Bottom 10 Final Cut Pro …. tips?
By S Simmons. Filed in Editing, Final Cut Pro |
If there is such a thing as the Top 10 Final Cut Pro tips then there has to be a bottom 10 as well. Actually these really wouldn’t be tips so much as they are things / features / bugs to complain about. It’s always nice to complain as hopefully Apple will take complaints to heart and make life better in the upgrades. They can be submitted at the feedback page.
FCP launch. I work on multiple projects at once. There is a preference that you can set that will make FCP automatically launch the last project you worked on. I usually do not want that. Deselect that and you get an untitled project. I definitely do not want that and I really don’t like to have to take the time to close the project and tell it not to save. That is time wasted. Let’s have the option of having no project open or some kind of open dialog box.
Keyframing is necessary if you are doing effects. Often you will set up many different keyframes to get an effect or filter just right to only then have to shorten or lengthen the clip. Of course the keyframes don’t move. This can be a big pain. Of course if they did then the effect parameters would change but this is way more desirable than having to move the keyframes by hand. In the graphic above, there is only one keyframe to change. But if you have multiple keyframes this can be a big pain. These “moving” types of keyframes are called elastic keyframes in some other apps. Le”s have the option of moving the keyframes with the changing duration of a clip. Please! And if you look at the above graphic real closely you can see the time marker redraw problem that happens on occasion when you zoom around the magnification. That’s a pain too.
Auxiliary timecode. Aux timecode is a must have in music videos. Often you will have 10, 20, 30 takes of a song that begin at different places throughout. The song is played back off of something that generates timecode and that syncs to a timecode slate. One take might run for the first minute of a song and one the last minute. Thus you must assign the corresponding timecode to the auxiliary timecode track.
The problem in FCP is that if you make subclips of all these takes, when you change the aux timecode of one it ripples a change in the aux timecode through all the other subclips made from the same master clip. Not good. A common workaround is to capture each take as it’s own master clip. But working in an offline environment with a dv deck and its slow tape transport can be a HUGE pain, especially with 30+ takes. Please fix AUX TC!!!
Motion effects from offline to online. Motion effects are great. Slo mos, fast mos, time remapping. All handy and useful. But when you have to online, or up rez, or recapture or move a project via EDL or XML or FCP project, I usually see these motion effects turn into a freeze frame or a crazy super fast motion clip of gobbledygook. It would be nice if this didn’t happen.
FCP needs a WYSIWYG title tool. There is something very simple and very elegant about being able click in the canvas with a “title tool” and type right over picture. Then you can easily change sizes, fonts, and such right there. Like, maybe a title tool that resembles…. oh, I don’t know.. Motion?
Better capture tool interactivity. While you are working in the capture tool you can see timecode and audio and make IN and OUT points. But as soon as you hit capture now or batch capture, you are then presented with a jerky reference right in the middle of the screen. It would be great to still see that timecode roll and those audio levels. And even better would be a way to subclip and add markers while capturing. (Shhhh … Avid can do that).
Central user settings. When I move from my system to another machine I currently carry along a usb flash drive with keyboard settings, column layouts, track layouts, button bars, and even window layouts if I will be working on the same size monitor. If these could be centralized into a single user file that could easily be taken from system to system then that would be a huge timesaver.
Make the trim tool work better! When FCP was first introduced they touted it as “mode free editing.” This was a jab at Avid because in Avid you have to enter trim mode or segment mode to accomplish certain tasks. But this is not always a bad thing. When entering trim mode in Avid, the interface instantly changes and provides a number of new tools to work with. In FCP, an awkward window pops up. But the worst part about FCP’s trim mode is that it just does not work very well. It is cumbersome to use, it doesn’t give enough good feedback in the timeline and it often is hard to make it apply to the tracks you want it to trim. Even though I want to hear a specific audio track I probably still want to see my video! It is a shame as proper trimming can make fine tuning edits much quicker and easier. And because the trim tool doesn’t work very efficiently, it seems to me that most FCP editors don’t use it.
Smarter zooming in the timeline. It would be nice to have the option to always zoom around the current time maker in the timeline. Often I have a clip selected somewhere way down the timeline but I want to zoom in to the current working area. As I start zooming I loose my current place as FCP zooms to the clips I have (usually) accidentally left selected. I know it seems like the logical thing to do but it is usually not. That is if I zoom via my keyboard or the dial on my Contour Shuttle Pro. 
Now if I grab the zoom slider at the bottom of the timeline is zooms to the current time marker. Go figure.
