fcp killer secrets ebook

8/10/2019 FCP Killer Secrets eBook

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It was NAB 1998 and I was sitting in one of the demo sessions. As

an Editor and Graphic Designer, Final Cuts blend of editing and

graphics capabilities intrigued me. Shortly after the preview at

NAB, Apple acquired the software from Macromedia, added Pro

to the name and released version 1 in April 1999. The application

that almost never saw the light of day was about to spend the

next ten years turning the industry on its head.

The timing of the Final Cut Pro launch was certainly auspicious.

With Steve Jobs back in the driving seat, and the groundbreaking

iMac turning heads, Apple was buzzing. DV cameras were making

high quality video affordable and Mac computers were startingto become powerful enough to process effects in real time

without additional hardware. The internet was becoming a part of

daily life and a vibrant virtual community soon evolved to share

experiences and valuable knowledge.

Ever since that pre-release demo at NAB, I had been keeping a

keen eye on how Final Cut Pro was developing. The landmark

release of version 4 in 2003, showed me that Apple were serious

about professional video editing software. I made the decision to

switch from Avid and havent looked back since.

One of the reasons I believe Final Cut Pro has become so popular

is its wide appeal, from the beginner right up to the professional

editor. Its strength lies in its simplicity but looks can be deceiving.

The application contains a tremendous number of hidden features

and thats where this book aims to help.

Final Cut Pro Killer Secretsis a collection of tips, techniques and

reference material that Ive learnt, discovered or stumbled upon

since 2003. The book is written primarily for Final Cut Pro 6 but

virtually all the tips will work in earlier versions. Whether youve

been working with Final Cut Pro for five months or five years,

I hope you find it both interesting and useful.

My thanks to Nial Brown, Victoria Parks-Murphy, Jonathan Eric

Tyrrell, Toby Uffindell-Phillips and Byron Wijayawardena for their

help, support and invaluable feedback.

Martin Baker

March 2009

Introduction

INT. MUNDANE BASEMENT MEETING ROOM - LAS VEGAS

Throughout the day, a small group of people file

into the room to see a pre-release version of a newediting application from Macromedia.

DEMONSTRATOR

Welcome. Today Im going to show you a sneak

preview of Final Cut...


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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing

Clearing Log & Capture Fields ............... ............... .............. ............... ........19 Entering a Previously Used Reel ............. ............... ............... ............... .....19

Capture Now from the Keyboard .............. .............. ............... ............... ...19

-av Files in the Capture Scratch Folder ............. ............... ............... .....19

Capturing Voiceover Using Log and Capture ............. ............... ..........20

Capturing Clips with Matching Timecode ............................................21

Importing Files or Folders Directly into a Bin ......................................21

Super Fast Importing ............ ............... ............... .............. ............... .............22

Importing Image Sequences .....................................................................23 Changing the Stereo/Mono Type of a Clip ...........................................23

Beware the Automatic Pixel Aspect Ratio .............................................25

DPI and Video ......... ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... ...............26

Chapter 1: Essentials

Dabbling with Defaults ................................................................................. 9 Starting with a Blank Slate .. ............... .............. ............... ............... .............10

Useful Folders ..................................................................................................11

Gearing Down with the Command Key .................................................12

Selecting Multiple Items .............................................................................12

Switching Tabs from the Keyboard .............. ............... ............... .............13

Defeating Expos ...........................................................................................13

Function Keys .............. .............. ............... ............... ............... .............. ...........14

Searching for Projects in the Finder ........................................................14 Zip It Up ...................... ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... .............15

Supersize Preview Windows ............... ............... ............... .............. ...........15

Fast Copying of Timecode Fields .............. ............... ............... ............... ...15

Time Machine for a Clip or Sequence .....................................................16

Closing Tabs from the Keyboard .............. ............... ............... ............... ...17

Making a Fast Getaway ............. ............... .............. ............... ............... ........17

Contents


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Chapter 4: Basic Editing

Mouse Jogging ................ ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... .....34

The One Second Hop ....... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ...34

Toggling Between Viewer and Canvas .............. .............. ............... ........34

Text Generators Shortcuts .. ............... ............... .............. ............... .............35

Quickly Setting Duration in the Viewer or Canvas .............................35 Play to Out Point ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ...35

Locating to Timecode ......... .............. ............... ............... ............... ...............36

Missing Thumbnails .............. ............... ............... .............. ............... .............37

Default Number of Tracks ............. ............... .............. ............... ............... ...37

Locking Video and Audio Tracks . ............... ............... .............. ............... ...37

Changing the Height of Timeline Tracks ...............................................38

The Fast Way to Delete Empty Tracks ............. ............... ............... ..........38

Track Patching ............... ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ........39

Instant Play Rate .............. ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... .....40

Timeline Scrolling with the Mouse ..........................................................40

Timeline Scrolling from the Keyboard ....................................................40

The Finer Points of Timeline Zooming ...................................................41

The Mysterious Case of the Lost Playhead ...........................................41

Clip Enable .............. ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... ...............42

Edit Jumping .......... ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... ...............42

Making, Managing and Moving Markers ..............................................43

Closing All Sequences ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ........44

Chapter 3: Browser

Mouse-Free Browsing .......... ............... .............. ............... ............... .............28

Renaming Clips and Sequences ...............................................................28

Moving Items to the Top Level of a Bin or Project .............................28

Converting Clip Markers to Subclips ......................................................29

Renaming Comment Headings ................................................................29 Reusing Existing Information ....................................................................30

Quickly Changing Properties of Multiple Clips ...................................30

Cheating Alphabetical Order .............. ............... ............... .............. ...........31

Modifying the Timecode of a Source Clip .............................................31

Sequence Snapshots ........................... .............. ............... ............... .............32


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Chapter 6: Tweaking and Trimming

Swapping the Linked Selection Mode ...................................................62

Become a Blade All Ninja .............. ............... .............. ............... ............... ...62

Closing Gaps ....................................................................................................62

The Complete Guide to Delete, Cut, Copy and Paste ............... ........63

Copying a Clip by Dragging .............. ............... .............. ............... .............63 Pasting Clips to Different Tracks ............. ............... ............... ............... .....64

Shuffling Clips ....................... .............. ............... ............... ............... ...............65

Moving Clips Between Tracks .... .............. ............... ............... ............... .....66

Moving Clips to Start at a Specific Timecode ......................................66

Extend Edit .......................... ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ...67

Joining Through Edits ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ........68

Slipping In and Out Points in the Viewer ..............................................68

Slipping a Clip in the Trim Edit Window ................................................68

Slipping a Clip Using the Keyboard ........................................................68

Selection Tool vs Roll Tool Trimming .............. ............... ............... ..........69

Ripple to Roll to Ripple ................................................................................69

Quickly Trimming the Previous Edit ........................................................69

Audio Scrubbing in the Trim Edit Window ...........................................70

Five Ways to Close the Trim Edit Window .............. .............. ............... ...70

Chapter 5: Advanced Editing

Auto Select: Introduction ............................................................................46

Auto Select: Track Mode ............. ............... ............... ............... .............. ......47

Auto Select: Priority Mode ..........................................................................48

Showing Duplicate Frames ............... .............. ............... ............... .............49

Ready to Edit ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... .............. ...........50 Custom Video Generator Duration ..........................................................50

Using Replace Edit to Sync and Overwrite ...........................................51

Marks to Selections ..... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ........51

Selections to Marks ... .............. ............... ............... ............... ............... ..........52

Independently Changing Clip Speed .....................................................52

Changing Clip Speed Without Rippling .................................................53

No Nesting ...... ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ........54

