N key. I also switch from A to Z on my left hand for changing between the Select tool and the Zoom tool.
Right Hand is JKL: IO when shuttling. When trimming – hover over the N key. Sometimes slipping up to the U key to choose which side to trim from.
Left hnad switching tools A to Z. When trimming – hover over the R key for ripple and roll.You’ll get used to it after while. It took me at least 6 months of daily bangin’ before I could cut as smoothly on both platforms. So, hang in there bud.
Advice? You should stop trying to manhandle FCP into behaving like Avid. This is not the way to go about cross training. Force yourself to learn the FCP way. When editing in FCP and Avid, I have to separate in my mind that the tools behave differently. Your rote memory will battle you all the way to the grave, so you really must avoid the temptation to make FCP “Avid-like”.
And isn’t snapping in Avid the CMD key? You say the control key. Hey, it’s been awhile! But my rote memory is nagging me. 😉
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters -
Shift-F will dot it, but if your bin is closed, it will only highlight the bin, so you must open it and do a shift-f again. Also, it will only highlight in the main browser window, not in a separate bin window. So the browser must be in “list view”, with the bin containing the clip open.
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[Le Coyote] “So the browser must be in “list view”, with the bin containing the clip open.”
I’ve never used anything BUT list view. And I rarely need to match back to the browser b/c I log in such a way that I always know where I’m cutting from. Still, shift-f is a great way to jump back for those odd times. Now match-framing to my source clip…I use that ALL the time.
Snapping works just fine for me, too. I agree with Kevin 100%. FCP ain’t Avid and it’s a waste of time trying to force it.
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If snapping is on you can overrun it temporarily by holding Command key. May be we should file the request for it to work the other way around too. In that case though I’d prefer the override function mapped to the Option key for consistency with Override Linked Selection Setting.
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Holding down the Command key “gears down” the dragging of a clip around, it doesn’t affect the snapping. Option key is already used for doing a shuffle edit. In v4/4.5 it used to be that you could hold down the N key to temporarily swap the snapping state but this seems to be broken in 5 and 5.1. However it is possible to change the snapping state by hitting the N key after you’ve started dragging a clip or trimming and personally I’ve never had a problem with it.
Shift-F will highlight the master clip in the bin (and open the bin if necessary) and you can do Shift-F directly from the timeline without having to matchframe first as you do on Avid.
Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
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