Today, Psystar tried to put all naysayers to rest by posting this video on their web site. They claim it shows their Open Computers running OS X Leopard, Ubuntu 8, and Windows Xp Professional. Now I am not refuting their claims, but as I watched the video I did notice some things that seem just too wonky not to point out. Besides I always love a good conspiracy theory.

As the video opens we see the alleged Open Computer running OS X on the far left. There is a bundle of small cables under the desk below the system and it looks like they are probably Ethernet cables. Nothing too unusual but, as you will see, they later seem to disappear. Even more unusual is the space below the desk on the right where there is an empty wire rack shelf system. Note that at this point in the video there seems to be nothing there. Also note that the area to the right of the display is empty. These two points will become significant later.

As the camera pans right we see the Ubuntu machine and the Windows box. Both have several cables coming out the side of the computer and running to the right toward the monitor.

Now notice the Mac system… no cables coming off to the right like with the Ubuntu and PC systems. Also notice that the bundle of Ethernet-like cables pointed out in the opening scene no longer seem to be visible.

Next the video transitions into showing the Open Computer supposedly running Leopard and the Mac version of Quake 4. What is interesting in this shot is there now seems to be an extra cable running from the right of the monitor toward the area of the desk where the empty wire shelf system sits. That shelf is also no longer empty as it looks like it now has a strange blue box sitting on it. At first I thought the cable near the monitor might be the mouse cable, but in the Quake demo scene you can clearly see the mouse cable moving with this mysterious second cable above it. The thicker cable does seem to be the monitor cable and it is going off to the right not the left. Remember, the Open Computer that is supposed to be running OS X Leopard is to the left of the monitor, not the right. Interesting.

Finally, the closing shot shows the exterior of the Psystar offices. When reports of Psystar and their Open Computer (initially called the Open Mac) first surfaced on the web, several reports noted that they changed their address as many as 3 times. Now that fact alone is strange enough, but throw in a phone number with an oddly high number of 6’s, plus the fact that they seem to want to keep things private and you have the makings of a full blown conspiracy.

Can someone ring up Fox and see if he is available to come down to Florida?

Figure 1:
Selecting Image & Wireframe from the View pop-up Menu.

Moving clips is very simple, just click and hold on the clip and drag it anywhere it’s needed. But to more precisely position video clips or images a few pixels in any direction for better placement or alignment you need to nudge them. Dragging is good for general placement, but it’s much more difficult to drag to a specific pixel location. To nudge clips in Final Cut Pro select the clip (video, still image, title, etc.) in the Canvas and then press the Option key and any of the up, down, left or right arrow keys. The clip will then move approximately one pixel in that direction (I say approximately because in my installation of FCP 6 it moves .75 pixels and in a older installation of FCP 5.0.4 it moves 1.11 pixels). For a finer degree of nudging, pressing the Command-Option and Arrow keys will move the object in sub-pixel increments.

In Motion select the object in the Canvas (or the layer in the project panel) and then press the Command and Arrow keys to move 1 pixel and Command-Shift-Arrow keys to move 10 pixels.

In LiveType (remember LiveType?) you can nudge by using either the Command or Option keys plus the Arrow keys.

The next time a clip needs to be moved precisely, just remember these easy keyboard short cuts.

Next time on SGV we’ll highlight basic motion tracking in Motion to provide another way for titles and other graphic elements to keep pace with your video.

Normally when trimming clips in the timeline an editor selects the appropriate tool (usually the ripple, or arrow tool), then clicks and drags on the edit point to perform the required trim. If your playhead is near the edit point of the intended trim then press the V key to select the edit point. The V key selects the edit point nearest the playhead location (see figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1: Unselected Edit point near playhead before tapping the V key.

Figure 2: The edit point nearest the playhead now selected after tapping the V key.

Using the Up and Down Arrow keys or J-K-L navigation keys also helps get the playhead to the desired edit point.

With the edit point selected the U key toggles between the Ripple and Roll edit functions. Just keep tapping the U key to choose the desired edit type (see figures 3-4).

Figure 3: Tapping the U key to toggle the Ripple function on the Out Point of the Outgoing clip.

Figure 4: Tapping the U key to toggle the Ripple Function on the In Point of the Incoming clip.

Figure 5: Tapping the U key to toggle the Roll function on the selected edit point.

Using the left and right bracket keys ( [ or ] ) will Ripple or Roll the edit point one frame. The Shift left and Shift Right bracket keys edit the number of frames entered in the multi-frame trim size field in the user settings > Edit Tab. The default is five frames. One the edit point is selected and the type of edit chosen with the U key, you can also trim by precise numeric values by typing that value on the number row or numeric keypad of the keyboard (this works without having to first click on the Ripple or Roll tools in the Toolbar). Positive number values move edit points to the right, negative number values (type a minus sign before the number) will move edit points to the left.