To Infinity and Beyond .............. ............... .............. ............... ............... ........55

Finding Items in the Timeline ....................................................................55

Finding Timeline Clips with Matching Attributes ..............................56

Solo Clip ..................... ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... .............56

Mixing Aspect Ratios ....................................................................................57

Quickly Opening a Nested Clip into the Viewer .................................59

Viewing Both Fields in the Canvas .............. ............... .............. ............... .59

Still Cache and Rendering .............. ............... ............... .............. ............... .59

Collapsing Multiclips ...................... .............. ............... ............... ............... ...60

Counting Clips .............. ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ........60


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Chapter 8: Basic Effects

Adding Transitions to Multiple Edits .......................................................82

Removing Multiple Transitions of the Same Type ..............................84

Copying Transitions by Dragging ............... ............... ............... .............. .84

Replacing Transitions by Dragging ............... .............. ............... .............85

Using Auto Select to Apply Filters ...........................................................85 Last Effect ........... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... .....85

Copying Filters Shortcuts ................ ............... ............... ............... ...............86

Scaling a Clip to Fit the Sequence ...........................................................86

Smoothcam and Long Source Clips ........................................................87

Checking the Duration of a Clip or Transition .....................................88

Using Auto Select to Open Clips into the Viewer ...............................88

Quickly Moving to the First or Last Frame of a Clip ...........................88

Super Fast Effects Editing with Playhead Sync ....................................88

Going Large ................. ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... ..........89

Adding Motion Keyframes .........................................................................89

Interactive Point Controls . .............. ............... ............... ............... ...............89

Angle Controls ................. ............... .............. ............... ............... ............... .....90

Snazzy Mouse Action ...................................................................................90

Colour Correction: Lock Hue Angle .........................................................91

Colour Correction: Gear Up Not Down ..................................................91

Reset All .............................................................................................................91

Shortcuts to Move the Playhead Between Clips ................................92 Demystifying the RT Popup Menu ..........................................................93

Play Around Current ............. ............... ............... .............. ............... .............96

QuickView .........................................................................................................96

Frame Viewer ...................... ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ...97

Adding Burnt-in Timecode (BITC) to a Sequence ...............................98

Chapter 7: Audio

Replacing a Section with Background Sound .....................................72

Real-Time Audio Syncing .............. .............. ............... ............... ............... ...73

Waveforms Gone AWOL? .............. .............. ............... ............... ............... ...73

Hiding Audio Waveforms on Selected Tracks ......................................74

Recording Voiceover into an Existing Track .........................................74 Recording Multiple Takes with the Voiceover Tool ............... .............75

Mute and Solo Audio Tracks in the Viewer ............... ............... .............75

Mute and Solo Audio Tracks in the Timeline ........................................75

Gimme More Gain .............. ............... ............... ............... ............... .............. .76

Normalize This ............ .............. ............... ............... ............... .............. ...........76

Super Quick Pen Tool ............ ............... .............. ............... ............... .............76

Adding Audio Keyframes from the Keyboard .....................................77

Adjusting Audio Levels from the Keyboard .........................................77

Adjusting Audio Levels During Playback ..............................................78

Recording Keyframes on Audio Filters in Real Time ..........................78

The Values of Panning ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ........79

Set Panning from the Keyboard ............. ............... ............... .............. ......79

Resetting the Audio Mixer ..........................................................................80

The Master Fader ................. ............... ............... ............... ............... .............. .80


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Chapter 10: Exporting

Comparing QuickTime Export Choices ...............................................115

Reference vs Self-Contained Movies ................................................... 116

Exporting a Movie with Embedded Alpha Channel ...................... 116

Exporting a Movie with Multiple Audio Channels ..........................117

Exporting a Single Still Image ................................................................117 Exporting Multiple Still Images ............................................................. 118

Chapter 9: Advanced Effects

Taming Clip Keyframes .............................................................................100

Quick Filters Editing ................................................................................... 101

Using Travel Matte ....... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... ..... 101

Alpha Types ............... ............... ............... .............. ............... ............... .......... 101

Using Find All to Paste Attributes to Multiple Clips ....................... 104 Scale Attribute Times ................................................................................. 106

Copying Filters with the Visual Tab .......................................................106

Saving Custom Effects ..............................................................................107

Fading a Multi-Layer Composite ...........................................................107

Chroma Key: Choosing a Range of Colours .......................................107

Toggling Filters with the Visual Tab ......................................................108

Quickly Adding or Deleting Keyframes ..............................................108

Jumping to Keyframes ..............................................................................108

Slipping Multiple Keyframes ..................................................................109

Fitting Keyframe Graph to the Clip Duration ....................................109

Setting Transition Alignment .................................................................109

Adjusting Parameters Inside a Transition ........................................... 110

Nudging a Clip in the Canvas .................................................................111

Independent Bezier Handles in the Canvas ......................................111

Moving Entire Motion Paths ...................................................................111

Adjusting Video Opacity ..........................................................................112

Viewing Alpha Transparency in the Viewer .......................................112 Fit All in the Canvas ....................................................................................113

Previewing Non-RT Effects ......................................................................113


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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 9

Dabbling with Defaults

When Final Cut Pro 1.0 was released into the world, the DV format was still

relatively new and Mac computers were far less powerful than they are

today. Some of the default settings in User Preferences are still partying

like its 1999 and you may want to bring them up to date.

Levels of UndoThis preference determines the maximum number of undo levels and

by default is set to 10. The maximum possible value is 99 but more

undos take up more memory so something in the 40-50 range should

be enough for most editors.

Real-time Audio Mixing

By default this is set to 8 tracks but this isnt the whole story because

every audio filter or crossfade uses up another track. To avoid having

to render audio, set it to approximately three times the number of

tracks youre using.

Audio Playback Quality

This setting affects the real-time sample rate conversion and

crossfade quality. By default it is set to Low (faster) which puts

the minimum load on the processor. For regular editing it sounds

absolutely fine but if you have super critical ears then you may want

to set it to Medium or High.

Audio is always exported, printed to video or edited to tape at the highest

quality regardless of this setting.

Autosave Frequency

With the default settings, Final Cut Pro will autosave the open

projects every 30 mins. Of course you should always save projects on

a regular basis but better safe than sorry

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Report Dropped Frames During Playback

If you choose to work in Unlimited RT mode then this option should

be disabled otherwise the warning message will interrupt playback.

Dropped frames during Edit to Tape or Print to Video aresomething

you need to know about so the Abort ETT/PTV on Dropped Frames

option should be left enabled.

Browser Text SizeThis sets the size of text used for listing items in the Browser

as well as the clip names in the Timeline. The default is small, which is

seriously small, especially on a 30-inch Cinema Display! Medium size

is a good choice.

Starting with a Blank Slate

If youre working on the same project over some days, weeks or even

months, then the Open Last Project on Application Launch optionin User Preferences is very useful. Most of the time this is great but what if

you want to stop previous projects from opening automatically without

changing the preference?

Simply hold down the Shift key while launching Final Cut Pro and youll get

a new blank project named Untitled Project 1.

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Useful Folders

Macintosh HD Library Plug-Ins FxPlug

FxPlug plug-ins

All Users

Home Library Plug-Ins FxPlug

FxPlug plug-ins

Current User

Macintosh HD Library Application Support Final Cut Pro

System Support

Plugins

FXScript plug-ins

All Users

Home Library Preferences Final Cut Pro

User Data

PluginsFXScript plug-insCurrent User

Column Layouts

Column Layouts

default folder

Keyboard Layouts

Keyboard Layouts

default folder

Track Layouts

Track Layouts

default folder

Window Layouts

Window Layouts

default folder


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Gearing Down with the Command Key

Holding down the Command key will gear down many dragging

operations in Final Cut Pro to give finer control. This includes adjusting

parameter sliders in the Viewer and for dragging clips and trimming in

the Timeline.

