WEEKS 4/5 :: 2/17 :: 2/24

Introduction to Final Cut Pro :: Sessions 1 and 2

User Interface

The user interface includes four primary windows: the Browser, the Timeline, the Viewer

(source monitor), and the Canvas (record monitor). There is also a small tool palette

and a pair of VU meters showing audio levels.

Final Cut Pro HD is nonmodal, creating a very fluid environment. The editor can

work quickly and seamlessly, performing editing and effects operations without

time-consuming mode or toolset changes.

Flexibility and Customization

Final Cut Pro HD is extremely flexible, allowing editors to work in a comfortable

and intuitive manner.Wherever possible, the user interface is context sensitive and

provides multiple ways for accomplishing a given task: by mouse (drag and drop),

with a button in the interface, through a menu command, with contextual menus

(accessed via Control-clicking or right-clicking), or through keyboard shortcuts.

Timeline

The Final Cut Pro HD Timeline provides a sequential representation of your project’s

audio and video tracks. Direct manipulation of items in the Timeline lets you trim,

add, extend, move, and keyframe edits and effects with simple drag-and-drop behaviors

or keyboard shortcuts. As with previous versions, a Final Cut Pro sequence

can contain up to 99 audio and 99 video tracks. Nesting of sequences allows for a

virtually unlimited number of tracks.

The Timeline includes the following controls and features:

• Mute and solo buttons provide additional audio control.

• Track visibility indicators let you turn tracks on and off.

• Source and destination columns allow you to target edits to specific tracks.

• Track locks let you lock the contents of a track.

• Auto Select buttons determine which tracks certain edit operations will affect.

• RT pop-up menu provides both RT Extreme and video playback quality controls.

• Program timecode can be viewed as drop frame, non-drop frame, or sequential

frames.

• Snap and link buttons are located on the button bar.

• Enhanced zoom controls zoom to the location of the playhead.

• Controls at the bottom left toggle audio controls, clip keyframes, clip overlays, and

track heights.

• Duplicate frame use can be detected and highlighted in the Timeline.

• Video and audio keyframe editor and speed indicators are available in the Timeline.

The track height controls near the bottom left of the Timeline include a submenu

of additional options for saving and restoring custom track layouts, adjusting track

heights, and turning on filmstrip view, audio waveforms, through edits (adjacent edits),

and duplicate frames.

Show duplicate frames

Final Cut Pro HD can mark frames used more than once in an edited sequence.

Colored bars appear at the bottom of the clip’s video in the Timeline if it contains

frames that have been used more than once. You can adjust parameters (like

handles and thresholds, for film editors) that determine the behavior of duplicate

frame indicators by opening the preferences in the Final Cut Pro menu > User

Preferences > General. Control-clicking (or right-clicking) a duplicate-frame warning

shows other locations of the duplicate frames in the sequence. Selecting another

location from the pop-up menu moves the playhead to the repeated frames at the

timecode indicated.

Video and audio keyframe editor and speed indicators

The keyframe editor allows display and editing of keyframe graphs for motion effects

and filter parameters directly in the Timeline. Keyframe graphs can be toggled on and

off using the buttons at the bottom left of the Timeline.

Timeline graphs are identical to those in the keyframe graph area of the Motion and

Filters tabs in the Viewer. The keyframe graph area is resizable independent of track

height. Just below the keyframe graph area are speed indicators that show the speed

of clips in the sequence using tick marks. The spacing of these marks indicates the

speed and playback direction of your clips (black is forward, red is reverse). The clip

shown below includes variable speed changes made with the Time Remap tool.

Finding things

Searching, sorting, and sifting through large amounts of media is simple using the

powerful built-in search tool.When the Browser is active, the Find command is

available in the Edit menu.

Viewer and Canvas

The Viewer and the Canvas (source and record monitors) include a collection of similar

controls. Both have deck/transport controls, as well as numerous buttons for marking

clips. Pop-up menus along the top of each window are used for setting zoom level,

ganged playback options, and view parameters.

