Apple FINAL CUT EXPRESS HD Getting Started

Final Cut Express HD

Getting Started



Apple Computer, Inc.

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Apple Computer, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014-2084 408-996-1010 www.apple.com

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Preface 7 An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

What Is Final Cut Express HD?

Editing Your Movie With Final Cut Express HD

Final Cut Express HD Onscreen Help

Apple Websites

Chapter 1 13 Setting Up Final Cut Express HD

Connecting Your Camera

Choosing Your Initial Settings

Tip for Optimizing Performance

Chapter 2 17 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment

Organizing Your Clips in the Browser

Working With Clips in the Viewer

Working With Clips in the Canvas

Working With Clips in the Timeline

Tool Palette

Chapter 3 33 Capturing Your Video

Making a New Project and Saving It

Working in the Capture Window

Determining How Much Disk Space You Need

Capturing

Capturing Tip

Chapter 4 49 Basic Editing

Before You Begin

Opening Your Project

Adding a Clip to Your Sequence

Adding a Storyboard of Clips to a Sequence

Locking Tracks

Using the Razor Blade Tool

Deleting Clips From a Sequence

Assigning Destination Tracks

Most Commonly Used Edits

Chapter 5 75 Editing With Audio

About Linked Clips

Resyncing Clips

Adding Music

Using the Voice Over Tool

Editing With Audio Tips

Chapter 6 89 Fine-Tuning Your Edit

Where You Can Perform Trim Edits

About the Tool Palette

Doing a Ripple Edit

Doing a Ripple Delete

Doing a Roll Edit

Tips on Editing

Chapter 7 109 Adding Transitions

10 9

About Adding Transitions

111

Adding a Transition to the Center of a Cut

11 4

Adjusting a Transition

11 5

Deleting a Transition

11 5

Copying and Pasting a Transition

Chapter 8 117 Adding Effects

11 8

Applying a Filter to a Clip and a Range of Clips

11 9

Adjusting a Filter

121

Disabling a Filter

121

Removing a Filter

12 2

Filter Tips

Chapter 9 123 Creating Titles and Credits

12 4

Creating Opening Titles

12 8

Using Lower-Thirds

13 0

Creating Rolling Credits

13 2

Tips for Making Terrific-Looking Titles

Chapter 10 133 Sharing Your Movie

13 3

Exporting for DVD

13 5

Exporting for the Web

13 6

Making a Videotape

Appendix A 139 Importing an iMovie Project

Appendix B 141 Importing Stills

Contents

Appendix C 143 Preparing for Your Next Project

Appendix D 145 Solutions to Common Problems and Customer Support

14 5

Solutions to Common Problems

15 0

AppleCare Support

Glossary 151

Index 15 5

Contents

An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Final Cut Express HD provides a professional-level environment in which to edit video, mix audio, and add effects together to create any kind of video program you can imagine.

The last few years have seen a revolution in the use of personal computers for editing video. Until recently, editing video projects would have required an array of professional editing equipment. These projects can now be completed at home using a personal computer and readily available consumer video equipment. A personal computer with a fast processor and enough memory can now serve as a workstation for capturing, organizing, and editing video. The finished movie can be played back on videotape, burned on a DVD, or distributed over the Internet.

For hobbyist digital video editors, this development allows unprecedented opportunities for increasing their creative control over their video projects. Now, using Final Cut Express HD, video editors, including those with no professional video editing training or experience, can create high-quality, polished digital video projects on their personal computer.

Preface

What Is Final Cut Express HD?

Final Cut Express HD is a flexible video editing tool; when combined with a Macintosh computer and FireWire, Final Cut Express HD can be used to capture footage from nearly any DV camcorder. Final Cut Express HD is also a standard QuickTime application, so you can import and export a wide variety of video, audio, graphics, and animation file types. This flexibility makes Final Cut Express HD well suited for projects ranging from family videos to feature-length independent films. The only limit is your creativity.

Editing Your Movie With Final Cut Express HD

If you’re just beginning to learn how to edit video with Final Cut Express HD, the following flow chart illustrates the basic workflow of desktop video editing. There are five main steps to video editing–shooting, capturing, editing, adding effects, and sharing. This book describes how to do the last four.

