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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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 10
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 11
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 12
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 13
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 14
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 15
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 16
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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Chapter 1: Essentials Page 17
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
to reclaim disk space.
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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 20
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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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 21
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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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 22
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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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 23
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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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 24
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.
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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 25
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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Chapter 2: Capturing and Importing Page 26
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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Chapter 3: Browser Page 29
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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Chapter 3: Browser Page 30
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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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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Chapter 3: Browser Page 32
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 35
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 36
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 37
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 39
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 40
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
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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 41
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 42
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 43
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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Chapter 4: Basic Editing Page 44
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
Enable or disable Auto Select
for all video tracks
Press Command-Numeric Keypad 0
Enable or disable Auto Select
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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Chapter 5: Advanced Editing Page 47
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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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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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
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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
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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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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