Category Archives: FCP Ninja Level

Favorites Part 3: Saving “Favorite Motions”

By Shortcutter | Published: Wednesday, July 7, 2010
This week, we have already covered the process of saving and invoking favorite transitions and favorite filters. We covered the basics of where these favorites are stored and how you can get to the Favorites Bin quickly. Today, we examine the “Favorite Motions” functionality. First of all, let’s be clear on what exactly Favorite Motions are and [...]
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Favorites Part 2: Adding and Applying Favorite Filter Effects

By Shortcutter | Published: Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Yesterday, we began our week-long examination of setting favorite effects (transitions, filters and motion settings) with a discussion of how to set and invoke video and audio transitions. Today we continue by looking at how to set up favorite filters (both video and audio) and how to quickly add them to clips in your timeline with [...]
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Demystifying the “Favorites” Commands: A Week-Long Journey

By Shortcutter | Published: Monday, July 5, 2010
Setting up and efficiently using the various “favorite” filter effets, transitions and motion settings seems simple enough, but I’ve found that because the behaviors of the commands can be a little quirky and the shortcuts are so seemingly obscure, that many FCP users don’t delve into them much beyond setting up some favorite transitions and [...]
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And Now for A Not So “Handy” Color Corrector Shortcut

By Shortcutter | Published: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
On the heels of yesterday’s “handy” little Color Corrector shortcut, we’ll discuss another, rather obscure but potentially great color corrector shortcut that really isn’t very handy at all. And by that, I mean it’s a rare shortcut that really isn’t designed to be used with your hands! Here’s the deal:  some people who are doing heavy-duty [...]
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A Handy Little Color Corrector Shortcut

By Shortcutter | Published: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
I love the 3-way Color Corrector and use it all the time to balance whites, pull up the midtones and crush the blacks (love that term). In fact, pretty much every frame I process gets the treatment, so I often find myself tweaking color while looking back and forth from a broadcast monitor, my computer [...]
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Should You Customize Your Keyboard Shortcuts?

By Shortcutter | Published: Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Today’s entry presents a shortcut that I feel should really never be used as it raises the important “meta issue” of keyboard customization. Final Cut Pro provides an excellent mechanism for customizing keyboard shortcuts via the Tools>Keyboard Layout>Customize menu. There’s even a shortcut to get to it: OPT H, but please don’t use it! While keyboard remapping [...]
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Is @rassnapp On to Something About OPTION T?

By Shortcutter | Published: Thursday, May 20, 2010
So yesterday afternoon, I saw one of my Twitter friends, rassnapp tweet the following: Option + T is quickly gaining on Option + V as my favorite shortcut I did a spit take and promptly responded with: You must be doing a lot of keyframing or re-timing (ugh)! I love me some OPT-T too, but I hit OPT-V [...]
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“Clip Enable” is Cool Enough. Using it to Solo Audio is Ninja-esque

By Shortcutter | Published: Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Here’s an interesting pair of shortcuts indeed. As you may already be aware, the “Clip Enable” command is a great way to quickly turn off a clip (disable it) without removing it from your edit. In the case of a video clip, maybe you want to review the underlying material alone or perhaps you are [...]
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Become an Audio Levels Keyframing Ninja

By Shortcutter | Published: Friday, April 30, 2010
If you make all your audio keyframes by holding down OPT while using the default Selection Tool (A), you are a Shortcutter and I duly salute you. If you want to take your levels-setting skills up to ninja levels, here’s the shortcut: OPT CMD K Hitting OPT CMD K while in the Timeline (Timeline in focus) will [...]
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Get a Very Quick Look at the Previous or Next Edit

By Shortcutter | Published: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Here’s an interesting set of shortcuts that gives you a way to have a quick look at the last frame of the clip prior to the one your playhead is currently over or a quick look at the first frame of the clip that follows the one your playhead is currently over. Yes, that’s a [...]
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