Shoot

Connecting

Your Camera

Capture

Edit

Making

a New Project

Capturing

Video

Organizing

Your Clips

Editing

Your Sequence

Fine-Tuning

Adding

Music

The following steps outline a typical Final Cut Express HD work session. You won’t always proceed in a strict linear order, and you may choose to overlap some steps. For example, you may decide to reedit a clip after you’ve added an effect to it, or you may shoot and capture completely new footage to add a different ending to your nearly complete movie.

Note:

terms and ideas are discussed in a general way, as appropriate to their use with the application. If you are interested in learning more about the application or more in-depth editing techniques, refer to Final Cut Express HD Help.

8 Preface

Adding

Transitions

Effects

Creating Effects

With Filters

Creating Titles

and Credits

Exporting

for DVD

Exporting

for the Web

Outputting

to Videotape

This book is not intended to be a complete guide to editing. Common editorial

An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Step 1: Shoot

Making good videos begins with good camera work. Although this book does not teach the finer points of shooting video, you need to be aware of some basic issues while shooting your footage and recording your audio. Final Cut Express HD is a robust and powerful digital video editing tool; however, it is not designed to correct video that was improperly shot or audio that was improperly recorded.

The following list is a series of tips on shooting good video:

Use a tripod. Tripods add stability to your shot, allowing your viewers to focus on

•

your subject instead of your camera motion. Avoid zooming to get closer to your subject, especially when the camera is handheld.

•

Magnifying the image with a zoom lens also magnifies camera movements, potentially giving your viewer motion sickness. Never use digital zoom. Turn this feature off on your camcorder. Digital zoom makes

•

pixels bigger on the screen, resulting in a blockier, lower resolution image. Avoid auto-focus. Learn to focus your camera lens manually so you control the image

•

instead of the camera. Avoid bright lights behind your subject (called

•

backlighting

), since this often results in unwanted silhouetting. Be cautious when shooting reflective surfaces. For example, eyeglasses and car mirrors

•

can cause overly bright highlights and often reveal the camera operator in the shot.

•

Plan your shots in advance. Consider image composition and how your shots may work together during the editing process. Scripting and storyboarding can be useful ways to organize your shooting. Think about image composition and frame your shots. Pay attention to headroom–

•

too little will smash actors’ heads against the top of the frame; too much will lose them at the bottom.

•

Avoid using the on-camera microphone–use an external microphone instead. Built-in microphones tend to capture the sounds of the camera and the camera operator instead of the subject of the scene.

•

Leave at least one minute of black (recorded with no audio or video) at the beginning and end of your tape, where tapes receive the most wear and tear.

•

Pull the record tab to prevent recording over your tape as soon as you’ve finished shooting.

•

Always label your tapes as soon as you remove them from the camcorder. This is the number 1 organizational rule of motion picture editing. Sorting through piles of unlabeled tapes for a particular scene is an editor’s worst nightmare. On feature films, there is one person dedicated to labeling film and tape reels as soon as they leave the camera.

Preface

An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Step 2: Set up

Thanks to the development of FireWire, setting up Final Cut Express HD is easy. You simply connect your camera (via FireWire) to your computer, turn on your camera, set it to VTR mode, and open Final Cut Express HD. When you open Final Cut Express HD, the application recognizes the type of camera you have and knows how to control it. Unless you upgrade your system or change components, such as the DV camcorder, you should only have to set up your system once.

Important:

Verify that all of your cables are securely connected between your computer,

camera, and speakers, but never force a cable into a connection that doesn’t fit.

Step 3: Capture

Capturing

is the process of digitally copying the video from the DV tape in your camcorder to the hard disk on your computer. After creating a new project, you capture your video using the

device control

capabilities of Final Cut Express HD and your DV camcorder. (Device control is technology that allows Final Cut Express HD to control a DV camcorder.) Final Cut Express HD makes capturing easy by allowing you the flexibility of capturing individual clips or an entire tape.