Things get all topsy-turvy in the Color Corrector and Color Corrector 3-way

video filters Command-dragging on the colour wheels actually gears up

to give coarser control.

Selecting Multiple Items

This is a standard Mac OS X behaviour that also works in the Browser

and Timeline.

To select adjacent items:

Select the first item.

Hold down Shift and select the last item.

All the items between the first and last will also be selected.

To select non-adjacent items:

Command-click on an item to add or remove it from the

current selection.

If only a few items need to be unselected, then using Command-click to remove

items from the current selection can often be a time saving technique.

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Switching Tabs from the Keyboard

Dont touch that mouse! These shortcuts switch tabs in most windows

and are particularly useful for switching to a different sequence

in the Canvas or Timeline.

To switch to the previous tab press Shift-Command-[

To switch to the next tab press Shift-Command-]

Defeating Expos

Final Cut Pro has always used F9, F10 and F11 keys for Insert, Overwrite

and Replace Clip commands but since the introduction of the useful Mac

OS X Expos feature, theres been a conflict. The problem is that by default,

Expos uses the same keys F9 to show all windows, F10 to show windows

in the current application and F11 to show the desktop and when theres

a war over keys, Mac OS X always wins!

Fortunately it is simple to change the keys that Expos uses so you can

Insert, Overwrite and Replace Clips in peace.

Choose Apple > System Preferences, click Expos & Spaces

and select the Expos tab.

On Mac OS X v10.4, the panel is named Dashboard & Expos.

Change the popup menus for All Windows, Application Windows and

Show Desktop to something other than F9, F10 and F11.

If you hold down any modifier keys (Shift, Control, Option or

Command) then the popup menu changes accordingly. Adding the

Shift or Option keys to F9, F10 and F11 are suitable choices as they

dont conflict with default commands in Final Cut Pro.

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Function Keys

By default, the F1 to F12 function keys on notebook computers and the

aluminium desktop keyboards are set to control volume, screen brightness

etc. This means that when using Final Cut Pro, it is necessary to hold

down the Fn key as well as the function key you want (for example F10 for

Overwrite Edit).

Chances are youll be using the overwrite command a little more

frequently than increasing the screen brightness, so its a good idea to

swap the behaviour around.

Choose Apple > System Preferences, click Keyboard & Mouse and

select the Keyboard tab.

Enable the Use all F1, F2, etc keys as standard function keys option.

When this option is enabled, pressing F10 will do an overwrite edit and

youll need to press Fn-F10 to increase the screen brightness.

Searching for Projects in the Finder

Need to find all the Final Cut Pro projects on your system? Thanks to the

power of Mac OS X, its easier than you may think.

Choose File > Find (Command-F).

Choose Kind is Other then enter Final Cut Pro Project.

Autosave files are considered project files so they will also appear in theresults list.

Clicking the Save button allows the search to be added to the Sidebar

for use in the future (Mac OS X v10.5 only).

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Zip It Up

If youre sending Final Cut Pro project files and XML files over email then its

good practice to compress them as a zip file for compatibility reasons. An

even greater benefit is the reduction in file size, as shown in this example.

Select the file in the Finder.

Right-click on the file and choose Compress Filenamefrom the shortcut menu.

Supersize Preview Windows

The size of the video preview area in the Log & Capture / Trim Edit windows

is determined by the current size of the Canvas window. So if you want a

large Log & Capture window, make the Canvas window large first.

Fast Copying of Timecode Fields

If you hold down the Option key and click on a timecode field then it can

be copied to another field by dragging.

This works with the In, Out and Duration fields in the Browser and any

timecode field in the Viewer, Canvas, Timeline, Log & Capture and Log &

Transfer windows.

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Time Machine for a Clip or Sequence

The Time Machine feature in Mac OS X v10.5 is superb for turning back

the clock and retrieving previous versions of files. Unfortunately, it doesnt

work inside Final Cut Pro projects, so what do you do if you need to restore

a particular clip or sequence?

The trick is to know that Final Cut Pro autosave files are simply a saved

copy of your project file with a timestamp at the end of the file name. For

example, Myprojectname_MM_DD_YY_TIME

This means they can be opened into Final Cut Pro just like regular projects.

Use Spotlight to find the Autosave files for the current project by

searching for your project name.

Double-click the desired Autosave file to open it in Final Cut Pro.

Find the sequence you want to recover and copy/paste it into your

current project. You can now close the Autosave project, its workis done.

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Closing Tabs from the Keyboard

Command-W is the standard Mac shortcut for closing windows but in Final

Cut Pro, theres a related shortcut. Pressing Control-W will close the current

tab and it works throughout the application. Its particularly useful in the

Browser where it allows you to close a project without touching the mouse.

Making a Fast Getaway

Youll be familiar with this window that is shown when you quit Final Cut

Pro or close an unsaved project. What you may not know is that there are

some hidden keyboard shortcuts.

Pressing Escape selects Cancel to close the window.

Pressing S selects Save As to save the project to a new file.

Pressing N selects No to discard any changes made to the projectsince the last save.

Pressing Return selects Yes to save the project.

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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 19

Clearing Log & Capture Fields

In the Log and Capture window, Option-click the Slate button to clear

that fields contents. As a bonus, Option-clicking the Slate button to the

right of the Description field will clear the Description, Shot/Take

and Angle.

Entering a Previously Used Reel

In the Log and Capture window, right-click the Reel field to choose from a

list of reels belonging to the parent project of the current logging bin.

The same option is also available in the Scene, Shot/Take, Angle and

Log Note fields.

Capture Now from the Keyboard

Shift-C is the secret shortcut for doing a Capture Now in the Log and

Capture window. The shortcut for Capture Clip was apparently abducted

by aliens

-av Files in the Capture Scratch Folder

A file name ending in -av is a temporary file that Final Cut Pro creates

when capturing a clip. When a capture is cancelled, the temporary file

may not be deleted automatically so you can safely delete these -av files

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Capturing Voiceover Using Log and Capture

The Voiceover Tool makes it possible to record a voiceover clip directly into

a sequence. This is fine if youre recording a narration to picture, but there

are times when its more useful to do an open-ended audio capture which

youll edit together later on.

So youve opened the Log and Capture window, set up the microphone,

disabled video capture and pressed the Capture Now button. After acouple of seconds, the capture stops. Huh? Whats going on?

The usual reason this happens is that even though the disable video in the

Clip Settings tab of the Log and Capture window, Final Cut Pro still expects

a video signal and if it doesnt see one then the capture is aborted.

A solution is to set up a dedicated capture preset that you only use for

voiceover recording.

Choose Final Cut Pro > Audio/Video Settings > Capture Presets tab.

Locate the current capture preset in the list and click the

Duplicate button.

Change the name of the duplicated preset to a suitable name

such as Voiceover.

Change the Video Digitizer to None.

Change the Audio device to the desired input and click OK.

Next time you want to record a voiceover, select this preset in the Capture

Settings tab of the Log and Capture window and you should find that you

can capture audio only without any problems.

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Capturing Clips with Matching Timecode

This tip is useful when preparing clips for a multicam edit where the

cameras have matching timecode.

Log (or capture) the clip from the first camera as normal.

Drag the clip from the first camera into the preview area of the Log

and Capture window. This will set the in and out point according tothe original clip.

