Couple of FCPX questions if anyone can help

[phildavies79]

Been through the videos and help files at Apple. Even paid for an online course at Lynda.com but can't find the answers to a couple of important issues for me (they are all related to coming up with a workaround for no multicam). Any help would be much appreciated...

1) During playback, when the playhead reaches the far right of the timeline, it disappears. I have to manually use the horizontal scroll bar to bring the clips being played into view. Is there a way this can be done automatically i.e. so the timeline horizontaly scrolls automatically to keep up with the playhead?

2) Is there a shortcut key to cut/split clips on the fly (during playback)? Coming from Sony Vegas I could press "S" as often as I wanted during playback and it would split the track without affecting playback. In FCPX, I can hit B for blade but then have to manually follow the playhead with my mouse (which I can't really do because of issue 1 above!).

3) When syncing 2 video clips is there a way to chose which is the primary clip i.e. which one appears on the top track if I "break apart the items"? I've selecting the 2 clips in a different order but the same one is always on top and manually switching them round loses the fine tuning of the sync.

Finally, if anyone has a halfway efficient workflow for cutting between 2 video tracks (until multicam comes out) I'd be very, very grateful!

Phil.

 

[pemb145]

Phil,

No answer to 1), maybe for cutting on a clip you could try disabling the skimmer, leaving only the playhead - trims will then work at the playhead (I haven't tried this)

I edited a 3 cam interview over the weekend - I used ¨V¨to hide the higher track until I find the shot I need - blade cut at each end of the shot, then enable (V) the part I needed. I left the whole track in place, but hid the sections I did not want visible.

This keeps all in sync, and is a fairly easy way to make multi cam edits.

Give it a try!

 

[cgbier]

1) That has been in FCP ever since. If you have a big screen, and your timeline is not too long, hit SHIFT+Z to get whole line on the screen. If you have two monitors (which you should for video editing), you can spread the timeline over both screens.
2) Get the whole timeline, then stop playback where you need it and cut. Splitting clips is normally done in the viewer already... or has been done. Never liked S during playback in Vegas - it's not very accurate.
3) Haven't found a solution to that one yet. Does it really matter which one is on top?

 

[iHateMacs]

If you have two monitors (which you should for video editing), you can spread the timeline over both screens.

Can you? Have you tried it?

I thought the only two options were to show the viewer(and the scopes) on a second monitor or the media "bin" (or whatever it's called now) on the other monitor.

Don't have FCPX on this machine to try.


I am loving FCPX by the way and think it was a bold move by Apple to work this way and in time others will follow. FCPX is not ready for many pros yet but it will get there. I can even edit my 5DMKII footage direct from the cam smoothly. It is very responsive with these files compared to FCP7 (on my machine).

 

[cgbier]

Can you? Have you tried it?

Oh, shoots, yer right. I was still with FCP "Classic" with some of my thoughts. Nope, I haven't tried it yet. Gimme until tomorrow.

But I agree with you... Apple has created a, albeit roughly cut so far, gem with FCP X. I haven't done any major production with it yet, but just fiddling around with it is a lot of fun. FCP Classic is clumsy compared to the new one.

 

[iHateMacs]

You are quite right you can. I was pretty sure there was no specific option for it, but forgot you can just stretch the window I don't use two monitors often.

I have just tried it and if you slide the division between the events and the viewer to the screen split it works quite well.

My second monitor is smaller than the main one so the timeline drops as goes onto the second screen. I'd have to stand it on some thick books

 

[ndrr13]

Have you tried mapping CMD+B to the Y button? It kinda works like Add-Edit.