[Brad Bell]

I just went though the same thing as Tom Ohmit again. I’ve been through it before. I’ve read this thread before. It solved my problem before. And then the problem recurred. And I just couldn’t figure it out this time.

THE PROBLEM:
The feedback from moving the text puck is just terrible. If your line length is not long enough, no matter what you do, you will not get any visible feedback. The text will appear to simply move back and forth on the video screen, as if you were doing a transform. You only get feedback if you have a very long line of text: the amount the text that’s cut off will vary.

SOLUTION: Dear future Brad, the next time this happens:
Make sure the line of text runs the full width of the video screen. Now adjust the puck and the feedback will allow you to understand what is being adjusted.

[Brad Bell]

[Robin S. Kurz] “2. Use the retime menu to set the clip in the timeline to “automatic speed” which will (obviously) slow it down accordingly. That’s assuming your project is set to 25fps. And if you’re not seeing custom resolutions, then you must not be using 10.1.x.”

Prior to 10.1, “Automatic Speed” was called, “Conform”

If you aren’t using 10.1, it’s worth doing some research on it before upgrading. Libraries and events are quite different. New projects are a breeze, but only convert *one* project – one not-very-important project – to figure out how it works, what FCPX is going to do converting it, and how you need to amend things to make them make sense again. (I still haven’t finished re-organising my pre-existing projects.)

[Brad Bell]

[Steve Mullen] “3) I’m trying to create a Widescreen look (2.34:1) and have cropped each clip. Then I’ve slid the wide image up/down to keep action within the wide frame. But, how do I get all crops to line-up in the vertical center of the 16:9 frame for a Project?”

Don’t crop each clip. Then..

OLD SOLUTION:
Get free Alex4D Widescreen Matte, an adjustment layer effect with about 25 different presets for ratios. (2.35:1?)
https://blog.alex4d.com/2011/07/22/fcpx-widescreen-matte/
Place on timeline above your clip as Don Smith suggests.
When you export, use a Compressor preset (which you need to make) to crop off the black bars – or select Share > Master File… to keep the black bars.

NEW SOLUTION:
Create a custom project with the dimensions you want. You can shift your clips up and down on the timeline. When you select Share > Master File…
You get a master with the correct dimensions, ready to go. No Compressor preset necessary. (If you want black bars in the master, use the old solution.)

[Brad Bell]

[Craig Alan] “When I select a range in the timeline and click F the entire clip in the browser is selected as a favorite – the selection is ignored. The only way I know to save the work you did on an edit in the timeline is to create a compound clip. Am I missing something?”

No, you’re not. I wouldn’t have thought to try that. I snip all my clips into usable shots in the browser. I sometimes do this from the timeline so I can view it letterboxed, but even then I have to slice the clip to select a region and SHIFT+F to select it in the browser to mark as Favourite. What I learned recently was I could just slice the clip and mark the Favourite on the timeline. Although I have also realised tagging *after* segmenting into shots means I end up with different groups of keywords which are not necessarily available in the Timeline Index. I hadn’t really tried to search by keyword in the Timeline Index before. I found the second group of keywords wasn’t searchable. Very annoying.

I now suspect the correct workflow is:
1. Skim to tag whole clips
2. Watch clips to segment them into shots and rate favourites and rejects
3. Start working on the timeline.

As an aside – I do wish Apple would add a letterbox option to the Overlays in the Display settings, as it’s the only way to see what you’ve got without going to the timeline, which the designers discourage. I tried adding a letterbox to the clips in the browser, which is possible, but then the clips have generic thumbnails. One should also be able to add a LUT to the display for similar reasons.

[Brad Bell]

In 10.1.1 you can simply press the f key and it will mark the clip in the timeline as a favourite.

I find I need to eyeball the browser though to see it happen. What’s selected isn’t always entirely transparent depending on window selection.

This also works for keywords. You can now add a forgotten keyword in the timeline.

Both of these work best as incidental touch ups, rather than allowing you to do all your metadata in the timeline.

[Brad Bell]

Thanks very much for the kind comments, Dave.

On reflection, I don’t think this project would have been possible with FCP7. Beyond the integration with Aperture, the Ken Burns effect would have driven me insane. In FCPX it’s fast and fun.

[Brad Bell]

Maybe this is an odd choice, but I mention it as it was an FCPX/Aperture piece:
https://vimeo.com/28978496

All the images were logged and tagged in Aperture, which is obviously available in the FCPX media browser. Surprisingly too, any image adjustments in Aperture appear in FCPX. Thus, if you had an image in the FCPX timeline you found you didn’t like the way it looked, you could pop over to Aperture, adjust it, and then come back to FCPX and it would instantly update in the timeline.

I don’t recall exactly how it worked now, but basically all your metadata from Aperture is available in FCPX so there is no question of duplication of effort.

So – Aperture and FCPX are like crossed fingers – which is nice.