Change the Name, Angle and Reel in the Logging tab as required.

Log or capture the clip.

Importing Files or Folders Directly into a Bin

If you use the File > Import menu or Command-I to import files into a

project then they are always placed at the top level of the project.

To avoid having to move files after importing, you can import a file or

folder directly into an existing bin.

Right-click on a bin and choose Import > File or Import > Folder from

the shortcut menu.

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Super Fast Importing

This is one of those features built into Mac OS X that not many people

know about because it is so hidden away. Its a very fast way to import a file

into Final Cut Pro that is already open in another application.

For example, imagine youve created a graphic using Motion and saved it

to disk. At the top of the main Motion window the name of the document

is shown with a small project icon on the left.

Drag the small icon away from the title bar (do not release the

mouse button!).

Press Command-Tab to switch to Final Cut Pro.

Release the mouse button to drop the project icon into the project

or bin.

The Motion project file will be imported.

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Importing Image Sequences

It is possible to import image sequences directly into Final Cut Pro but

there are a few drawbacks. Firstly it is necessary to change the User

Preferences > Still/Freeze Duration option to 1 frame before importing the

files. This then messes up the settings for importing regular still images and

creating freeze frames. Additionally each frame will use up memory when

used in a sequence. Finally it can be rather awkward to edit with separateclips on a timeline that are only one frame long!

A possible solution is to open the image sequence into QuickTime Player

(File > Open Image Sequence) and either save as a Reference movie

(references the original files, so they must not be moved!) or self-contained

movie (copies the image sequence files into the movie). This will not affect

the quality in any way but Final Cut Pro will be far happier working with a

single QuickTime file as a source.

Changing the Stereo/Mono Type of a Clip

When a clip is logged or captured, each pair of audio tracks are set as mono

or stereo according to the Toggle Stereo/Mono buttons in the Clip Settings

tab of the Log and Capture window.

Once a clip has been captured, the audio mode of the tracks cannot be

directly changed on the clip. However if you discover the audio mode has

been set incorrectly, there is a workaround.

This technique is best done before the clip has been edited into any sequence

otherwise youll end up with a mixture of mono and stereo clips.

To convert a clip from mono to stereo

Press Option-X to clear any in or out points then drag the clip to a

new sequence with matching audio and video settings.

Select all audio tracks on the clip and choose Modify > Stereo Pair

(Option-L) to link the two tracks as a stereo pair.

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Drag the clip from the Timeline to the Browser and youll see that its

now showing as a stereo clip.

You can trash the original mono clip and the modified clip will load

into the Viewer as a stereo clip.

To convert a clip from stereo to mono

Press Option-X to clear any in or out points then drag the clip to a

new sequence with matching audio and video settings.

Select all audio tracks on the clip and choose Modify > Stereo Pair

(Option-L) to disable Stereo Pair mode.

Choose Modify > Audio > Pan Center (Control-. [period]) to set the

panning on both channels to 0. (If you dont do this step, the tracks

will still be panned hard left and right as they were when stereo.)

Drag the clip from the Timeline to the Browser and youll see that its

now showing as a mono clip.

You can trash the original stereo clip and the modified clip will load

into the Viewer as a mono clip.

3

4

1

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Beware the Automatic Pixel Aspect Ratio

Lets say youve created a 4:3 Photoshop file at 960x720 pixels with the

Pixel Aspect Ratio set to Square. You import the file into Final Cut Pro but

when it is loaded into the Viewer, the image is stretched horizontally and

appears to be 16:9. Hmmm

The reason this happens is that when still images and movies are imported,

Final Cut Pro checks the pixel dimensions against a table of common videoformats. If a match is found then it assumes the file uses non-square pixels

and sets the Pixel Aspect Ratio accordingly.

Since 960x720 pixels exists in the table (one of the sizes for the DVCPROHD

codec), the Pixel Aspect Ratio would be set to HD (960x720) and the

image is shown as 16:9 rather than 4:3.

It is not possible to disable this behaviour, so if the file has square pixels,

then you will need to change the Pixel Aspect Ratio manually to Square

after importing and before using the clip in a sequence.

Width Height Pixel Aspect Ratio720 480 NTSC - CCIR 601

720 486 NTSC - CCIR 601

720 576 PAL - CCIR 601

960 720 HD (960x720)

1280 1080 HD (1280x1080)

1440 1080 HD (1440x1080)


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DPI and Video

Theres a lot of confusion about whether the DPI (Dots Per Inch) of a file

matters when it is imported into Final Cut Pro. The short answer is no, but

as well see it can be a challenging topic.

The term DPI comes from the print world where the physical size of the

output (usually paper) is fixed. If you scan an image, the DPI value is stored

inside the file and this enables the software to print it out again at thecorrect size.

In video, there is no such thing as a fixed output size because the same

video image can be displayed on a two inch monitor or a giant video

projection screen.

So Final Cut Pro, as a video rather than print application, doesnt care

about DPI at all. It ignores the DPI value of imported images and only uses

the horizontal and vertical pixel dimensions. When you import a high-

resolution image, you will be able to zoom in closer without degradation

because there are more pixels in the file and not because its DPI value is

higher. Its a subtle but important point!

Youve probably seen a DPI value of 72, so where does this strange number

come from?

All image files are required to have a DPI otherwise they wouldnt be

able to be printed. If you export a still image from Final Cut Pro, it will be

assigned the default DPI of 72 which is the original screen resolution of

Mac displays.

900px

1200px

300px

400px

4 x 3 photograph scanned at 100DPI

produces a 400 x 300 pixel image

4 x 3 photograph scanned at 300DPI

produces a 1200 x 900 pixel image


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Chapter 3: Browser Page 28

Mouse-Free Browsing

Here are a few handy ways to navigate through bins, clips and sequences

in the Browser using keyboard shortcuts.

Press any A-Z key to select the first item starting with that letter.

Press the Up/Down arrow keys to select the previous/next item.

Press the Left/Right arrow keys to close/open the selected Bin.

Press Return to open the selected bin as a new window.

Press Option-Enter to open the selected bin as a new tab.

Press Return to open the selected clip or sequence into

the Viewer or Canvas.

Renaming Clips and SequencesSelect the Clip or Sequence in the Browser.

Press the Enter key to highlight the name.

Either type the new name or if you just need to change the end of the

name, then move the cursor to the end of the text by pressing the

Right Arrow key.

Moving Items to the Top Level of a Bin or Project

The easiest way to move an item to the top level of the current bin or

project is by dragging it to the Name header. If you hold down the Option

key after starting to drag, the item will be copied rather than moved.

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Converting Clip Markers to Subclips

There are two ways to convert markers on a clip to separate subclips.

Select the desired markers and choose Modify > Make Subclip

(Command-U).

This method creates new subclips in the same Bin as the original clip and

names them [marker name] from [clip name] Subclip.Select the desired markers and drag them away from the clip

(either to a Bin, or the same level as the clip by dragging them to the

column header).

This method does not add Subclip to the end of the name.

Renaming Comment Headings

The Master Comment 1-4 columns can be renamed by right-clicking on theheaders and choosing Edit Heading from the shortcut menu.

You can also change all four comment headings at the same time by

choosing Edit > Project Properties.

If Master Comment columns are renamed, the new names will be visible for

that project only.

R i E i ti I f ti


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Reusing Existing Information

Once information has been entered for one clip then it can often be

quickly assigned to other clips.

For example, to set the same scene number across a series of clips:

Enter the scene number on the first clip.

Select the remaining clips and right-click in the Scene column.

Choose an existing scene number from the shortcut menu. All scene

numbers used in that project will be available.

