[Andy Neil]

[sean pollaro] “What if I’m using 720p and 1080i footage together in 1 timeline?”

You can adjust settings for your sequence (project) by hitting CMD+J (shortcut for project settings), then click the little wrench icon at the bottom right of the inspector to make changes. You can chose to create a 1080 project or a 720 project, whichever you want.

[sean pollaro] “So how do I get it to playback normal and not blurry?”

There is a setting in your preferences, under the playback tab. Playback is either set to high quality or better performance. It’s set to better performance by default which is why the picture degrades when played. The computer is attempting to make sure that it’s played back in real time. You can force it to play back at high quality, but risk dropping frames if you have a slow computer, lot of extensive unrendered elements, etc.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Glad to see its working again. It seemed to have been a bug with 5.0. Regarding your problem, there is a way to fix it, but it’s a little difficult to explain. Basically, you need to change your stroke from a solid (under style) to airbrush. This gives you access to the advanced controls for your stroke. Go to the stroke tab and under the width over stroke parameter, you can add keyframes and control how wide the line is at exactly the point where it crosses the T. Hopefully you can work it out.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Go into the event for the project you can’t open ( using the finder). Select and delete the PSDs and then open FCPX. Then use the new relink feature to relink to the working PSDs.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Have you only tried the automatic sync controls? Have you tried using markers to help out the sync? I recommend looking at my multicast tutorial. It goes over how to use it and use the custom controls.

It’s a two part tutorial:

FCPX INs and OUTs: Multicam PT 1

FCPX INs and OUTs: Multicam PT 2

Hope this helps,

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Are they gone from your hard drive? Because the Events contain the actual media so if they don’t exist, you’ll have to reimport. If you imported tapeless media, you should be able to manually connect items in your project to newly imported media (it may even relink automatically). However, if you digitized media from tape…you’re probably in bad shape.

If the events exist on the hard drive but FCP isn’t seeing them, you might be ok; you just need to point FCP back to it.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[Jim Giberti] “It’s a good debate Andy, and I appreciate your ideas.”

I agree. I also think there are some great ideas in general in this thread, and hopefully Apple has been considering some of the same ideas as they move FCPX forward.

It’s one thing to dismiss an idea because someone just wants their old style of editing back, but Apple should realize that there are some legitimate concerns regarding how editors edit that can’t be easily reconciled simply by telling us to think differently (see what I did there?) 😉

I think and hope that more control over the interface will added as FCPX matures. I like Jeremy’s idea of zones; mostly because it doesn’t require changing how I already like to edit in X. I don’t really want tracks back, but there’s room to modify the timeline arrangement with more manual control for those who like to organize that way.

[Jim Giberti] “Roles are great, but they don’t replace the ability to visually assess your creative in front of you which is certainly a standard practice of visual artists.”

I will however, disagree with you there. Roles do allow you to visualize your your creative work. You can minimize clips that aren’t necessary and expand and highlight those you want to work with even if they aren’t on the same “track” making it very to see at a glance. Here’s a pic of what I mean.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[Jim Giberti] “The inherent design that makes vertical items, whether they’re clips, audio or graphics, simply drop into any free space in a gravitational manner is a logistical failure from a complex organizational standpoint.
It just is.”

That’s your opinion and I respect that. I’m just saying that I don’t have a problem staying organized using Roles, Index and Timeline views. And in some ways, not worrying about what track a particular clip is assigned to can be a freeing and speedy way to edit. And BTW, the timeline doesn’t place things in random order at all. There is a method to it. I know it’s not what you’re used to or want, but its unfair to say it’s random.

Still, I suppose it’s possible to create a kind of virtual track (or zone as Jeremy calls it) where you can reconcile a static vertical position that only adjusts in circumstances where clips collide. If you edit a connected clip, it defaults to the closest position to the primary storyline, but then with a shortcut like OPT+up or down arrow, you can push the clip into a lower or higher vertical clip position. They would stay there unless pushed by a clip collision.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[Jim Giberti] “Here’s the real thing, as I try and work through this all in real time on tight schedules. I’m a tweaker and a massager. I don’t know any good creative who isn’t. I constantly go back and adjust dozens of EQs and Compression and FX if I’m mixing a song and do the same with film and video. It goes on for days and weeks.”

I constantly tweak things as well. I don’t find that the lack of tracks makes this any more difficult. I stay organized with roles and tweak away. That said, there is definite room for improvement for audio editing in general.

[Jim Giberti] “And I can’t see how making things stay somehow violates the important improvements of X.”

The staying part doesn’t violate FCPX’s paradigm (horizontally that is). But any track style editing that could be incorporated would need to allow for the basic parent/child relationship that is the foundation of X’s structure as well as the audio embedded model that exists. It would need to be a hybrid feature like independent storylines that can accommodate connected clips as well.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[Richard Herd] “An auto-gap function/key?

What do you mean?”

Well, I’ve thought specifically about this; here’s what I mean:

Suppose you have 3 clips in your primary storyline and 1 clip connected to the 2nd (middle clip).

In my ideal world, you could hold down say, the option key, and with the trim tool active, slip the 2nd clip’s IN/OUT point, but the connected clip above would remain in it’s temporal position in the timeline. Right now that connected clip is always attached to the specific frame you connected it on that primary clip. If you slip the primary clip, the connected clip slides to maintain that position relative to the clip.

But sometimes, you want clips to maintain position relative to the overall timeline. This is what I see as the primary reason why people want a “tracks” option in FCPX.

But my “Option” solution would work more than just slipping clips. Think of holding option down as putting a freeze on all clips in the timeline minus whatever you have selected.

In my example, I could have the selection tool active, select clip 2, hold down option and swap it’s position with clip 1. Now the connected clip would be attached to clip 1 instead of clip 2.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

While I agree with your assertion that the trackless and magnetic aspects of FCPX are strong in some places and weak in others, and that this is also true for any NLE (where said NLE has strong aspects and weak aspects), I don’t think instituting an OFF switch (or ON switch in the case of tracks) is a doable change.

This is because FCPX treats audio differently than other NLEs, and you can’t institute a track system without adjusting the entire audio paradigm. The closest you might get is something where you can have multiple independent storylines for your project (similar to how the new multicam angle editor looks). But audio would still need to be embedded in the video clips. To edit audio on separate tracks would require breaking apart the clips and moving those audio tracks to their own storylines. That would be a long workaround.

For that reason, I’m not sure track lovers would be happy with any track style implementation. At least when it comes to audio. Personally, I wouldn’t mind having the ability to create independent storylines occasionally, but I don’t miss it much when I edit in X. I’d actually be happier with a modifier key that I could press to hold a connected clip in place while I slip the primary clip below it. Then I can keep the advantage of connected clips, while gaining the ability to adjust those clips separate from each other.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com