More newbie FCP questions

[Simon Wyndham]

Okay, more questions from the mind of a FCP newbie;

1. Is there a way to add a video clip to the timeline without its associated audio track?

2. Is there a way to define a loop region like you can in Soundtrack Pro (or Vegas for that matter)?

3. Is there a way to add an audio or video filter to an entire track rather than to clips? I don't mean copy a clip filter to all the other clips on the timeline. I mean to apply a filter to an actual track so that if an adjustment is made it will automatically affect all the clips on that track.

[Dom Stevenson]

Is there a way to add a video clip to the timeline without its associated audio track?

Yes there is. by clikng the clip into the viewer and disabling the patch's on the left hand side of the TL before overwriting. Thats what the designation patch's are there for. You can do the same with the video track if you only want the audio.

Is there a way to define a loop region like you can in Soundtrack Pro (or Vegas for that matter)?

Not that i can think of. Final cut pro does not have cycle regions. there is the play around edit feature and the play in to out. If you double click on the edit point you will bring up the Trim Edit Window which has a looping facility called Play around Edit Loop.

. Is there a way to add an audio or video filter to an entire track rather than to clips? I don't mean copy a clip filter to all the other clips on the timeline. I mean to apply a filter to an actual track so that if an adjustment is made it will automatically affect all the clips on that track.

Well if you toggle the T key (or choose the multiple arrow options in the tool bar) you have the option to highlight a whole track of clips which you can apply a filter to. There's also the paste attributes feature in the edit menu.

[Simon Wyndham]

Thanks Dom.

Regarding the application of filters to a track, the T key option isn't a satisfactory way of performing the operation I am thinking of. Because if I decide to change anything I will have to recopy all the filters again and have to individually delete all the old filter settings from those clips. Unless if I use the T option and select a whole track of clips, can I make a change to only one filter setting and see the effects on all of those clips simultaneously?

Two more questions, is there a way to use the ripple edit tool, but to have it only affect the track I am working on?

Lastly, is there a way to keep the timeline playing while I am making an adjustment, for example adjusting the audio volume envelope?

Oooh, actually a third more question. Vegas automatically adds a 'micro' fade at the beginning and end of audio (it could be turned off if needed). These microfades reduced, or eliminated clicks at the beginning of new audio clips. Is there a way of doing this in FCP without having to go through each clip manually?

[Andy Mees]

Hey Simon

1.
as noted, you neeed to use the patch controls exclusively for this ... I wish FCP had a simple toggle for video/audio patch overide as in Vegas, Edius and others too.

2.
control-L turns the playback looping property on and off.

with Looping on :
press \ for continuous looping around the playhead at the cut
press shift-\ for continuos looping from In to Out point

3.
no. with FCP audio and video filters are only applicable at the clip level.
however, although there is no immediate way to apply filters at a track or output level, as in Vegas, the prescribed workflow for acheiving the same is really very simple. just select the track or tracks as desired and press option-C to replace that selection with a single nested item that represents that selection. you can then apply the filter to the nest.
certainly the abilty to add filters at the track and output level is a fine thing (and its on my ever expanding wishlist for inclusion in FCP) but the nesting methos is simplicity itself so I guess its just horses for courses.

4.
all tools in FCP will always try to force sync to be maintained, and the ripple tool is no exception. there is no single overide toggle to turn syncing on or off (again, another fine feature that is missing from the FCP toolset) ... however you can control it by hook or by crook. simplest is to option click on the track lock icon of the track you want to adjust. by option clicking the padlock for that track you will lock all tracks except the one you click on. when a track or tracks are locked FCP ignores them and so you have free reign

5.
no. Vegas's early roots as a DAW really shows its power in exactly such scenarios.

6.
i'll have to be honest that I thought that was an issue that was solved with NLE's shortly after man invented fire. i do remember digital clicks caused by cuts way way back but haven't noticed it in any NLE's in the last 5-10 years or so. it may be that a "micro fade" is applied but theres no explicit toggle that turns it on/off that I know of.

I'm a huge fan of the Final Cut Studio bundle, but there are many functions of Vegas (and other NLE's) that I'd love to see incorporated into the basic FCP toolset. Sadly Apple seem to overlook so many of the little things.

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

Because if I decide to change anything I will have to recopy all the filters again and have to individually delete all the old filter settings from those clips.

You don't have to do it individually. You can option-apple v, which is "remove attributes". From there you can remove filters.

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

Unless if I use the T option and select a whole track of clips, can I make a change to only one filter setting and see the effects on all of those clips simultaneously?

The closest FCP would have would be to nest.

I understand this might be annoying at first, but whenever I've wanted to mass color-correct a load of clips on the timeline, I've done the paste attribute/remove attribute dance with the shortcut keys and it only takes a few seconds to do that repeatedly.

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

Two more questions, is there a way to use the ripple edit tool, but to have it only affect the track I am working on?

Lock all tracks except the one you want to ripple. Option-click the lock on that particular track to do so quickly.

[Dom Stevenson]

Andy wrote:
I'm a huge fan of the Final Cut Studio bundle, but there are many functions of Vegas (and other NLE's) that I'd love to see incorporated into the basic FCP toolset. Sadly Apple seem to overlook so many of the little things.