This tip works on other columns too including Log Note, Description

and Comments.

Quickly Changing Properties of Multiple ClipsThis tip works for many columns in the Browser where a property has a

fixed number of options.

For example, to enable the Anamorphic flag on a bunch of clips:

Select the clips you want to change.

Right-click in the Anamorphic column and choose Yes from the

shortcut menu.

This technique can very useful for quickly clearing in and out points onmultiple clips by selecting Clear In or Clear Out from the shortcut menu.

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3

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Ch ti Al h b ti l O d


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Cheating Alphabetical Order

By starting the name of an item with certain characters, its possible to

force them to display at the top or bottom of a project or bin when sorted

by Name column in a-z order.

Start the name with a space to show the item at the top.

Start the name with an underscore to show the item at the bottom.

Modifying the Timecode of a Source ClipSometimes its necessary to work with guide footage, maybe from DVD

or VHS, that doesnt have timecode. If theres a visual timecode burnt into

each frame then the clips timecode and reel can be modified so you can

recapture when the full resolution version is available.

Open the clip into the Viewer.

Choose Modify > Timecode

Enable Source TC.Enter the reel and timecode (either the current frame or first frame

depending on the popup menu at the top of the window).

Change the timecode format and rate (if required) then click OK.

The timecode track on the QuickTime media file will be modified with the

new information.

The source timecode will be updated in any other projects that use this file, so

use with caution!

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Sequence Snapshots


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Sequence Snapshots

If youre working on a sequence for a long period of time, it is a good

idea to keep regular snapshots. This makes it easier to return to an earlier

version if the need arises (which as every editor knows...probably will!).

By giving each snapshot an ascending number at the end of its name, they

will be sorted chronologically in the Browser.

For example, lets assume the current sequence is called My Sequence

Name and you want to create a snapshot.

Select the current sequence in the Browser and press Option-D to

duplicate it. The duplicated sequence will be named My Sequence

Name Copy

Press the Enter key to highlight the name.

Press the Right Arrow key to move the cursor to the end of the name.

Press Option-Delete (Backspace) to delete Copy then type in thenext two digit number.

Press Enter again to set the new name and the snapshot sequence

will move to the end of the list.

The advantage of doing snapshots this way is that your current working

sequence remains the same name which reduces any chance of confusion

about which sequence is the latest version.

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Mouse Jogging


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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 34

Mouse Jogging

This is a great time-saver when trying to locate to a frame on a source clip

or sequence. Simply move the mouse over the Timeline ruler or the image

area/scrubber bar of the Viewer or Canvas and move the wheel or ball to

jog the playhead.

Adding the Option key gears up and makes jogging even faster.

The One Second Hop

Press Shift-Left Arrow to move the playhead one second earlier.

Press Shift-Right Arrow to move the playhead one second later.

This works in the Viewer, Canvas and Timeline and if you hold the arrow key

down, it will repeat for a shuttling type effect.

Toggling Between Viewer and Canvas

You can quickly toggle between the Viewer and the Canvas by pressing Q.

If the Timeline is currently active, Final Cut Pro is smart and will make the

Viewer active on the first keypress, then toggle between the Viewer and

Canvas after that.

Text Generators Shortcuts


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Text Generators Shortcuts

Here are two super quick ways to load the most common text generators

into the Viewer.

Press Control-X to open the standard Text generator.

Press Option-Control-X to open Boris Title 3D.

Quickly Setting Duration in the Viewer or Canvas

Heres a super quick way to set an exact duration from the current in point

(or first frame of the source clip or sequence if in point is not set).

Press Tab.

Enter the required duration and press the Return or Enter key.

Play to Out Point

Pressing Shift-\ will play between the marked in and out points on a source

clip or sequence but you can also play from the current playhead location

to the out point by pressing Shift-P.

Just like Play In to Out, this shortcut works in the Viewer, Canvas and

Timeline and is very useful for long clips where you just want to check the

out point rather than play the entire marked section.

Locating toTimecode


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Locating to Timecode

Its very easy to move the playhead to a specific timecode in the Viewer,

Canvas or Timeline. Theres no need to highlight the current timecode field

or enter colons between the hours, minutes, seconds and frames, instead

you simply type the digits in.

But it doesnt stop there. Since timecodes always fill in from the right,

any digits that arent entered are assumed to be the same as the currenttimecode. In addition, by entering separators in a certain way you can

reduce the number of keystrokes required as Final Cut Pro will fill in the

blanks automatically.

For example, assuming the sequence starts at 01:00:00:00, the playhead is

positioned on the first frame and no items are selected in the Timeline:

Digits Entered Interpreted as Moves Playhead to

4. 4.00 01:00:04:00

Final Cut Pro will happily accept a period, colon, semi-colon or comma as theseparator so 4. 4: 4; and 4, are all valid and give the same result.

If you add a number after the last period, youre entering the frames:

Digits Entered Interpreted as Moves Playhead to

4.6 4.06 01:00:04:06

2.2.2 2.02.02 01:02:02:02

2... 2.00.00.00 02:00:00:00

Its also possible to enter relative timecodes. This can be useful if you want

to select a clip or edit and move the selection by a relative amount:

Digits Entered Interpreted as Moves Playhead or Selection

+4. +4.00 4 seconds later

-4. -4.00 4 seconds earlier

Missing Thumbnails


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g

If you open a project and any media files arent available (and you dont

reconnect them) then the red Media Offline thumbnail gets shown on the

timeline clip.

A problem occurs if the media files are available again the next time you

open the project the red thumbnails are not updated and still show

those clips as being offline.The solution is to force Final Cut Pro to rebuild the thumbnails which is

usually a fairly quick process.

Use Spotlight to search for a folder named Thumbnail Cache Files

and move it to the Trash.

The next time you open the project, Final Cut Pro will rebuild the

thumbnails for all the source clips.

Default Number of Tracks

By default, Final Cut Pro creates new sequences with one video and four

audio tracks. If you find yourself frequently adding new video and audio

tracks you can change the default settings in the Timeline Options tab of

User Preferences.

Locking Video and Audio Tracks

Lock individual video track: Press F4 then the track number

Lock all video tracks: Press Shift-F4

Lock individual audio track: Press F5 then the track number

Lock all audio tracks: Press Shift-F5

Its also possible to Option-click on a tracks lock icon and all other tracks of

the same type will be locked.

Changing the Height of Timeline Tracks


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g g g

Change the height of a single track: Drag the divider

Change the height of all video

and audio tracks:

Shift-Drag any track divider

Change the height of all tracks

of the same type:

Option-drag any audio or video

track divider

Cycle through four preset track

heights while resetting all tracks

to the same height:

Press one of the four impossibly

small buttons at the bottom of

the Timeline

Cycle through four preset track

heights while keeping the relative

sizes of each track:

Press Shift-T or Option-click on

one of the four impossibly small

buttons at the bottom of

the Timeline

The Fast Way to Delete Empty Tracks

If youre tidying up a sequence and have many empty tracks, then deleting

each track individually may take a while. Fortunately theres a handy way to

delete multiple tracks built right into Final Cut Pro.

Choose Sequence > Delete Tracks.

Enable deletion of empty video and/or audio tracks as required and

press OK.

Choosing the All Empty Tracks option will delete all tracks that are empty,regardless of where they are in the stack.

The All Empty Tracks at End of Sequence option is a little confusingly

named. It will only delete empty tracks if they are at the outside of the track

stack, so any empty tracks that lie between used tracks are unaffected.