That’s really all it takes to quickly trim a rough cut down to time. Using the Up and Down Arrow keys to move the playhead forward and backward between edit points or J-K-L to move the playhead forward (L), backwards (J), or stopping (K). V to select the edit point nearest the playhead, U to toggle the edit type and [ or ] (or Shift-[, Shift-], or numbers) to perform the trim edit. It might feel a little awkward at first, but with practice it will become second nature.

In the next episode I’ll show how to gain more precise placement control of video clips in the Canvas. See you then.

One way to a more efficient Final Cut Pro workflow is to re-use bits and pieces created during the course of a project. Motion effects, transitions, and filter settings that you’ve spent valuable time adjusting, tweaking, and finessing, can easily be re-used by turning them into favorites. There are a number of ways to create, store and organize favorite effects in Final Cut Pro and I outlined several of those in Stuff, Guts, and Video 008. The problem with storing all these cool items in the Favorites Bin of the Effects Tab in the Browser is, if Final Cut Pro’s preferences ever go bad, get replaced, or if you reset FCP’s preferences. . . boom . . . there go all those favorites.

Here are a couple of ways to protect those cool favorite effects, filters, and transitions.

First, back up your FCP preferences. I talked about how to do that in the last episode, Stuff, Guts, and Video 012. That way if preferences die, it’s easy to restore those lost settings. Be sure to back up the preferences regularly so that any new favorites that are created are preserved.

Second, create an Effects Bin in each project and copy the favorites that are used in that project into the Effects Bin (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Create a bin in each project to preserve motion effects, filters, and transitions.

This keeps a copy of the motion effects, filters, and transitions used by each project with the project, so that even if preferences die, the effects will still be there. I often make a copy of the entire Favorites bin in the Effects Tab in a project as another way of preserving all my effects. Then if something happens to the favorites I can quickly restore them by opening a project and copying them back to the Effects Tab.

No one expects that catastrophic events will happen to them while editing a project to a tight deadline, but the better prepared you are the faster it is to recover and keep on editing.

Next time on Stuff, Guts, and Video we’ll look at some cool editing keyboard shortcuts you definitely need to know.

This tip is good for all versions of Final Cut Pro.

First, once FCP has been tweaked to your satisfaction, back up FCP’s preferences. Mac application preferences are stored either in the /LIbrary/Preferences folder or in the /Users/”your_user_name_here”/Library/Preferences folder. Final Cut Pro’s preferences consist of the com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist file and the Final Cut User Data folder, both stored in the /Library/Preferences/ in your home folder. Simply copy the plist file and the Final Cut Pro User Data folder to another hard drive or burn it to a CD (you might as well copy the plist files for all the other FCP Studio applications to keep them safe too). Then if FCP’s preferences ever become corrupt, replace them with the back up copy. By backing up the Final Cut Pro User Data folder all of the custom button bars, window, column, and track layouts are also preserved.

FCP Rescue 6.

Another tool to help protect FCP’s preferences is Anders Holck Petersen’s free FCP Rescue utiity (http://fcprescue.andersholck.com/). There are versions for Final Cut Pro 4, 5, and 6. The interface is dead simple consisting of three buttoms; Trash, Restore, and Backup, making it easy to delete, back up, and restore FCP’s preferences (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The FCP Rescue 6 Interface.

The backed up preference files are stored in the Final Cut Pro User Data folder. While FCP Rescue is free, if it helps you, then Anders would appreciate a small donation, or at the very least a postcard of thanks.

Next episode well talk about how to save your favorites. See you next time.

Why you might ask? Because this is brand spanking new software and although Apple does a pretty thorough job of testing, they can’t possible cover every possible configuration users might have. So a few glitches could appear when FCS2 is installed on your Mac. The last thing you need is to redo a project from scratch because upgrading nuked the previous project files or a filter no longer does what you expect.

It helps to follow these two basic rules:
1. Never, EVER, upgrade software in the middle of a production.
2. Don’t upgrade your primary editing station until the new software has been tested on a non-critical editing station (i.e. the Mac) in a non-critical situation.

The first thing to do, before upgrading, is checking the new system requirements (http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs.html) and the qualified devices list (http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/devicelist.php). Final Cut Studio 2 definitely requires more computing muscle than the first version so be sure your system is up to snuff. It addition to upgrading the Mac’s video card, hard drive, or RAM, you might need to upgrade the firmware of components, video card, I/O card, capture card or other device connected to or installed on the Mac.

Once the Mac is deemed worthy, back up your data. Never install or upgrade software without first making sure that you can recover should something go awry. Also don’t upgrade the main production Mac first, upgrade a secondary system and test a few projects before committing to installing the new software on all production Macs. If you only have one production Mac for editing (and many smaller studios and production companies may) then back up your data before upgrading.

