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Timeline vs. viewer
Been cutting in FCPX for a while now – there’s on particular FCP legacy thing I can’t suss out on X.
In FCP7, I can have a track full of trimmed video clips arranged in an edit; if I double-click any of those clips, the viewer window displays the selected clip, showing the in and out points. The trimmed area on the timeline is highlighted int he scrubber, and any trimmed-out portions are gray in the scrubber. I can manipulate the playhead and see the timecode for the area that is trimmed into the edit on the main timeline. If the same clip is used in multiple places in the edit, each instance can be clicked and I can see what section has been used and view the timecode for the section in use.
This is really handy for many reasons, but particularly if I want to do some work in AE. Imagine a two-minute take where only 5 seconds appear in the edit. I can open the clip in AE and only work on and render the section used in the edit, vs. working and rendering the entire take.
Is there an analog for this in FCPX? Double-clicking a clip doesn’t seem to do a thing. I can see in and out points in the library, but only trims made in the library, far as I can tell.
As an aside – is there a slick way to only export trims of individual clips from FCPX to round-trip them?
(One of about a dozen questions I have…)
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16 Replies
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[Michael Carter] “Is there an analog for this in FCPX? Double-clicking a clip doesn’t seem to do a thing. I can see in and out points in the library, but only trims made in the library, far as I can tell.”
Shift-f is reveal in Browser, which will mark the clip in and out from the timeline.
[Michael Carter] “As an aside – is there a slick way to only export trims of individual clips from FCPX to round-trip them?”
Select them and export them?
Or if you need to get a timeline to After Effects, export an fcpxml, use XtoCC (cheap from the AppStore) and translate to XML, and use File > Pro Import After Effects to import the FCPX timeline (which will have all of your clips in the sequence).
You can also take a look at Clip Exporter (https://www.clipexporter.com) that has similar functionality, but makes new trimmed media.
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[Michael Carter] “In FCP7, I can have a track full of trimmed video clips arranged in an edit; if I double-click any of those clips, the viewer window displays the selected clip, showing the in and out points.”
FCPX doesn’t work that way. FCP7 and Premiere Pro, too, have mini-timelines for each viewer. In FCPX the viewer simply displays what’s under the playhead at any given moment – either a library clip or the timeline clip.
[Michael Carter] “This is really handy for many reasons, but particularly if I want to do some work in AE. “
If you want to go to AE, I’d suggest Automatic Duck:
https://www.redgiant.com/products/automatic-duck-ximport-ae/
[Michael Carter] “As an aside – is there a slick way to only export trims of individual clips from FCPX to round-trip them?”
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Thanks guys, I’ll give these a try. For my usual B2B work X has been fine… but I do occasional music videos and “big corporate event cover band” promos with 20+ takes and frantic cutting… and that non-track timeline is a nightmare of stuff leaping up and down every time you blade a cut. I should probably just learn Premiere for those kinds of gigs.
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Learning when to use secondary storylines takes a while to understand and anticipate.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Learning when to use secondary storylines takes a while to understand and anticipate.”
+1
[Michael Carter] “…and that non-track timeline is a nightmare of stuff leaping up and down every time you blade a cut. “
Actually if you use a secondary storyline as Jeremy suggests, you can blade a cut all you want and it doesn’t jump at all. It stays in it’s storyline. It’s almost like having mini-tracks.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
It’s a track that you can also move as a unit up, down, sideways.
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For sub-sequence style workflows I get lazy and just Compound Clip the lot.
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I’ve tried compound clips, but I can’t maintain synch with those – cut a clip and everything slides sideways, and all those blank clips to deal with. Or does turning magnetic off solve that issue?
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[Oliver Peters] “FCPX doesn’t work that way. FCP7 and Premiere Pro, too, have mini-timelines for each viewer. In FCPX the viewer simply displays what’s under the playhead at any given moment – either a library clip or the timeline clip.
“If you have your event viewer open and your event is in list view, then the “mini timeline” is just at the top of the event after you press shift+f. Sure would be nice if they could just put a scrubber and in/out visual under the event viewer. Ditto for the viewer.
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And the damn in and out timecode!
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