The impossibly small buttons get their revenge

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Track Patching


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As well as the regular way of patching video tracks by dragging the source

track up or down, a super quick way to patch the V1 source track is by

simply clicking on the desired video destination track. As a bonus, if the

V1 source track was previously disconnected, it will automatically become

connected at the same time.

Track patching can also be set from the keyboard:

Patch v1 source track: Press F6 then the destination track number

Patch a1 source track: Press F7 then the destination track number

Patch a2 source track: Press F8 then the destination track number

Its possible to disconnect tracks by using these shortcuts:

Disconnect v1: Press Shift-F6 or F6 then 0

Disconnect a1: Press Shift-F7 or F7 then 0

Disconnect a2: Press Shift-F8 or F8 then 0

Track patching can be reset to the default v1-V1, a1-A1 and a2-A2 state by

right-clicking on any Auto Select or Lock button and choosing Reset Panel

from the shortcut menu.

Finally, if a multitrack source clip or sequence is loaded in the Viewer, thentracks on the source are only displayed if there are enough tracks in the

destination. So what can you do if youve got a source clip with 8 tracks of

audio but only a 6 track sequence and need to patch a8 on the source to

A6 on the destination?

Simple. Right-click on the A6 destination track and youll see a shortcut

menu with all the available source tracks for the current clip in the Viewer.

Choose A8 and the track will be patched.

Before After clicking V1

Instant Play Rate


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Many editors love using the JKL keys for navigating through a clip or

sequence at different speeds but arent aware that its also possible to

access the fast playback speeds directly from other keys on the keyboard.

If you open the keyboard layout window (Tools > Keyboard Layout >

Customize) and search for rate youll see a list of 12 playback rates from -6

to +6. These rates match the speeds available with JKL, so a play rate of 1 isnormal, 2 is 2x speed, 3 is 4x speed and so on, up to a top speed of 32x.

By default, all but one of these commands are mapped to the Control-F2

to F12 keys but bewaresome of these key combinations are assigned by

Mac OS X and it always takes priority over Final Cut Pro. With this in mind,

you may want to remap these commands to use the Option key instead as

shown here.

Timeline Scrolling with the Mouse

Move the mouse into the Timeline and move the ball left or right to scroll

the timeline area. Just like mouse jogging, you can hold down the Option

key to gear up and scroll faster.

Timeline Scrolling from the KeyboardThis is the same as paging through the Timeline by clicking to the left or

right of the horizontal scroll bar...but much faster. It also works during

playback which can be useful.

Press Shift-Page Up to scroll the timeline to the left.

Press Shift-Page Down to scroll the timeline to the right.

After remapping the default keyboard layout

The Finer Points of Timeline Zooming


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Press Shift-Z to show all clips in the sequence.

Press Shift-Option-Z to zoom to selected clips.

With the Zoom In Tool selected, you can temporarily swap to the

Zoom Out Tool by pressing the Option key.

Get a close up view of the Timeline by mapping the Zoom 800%

command to a key.

This shortcut also works for zooming to 800% in the Viewer and Canvas

window so be careful that the Timeline is active!

Press Option-Minus or Option-Plus to zoom the Timeline even with

the Viewer or Canvas windows active. This can be very timesaving but

be aware that just like the Command-Minus/Plus shortcut, if there is

a clip or edit selected, then the playhead position will be ignored and

the Timeline will zoom to the selected item.

Another very welcome zoom command that was introduced with

Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 is Zoom In/Out on Playhead in Timeline. This has

the advantage that it always zooms around the playhead position

even if a clip or edit is selected. It isnt mapped to the keyboard by

default, so you may want to remap it to the Option-Minus/Plus keys.

The Mysterious Case of the Lost Playhead

If youve ever scrolled the Timeline and wondered how to move it back to

the current playhead location, then press the Left or Right arrow buttons

and the playhead will scroll into view.

Clip Enable


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Many editors are familiar with enabling and disabling tracks using the

green buttons, but one of the most useful editing features in Final Cut Pro

is the ability to enable or disable individual video and audio clips.

Select the clip or clips you want to disable.

Press Control-BThe disabled clips will be shown in a darker colour on the timeline. Pressing

Control-B again will enable the selected clips again.

A disabled video or audio clip remains in the same place but is not played

back, rendered or exported. This feature is particularly useful for trying out

different cutaways or music in a sequence by stacking them up on separate

tracks and enabling clips as required.

Another use for Clip Enable is for breaking links to render files if results

arent what they should be. Select the clip(s) then press Control-B twice to

disable then enable the clip. The links to any render files on the selectedclips will now be broken so you can try rendering again.

Edit Jumping

The Up and Down keys move the Playhead to the previous/next edit across

all tracks as well as the sequence in and out points if they are set. So what if

youre adding a series of transitions and want the playhead to only jump to

edits on a certain track? Heres a workaround.

Select an edit on the desired track.

With an edit selected, the Up and Down keys now select the previous

or next edit on that track alone and take the Playhead along for

the ride.

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Disabled clip

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Making, Managing and Moving Markers


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There are two types of markers in Final Cut Pro clip markers and

sequence markers.

Clip markers are locked to a particular frame in a source clip and can be

added either in the Viewer or to a clip in a sequence. When dealing with

clip markers in a sequence there are a few things to bear in mind.

To add, edit or delete a clip marker you must have the clip selected.

Note that the master clip in the Browser will not update when you

add a clip marker in a sequence.

When using the Shift-Up/Down arrows or Option-M/Shift-M keyboard

shortcuts to move the playhead to the previous/next marker, the

playhead will only stop at clip markers on selected clips. If you want

the playhead to stop at any clip marker then press Command-A to

select all clips before using the keyboard shortcuts.

If you right-click on a sequence clip then a list of its clip markers willbe shown at the bottom of the shortcut menu. Select one and the

playhead will move to it.

Bear in mind that this is a list of all the clip markers, not just those visible

in the currently used portion of the clip, so the playhead may shoot off to

some seemingly random timecode if you select a marker that isnt visible.

Sequence markers are locked to a particular frame in a sequence.

If you right-click on the current timecode field in the Canvas or

Timeline or anywhere on the Timelines timecode ruler, a list of

sequence markers will be shown at the bottom of the shortcut menu.

Select one and the Playhead will move to it.

For both clip and sequence markers, the following shortcuts can be useful.

d k d l h l k


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Press Command-` (grave key) to delete the clip or sequence marker at

the current playhead location.

Press Control-` to delete all markers on the current clip or sequence.

Press Shift-` to move the nearest marker on the left hand side of the

playhead to the current playhead location.

Press Option-Command-M to edit the nearest marker on the left hand

side of the playhead.

This last shortcut only works with sequence markers and does strange things if

clips are selected.

If youre using markers to quickly identify interesting sections on a source

clip but want to avoid the complications of subclips, then see Fast Copying

of Timecode Fieldson Page 15. This allows you to use the marker list in the

Browser as a reference, then locate the master clip to a markers timecodeby Option-dragging it from the Browsers In point column to the current

timecode field in the Viewer.

Closing All Sequences

Got too many sequences open and want to clear the decks a bit? Theres

no need to close each sequence individually, just close the Canvas window

and all the open sequences will be closed.


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Auto Select: Introduction

L t t lk A t S l t t l Y th littl bl b th l ft f th


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Chapter 5: Advanced Editing Page 46

Lets talk Auto Select controls. Yes those little grey blobs on the left of the

video and audio tracks. They may look innocent enough but they affect

many editing operations in Final Cut Pro.

Clicking on a tracks Auto Select control will toggle it between enabled and

disabled states.

