Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Matthew Schickler] “My workflow for something like this would be:
1. Lay down the music
2. Lay down the clips in a preliminary order
3. Start at the beginning and ripple/roll edit the clips to get a rough cut where the video and transitions are in sync with the music
4. Possibly move some of the clips around. This is where being able to leave gaps is key (as you say, you don’t want your previous work to get out of sync)
5. Slip edit to fine tune the clips, slide edit to fine tune the timing of the transitions”I’d say that the way to do this would be to lay the music into the primary storyline as I suggested, then cut your clips roughly into a secondary storyline (or storylines?) where you can easily ripple/roll edit them.
Once that stage is done, you can “break apart” the secondary storyline and start the process of moving stuff around without rippling, as well as doing all the slip/sliding you want which is so much easier and quicker with connected clips.
I take your point about titles but I’m not sure it’s a huge disadvantage having them connected to the primary storyline.
The other easy way of keeping a title locked (“connected” as it were) to a non-primary storyline clip would be to make it a compound clip with the clip you want it locked to – though I’m not a fan of compound clips as they end up “hiding” bits of your timeline from you which I don’t like.
I do wonder whether Apple will introduce the ability to make connections outside the primary storyline as you suggest which would make for greater flexibility – though this may be outside the scope of the design for all we know.
Anyway, I’d be interested to hear how you get on with your test music edit – a lot of what seems problematic in theory isn’t so in practice, and of course vice versa 😉
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
I take your point about not being able to add transitions to anything other than storylines – which is just plain silly and a huge issue that Apple simply have to address.
But do you really want to ripple/roll edits when you’re cutting to a music track? Surely you’d just be throwing everything else out of sync? I’m sure there must be occasions when this would be a desirable thing but I can’t think of one.
Also I don’t quite get your idea that a title would want to be connect to anything other than the primary storyline in this instance – surely you’d want the title to be timed to the music?
I’m not saying you’re wrong – just genuinely interested to see what the issues are with this workflow.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Matthew Schickler] “Provide a good way to lay down clips over a music soundtrack other than connecting the soundtrack to the first clip”
The way to do this – and it makes quite a bit of sense to me at least – is to edit such a music soundtrack into the primary storyline, then all its associated “connected” clips will move with it or stay locked if you don’t want it to move.
This would apply just as well if your “music montage” is just a section in a longer timeline – that way for example if you wanted to move your music montage to another place in the edit you could do so very easily.
In other words if your music is the element that is currently “driving the story” then it is logical for it to occupy the primary storyline. (The same would be true in the much less common scenario where you had a non-sync audio source as your “primary story”, e.g. an audio only interview, or a narration track.)
Note that this way it is really easy to move your other elements around without having to switch modes (to the Position Tool) to do so.
As for the rest of your list, lots of good points but if there was currently a complete and definitive list of what needs fixing it would be seriously, seriously long! And as always one man’s absolutely essential feature will just as a likely be something only one other person would ever think of needing 😉
Oh and yes, I’d agree with Oliver Peters about the cinema frame sizes – the 2K and 4K options are correct as they are.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Great tip, thanks!
I really hope they supply a sensible “null” control in the next release of Motion 5 (actually what Motion badly needs is proper linking and expressions in the AE style), but all this searching around for cunning workarounds definitely adds to the fun at the moment 😉
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Updated with a noise option for debanding – essential for decent gradients.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Here’s a Gradient Generator that lets you control everything from within FCPX:
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
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Following on from Alex Gollner’s very useful tip about how to cheat animation into FCPX from Motion, I’ve made a new version of the Adjustable Frame effect which might be of use to you.
2739_adjustableframeanimation.zip
There are still limitations – the main one is that you can only have one animation per effect, so you couldn’t have the frame animate on and off only one or the other. (Use the Animation Start/End controls to determine where the animation begins and ends.)
But the keyframe smoothing does give a much nice result. Note that I have made a slider control for the amount of easing but it probably wants to stay at 100%.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
This is really, really good!!!!!!! Thanks so much.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Brilliant – exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thanks so much. I knew you’d be able to work this one out!
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com