As you may have heard we are looking for reader QuickTips for this 2018 edition of #28daysofQuickTips including Final Cut Pro X QuickTips. Send in a good one and you might win a hard drive, a copy of Hedge or an ART OF THE CUT BOOK. Our sunrise-sunset was a reader QuickTip and today we have several tips for Final Cut Pro X.
FCPX Compound Clip Quick Tip from Dan Svoboda
My quick tip is related to FCPX. I have found it to be incredibly useful to place my graphics, FPO images, music, screen comps, or really anything that has the possibility of changing into a compound clip. If any of those assets get changed I just put the new assets in the compound clip. Because of how compound clips work this allows me to swap these assets across all versions of my sequence with just a few clicks. What is also great about this workflow is any effects or animation is then carried on to the new asset. This is exceptionally handy when making cut down versions for different social media outlets.
In the images you can see that I have placed the background of my graphic in a compound clip, as well as the stat graphic. The stat graphic has an effect placed on it that is driving some animation. At the end of this project the client waned to change the copy on the stat graphic, so I drilled into the compound clip and placed the new asset on top disabling the old unapproved one. This change was then reflecting in all of my devilerables. Headache avoided.
Editor’s note: Compound Clips are great and very powerful. One problem I have with them is the same with nested clips in other NLEs… once they are created you have no way to see inside of them to know what’s there without move the playhead over them. So it’s important to know the Break Apart Clip Items shortcut.
If need be you can break apart a Compound Clip to see what’s inside and then undo that to get it back. And of course double click the Compound Clip to open that in the timeline.
Multiple FCPX QuickTips from Gregor Queck
More screen real estate by losing the toolbar
It’s not commonly known and I found this, retweeted by Alex Gollner:
You can gain a little screen estate e.g. for laptop use by hiding the toolbar. Show your workspace file in the Finder:
Simply set the ‘TB Is Shown’ key of the .fcpworkspace – file to 0 (zero).
You can use Xcode to open and change the file or use the free PlistEdit Pro or any other XML editor:
Save and after selecting your workspace: voilà, ToolBar is gone:
This they call the toolbar at the top of the FCPX interface:
A lot of wasted space in the middle and the ’tools’ you can reach by keyboard shortcuts….
Editor’s note: Normally I would issue a warning when you have to dig into the system and modify a file via something like Xcode but since Apple gives us a menu option to Open Workspace Folder in Finder then go for it! That extra screen space on a laptop could be nice.
And one more from Gregor:
‘Multicam without Multicam’ or ‘How to get your favs on the timeline – sync’ d’
If you have one camera on a tripod and one handheld or on a gimbal and want to get only your best handheld/gimbal bits on your timeline its hard to use favourites. Because then you have to synchronize every fav to your timeline. If you put the entire clip on the timeline you don’t see favs. You could just cut in the timeline but then you loose the favs-metadata-information and hereby work, searchability and a level of order, one could argue. That’s also a problem with the string-out method, I suppose.
Solution: Activate snapping, put markers at the beginning/end of your favs, pull clip to the timeline (markers will show up), sync (by waveform), cut at the markers (in Command Editor you can set the Blade command to a single keystroke, maybe ‘b’ :), remove junk, finetune, enjoy! Now you got your favs on the timeline – sync’ d.
Next step: Hit delete!
Maybe someone can write a script to make this faster. Or Apple implements this as a feature. Request is sent.
Want to be like Dan and Gregor and be famous for a day having thousands of people read your tip? Have your own editing and post-production related QuickTip for #28daysofQuickTips 2018 that you’d like to share? Know a killer Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer or DaVinci Resolve tip that no one else knows? Want to possibly win a prize including a hard drive? Then click over to the post announcing this year’s #28daysofQuickTips and find out how you can send in your own QuickTip.