A tracks Auto Select control can also be soloed by Option-clicking on it.Only that track is enabled and Auto Select is disabled on other tracks of the

same type, regardless of their previous state.

For example, if V1, V2 and V3 currently have Auto Select enabled and you

Option-click on the Auto Select control of V2, then V2 will remain enabled

and V1/V3 will be disabled.

Auto Select can also be enabled or disabled for the first nine audio andvideo tracks using keyboard shortcuts:

Enable or disable Auto Select

for video tracks 1-9

Press Command-Numeric Keypad 1-9


for all video tracks

Press Command-Numeric Keypad 0


for audio tracks 1-9

Press Option-Numeric Keypad 1-9

Enable or disable Auto Selectfor all audio tracks

Press Option-Numeric Keypad 0

The Auto Select controls are more complex than they first appear because

they behave in two different modes depending on what type of editing

operation youre doing. Lets start by looking at the simpler mode first.

Before After Option-clicking on V2

Auto Select: Track Mode

In track mode the Auto Select control on each track determines whether


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In track mode, the Auto Select control on each track determines whether

that track will be affected by the following operations.

Using Add Edit

As an alternative to using the Blade Tool, pressing Control-V will add

edits to clips on any tracks with Auto Select enabled. Add Edit also works

during playback red markers appear on the timeline ruler and these areconverted to edits when playback is stopped.

Select In to Out

Creates a selection on any Auto Selected tracks between in and out points.

Finding Gaps

Auto Select controls determine which tracks are used for the Find Next/

Previous Track Gap commands (Shift-G / Option-G).

Finding clips or markers in the Timeline

If you want to restrict the search to certain tracks then you can chooseAuto Select Tracks in the Where popup menu of the Find window.

Marked Sections*

When in and out points have been set on a sequence, the Auto Select

controls are used to determine which tracks are affected when using Lift,

Ripple Delete, Cut or Copy commands. The marked section will be shown

in a lighter colour across clips on tracks with Auto Select enabled.

Goto next/previous keyframe*

These commands (Shift-K and Option-K) work on any tracks with AutoSelect enabled. They are very useful for setting audio levels with the Audio

Mixer when you want to adjust the level of an existing keyframe.

Applying Filters*

Filters will be applied to clips on tracks with Auto Select enabled.

*For these operations, selected clips will take priority over Auto Select controls.

Auto Select: Priority Mode

Heres where it gets a bit more complex The following commands all


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Heres where it gets a bit more complex. The following commands all

act on a single clip or edit rather than clips across multiple tracks. So the

second Auto Select mode has to do some nifty detective work to identify

this single clip or edit. I t does this based on these two rules:

Rule 1

Video tracks take priority over audio tracks.Rule 2

Lower numbered tracks take priority over higher numbered tracks.

For example, imagine you have 2 video tracks and 4 audio tracks, and all

auto select controls are enabled. In priority mode, Auto Select will look for

a clip on these tracks in the following order V1, V2, A1, A2, A3 and finally

A4.

If a found clip or edit is linked to another (and Linked Selection is enabled in theTimeline) then this will be taken into account and the command will use both

results.

Auto Select in priority mode is used for the following commands:

Trim Edit Window

The Auto Select controls determine which tracks edit is opened in the Trim

Edit Window.

Using Select Nearest EditWith the Select Nearest Edit (V) command, the Auto Select controls

determine which track is used.

Pasting from clipboard

This is covered in the next chapter in detail.

1

2

3

4

5

6

With Auto Select enabled on all tracks, Final Cut Prowould use this order in priority mode

Match Frame*

Final Cut Pro starts at the V1 track and searches for a clip at the current

l h d l ti O it fi d li A t S l t d t k th th t


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playhead location. Once it finds a clip on an Auto Selected track then that

source clip is loaded into the Viewer.

Reveal Master Clip (Shift-F)*

When this command is used from the Canvas or Timeline, the Auto Select

controls determine which sequence clip should be revealed in the Browser.

Adding Video Transitions or Audio Crossfades*

The transition is only applied to one edit on the lowest number track with

Auto Select enabled.

Opening sequence clips in the viewer*

The Auto Select controls determine which sequence clip is opened in the

Viewer when the Return key is pressed.

*For these operations, selected clips will take priority over Auto Select controls.

Showing Duplicate Frames

The Show Duplicate Frames option in Timeline settings to show frames

from source clips that have been used more than once in a sequence can

be very useful when youre tight on footage. Whats even better is you

can quickly see where duplicate frames have been used elsewhere in the

sequence.

Right-click a coloured bar on a clip and choose Dupe Frames from the

shortcut menu.

Youll get a list of the other places in the sequence where those

frames are used and selecting one will move the playhead to the first

dupe frame.

1

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Ready to Edit

Heres a way to save some time when adding video generators and master


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Heres a way to save some time when adding video generators and master

templates to a sequence.

Start dragging the video generator or Master Template from the

Viewer as normal.

Hold down the Command and Option keys while dropping it on the

Timeline or Canvas.

The clip will automatically be opened into the Viewer, with parameters

ready for adjustment.

Custom Video Generator Duration

When you load a new Video Generator into the Viewer and clear the

marked in and out points, the default duration will be two minutes. This

can be a problem if you need a longer duration but generators can in factbe set to any duration you like.

With the Viewer active, press tab to highlight the duration field.

Enter the desired duration and press Return.

Its crucial that the duration is changed beforeediting the Generator into

a sequence, otherwise youll only be able to trim the Generator clip to the

maximum default two minutes duration.

1

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1

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Using Replace Edit to Sync and Overwrite

One of the interesting things about the Replace Edit command is that it


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g g p

can be an alternative way to do an overwrite edit with an added twist.

Imagine you have some music in a sequence and want to add a new video

clip while synchronising a particular moment in the clip to a beat in

the music.

Mark the in and out points on the sequence as normal then move theplayhead to the music beat.

In the Viewer, move the playhead to the frame that you want to sync

up with the music beat. There is no need to mark in or out points.

Press F11 to perform a Replace Edit.

The location of the source and sequence playheads are used as the sync

points and the source clip is overwritten into the sequence between the in

and out points (assuming sufficient media is available).

Marks to Selections

If you have in and out points marked on a sequence, you can create a

selection by pressing Option-A. Any tracks with Auto Select enabled will be

included in the new selection.

One situation where this feature can be very useful is where you want to

precisely copy a portion of an existing clip to another place in a sequence.

Its very easy to mark the in and out points on the sequence, then pressOption-A to create the selection, copy it to the clipboard and Paste or Paste

Insert into a new location.

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Selections to Marks

This is the opposite of the previous command and sets in/out points based


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on the current selection. It can be particularly useful as a quick way to set

in and out points for looping playback around a range of clips.

Select a clip or multiple clips.

Press Shift-A to mark in and out points based on the selection.

Check that View > Loop Playback (Control-L) is enabled.

Press Shift-\ to play between the in and out points and keep looping.

If video and audio in/out points dont match then the Play in to out command

will use the video in/out points.

Independently Changing Clip Speed

When you load a master clip from the Browser into the Viewer and changeits speed, then the master clip is modified so every time the clip is loaded

into the Viewer it will play at the newly assigned speed.

This can be a really handy feature, particularly if youre doing a series of

slow shots from the same source clip. At other times it may be a problem if

you only want to use a single shot at slow speed and want to avoid having

to remember to reset the clip speed back to 100%.

One workaround is to load the original source file into the Viewer rather

than the Master Clip.

While holding down the Option key, drag the source clip from the

Browser to the Viewer. Adding the Option key makes Final Cut Pro

load the original media file rather than the master clip in the Browser.

