FCPX Timeline Question

[illegalprelude]

Hey everybody, I used to use Final Cut Studios 3 years ago but recently, for my projects, iMovie has gotten me along. Especially for my content which is usually between 5-15 min of HD content for the web.

One thing I always missed with iMovie is an open timeline so there does not need to be footage between two clips. That empty space, whatever you would like to call it.

However, I can't seem to do this in FCPX. The minute I place another clip in my timeline, it snaps right to the other one. This is even true if I have snapping turned off. Thoughts?

 

[WiLLGT09]

That's probably because of Magnetic Timeline. I'm not sure how to turn that off. It's a pretty nice feature though.

 

[macbookairman]

The solution is to have the "Position" tool turned on. Just press "P" on the keyboard and you'll enable the position tool, which will allow you to bypass the magnetic timeline and position items manually.

 

[cgbier]

You can also do that with the magnet on, but have to lay down a slug. There's a free video on rippletraining that shows how to do it.

 

[acearchie]

The solution is to have the "Position" tool turned on. Just press "P" on the keyboard and you'll enable the position tool, which will allow you to bypass the magnetic timeline and position items manually.

I have been battling with FCP X today and can't bring myself to try it out but if you return to your select tool "A" and therefore the magnetic timeline how does this affect the gap that has been created? If you push a clip towards it does it shrink or jump above it?

 

[macbookairman]

I have been battling with FCP X today and can't bring myself to try it out but if you return to your select tool "A" and therefore the magnetic timeline how does this affect the gap that has been created? If you push a clip towards it does it shrink or jump above it?

It looks to me like it doesn't shrink or jump above, it just gets pushed back.

 

[dodge this]

Is Final Cut Pro X's timeline one track only? Does it not allow multiple tracks? I have students that like to stack stuff one thing on top of another.

And if it does have multiple tracks, does the magnetic snapping affect those tracks and snap everything end to end, even on those multiple tracks?

 

[CaptainChunk]

Is Final Cut Pro X's timeline one track only? Does it not allow multiple tracks? I have students that like to stack stuff one thing on top of another.

And if it does have multiple tracks, does the magnetic snapping affect those tracks and snap everything end to end, even on those multiple tracks?

The concept of actual "tracks" is completely gone with FCP X. But it does have something called "clip connection", where you can still stack clips on top of other clips. A clip connection is denoted by a small vertical "link" between the two clips.

When two clips are "connected", they move together unless you disconnect them. Magnetic Timeline will continue to move other clips out of the way as you move your connected clips, to avoid overwrites and collisions. You can "turn off" this behavior with the Position (P) tool.

 

[acearchie]

The concept of actual "tracks" is completely gone with FCP X. But it does have something called "clip connection", where you can still stack clips on top of other clips. A clip connection is denoted by a small vertical "link" between the two clips.

When two clips are "connected", they move together unless you disconnect them. Magnetic Timeline will continue to move other clips out of the way as you move your connected clips, to avoid overwrites and collisions. You can "turn off" this behavior with the Position (P) tool.

One thing I find annoying about this feature that if you want to clip connect a clip above another clip right at the start of the clip (if that makes sense) then it tries to put your clip in front of the clip you are trying to connect to.

It requires quite a bit of fine tuning with the mouse to get the clip in the right place something that would have been a single click move in FCP 7!

 

[CaptainChunk]

One thing I find annoying about this feature that if you want to clip connect a clip above another clip right at the start of the clip (if that makes sense) then it tries to put your clip in front of the clip you are trying to connect to.

It requires quite a bit of fine tuning with the mouse to get the clip in the right place something that would have been a single click move in FCP 7!

Yes, in my limited time playing with the software at a friend's house, I was sort of noticing the same thing. I think the biggest problem here was that Apple gave the mouse way too much to do in FCP X. The slightest movement in the wrong direction while moving clips seems to do something completely different than you wanted to accomplish.

Ultimately, I think there should be an option in a future release of FCP X that allows for track-based editing and a lot of these issues would go away.

 

[Ha ze]

Parallel Timelines

I keep seeing this referenced as a solution to Multicam editing, but I'm failing to see how to open them in this manner. Can someone point me in the right direction?