Final Cut Studio 2 is a massive upgrade, adding many cool and needed features, but taking proper precautions before upgrading will save many headaches later on.

Next episode will discuss repairing preference problems. See you then.

In editing it is often necessary to compare frames of video in a sequence, for color correction, matching clips shot at different times or with different equipment, adjusting filters or aligning visual elements in several clips. Final Cut Pro’s Frame Viewer tool makes makes these kinds of comparisons a snap. Here’s how it works.

Access the Frame Viewer by selecting it from the Tools Menu or use the Option-7 keyboard shortcut. The Frame Viewer appears as a tab within the Tool Bench window (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Frame Viewer showing two views of the same clip with a blur filter applied.

At the bottom of the Frame Viewer are two drop down menus that control what is displayed. The options for each drop down menu are (in order):

None – Select when split screen is not needed (Only available under the right drop down menu).

2nd Edit Back – Displays the frame two edit points to the left of the current frame (this will be the last frame of the second clip to the left unless the playhead is over the second clip in the sequence, then it will be the first frame of the first clip).

Previous Edit – Displays the frame one edit point to the left of the current frame (this will be the last frame of the clip to the left unless the playhead is over the first clip in the sequence, then it will be the first frame of the first clip).

Current Frame – Displays whatever frame the playhead is currently over.

Current w/o filters – Displays whatever frame the playhead is currently over before the filters are applied.

Next Edit – Displays the frame one edit point to the right of the current playhead location (this will be the first frame of the next clip to the right unless the playhead is over the last clip in the sequence, then it will be the last frame of the last clip).

2nd Edit Forward – Displays the frame two edit points to the right of the current playhead location ( this will be the first frame of the second clip to the right unless the playhead is over the next to the last clip in the sequence, then it will be the last frame of the last clip).

In Point – Displays the frame marked by an in point in the Timeline (if no In Points are set then it is the first frame of the sequence).

Out Point – Displays the frame marked by an Out Point in the Timeline (if no Out Points are set then it is the last frame of the sequence).

Use the drop down menus to select the frames to be compared. For example, when color correcting a clip, select Current Frame from the left drop down menu and Current w/o Filters from the right drop down menu (see figure 1). The Frame Viewer now displays a split-screen showing the the frame under the playhead with the color correction filter applied in the area defined by the green boxes on the left (the view within the green boundary is controlled by the left drop down menu), and the same frame without the color correction in the area defined by the blue boxes (the view in the blue boundary is controlled by the right drop down menu).

Say you want to align the horizon of two different clips or color match two different clips (both examples could be shot from different angles or different cameras), select Current Frame from the left drop down menu and Next Edit (if the clips are next to each other), and make the necessary adjustments to the clips (see figure 2).

Figure 2: Frame Viewer showing frames from two different clips in a vertical split-screen.

The split-screen view can be modified by using the Split-Screen buttons at the bottom of the Frame Viewer. The V-Split button splits the view vertically (see figure 2), the H-Split button splits the view horizontally (see figure 3).

Figure 3: Frame Viewer showing two frames from different clips with a horizontal split-screen.

The Swap button switches the What is displayed in the blue and green boundaries. The boundary areas can also be adjusted by clicking and dragging on the green or blue boundary squares (see figure 4).

Figure 4: Frame Viewer showing frames from two different clips with the green boundary adjusted for a picture-in-picture view.

Check out the Frame Viewer when you get the chance and see how much it can help simplify adjusting clips.

Next episode will showcase the first tip for Final Cut Pro 6. See you then.

I’m reporting this week from the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas (www.nabshow.com), where cool things are happening in the world of video editing and podcasting. NAB hosted it’s second Podcasting Summit, further establishing podcasting as a legitimate and viable content delivery method. Sessions held Saturday and Sunday covered podcasting essentials, encoding tools and techniques, demystifying RSS, distribution strategies and metrics, marketing your podcast, and the legal issues of podcasting. Serious podcasters should consider attending this event next year.

On Sunday, April 15th, at the Venetian Ballroom, at the Venetian Hotel, Apple hosted a special event, basically a keynote presentation followed by a finger food reception. During the keynote given by Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing, Apple announced a brand new product, Final Cut Server and an updated version of Final Cut Pro Studio (FCPS 2). By now there are many web sites commenting on the new products and features, so I’ll just summarize here and provide links to the appropriate pages at Apple’s Web site.

Final Cut Server (www.apple.com/finalcutserver) is a media management and workflow automation program designed to help Final Cut Pro users to better store, track, search, and manage project assets. Final Cut Server supports over 100 media types and is fully integrated with the Final Cut Pro Studio. A 10-user license is $999 with the unlimited user license costing only $1999.