When the clips speed is changed in the Viewer, the speed column of

the source clip in the Browser will now be unchanged because the

clip in the Viewer is independent of the Master Clip in the Browser.

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Changing Clip Speed Without Rippling

When you change the speed of a sequence clip, Final Cut Pro assumes you


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want to keep the original in and out points on the source clip. This means

that the duration of the sequence clip is changed and causes later clips be

moved in the sequence. In a technical way, this behaviour makes sense but

most editors Ive spoken to really want to change the speed of the source

clip without affecting the duration of the sequence clip.

Fortunately there is a workaround:

Move the playhead to the first frame of the sequence clip that you

want to change.

Press Command-Option-F to match frame to the source file. As with

the previous tip, this avoids making speed changes to the original

master clip.

Press Command-J to show the speed window, enter the desired

speed and click OK.

Ensure that v1 on the source clip is patched to the correct

destination track.

Press F11 to do a Replace Edit.

This effectively changes the speed of the clip but does not ripple any

of the following clips because using Replace Edit keeps the sequence

clip duration the same.

Before

After using Match Frame to Source File and Replace Edit

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No Nesting

If you load a sequence into the Viewer and edit it into another sequence

h b d f l l ll h l l


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then by default, Final Cut Pro will nest the source sequence as a single clip.

This makes it easy to add filters to the nested clip but doesnt give enough

flexibility to make changes to edits from the source sequence.

However there is another hidden command to edit from sequence to

sequence while keeping the original edits visible.

Drag the source sequence into the Viewer as usual.

Set up the track patching as desired.

Remember that Final Cut Pro will only show as many source tracks as

there are destination tracks in the current sequence see Track Patching

on Page 39for more tips.

Press Command-F9 to do an Insert Edit or Command-F10 for an

Overwrite Edit.If you frequently need to edit from sequence to sequence then you may

want to remap the regular F9 and F10 shortcuts to Insert with Sequence

Content and Overwrite with Sequence Content. The advantage is that

you can use the same F9 and F10 keys for sequence to sequence edits or

regular edits from a source clip.

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To Infinity and Beyond

Imagine youre assembling a series of clips in a sequence and you want

h li t t t t th t f th t i t ith b t th If


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each clip to start at the top of the next minute with gaps between them. If

the last clip ends at 00:05:48:04 when you play to the end of the sequence,

Final Cut Pro stops on the first empty frame and wont play beyond that.

How do you mark the in point at 00:06:00:00 for the start of the next clip?

There are two solutions:

The playhead can be moved into the gap beyond the last clip by

scrubbing on the Timeline Ruler.

The playhead can be moved to any timecode, even beyond the last

clip, by directly entering a timecode (see Locating to Timecodeson

Page 36).

When youre in this mysterious black hole beyond the last clip, pressing the left

or right arrow keys to move to the previous or next frame will instead jump the

playhead to the first empty frame again.

Finding Items in the Timeline

As well as working in the Browser, the Find command is also available

in the Timeline to find clips, markers or source timecode in the current

sequence.

With the Timeline active, press Command-F to show the Find window.

Select the type of search Names/Markers/ Timecode (Source)/Timecode (Aux1)/ Timecode (Aux2).

Choose the scope of the search All Tracks / Auto Select Tracks /

From In to Out.

Enter the name or timecode to search and click Find or press Return.

The first result after the current playhead position will be displayed. You

can move to the next result by pressing Command-G.

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Finding Timeline Clips with Matching Attributes

This tip is useful for locating clips in a sequence that match certain

attributes such as being offline or a particular codec


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attributes such as being offline or a particular codec.

For example, when preparing a sequence for export to Color, clips that

arent running at 100% forwards speed will need to be exported and

replaced. Heres how to identify those clips.

Create a temporary bin in the current project.

With the Timeline active, press Command-A to select all the clips in

the sequence and drag them to the temporary bin.

If its not already visible, right-click on a column header and choose

the Speed column.

Click on the Speed column header to sort the clips in the bin

by their speed.

For each clip that isnt 100% speed, open it into the Viewer then pressF to reverse match frame into the current sequence. The playhead will

move to show where the clip is used.

Solo Clip

This feature can be useful if youre working with many layers and want to

view only a particular clip.

Select the clip you want to solo.

Press Control-S

This disables any other clip (of the same video or audio type as selected)

on tracks that overlap in time with the selected clip(s). By disabling other

clips, the selected clip(s) becomes soloed.

To unsolo, make the same selection and press Control-S again.

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Mixing Aspect Ratios

One of the areas that many Final Cut Pro editors find confusing is how the

Pixel Aspect Ratio and Anamorphic flags on a clip affect the results when


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Pixel Aspect Ratio and Anamorphic flags on a clip affect the results when

mixing clips with different aspect ratios in the same sequence.

There are two basic rules:

Final Cut Pro uses the Pixel Aspect Ratio and Anamorphic flags of a

source clip to determine how the Aspect Ratio and Scale parametersshould be set in the Motion tab of the sequence clip.

Changing the Pixel Aspect Ratio or Anamorphic flags on a sequence

clip will have no effect at all because they are only used at the

moment of editing the clip into a sequence.

The Aspect Ratio slider only resizes the image within the current frame size.

An Aspect Ratio value of 0 means no change, negative Aspect Ratio values

compress the clip vertically (letterbox) and positive Aspect Ratio valuescompress the clip horizontally (pillarbox).

Example 1:

16:9 anamorphic DV clip in 16:9 anamorphic DV sequence

Because the frame sizes, Pixel Aspect Ratio and Anamorphic flags match

exactly, the result is a sequence clip with Scale at 100% and Aspect Ratio

set to 0.

Example 2:

16:9 anamorphic DV clip in 4:3 DV sequence

The 16:9 clip will be letterboxed with the Scale set to 100% and the Aspect


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p p

Ratio set to -33.33

If you want to make the clip fill the full height of the sequence (cropping

the left and right sides) then leave the Aspect Ratio value unchanged and

set the Scale to 133.33%.

Example 3:

4:3 DV clip in 16:9 anamorphic DV sequence

The 4:3 clip will be pillarboxed with the Scale set to 100% and the Aspect

Ratio set to 33.33

If you want to make the clip fill the full width of the sequence (cropping

top and bottom) then leave the Aspect Ratio value unchanged and set theScale to 133.33%.

Quickly Opening a Nested Clip into the Viewer

A nested clip can be opened into the Viewer (perhaps to adjust Filter or

Motion tab parameters) by right-clicking on the clip and choosing Open in


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Motion tab parameters) by right clicking on the clip and choosing Open in

Viewer from the shortcut menu. Here are two quicker ways.

Hold down the Option key and double-click on the nested clip.

Select the nested clip and press Return.

Viewing Both Fields in the Canvas

For interlaced sequences, the Canvas usually shows only one field. This

makes it very difficult to find analogue dropouts and flash fields. To view

both fields of the current frame, simply set the Canvas zoom to 100%.

Still Cache and Rendering

Final Cut Pro keeps still images (including non-animating generators) in

RAM so it can composite them in real time over footage. The default value

of the Still Cache is 10% of available RAM.Once the Still Cache value has been used up (System Settings > Memory

& Cache tab), then it will be necessary to render. Increasing the Still Cache

value will allow more still images or generators to play in real time.

Image sequences in particular perform poorly because as each still

only lasts for one frame, the Still Cache gets used up very quickly.

See Importing Image Sequenceson Page 23for an alternative method.

Collapsing Multiclips

By default, Multiclips are in an uncollapsed state. This

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