I know what you mean Andy. I came to FCP from Premiere pro and i have to say i really miss being able to take or leave audio/video clips before editing into the timeline. Those designation patches make a simple action rather awkward if you ask me. I also miss Premiere's excellent Trim edit Window; the Final Cut version is not half as user friendly.
Broadly speaking though, i wouldn't swap my FCS suite for any of the other options out there.

[Simon Wyndham]

Many thanks Andy and Nate :-)

Those solutions should work nicely. I'm on a bit of a crash course with FCP at the moment. Usually if I had a new NLE I wouldn't perform any real work with it until I am comfortable. But in this case I don't have much choice but to jump in feet first!

In general I do really like FCP. There are things that FCP could do from Vegas, and likewise Vegas could take a leaf out of FCP's book for some stuff too. If both NLE's merged we'd have the perfect NLE! LOL!

I was going to purchase Graeme Nattress' filters, mainly for his film style optical dissolves. But does anyone know if there is a curves filter for FCP anywhere? I'm really lost without that, and it is a bit of overkill to go to Color for that.

I feel like a total beginner! Well, I guess I am in this case! ;-)

[Martin Mayer]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

Lock all tracks except the one you want to ripple. Option-click the lock on that particular track to do so quickly.

Simon, to amplify what Nate said:

Make sure you try option+click on lots of things around FCP - many new, alternative, and useful behaviours are hidden therein!

My favourite is option+drag the front/back of a clip with linked components: only the clicked edge follows the drag.

[Andy Mees]

hey Simon

If you're used to curves then I'm guessing that FCp's 3-Way CC seems clunky, but it works the other way for me. I have curves in Edius but really miss the capabilities of FCP's 3-Way CC! I find there's little I can acheive in curves that I couldn't have done with the 3Way and theres a lot I can do in the 3Way that I can't do at all with curves.

All that said and done, if you have a budget then take a look at Synthetic Apertures Colour Finesse plug in (http://www.synthetic-ap.com/products/cf/indepth.html) , or Red Giant's Colorista (http://redgiantsoftware.com/coloristafeatures.html) or Red Giant's Magic Bullet Looks (http://redgiantsoftware.com/magicbulletlooks.html) ... or if you have no budget then stibs color engine is worth a look see http://fxscript.org/demos/colourengine.html

hope it helps
Andy

[Simon Wyndham]

Thanks guys.

I use the 3-way a lot. It works in the same way to Vegas's 3-way. Although I like the curves to be able to better control some things. The 3 way is okay, but curves allow an entire tonal range of the picture to be isolated, and the EXACT area of the midtones, shadows etc to be controlled. And not to forget the good old film style S-curve that can be applied easily.

Color has curves adjustments, but it is a bit of overkill to go into it just for a simple adjustment like that.

Okay, another question:
realtime playback. I have the timeline set to Unlimited RT, with dynamic quality and Dynamic framerate etc.

Now, if I add some lower thirds from Livetype the playback becomes very jerky while playing those sections, and doesn't output much framerate at all via the MXO. Sorry to keep going back to Vegas all the time, but with that program I could overlay a lot of stuff such as animated titles on my old Pentium 4 based machine and it would still playback a nice framerate, even if not the full 25fps.

I would have expected a quad core Mac to be able to eat up such overlays for breakfast! Especially on a standard def timeline sequence.

Could there be anything else I am missing here?

[Nate Weaver]

Probably not.

Although with my recent purchase of a new rig (with X1900 video card), I've learned a lot of the same thing (simple animated lower thirds, etc) but done with Motion templates is close to real time now, whereas before it was like you speak of, whether it was Motion overlays or Livetype.

Livetype is an older program in the FCP suite, I'm not sure if files created with it leverage the GPU like Motion files do.

Anyway, look to a X1900 card if you want to improve that sort of stuff.

[Simon Wyndham]

Thanks Nate.

My system already has the X1900 card. But I'll try Motion instead as you suggest to see if that works any better.

The really odd thing though is that if i scrub the timeline the framerate updates quite quickly. Its only when I press the space bar to play it that the framerate seems to drop like a stone. Very strange.

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

The really odd thing though is that if i scrub the timeline the framerate updates quite quickly. Its only when I press the space bar to play it that the framerate seems to drop like a stone. Very strange.

I'd chalk that up to Livetype's age.

I'm surprised they're still including Livetype with FCS...since they're concentrating so much on Motion and it's integration, it's becoming apparent that Livetype is not 100% on board with this effort. In programmer's parlance, I believe the word is "deprecated".

[Duncan Craig]

Don't dis Livetype!! It's fantastic.

It's so much simpler to use than having to fek around with pages of parameters in Motion. Moving and cutting/pasting effects is easier, and there's more real estate onscreen with Livetype because Motion still doesn't work properly over two screen.

Livetype never, ever crashes. But I like the new effect in Motion and the skew options too.

Here's a UK commercial I made in a just few hours. Made completely in Livetype.

http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/Coral/YTV1220.mov

It's since been altered for different campaigns, but has continued to run across the northern regions for years.

All the best, Duncan


P,S. I forgot to say... what I originally wanted to say:
Nattress make really great CC plugins too. Including curves and levels.

Byeee

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Duncan Craig

Don't dis Livetype!! It's fantastic.

No no no, wouldn't dream of it. It's easy, fast, and always works.

I just meant I don't think it's getting any development time these days, and therefore may not be GPU accelerated (in FCP).