WTF does that pointer thing mean?

Use Proxy Media!

You know when FCPX seems sluggish and annoying? You know when you press space bar and it takes a couple of seconds to stop playing? Yeah? You need proxy media.

Go on, don't be shy, you know your computer can't handle Prores 422.

Don't be ashamed, just use proxy media. It'll make your system a lot more responsive and it takes up a hell of a lot less space.

Go on...make proxy media as you import....do it....and then check use proxy media in the playback tab of preferences....Go on...do it.

It's like doing an offline, but remember if at any time you want to switch back to editing with Prores or your original media just switch back in preference.
And when you export it'll still export as Prores because it'll use your original or optimised media anyway. We all win.

Thanks FCPX.

POSTSCRIPT: MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE YOUR PREFERENCES BACK TO SOURCE/OPTIMISED MEDIA BEFORE YOU EXPORT OTHERWISE FCPX WILL EXPORT FROM THE PROXY MEDIA AND IT WILL LOOK SHIT. FUCK YOU FCPX.

POST POSTSCRIPT: YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE SOURCE/OPTIMISED FROM A DROP DOWN MENU WHEN YOU EXPORT, BUT IT BASICALLY DOESN'T WORK.

Fuck Me, isn't multicam a joy to use?

Multicam in FCP7 was an absolute count. Sorry, but it was.

It was an areshole and you always had to look up how to do it every time you wanted to do it.

Not any more.

Thanks FCPX.

 

Ripple n' roll, slip n' sliiiiiide

Select the Trim tool ('T'), click a clip, and you get this:

You can now use the trim left/right keys (,/.) to roll the selected clip without changing its duration or the clips either side. Or use [/] to select the in or out edits and ripple those.

This morning, in a key-fumbling daze, I selected the clip using option+click. The result is this:

…which leads to the obvious response, vis:

Try it. Now try the , / . keys.

Yeah, I know, right? Slide on by, man. Nice and smooth.

Oh, and Damien, the slacker whose blog this ostensibly is? He looks exactly like Beaker. With exactly that expression.

Keywording

One of the most common causes of my explosive swearing at FCPX is when it doesn't quite keep up with me when I'm adding keywords, and I end up with bins smart folders keyword collections called things like 'i' and 'nterviews.' Grrr. This week's MacBreak Studio freebie from the Dynamic Duo of Mac video training Steve Martin and Mark Spencer covers another way of working:

 

You know, I've been a keyword nut since FCPX came out, and I never spotted the playhead info skimming trick. Brilliant.

Adjustment layers

FCPX doesn't have them. You can't slap a layer on top of a bunch of clips to apply filters or colour correct across all of them.

 …which is a pity, because it would be terribly useful.

 …and is also not true, because you can. You just slap an empty title caption on top, then apply colour correction and bung filters on to your heart's content. Here's how:

How to build and use adjustment layers in Final Cut Pro X - fcp.co

I've just done this to slap a white balance correction and vignette across an entire scene, then tweaked colour on a shot-by-shot basis beneath. The biggest issue is that in the Project browser you only see the adjustment layer preview default, not thumbnails of the final composition.

Select NONONO! Oh damn

I wanted to find the total duration of all the media in a keyword collection, so I hit 'command+A' to select all. Only, the input focus wasn't in the Event, it was in the Event Library list.

As I type, FCPX is dutifully trying to load every clip from every Event from every drive. I have several drives connected, dozens of projects, and thousands – many thousands – of clips.

...and of course I can't interrupt it.

So that's lunch, then.