The Final Cut Studio 2 update was the biggest news of the event. Final Cut Studio 2 significantly upgrades the feature set of Final Cut Pro, Motion, SoundTrack Pro, and Compressor adds a completely new program, called Color, and adds minor updates to DVD Studio Pro and Cinema Tools. The lion’s share of the buzz and excitement is around the first five programs I mentioned. More complete information about the new Final Cut Studio, including videos, can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/, but briefly here are the high points of the updated programs:

Final Cut Pro 6:
Open Format Timeline - Use any video format at any frame rate and still get real time editing features.
Smoothcam – Allows the easy removal of camera shake from video clips.
Deeper Integration with Motion – Edit Motion templates and take better advantage of Motion’s features within Final Cut Pro.
Apple ProRes 4:2:2 – A new CODEC to provide high quality HD video at SD throughput rates.
Improved Audio Features – New Normalize and Gain controls and the ability to work with 5.1 surround mixes.
Simplified Setup – Final Cut now performs, essentially the Easy Setup function, just by dragging a clip into a sequence.

Motion 3:
New 3D Environment – Motion now has a sophisticated, but approachable 3D toolset, from working in 3D space to create remarkable promos, bumpers, and interstitials, to 3D text and particle effects, 3D doesn’t get much easier to work with than this.
3D Behaviors – Get started with over 100 behaviors to animate in 3D out of the box.
Vector-Based Paint Strokes – Stylize the look of your motion graphics with strokes that can be animated and easily modified in both 2D and 3D space.
Synchronized Audio Behavior – Now attributes of motion graphic elements (scaling, rotation, etc.) can be synchronized and animated by using the frequency ranges of audio clips.
Point Tracking and Match Moving – Provides the ability to have any motion element follow any other motion element. Need the blur out of a face or logo to follow the face or logo? Do it two-clicks or less with no keyframing.

Soundtrack Pro 2:
Revamped Interface – Soundtrack Pro’s interface is now a single window and supports standard Final Cut Pro keyboard shortcut for many functions.
Surround sound Mixing – Now creating and tweaking surround mixes for video projects is easier than ever with the new Surround Panner and the over 1000 included 5.1 surround music beds and sound effects.
Lift & Stamp – A feature lifted from Aperture, Lift & Stamp let’s you take attributes from one audio clip and quickly apply them to any number of additional audio clips.
Automatic Audio Conform – If changes are made to the sequence in Final Cut Pro, the audio can be automatically updated in Soundtrack Pro, to reflect those changes.
Enhanced Take Management – Especially helpful for Automatic Dialog Replacement, use the good portions of multiple audio takes to create the final dialog track.
Enhanced Podcasting Features – Now enhanced audio and video podcasts, using markers, URLs, and images, can be created without ever leaving Soundtrack Pro.

Compressor 3:
New User Interface – Helps streamline the workflow in Compressor, making access to features and tools easier.
Expanded Format Support – Provides improved support for MPEG formats, adds new Apple TV formats and support for Telestream’s Episode plug-ins for better cross platform video and audio support.
Qmaster Autoclustering- Now Compressor can automatically locate and configure other Macs on a network running Qmaster providing easy distributed network rendering.
Dynamic Video Filters – Easily add animated watermarks or timecode overlays during the encoding process.
Advanced Encoding Options – For adding metadata, keywords, or close-captioning information to video clips.
Sophisticated Frame Controls – Speed up, slow down, or fit video to a specific duration with the quality of Optical Flow technology, now built in to Compressor.

Color: Is a new color grading and finishing application that can help create a signature look for your video projects.
Task-Based Workflow – All of Color’s features are divided into eight rooms based on specific color tasks.
Accessible Toolset – If you’ve used Final Cut Pro’s Color Corrector 3-way filter then you know the basics for using Color.
Dramatic Color Effects – Color contains over 35 presets for creating color effects, all of which can be modified. Color effects can also be adjusted over time.
Cinema-Quality Signature Looks – Create a specific look using Color’s tools and then apply that look to any project. This keeps the “look” of your work, or of a video series unified.
Final Cut Pro Integration – Quickly and easily move between Final Cut Pro and Color.

The new Final Cut Studio 2 will ship in May and is still only $1299 or a $499 upgrade for previous Final Cut Studio users. Users of any version of Final Cut Pro can upgrade for only $699.

This is a tremendous update, adding significant new features that Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio users have been asking for, and I can hardly wait to get my copy.

I’ll have some additional NAB follow here and in an upcoming MacCast. Stay tuned.

