FCP X questions about events & projects

[charlien]

I'm really having a hard time with FCP X and I have to be doing something wrong. Here is what I'm experiencing:

I have a library called "Personal". Inside this library I create a new event "Boatride" and import some camera footage. I drag it to the timeline and make a few test edits.

I create a new event called "kids" and import some footage. Why does my timeline still show my boat footage in the kids event? So I remove the boat footage and add the films of the kids. Make some edits and click on the boatride event. The kids footage is still in the timeline.

This doesn't seem right. Am I doing something wrong? On my PC with Cyberlink I am able to keep all my events totally separate.

 

[RCAFBrat]

It can be a little confusing at first!

This is from memory (I'm at work on a PC so I don't have FCPX in front of me and I'm a novice myself) and put in terms that I find helpful; that I relate the Library, Events and Timeline to a physical library is helpful to me and I hope it does not make matters worse for you:

Think of the Library as the room where all your media is stored; Events are the shelves inside the Library but it is possible to have the same media on a couple of different shelves (essentially duplicates but I believe you can set different In and Out points). The Events help you organize your Library. The media always stays in the Events and when you use it in the Timeline think of it as taking a copy.

The Timeline is for the PROJECT (lots of emphasis on this point) you are working on - it is the copies of the media you have taken from the Libraries and Events you have available to you. You can consider the Project to be the table where you are doing the actual work (ie you've put a copy of everything you need on the table).

To better organize yourself, you can create a new Project inside an Event and then open it (doule-click as I recall) when you want to work on it. Putting the Project inside a particular Event (shelf in the room so to speak) can be helpful when you need to go back to the project.

When you change Events the active Project does not change - essentially you have gone back to the shelves to browse for more media.

To move between one Timeline and another you have to change Projects.​

I'm not sure if you can put a Project directly in a Library or even outside a Library; you'll have to play with it a while to get it straight!

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers,

 

[charlien]

It can be a little confusing at first!

This is from memory (I'm at work on a PC so I don't have FCPX in front of me and I'm a novice myself) and put in terms that I find helpful; that I relate the Library, Events and Timeline to a physical library is helpful to me and I hope it does not make matters worse for you:

Think of the Library as the room where all your media is stored; Events are the shelves inside the Library but it is possible to have the same media on a couple of different shelves (essentially duplicates but I believe you can set different In and Out points). The Events help you organize your Library. The media always stays in the Events and when you use it in the Timeline think of it as taking a copy.

The Timeline is for the PROJECT (lots of emphasis on this point) you are working on - it is the copies of the media you have taken from the Libraries and Events you have available to you. You can consider the Project to be the table where you are doing the actual work (ie you've put a copy of everything you need on the table).

To better organize yourself, you can create a new Project inside an Event and then open it (doule-click as I recall) when you want to work on it. Putting the Project inside a particular Event (shelf in the room so to speak) can be helpful when you need to go back to the project.

When you change Events the active Project does not change - essentially you have gone back to the shelves to browse for more media.

To move between one Timeline and another you have to change Projects.​

I'm not sure if you can put a Project directly in a Library or even outside a Library; you'll have to play with it a while to get it straight!

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers,

Thank you very much. Double-clicking the project is what I was missing. That changes everything in the timeline.

 

[ColdCase]

I get caught with that every once in awhile