Backwards compatibility. Every FCP upgrade adds great new features but the ability to open a newer project in an older version of FCP would be welcome. I am an early adopter but a lot of my clients aren’t. XML is great but just the ability to be a bit backwards compatible would be nice. Sure all the new effects and features wouldn’t work but if you are aware of this then no problem. I mean … 5.1 couldn’t be opened in 5.0! That’s one way to increase your bottom line by forcing an upgrade.
Okay, so these aren’t tips at all! Like any piece of software there are bugs and annoyances and things of that nature. And the functionality is always subjective anyway so something I don’t like is probably loved by someone else. I think the moral of this story is to always provide feedback for any software that one uses… especially if you want to see it change.
Saturday, September 16th 2006 at 4:41 am
I agree with all your gripes. But you missed possibly the worst offender of the lot… automatically nesting sequences! In Avid I’ll quite often want to combine elements from one sequence wth another. But I often work with multiple layers to give me a couple of options in the edit. In Final Cut if I want to edit one sequence to another, I don’t get the option of cutting any particular layer into my new sequence. I can only cut in one big slab of nested sequence, leaving me with the top layer as my only option…
Oh and here’s another one: no ‘find bin’ button. Quite often I want to match frame a clip and then find the bin it came from so i can find takes that are close to it. I have to admit, there may be a function like this in FCP that I haven’t found, so I may be having a go when it’s not warranted. But still…
Final Cut is a great effects tool but for straight cutting and for projects with a lot of media, Avid still wins hands down.
Saturday, September 16th 2006 at 10:59 am
Owen…. Amen to the auto nesting. I do love how you can load a sequence in the record monitor of Avid and edit it like it was any master clip. The only real way to get this functionality in FCP is to mark IN to OUT and select it (opt +a) and then copy and paste. Not very efficient.
As for ‘find bin,’ look for the “reveal master clip” command in FCP. Maybe under the clip menu? This is a close as it gets. It works almost the same, but depending on the kind of clip it maybe not work every time.
Sunday, September 24th 2006 at 1:32 pm
How to get around “auto sequencing”
Cmd drag your section of the sequence (in your viewer) into your timeline…it will auto “unnest” your incoming sequence.
Monday, September 25th 2006 at 8:14 pm
Very nice info Jeff thanks for the comment….. that does address that particular shortcoming.
Tuesday, September 26th 2006 at 11:26 am
uhmm…
Load a sequence into the viewer, mark an in and out
Apple-F9/F10
Marked section should go across, un-nested just like in avid land.
The central user settings would be nice, except that is the first thing AVID tells you to trash when you hit a bump as they corrupt like FCP’s prefs. I always though AVID should employ separate settings like FCP, just store them in one place.
Monday, February 19th 2007 at 1:23 pm
hi, i have both final cut hd express (3.5) and final cut pro 5, i made a project with final cut express just a few weeks before installing final cut pro 5. The only thing is that final cut pro doesnt allow me to read that project cause it says that’s from a newer version….is there a method to work around this issue? i’ve read your comments, but i hope i can solve this problem…it’s giving me such a hard time…thank you!
Monday, February 19th 2007 at 8:33 pm
Simone;
That interesting at that’s the exact opposite as I’ve experienced. FCP usually (or at least did a few versions of FC Express ago) sees an Express project as an older version not the other way around. I would suggest posting this problem over at the Apple discussion forums and see if anyone has experienced this.
Wednesday, April 25th 2007 at 10:36 am
hey scott (or any other fcp guru),
i think we cut together on runs house… your name looks very familiar.
i’ve been an avid editor for nearly a decade doing my first fcp project. (feature doc)
I use the FIND BIN on avid frequently for clips and sequences. On FCP i’m very disappointed and frustrated with the REVEAL MASTER CLIP. as its seems to no longer work on my project. I think its because i have copied, rescued from vault, etc. the project so many times that the fcp no longer recognized the clips in the timeline to the clips in the browser.
Is there any way to make the connection for REVEAL MASTER CLIP work again?
Its an inheritted project and its such a timewaster to find the folders/tapes where the clips come from.
Also in trim mode is there an easy way to change the pre-roll from trim mode without going to FCP preferences?
Frustrated fellow avid editor in search of answers…
-greg
Wednesday, April 25th 2007 at 11:02 am
runs house??? what was that as it doesn’t ring a bell.
Unfortunately FCPs media management causes the REVEAL MASTER CLIP to lose its links on projects that have been media mangled or moved around a bit. I’ve never found a way to repair them. And any pre-roll change is done under the preferences as FCP doesn’t have a preroll window to change it like the Avid trim mode.