In the last episode on saving filters and effects I missed one cool option for saving several filters at once. I did mention organizing several related effects into one bin, but Final Cut Pro can do that for you, at least with multiple filters. Simply load the clip with the group of filters to be saved (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: A ciip with several filters loaded in the Viewer Window.

Make sure that none of the filters is selected and choose Make Favorite Effect from the Effects Menu. FCP will create a Filter Pack, that is a bin in the favorites folder, with all the filters from the clip (See Figure 2).

Figure 2: A filter pack bin is created after selecting Make Favorite Effect from the Effects Menu.

The new filter pack bin will have the name of the sequence the clip is in, followed by the world filters in parentheses. Rename the bin to something more descriptive of the filter set (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: The filter pack bin contains all the applied filters.

To apply all the filters in the filter pack bin that was created by FCP or by you, simply drag the bin onto a clip in the timeline. It’s just that easy.

Next up is the Frame Viewer, stayed tuned.

You spent hours fiddling, adjusting and tweaking the parameter settings for a particular effect (filter, transition, or motion) until it looks great. Now twenty-five additional copies of the same effect are needed. But rather than spending several more hours replicating the effect each time, Final Cut Pro provides several ways to easily save effects to reuse in the current project or future projects.

Any Filter or Transition effect can be saved as a favorite by selecting it in the Effects Tab of the Browser Window and selecting Make Favorite Effect from the Effects Menu or using the Option-F keyboard shortcut (see Figure 1 and Figure 2).

Figure 1: The Favorites Bin in the Effects Tab is where effects favorites are saved.

Figure 2: Select Make Favorite Effect from the Effects Menu to save the effect.

The effect is copied to the Favorites Bin in the Effects Tab. This also works for effects that are loaded into the Viewer (either in the Transition Editor or Filter Tab).

Additionally any Filter or Transition effect can be saved (as a favorite) by dragging and dropping. Drag Transitions from the Timeline, Effects Tab or Transition Editor to the Favorites Bin (See Figure 3).

Figure 3: Click the hand icon to drag transitions from the Transition Editor in the Viewer to the Browser.

Drag Filters from the Effects Tab or the Filters Tab in the Viewer (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Drag filters from the Filter Tab in the Viewer to the Browser.

Motion Effect favorites are created by clicking on the clip that contains the motion effect to be saved and selecting Make Favorite Effect from the Effects Menu (or using the Option-F keyboard shortcut). All the motion parameters and their keyframes from the clip are saved as a single favorite.

Keep the following in mind when saving effects in Final Cut Pro:

1. Rename the favorite to reflect what the effect does (Cross_Dissolve_15f, Gauss_Blur_50%, Motion_Left_to_Right, for example).

2. Group Related effects together in separate Bins. This is particularly helpful when saving multiple filters. If several filters from a single clip are selected and made favorites, the filters will appear in the Favorites Bin as individual filters rather than a single icon for all the filters. Organizing them in a bin keeps all the filters needed for the effect together. The names of the filters should be changed to reflect the order that the filters were applied.

3. The Favorites Bin is not the only Bin that favorite effects can be stored in. Effect favorites can be copied into any bin that you create. This provides an added measure of security when saving effects because all effects saved in the Favorites Bin are lost whenever the preferences are trashed or reset.

Saving favorite motion, filter, and transition effects makes for a more efficient editing workflow by creating a library of custom effects that can be quickly applied to clips.

The next episode will reveal yet another cool tool; the Frame Viewer

iMovie users have it easy. Because of the integration within the iLife applications, iMovie users can quickly and easily tap images from iPhoto, within iMovie, to create still image sequences. Final Cut Pro users have to export the photos from iPhoto or Aperture, then import them. Now Final Cut Pro users can quickly and easily create still image sequences, complete with transitions, right from Aperture with Connected Flow’s Aperture to Final Cut, Aperture plug-in.

Here’s how it works.

Download the free Aperture to Final Cut Pro plug-in from Connected Flow’s web site, http://connectedflow.com/aperturetofinalcut, and install. Aperture to Final Cut Pro requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Aperture 1.5.1 or later and Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 or later.

In Aperture create an album with the images to be used in FCP, and adjust and arrange them in the order they are to play back (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Arrange and tweak images in Aperture.

With the album selected, choose File>Export>Final Cut Pro… (see figure 2).

Figure 2: Select File>Export>Final Cut Pro…

In the Export Dialog Box (see figure 3) set each slide’s duration and transition type (FCP’s transitions will be listed) and duration; provide a project name and sequence preset; if you like, choose an audio file to play during the still image sequence (the duration of the slides can be automatically set to fit the music track); select the format preset for the images (the images can also be renamed during the export).

Figure 3: Set Image duration, transition type and duration, and more.