Identifying the contents of the Canvas or the Viewer is simple. The title bar at the top

of each window shows where clips or sequences have come from. In addition to the

text-based indicators in the Viewer and Canvas title bars, there are visual cues to help

the editor. For example, in the Viewer, clips that show film-perfs in the scrub area have

been loaded from the sequence. Clips that do not have film-perfs in the scrub area

have been loaded from the Browser. This distinction is important when deciding to

apply effects and filters to clips in the sequence or to source media in the Browser.

It is also useful when working with the matchframe feature.

Trim Edit Window

Trimming operations can be done directly in the Timeline. For editors who are more

comfortable working in a dedicated trimming interface, there is also a Trim Edit window.

The Trim Edit window can be opened by double-clicking any edit point in a sequence.

Dynamic (JKL) trimming is supported, streamlining the process of trimming to picture

or dialog. While trimming, the editor can audition either clip or sequence audio.

Log and Capture

Final Cut Pro HD includes a professional log and capture interface that provides

full deck control, logging fields, and access to capture and media settings. Reel, clip,

scene and shot name information can be set to increment automatically, helping

to streamline the log and capture workflow.

Final Cut Pro can capture across breaks and gaps in timecode on source tapes.

When capturing across timecode breaks on a tape, Final Cut Pro HD automatically

increments the clip name; when capturing across gaps in timecode on a tape, it

increments the reel name.

When working with DV, Final Cut Pro HD can detect when the camera started and

stopped; it creates subclips from captured media when the user selects the DV

Start/Stop Detect command in the Mark menu.

Editing Basics

Several types of edits are available in Final Cut Pro HD. The most popular are:

• Insert. Adds media to the Timeline and pushes all other clips forward.

• Overwrite. Adds media to the Timeline and writes over existing media.

• Replace. Replaces a clip on the Timeline with one of equal length.

• Fit-to-fill. Edits a clip into a gap or predefined section on the Timeline with a speed

change so the clip fits.

• Superimpose. Adds video over the current clip on the next available track.

• Add. The razor blade tool lets you add edits through one clip or your entire stack of

tracks at once.

• Extend/Shorten. Edits can be lengthened or shortened with a simple click-and-drag

in the Timeline.

• Swap. Clips can be swapped on the Timeline.

Final Cut Pro HD is flexible enough to let editors work any way they like. Edits can be

performed in several ways: using the mouse (drag and drop to the Timeline or the

Canvas), clicking buttons in the user interface, or with keyboard shortcuts.When you

drag elements from the Viewer to the Canvas, the Edit Overlay menu pops up, giving

you quick access to a wide selection of edits with a single movement of the mouse.

Trimming

Final Cut Pro HD includes robust and powerful trimming tools. Combined with

the different edit types, these tools allow professional editors to work quickly and

efficiently. Trimming tools include:

• Ripple. Also known as a single-roll edit, the Ripple tool allows you to select one side

of an edit and extend or shorten it, thereby changing the length of your program.

• Roll. The Roll tool creates dual-roll edits in which both sides of an edit are changed

simultaneously. Adding to one side of the edit takes away from the other, preserving

the overall length of your program.

• Slip. The Slip tool allows you to change the contents of an edit on the Timeline

without affecting the clip’s position or duration in the program.

• Slide. The Slide tool performs a roll edit across three clips—shortening or extending

the clips on the left and right, while preserving the duration of the clip in the middle.

• Time remap. This hybrid effect/trimming tool lets you create variable speed changes

and ramps by slipping frames in time.

The different types of edits, along with the use of the advanced trimming tools

editing, allow many complex variations and edits, including J or L cuts (prelapsed

or prolapsed, in which the audio and video start at different times), and back-timing of edits.

The trimming tools can be mouse driven or keyboard driven (numeric entry).

There are two fundamental ways to edit: the “yellow” way and the “red”way.

Advanced editors will use a combination of the two to achieve the desired results,

while beginners may want to stick to one or the other until they are comfortable

with the interaction between edit types, trimming tools, and synchronization.

Maintaining sync

Final Cut Pro HD includes sync indicators that notify you when items fall out of sync

as a result of an edit operation. Control-clicking (or right-clicking) the sync indicators

gives you options for automatically moving or slipping either video or audio into sync.

In addition to sync indicators, there are track locks on the left side of the Timeline to

keep tracks from being edited and potentially moved out of sync. Track locking, along

with item linking, lets you create locked sync relationships, maintain them, or ignore

them altogether.