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Monthly Archives: March 2010
Be a Browser Ninja
There are just a few keys you need to master in order to really fly around in the Browser. First of all, the best way to get to the browser is via one of the window selection shortcuts: CMD 4. Once there, you can do all of your bin and clip surfing with these four [...]
Posted in FCP Ninja Level Leave a comment
De-selecting in Final Cut Pro
Here’s a pretty easy shortcut to explain, but if you don’t know about it already, you’re gonna love it. Hit SHIFT CMD A to deselect all clips in the timeline:
Just like CMD D in Photoshop, if you happen to be a PS maven. Works in the browser too.
This is particularly useful if you use the [...]
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Everyone does the “Ken Burns,” so why not try the “Jack Cole Effect?”
For our Sunday post, I’m going wildly off-topic, but it’s been a long week and we need a study break. We’ll be back with the usual shortcuts and endless lecturing tomorrow.
In the FCP editing world, the term “Ken Burns Effect” has become ubiquitous for the description of the technique of presenting still photo content powerfully [...]
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Pen Tool? Why Would Anyone Use It?
Ah, the Pen Tool. Forget it. Utterly worthless.
Seeing as the Selection Tool (A) becomes a Pen Tool when you hold OPTION and you automatically get a Pen Tool when you hover over an animation path in the Canvas, why would anyone ever go to the trouble of using it? Seriously… I want to know. In [...]
Posted in FCP 101 Stuff 1 Comment
“Match Frame” is a Perfect Shortcut
NOTE: This post has been updated with new content here.
Here’s one of the greats: the Match Frame functionality. Let’s say you have a clip on the timeline and you want to quickly pull up the source clip from which it was taken in the Viewer. Perhaps you want to use another clip that you know [...]
“Play Every Frame” and Spend Less Time Rendering
More on my crusade for reducing how often I (and maybe you too) waste time by rendering and re-rendering big chunks of your timeline just to evaluate your edits while working. When you’ve added an effect or transition (I particularly like it for transitions where I want to see if the action is completed by [...]
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Don’t be a “Render-holic”
So you’ve added a fancy transition to an edit point and want to see how it plays. Is it over the top? Is it smooth enough? Have you added a superimposed lower third or graphic treatment or perhaps a heavy duty filter and want a quick reality check? Well, if this is the case, please [...]
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The Two Delete Keys
It’s pretty obvious that when you select a clip on the timeline and hit the “delete key,” the clip goes away. In editing jargon, that’s called a “lift.”
What some people do not know is that you can also perform a “ripple delete” which not only lifts the selected clip, but also closes the gap left [...]
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Destination? Powerhouse Shortcutville.
In honor of being linked on the venerable FCP Daily site (for which I am very appreciative and humbled), I want to toss out a full-on “ninja level” shortcut today that is worthy of the hardcore FCP Daily readership, so I’m reaching forward in my schedule to share a real gem: setting source destination for [...]
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Do You Use Labels?