Click the Export button and specify a folder where the project will be saved. Aperture to Final Cut Pro generates an XML file along with the exported images. Final Cut Pro is automatically launched, the XML file is imported, and an FCP project file created (FCP asks you to save the project file before continuing) complete with a bin holding the still images (see figure 4) and a sequence of the images laid out with the durations and transitions specified on export from Aperture (see figure 5).

Figure 4: New Project file from XML with Sequence and Bin of images.

Figure 5: Still image sequence with images and transitions.

This plug-in is a boon to those who want to go beyond Aperture’s limited slideshow options. It should be noted that the parameters of the transitions selected cannot currently be modified in the Export Dialog Box, so will require adjusting in FCP’s Transition Editor unless you’re happy with the default settings.

The still image sequence is ready to be tweaked to perfection with additional motion effects and filters.

Next episode we’ll talk about saving those effects and transitions you like best for use in other projects.

Final Cut Pro’s real-time playback features save a tremendous amount of time while working on projects. Add a transition here, a video layer there, or tweak a filter, and you need not worry about rendering the results just to confirm everything works as expected. But even on the most powerful Mac hardware real-time playback has it’s limits, as it is truly a real-time previewing system. Situations requiring rendering to view, no matter how good the Mac is, include: complex or rich video projects containing many video and audio tracks (especially if the project is HD), clips with multiple filters applied, or projects that incorporate native Motion or LiveType project files. When content in a Timeline sequence requires rendering, red bars appear above the Timeline’s ruler bar (See Figure 1).

Figure 1: Clip with Multiple filters applied showing render bars.

Fortunately Final Cut Pro’s QuickView tool can preview portions of video compositions that would normally require rendering in order to be seen. Select the QuickView tool from the Tools menu (or use the Option-B keyboard shortcut) and it appears as a Tab in the Tool Bench Window (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: QuickView Tab in Toolbench Window.

QuickView can display a range of frames from the Timeline from 2 to 10 seconds using the range slider at the bottom of the QuickView Tab. The playhead location in the Canvas or Timeline determines the location in the sequence of the range of frames. If a two second range is selected QuickView will cache one second before the current playhead location to one second after the playhead location. Moving the playhead will change the range of frames that are cached and played back. A range of frames can also be selected by marking In and Out points in the Timeline (see Figure 3 and Figure 4).

Figure 3: Setting QuickView preview range using In and Out points in the Timeline.

Figure 4: QuickView Window with In/Out point range set.

Click the play button and QuickView caches all the frames of the selected video range into RAM. This takes a moment or two depending on the performance of the Mac and the number of frames to be cached. Once the frames are cached the video plays back in the QuickView Tab in real-time. Playback also loops until the play button is clicked again to pause. Make a change to the video being previewed during playback (adjust a filter, motion parameter, transition, etc.) and QuickView will reload the frames on the fly.

QuickView’s other options are the Resolution and View Pop-up Menus at the top of the QuickView Tab. The Resolution Pop-up Menu provides selections for changing the playback resolution to quarter, half, or full resolution. This does not effect the actual resolution of the final rendered video, only QuickView’s playback. Choosing the lower resolutions provides faster playback and a greater range of frames. The View Pop-up Menu determines whether QuickView loads video from the Canvas, Viewer, or not at all.

QuickView is definitely a handy tool for spot checking effects and composites in projects without having to spend the time rendering them beforehand.

Next episode we’ll examine a new Aperture to Final Cut Pro workflow tool, and in upcoming episodes we’ll look at more of the tools located under the Tool Menu. And let me know if there is something you want to know more about in Final Cut Pro Studio.

This episode is inspired by a question from a reader regarding problems they experienced applying transitions to clips in a sequence. As it turns out, the problem wasn’t with the transitions themselves, but with the lack of handle material in the clips. So let’s talk about handle material.

Handle Material consists of the frames of video that sit outside the In and Out points set to define the portion of a video clip to be edited into a sequence. Handle material is created in Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express whenever In and Out points are set in a video clip loaded into the Viewer. Handle material can also be created during a batch capture from a video tape in Final Cut Pro. Figure 1 shows a video clip without handles and Figure 2 shows a clip with handles.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Having handles on video clips is important for a couple of reasons:

1. It provides additional material to aid in adjusting and refining edits while editing a project.

2. It provides material Final Cut Pro needs to create transitions (other than a straight cut).

iMovie happily snips off a piece of the video clips on either side of a transition to use in creating that transition, but doing this potentially alters the scene (you might miss important action at the beginning or ending of the clips involved). Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express use the handle material to build the transitions instead, leaving the scene intact.

How much handle material is needed for transitions? That depends on the duration of the transition. Typically, handle material one half the transition duration is needed from each clip (a one second transition needs 15 frames from each clip). Longer transitions require more handle material and shorter ones require less. Figure 3 shows a transition centered on the edit point between two clips (this is the default locations for a transition).