Monday, April 30th 2007 at 4:50 pm
thanks for the answers- what is your work around. i have this inheritted project and there is no connection between the bins and sequence. i have done this reveal media file thing to try to figure out the folder but is there a better way?
also how do i see source timecode in the sequence timeline- do i have to matchframe? then see it in the source side?
on a similar note. i 2 long takes from 2 cameras. but the first editor broke up the continuous takes into 8-10 clips. the timecodes dont match- but a computed offset is stable on all clips. is there a way to “autogroup” once you know the offset of one clip. i’ve seen an offset window but i cant get it to work.
thanks for your help.
runs house was a show about run dmc and his famiily for mtv. there is another scott simmons editor out there i guess… maybe the spelling was different – sorry 4 the confusion. i always assumed you were him.
-greg
Tuesday, May 1st 2007 at 4:29 pm
There really isn’t a way to relink it to “find bin” if you will, so I don’t have a work around. just have to search it out the old fashioned way… by eye! Source timecode can be seen by hitting option+z to turn that on. Must be sure overlays are turned on too. There’s not an autogroup function…there is “make multiclip sequence” but to be honest I don’t use that so I’m not sure if it would work. What I do with that situation is to sync all the 8-10 clips up in a sequence and assign them an auxiliary timecode, then group by that. It will work as long as they are individual master clips and not subclips. Good luck.
Tuesday, May 1st 2007 at 5:34 pm
thanks so much for all your help…
you should write a book on fcp for avid users… one was out long ago but its out of print and i’m sure outdated.
i’m sure i’ll be back with other questions in the future. thanks for the option+z especially – very useful.
-greg
Tuesday, February 12th 2008 at 12:44 am
Hey man love the article…..we featured it on our blog!
Wednesday, June 11th 2008 at 2:55 am
very good article
i have a question about final cut:
does anyone know how to capture a clip with external timecode, for examle if you have just a sd stream without rs422 connection (aja io) and you are using “capture now” option. i could’t find it anywhere to set it properly. any ideas?
Wednesday, June 11th 2008 at 4:49 pm
To get timecode from an SD stream it needs that 422 connection as that’s where it gets the tc from. There are some external boxes that can take the info an embed it into a firewire signal as well.
Sunday, June 14th 2009 at 9:37 am
Re “smarter zooming in the timeline”: In recent versions there is a command to “zoom in on playhead in timeline”. I assign that to the key Shift-Command-+ and use it as an alternative to Shift-+ zooming.
Sunday, June 14th 2009 at 10:42 am
Good point Bruce. I replaced the default FCP zoom keys on the keyboard with this new feature when it hit … but i didn’t update this list! Maybe folks will read the comments.
Sunday, June 14th 2009 at 3:40 pm
Great blog. I am a producer who learned FCP simply for the post production edification and so directors and editors couldn’t BS me anymore. You guys could. I am the beneficiary of your knowledge and sophistication with the software and the art. Thank you.
Sunday, June 14th 2009 at 3:44 pm
ALSO, batch capturing has been causing me a problem. The tapes I am trying to grab from ALL have TC but it will begin to address the assigned TC to capture, then stumble and stutter and fail. I have a DSR 11 deck, and 2.5 GHZ Dual G5.
Thanks.
Tuesday, November 17th 2009 at 5:13 pm
Two things that annoy me in FCP: I make keyframes in the motion tag, say pans on stills, then add a cross dissolve between two clips in the timeline. The motion effect stops during the midpoint of dissolve, so I have to change the length of the effect in motion tag so the movement will continue through the dissolve. In Avid, that is automatically calculated, the extra frames needed for the dissolve are there. My next peeve in FCP is how it treats the use of edited seq in the viewer window, in Avid, I can take an edited sequence and throw it in the playback window, as if it were a clip. When edited into a new sequence, I can still trim out the length of clips and get all the extra frames that are in the digitized footage. In FCP, if you need more frames to lengthen your scene, you must go back to your clip bin, find the original footage and add on. That is a big pain in FCP. Avid automatically treats each clip in a copied sequence as if is still connected to the digitze bin, so you can make versions of edits, easily. Also, slipping trims in Avid (leaving clip same length, just changing content in-out points) is so much easier than FCP. One keystroke gets you in trim mode and you can slip frames in a clip using the keys. and see the result in the trim window. FCP requires mouse manipulation and screwing around in an imprecise manner with “tools”.