Jeffrey Carter
Forum Replies Created
-
If you select the ‘position tool’ (P), you can drag clips out of the primary storyline and they will be replaced by a ‘gap clip’, leaving the other clips in place. This way you can position the clip anywhere you want, without magnetic ‘snapping.’
-
One bug I noticed is that if you have any still images taken on that card ‘import from camera’ will not work. Since in order to do custom white balance on Canon cameras you have to take a still picture, it makes it hard.
The way around this is to delete ALL still pictures BEFORE you use FCPX. If you want to keep them, you’ll have to manually copy them first, then delete them from the card.
FCPX needs to improve its camera import function.
-
There is a lot to FCPX that unfortunately just poking around it won’t reveal. It definitely is NOT intuitive to an editor used to FCP 7, Avid, etc. When the program first came out and I tried to edit a real, paid for, show I couldn’t – I gave up in frustration and went to FCP 7. However, I continued to explore and learn and have since edited dozens of real-world projects. It actually is easier for the most part, although there are some gotcha’s and it is a love/hate relationship. In fact, since I’ve been knee deep in it, looking at Premiere and other timelines seems old fashioned.
Since there is a free 30 day trial, you should try it (while also checking out MacBreak studio and https://www.fcp.co for on-line learning). It’s not right for everybody, and you have to ask yourself do you want to learn a whole new way of doing things?
“I remember after I wrote my first post about favorites creation, Richard Herd suggested that next time, after skimming a clip and hitting I and O, I should, “Hit Q, then click the clip in the timeline and hit SHIFT-F.” That made me curious, so I tried it. Hitting Q put the section of the clip contained in the rectangle onto the timeline where the CTI was. Like an overwrite, but on the highest “track”. When I selected the clip and hit shift-f, the section of the original clip I had used was highlighted. Seemed like it could be helpful- but I did think it felt a bit like a match frame with nowhere to go, due to the lack of a source monitor (but I know that’s coming, so I’ll move on).”
Favorites are used for storing in/out points and making ‘sub clips’. Shift-F is a match frame (in a different way): in/out points are set for clip duration and the playhead is placed at the match frame. This is a pain in that you have to change the in point from clip beginning to the playhead to create a match edit. Q is a connected edit and how X places cutaways. The highest “track” is most visible.
” I wouldn’t mind this connection stuff if there was a way to turn it off and I was able to decide what gets connected where. But the fact that it happens automatically and imposes strange limitations on what I can do with the clips is a bit frustrating.”
You can place a clip anywhere using the Position tool ‘P’, and change where a clip is connected to by using cmd-option mouse click.
“But I didn’t like the fact that it can only be moved with the mouse. It would be much more worthy of its name if you could use the arrow keys to nudge it frame-by-frame.”
Use the ‘,’ and ‘.’ keys to move one frame at a time back and forth.
“The biggest disappointment though, is it appears to only be usable on the primary storyline. I tried to trim an edit point on the second “track” and it didn’t work. Is there really no way to trim an edit point that isn’t on the primary storyline? If so this is a huge letdown.”
Several connected clips on the ‘second track’ can be grouped into a “secondary timeline” with cmd-g. All these clips can be trimmed (using new and different keyboard shortcuts!) in the usual way.
There is a lot more that desperately has to be done with this program to make it more professional. Like FCP 1.0, it will take several years before it will be totally up to speed and more accepted. I absolutely hated the magnetic timeline and way of FCPX editing at first, but have grown to actually like it. It’s faster not having to buss tracks or worry about collisions – not that any editor can’t do that in a normal track-based interface, it’s just easier. FCPX (it really, really is iMovie Pro – just open iMovie and be shocked) like any editor, has it pluses and minuses, uses and problems, but is worth taking a look at. CS6 in the cloud for $49.99 a month is very tempting…
-
The color preset list is first alphabetical to factory defaults, then alphabetical to your saved presets at the end (bottom) of the list. You could check there.
Also here’s a tip to delete / mange them since you can’t do that from within FCPX (you should check to see if your preset shows up here): On your main system drive, go to your MOVIES/FINAL CUT EVENTS/COLOR PRESETS to view, delete, or copy them. The files are named xxxx.cboard
-
I mapped ctrl-(up arrow) and ctrl-(down arrow) on my full keyboard for zooming. Also the zoom tool is pretty good for quickly zooming into the size you need by hitting z then drag out a box that includes the edits or range you want to see. I’m starting to use this more and more because you can keep one hand on the mouse, the other on the keyboard. And you don’t have to keep hitting the keys to get to the zoom level you want – it just goes there.
-
The only ability on the project side is to ‘delete render files’ which will make it smaller, but way to big to easily back up constantly to another drive or disk.
To copy the project to another disk, just drag that project in FCPX to another drive in the project library. You can also move the project from the file menu.
-
Both audio file and project are set to 48kHz. It is an intermittent problem though – some projects don’t have it while others (multiple EDL’s) have it.
-
To tag interviews, I’ve been using markers and naming them (use option + m and you can go straight to typing in info). It’s faster because I’ve found trying to type anything in the notes or other columns to be slow and fiddly. If you use the inspector, as soon as you click in it ‘nothing selected’ appears. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Granted there’s no range markers, but it seems a quicker way to add info.
-
In 10.0.3 you can finally re-link lost or deleted files. Check out this video to answer your questions:
Steve Martin and Mark Spencer’s MacBreak Studio is a great free resource. Also the UK site https://www.fcp.co is pretty good as well, I have it bookmarked.
-
I have recently bought a T3i (600D) to start getting into DSLR video. (I’ve been in the business for thirty years and work with higher-end P2 cameras, etc.)
Apart from the build issue (just don’t knock it around too much), it has the latest video features including a live histogram view which the 7D & 60D don’t have.
Image quality is the same (same chip, same image processors). It produces great results. I’ve been using Nikon lenses with a Cinevate adapter and seems to work well. The Zeiss are great lenses and should work out well. The kit lens is not that good, but gives you something to work with.
Make sure you watch this video about cameras with your daughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixVjpvrn7n4
Good luck – my four children have no interest in video – go figure!
Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.