Figure 3

If a video clip does not have enough (or any) handle material with no way to add more, Final Cut Pro allows the transition to be placed before the edit point (end on edit) as in Figure 4, or after the edit point (begin on edit), as in Figure 5, to make the transition work. in this case FCP uses the handle material from one video clip to create the transition. It’s always better to have handles on both clips.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Hopefully this gives you a better handle on handle material. Coming up next we’ll look at the Quickview tool.

See you next episode!

Each project type determines how well this technique works, but it can be especially beneficial to event videographers. Let’s look at shooting a wedding as an example. A wedding can typically be organized into several distinct sections:

Pre-ceremony
Ceremony
Reception

Additionally there could be a pre-wedding party where the families meet.

Pre-ceremony can be divided into: Preparations and Set up, the Newlyweds and Wedding Party Getting Ready and Photos.

The reception can be broken down to: Arrival and Mingling of Guests, Arrival of the Newlyweds, The Dinner, Toasts, First Dance, Cutting of the Cake, Garter Toss, Bouquet Toss, More Dancing and Fun, Guest Interviews, The Departure of the Newlyweds, and Post Reception Madness.

What’s nice about this is that most weddings pretty much follow the same format. So, shoot one wedding and edit it together and you have a template for the next wedding. This can also work for Birthdays, Retirements, Bar/Bat Mitvahs, Roasts, etc.

Because Final Cut Pro treats sequences as if they were video clips, create individual sequences for each discrete component or section of the project, and combine the component sequences together in a final master sequence. This can streamline the editing process, as each component sequence or “object” can be edited more quickly with greater focus.

When working with a group of editors, each sequence can be assigned to a different editor and combined by a supervising editor, again creating a more efficient workflow. Another benefit is when changes are made. In most cases, only the component sequence needs to be adjusted. Changes made to the individual sequences are automatically updated in the master sequence.

Once a project is set up this way it can be used as a template for similar projects. So for the next wedding (or other event) project open up the previous Final Cut Pro project and save a copy. Import the new footage and use replace edits to replace the old material with the new material. A few title and style changes later the project is ready for output. This helps finish event projects more quickly, allowing you do do more events per year.

This technique may not work equally well for all projects, but if you think about how the project is organized and how it can be broken down into smaller bites, it can definitely help make editing faster and more fun.

See you next episode.

On our last episode I showed and example of nesting multiple clips on multiple video tracks to animate them as a group. This second part of the show discusses nesting multiple clips on a single track. When sending videos out to be screened by reviewers or to have music scored or other post production work performed it is often necessary to add a watermark (for piracy prevention, see figure 1),

or timecode (for reference, see figure 2). This can be done the hard way: adding the watermark or timecode filter to each clip individually and adjusting each clip’s settings. Or it can be done the easy way: nest all the clips into a single sequence and add the watermark or timecode filter one time.

Here’s how it works by the numbers:

1. Select all the clips in the video track (see figure 3).

2. Nest Item(s) from the Sequence Menu (or press the Option-C keyboard shortcut).

3. Enter a name for the nested sequence in the Nest Item(s) dialog box that appears and click Okay (see figure 4).

4. FCP moves the clips into the new sequence that you just named and replaced them in the current sequence with the nest (see figure 5).

5. Superimpose the watermark file (still image or video) over the nested sequence and adjust the opacity to taste.

Or

6. Apply the Timecode Generator filter. Remember to hold the Option Key down when double-clicking to load the nest into the viewer to tweak the filter settings. Season to taste.

Once you get the hang of it it’s amazing how nesting can simplify your editing life.

The next episode will discuss object oriented editing. Look for it.

The ability to work with 99 tracks of video and audio is a tremendous feature of Final Cut Pro. Editors are able to build projects vertically as well as linearly for richer, deeper content. When working with multiple clips (on a single track or on multiple tracks) it’s sometimes necessary to apply the same filter, or motion effect to a group of clips, for example to burn timecode across a whole sequence or to rotate several clips as a group. While it’s possible to apply the filter or effect to each clip in the group and adjust the individual settings, that’s a rather tedious task made simpler using FCP’s Nest Items feature. Nesting lets you treat several clips as if they were a single clip.

Here is an example of how nesting makes your editing life better.

1. A client wants you to create a 4-up video wall (see figure 1) and rotate the videos around the center of the screen. The first part is straight forward; create four tracks in the Timeline, edit a video clip into each track, scaling each clip down so that all four are visible in the Canvas. Now rotating the clips a group is a bit trickier. The hard way is to adjust the anchor point on each clip the the center of the canvas and then keyframe the rotation motion effect for each clip. Way too much work.

