Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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Thank you Nick. I just mapped Zoom In/Zoom Out to the Asterisk and Slash to test that it and it works as expected. This leads me to believe it’s not an issue with remapping Zoom In/Zoom Out, but an issue with mapping it to the Up and Down arrows.
Do you mind mapping Zoom In/Out to Up/Down arrow to test it?
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Bill Davis] “Because the X timeline is magnetic, I can simply PLAY the clip – the playhead moves past the GAP and towards the audio. I can see the waveform for guidance. When my playhead reaches the point where I want the TRIM to take place, I tap G which I’ve mapped as a TOP edit.
I’ve targeted nothing. I’ve selected nothing. I’m just playing along. The moment I hit G – the cut is made, the clip range is deleted to the prior edit – AND the resulting gap is perfectly closed magnetically. The playhead keeps playing. At the end of the clip, I tap H (mapped to TAIL) and again, the clip end is precision trimmed.”
No offense, but I was doing that on an old Avid Xpress system 10 years ago. The magnetic timeline has nothing to do with it. Top and Tail, by their very nature, remove media from the playhead to the top or tail of a clip and close the gap. The only difference was that I had to hit L or spacebar to play after I Top or Tailed a clip since the system wasn’t capable of continuously playing. But that was just one quick keystroke and never interrupted the flow of what I was doing.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Awesome list Oliver, and great thread. Here are some things I’d like to see added, which I believe Apple could do given the framework they’ve built (some may be duplicates from your list and other lists already posted):
1. Custom columns in the Event Browser (additional comments, framing, location, whatever you want to call your column…). You can add custom stuff in the inspector but it doesn’t show up as a column in the Event Browser. I’d like to either see custom info in the inspector show up as a column option, or just add the ability to add custom columns.
2. Add info to columns on multiple clips directly in the Event browser (example – add Wide to the Framing column for all selected clips). Right now you can only do this in the inspector. Allow duplicating a column to another column (see Avid for an example of how it could be done).
3. Zoom into the waveforms in the Event Browser in list view, or add waveforms to event viewer and allow zooming there. See Premiere Pro for how this could work.
4. Realtime JKL trimming. How is this not already there?
5. Select trim sides with just keyboard shortcuts for connected clips and secondary storylines.
6. Select video and audio for trimming when audio is expanded.
7. Enlarge only audio clips in timeline, or only video clips in the timeline. The default views are okay, but sometimes I want huge waveforms with very, very small video frames.
8. Allow “clip height” in the timeline to be mapped to the keyboard.
9. Scrolling timeline.
10. Default export name matches the project/clip you have selected to export. And batch exports.
11. Export regular Quicktime that obeys the activated/deactivated roles in the inspector, rather than having to do a multitrack export. If a role is turned off in the inspector, don’t export it. Or make it an option to ignore role activation or honor role activation.
12. Allow mixing of Optimized/Proxy/High Quality media in the same project. Not an all or nothing approach. And alpha channels in proxy mode are a must.
13. Remember last opened project when you open a library, or give us the option to not have a project open when you open a library. FCPX seems to randomly pick projects now.
14. Default to start on the “Select Library” function without having to close all libraries prior to quitting FCPX.
15. Allow option to only show libraries in the location(s) you choose. So if you move a library to a new folder it doesn’t go an find it and continue to display it.
16. Add ability to select connected clip/secondary storyline with the keyboard. The playhead has a ball on it – the selection should honor whatever that ball is over, and you should be able to move it up and down with the keyboard.
17. Disable “select clip under the mouse”, or make it a user option. I’d prefer to have it select the clip under the playhead/ball rather than the mouse.
18. More window panes so you can open multiple events at once. Make them dockable and floatable (see Premiere Pro).
19. “Select media relatives” by selecting a project. See Avid’s “Select media relatives” on how it could work.
20. Color coding clips/roles. These need to be reflected in the timeline.
21. Markers on raw footage need to carry over when the clip becomes part of a sync clip.
22. Match frame to shot goes to the clip it was pulled from (if a favorite, goes to the favorite). Match frame again and it goes to the original clip. Same with sync clips. Match frame to the sync, matchframe the sync it goes to the original clip. This will require Apple to add a way to match frame the video or audio though. See Avid for how this could work.
23. Allow marking in/out on secondary storylines without having to drag the range selector. If I have the secondary storyline selected and choose to mark the clip, then set a new in point/out point (I do this a lot when editing music), it defaults to the primary storyline. I’m forced to use the range selector and the mouse or to add cut points. I find both inefficient.
24. Independent timecode window. I want to be able to show current time, elapsed time, In/Out, time remaining, drop frame/non-drop at different frame rates, etc…all in one dockable window.
25. Be able to cut/lift just the audio from a clip in the timeline (removing an Uh, Um, etc…) without having to detach audio. Hopefully there’s already a way to do this and I just haven’t figured it out.
