March 9, 2010

Helpful Tips for Getting Started in Final Cut Pro 7

If you're new to Final Cut, or even if you've been using it for a while, there are a bunch of tips to remember that I'd like to share with you that will help you speed up your editing session or even teach a thing or two. Here's my first ten.

Tip #1 - When you use a two button mouse, remember you can always access shortcut menus by right-clicking in any specific window area. This can save you time and allow you to really see what is going on at any particular point in the interface.

Tip # 2 - When screening a source clip in the Viewer, if the filmstrips overlays do not appear in the image area, choose View > Show Overlays. You can turn overlays off or on during the editing process.

Tip #3 - If you don't want to hear that pesky digital audio sound as you scrub through a clip, turn the clip audio off (or back on) as you scrub. Just choose View > Audio Srubbing, or press Shift-S.

Tip #4 - A great use for the scroll button on a two-button mouse is to scrb frame by frame through an image as though you were using a jog control. Place the pointer over the image area in the Vewer or Canvas and scroll up to scrub backward, and scroll down to scrub forward. The scroll ball on the Apple Mighty Mouse can be moved left and right as well.

Tip #5 - Another way you can play a clip or sequence backwards is by holding down the Shift key and then clicking the Spacebar. You can also hold down Shift and press the Viewer or Canvas play button.

Tip #6 - To move the playhead forward a second at a time from its current position, just press Shift-Right Arrow. To go backwards one second, press Shift-Left Arrow.

Tip #7 - When you create additional seuqences in a project, consider adding a space in front of the sequence name to bump it up to the top of the list, or an underscore to push it to the bottom. Of couse, you can also create a Sequences Bin and place all your stranded sequences together in the bin.

Tip #8 - A Final Cut default is to launch the app with the most recently opened project. You can change this default in the User Preferences General tab. If you want an empty project when starting up again, hold down the Shift key when you open the application.

Tip #9 - Always remember to deselect a clip or group of clips when you're not working with them so that you don't accidentally change them when performing other editing functions. An easy way to make sure all the clips are deselected in your sequence is to use the shortcut to Deselect All, Shift-Command-A.

Tip #10 - If your clips are not snapping to each other in the Timeline, maybe you forgot to turn on the snapping function in the Timeline button bar. You can also press N to toggle snapping on or off, even as you perform an editing function such as ripple, slip, roll, etc.