Here’s the easy way. Nest the four tracks and keyframe a single rotation. Select the clips in the four tracks (see figure 2) and select Nest Item(s) from the Sequence Menu (or press the Option-C keyboard shortcut).

Enter a name for the nested sequence in the Nest Item(s) dialog box that appears and click Okay (see figure 3).

FCP moves the four clips into the new sequence that you just named and replaced them in the current sequence with the nest (see figure 4).

Just load the nest into the viewer and keyframe the rotation effect.

Oops, did you double-click to load the nested clips into the viewer? Surprise, instead of loading the nest into the viewer, double-clicking opened the nested sequence. Click on the original sequence and hold the Option key down and then double-click. The nest should now be loaded in the viewer to keyframe the rotation (see figure 5 for the result).

In our next episode I will describe another example of using nesting and coming up I will discuss object oriented editing.

Stay Tuned!

Quickly scrubbing through video clips to locate the precise portion of a clip to use in a project is a common event for video editors. Final Cut Pro offers several methods to scrub through video and there are useful USB devices that can aid in quickly locating that special scene.

The onscreen jog wheel and shuttle controls in the Canvas and Viewer windows are adequate, but the J-K-L keyboard commands are more efficient. J is backward playback, L is forward playback, and K stops playback. The more times the J or L keys are tapped the faster the video plays back. If the L key is tapped a few times to speed up forward playback, tapping the J key will slow down playback. The reverse is also true. If the J key is tapped to speed up reverse playback, tapping the L key will slow reverse playback down. Holding the K key down and then holding the L or J key down provides slow motion forward or reverse playback.

USB controllers, like the Contour ShuttlePRO V.2 ($110) or Contour ShuttleXpress ($60), from Contour Designs (http://www.contourdesign.com ), provide jog and shuttle controls (along with several user programmable buttons that can be configured for other Final Cut Pro functions) to help scrub through video in Final Cut Pro, but having a mouse with a scroll wheel will save you some cash. Simply move the cursor in Final Cut Pro over the Viewer or Canvas and roll the mouse’s scroll wheel up and down to scrub through the loaded video clips (if in the Viewer) or sequences (if in the Canvas). Even better is Apple’s new mighty mouse with it’s mini-trackball Scroll up and down to scrub through video in the Viewer and Canvas, and left and right to quickly scrub through the timeline on long projects.

Stay tuned!

Stuff, Guts, and Video posts are Hints and Tips to help get more from Apple’s Pro Applications.

There are at least three ways to perform most of Final Cut Pro’s functions; Onscreen Buttons and tools, Menu Selections, and Keyboard Shortcuts. While the novice FCP user will edit primarily with buttons and menus the professional learns and uses the keyboard shortcuts needed to get work done more efficiently. Developing a commanding grasp of the essential keyboard shortcuts is one key to editing quicker and smarter in Final Cut Pro.

Not every function in FCP essential to your video editing workflow will have a corresponding keyboard shortcut out of the box. Fortunately Apple provided tools to create new shortcuts or modify existing ones in Final Cut Pro 4.X and later. Here is a good example. To import files, you could use the Command-I keyboard shortcut, but if you have organized video, audio and still image in several folders it would be better to use the Import Folder command which has no keyboard shortcut. Here’s how to make one!

From the Menu bar Select Tools>Keyboard Layout>Customize (or use the Option-H keyboard shortcut) to open the Keyboard Layout Window, displaying a tabbed set of keyboard layouts and a function list. Each of the tabs across the top of the layout represents different combinations of modifier keys (Command, Option, Shift, or Control). The function list on the right provides quick and easy access to all of Final Cut Pro’s functions.

The next thing to do is unlock the keyboard layout in order to make changes. Click on the lock icon in the lower left corner of the Keyboard Layout Window.

Now decide what the keyboard shortcut should be. All of FCP’s functions and shortcuts are logically grouped together to make it easier to learn and remember them. The keyboard shortcut for importing files is Command-I, so we’ll want to stick with I for import and choose a modifier tab that has this key open. In the Not Modifiers tab you will note that most of the keys displayed already have function icons showing. A key with a function icon already has an FCP function assigned to that key. Click on each of the modifier tabs until you find one that doesn’t have an I key with a function icon. The Shift-Command tab will work.

Look at the function list. FCP Functions are organized first by Menu and then by function category. To locate the Import Folder command either click the disclosure triangle to the right of the File Menu option and scroll down until Import Folder command is displayed or type Import into the search field at the top of the function list which will then display only the Import commands.

Drag the Import Folder command over to the I key on the layout and you’re done. Close the Keyboard Layout Window and clck on the File Menu>Import and note that the Shift-Command-I shortcut appears next to the Import Folders command.

Repeat this process for any other FCP functions that you use that doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut.

More to come. Stay Tuned!