26. Break apart clips/detach audio shows sync indicators.
27. Fix the waveforms – they disappear far to often.
28. Give us the option to see full, regular waveforms (Premiere has this as an option and it’s great).
29. Give option for “focus remain on timeline after edit”, rather than always putting the focus back on the event browser.
30. Conform offspeed clips in the event browser. If I have 60p footage I want played at 24p I’d like to be able to batch conform it in the event browser so I can view it at the 24p playback speed, prior to cutting it into the sequence. Premiere does a great job of this and could be used an example.
31. Support CDL information.
32. Roles based audio mixing.
33. Improve trimming, including a 4-up display when trimming with the keyboard.
34. Customizable workspaces (this one seems popular).
35. Real background transcoding/rendering. And give us more transcode options.
36. Fix the lag when projects become large/complex, or have a lot of generators.
37. Add the ability to merge external metadata onto imported clips (see Avid’s ALE and merge options for how this could work).
38. Develop a true project sharing workflow (see Avid as an example).
39. Project consolidation with trimmed media and with a transcode option (perhaps transcoding only specific codecs/cameras/roles/etc…)
40. Refresh timeline/project, where I can apply a role to a clip at any point in a project and have it update in my sequence with the new role after manually invoke a project/timeline refresh. See Avid and it’s Refresh Sequence options with source settings/motion adapters, etc… Roles are super powerful, and this would make them even more so, and would make inheriting projects from disorganized editors/producers a lot faster and easier to fix.
41. Ignore gaps clips when selecting multiple clips in the timeline. Ironically enough this was a huge issue with Avid and the finally made it an option to select/not select filler. I’d like to see the same option in FCPX.
I’m sure there’s more if I really thought about it, but I think most or all of these are possible to implement without having to fundamentally change how FCPX operates. It’s just adding more user options/power to what’s already there.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Mathieu Ghekiere] “The whole logic from X is:
changes from the browser, trickle down if you use the clip afterwards in a timeline.”FCPX needs to add an Update Project/Sequence or Refresh Project/Sequence, like Avid has.
How I envision it working:
You inherit a project where the roles weren’t set up properly (or at all), or you messed up assigning them. So you go through your source clips and assign/reassign roles, right click on your Project/Sequence and “Update/Refresh”. It ripples the new roles from the source clips through your timeline. Avid does this with motion adapters, color transformations, frameflex settings, etc…, but it’s not automatic. You have to manually invoke the refresh, which is great because you may not want your new source settings to update in your sequence. Or you may want to duplicate your original and only refresh the duplicate, so you have two identical sequences with differing roles assigned, in a matter of seconds.
You may lose a little work if you were to do this and had set up some custom roles in the timeline already, but I think in many cases it would get you about 90-90% of the way done, very quickly. And then you wouldn’t have to worry about directors/producers not being disciplined up front – you can just set the roles, update the project, and move on.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Michael Aranyshev] “FCPX still doesn’t get basic editing right so it shouldn’t be included in this discussion at all but yes, you cannot work without the mouse in any current NLE. And that’s a shame.”
I’ve found that Premiere is surprisingly close to being a mouseless program (closest I’ve gotten, anyway), but their idiotic and logic defying track patching stops that dead in its tracks. How they still haven’t fixed it after all this time baffles me.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Mathieu Ghekiere] “I’m basing myself on the fact that someone I know that has SOME contact with Apple (I don’t know how much exactly, but I know for sure there is some contacts), that Apple is ‘very aware’ about Audio being the next big thing they need to work on in FCPX.
I’m GUESSING Roles will be a part of it.”Thanks – hopefully you’re right and they’ll do a good job with it, and sooner rather than later.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Mathieu Ghekiere] “I think it will come, but I’m also sure it takes a lot of time to get right.
I want a faster development pace too, but I think they ARE working on getting Roles better, and I just think it’s one very difficult problem to get the good solution for. “I’m curious, why do you think they’re working on it? I’d love to see roles developed further, but they haven’t changed at all since the initial release of FCPX, have they? Has there been any communication from Apple or hints that roles are part of their development schedule, and what that development will include?
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Andrew Kimery] “hanks for that Michael. Obviously I need to explore Right Click more often in PPro than what I have been.”
I had to open Encoder and test it to remember how it was done. I had done it before but couldn’t remember if it was a double click, drag or what. It was a right click.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[andy lewis] “Only with timeline markers, not clip markers. “
If you’re adding markers to clip in the source monitor you can extend them.
If the clip is in the sequence and you’re adding markers to it there, match frame it first. Then, when you add a marker to the clip in the timeline, you’ll see the marker appear in the source monitor and you can extend it up there and it will be reflected in your timeline. This is in 2014 (haven’t tested it in 2015). It’s a workaround, but it can be done.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Andrew Kimery] “You can only drag and drop onto individual videos though which is a bummer.”
Select the files in the queue you want presets added to. Select the presets you want and right click –> Apply to Queue. It applies all the selected presets to all the selected clips in the queue. It’s been that way since 2014, at least. I think as far back as CC.
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Michael Hancock
Editor