Step 4: Edit

After you’ve captured the clips that will go into your finished program, it’s time to begin editing with Final Cut Express HD. You do most of your editing in the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline; however, you organize your captured clips in the Browser. The basics of editing involve organizing clips in the Browser; editing clips into your sequence using the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline; fine-tuning your edits using the Final Cut Express HD editing tools; adding transitions such as cross dissolves to your edits; and adding music tracks to your sequence.

Final Cut Express HD provides other tools to perform detailed editorial tasks, manage files, and specify preferences and settings to customize Final Cut Express HD to how you work.

Step 5: Effects

When you’re satisfied with the arrangement of the clips in your project, it’s time to apply effects and filters such as a blur or a tint to the clips. Once you’re happy with the effects you’ve applied, it’s time to add titles. Now your project is complete.

Step 6: Share

When your project is complete, you’ll want to show people your movie. Final Cut Express HD provides you with a variety of project. If you want to use your camcorder to view the completed project on your TV, you can transfer your project back to DV tape using the Print to Video command. If you want to make a DVD, you can use the export to iDVD feature. You also have the option of distributing your edited video project on the web.

10 Preface

An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

output

options for your completed

Moving From iMovie to Final Cut Express HD

The Apple entry-level DV editing application is iMovie. It allows you to create simple edited digital movies with some of the most popular features found in Hollywoodstyle releases, without having to know any technical details about the process. The interface and feature set are configured to make the process nearly foolproof.

Eventually, however, you’ll find yourself requiring features beyond those that iMovie offers. The tools in Final Cut Express HD allow you to expand your digital editing creativity. Final Cut Express HD gives you access to a wide range of professional features such as the following:

•

Support for multiple projects and sequences, allowing you to edit in multiple projects at once and copy elements from one sequence to another.

•

Support for multiple video and audio tracks, making it easy to create video composites and audio mixes. Support for voiceovers. You can record voiceovers directly into the Timeline using

•

the Voice Over tool.

Additionally:

Final Cut Express HD is a nondestructive editor, which means making edits and

•

adding transitions does not affect the original video on your computer’s hard disk. This means you can experiment with edits and transitions without having to commit to them permanently.

•

Final Cut Express HD comes with over 200 transitions, filters, and effects. You can preview many of them without architecture of Final Cut Express HD. (Rendering involves processing video and audio with any applied effects, such as transitions or filters. Effects that aren’t realtime must be rendered in order to be played back properly. Once rendered, your sequence can be played in real time.)

•

Final Cut Express HD offers several workflows and work styles for editing digital video projects, including advanced media management and the drag-and-drop method used within iMovie. These capabilities, along with its ability to import iMovie projects, make Final Cut Express HD easy to learn while still providing the advanced features you need. See “Importing an iMovie Project” on page 139.

rendering

due to the software-based, real-time

Preface

An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Final Cut Express HD Onscreen Help

Final Cut Express HD Help is a comprehensive resource for information about Final Cut Express HD. It allows you to access information directly onscreen while you’re working in Final Cut Express HD. Background information, details, and steps are described at greater length in Final Cut Express HD Help than they are in this book. Throughout this book, you will see references to Final Cut Express HD Help for additional detailed information.

To access onscreen help:

Choose Help > Final Cut Express HD Help.

Tip:

Click the How to Search link on the Final Cut Express HD Help homepage for tips

on searching Final Cut Express HD Help.

Final Cut Express HD Help also contains information about issues with third-party hardware and software and known bugs. This information is found in the Late-Breaking News section of Final Cut Express HD Help.

To access late-breaking news:

Choose Help > Late-Breaking News.

Apple Websites

There are a variety of discussion boards, forums, and educational resources related to Final Cut Express HD on the web.

Final Cut Express HD Websites

The following websites provide general information, updates, and support information about Final Cut Express HD, as well as the latest news, resources, and training materials:

• http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress

• http://www.info.apple.com/usen/finalcutexpress

• http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/resources.html

• http://www.apple.com/software/pro/training/ts_fcpexpress.html

• http://www.apple.com/software/pro/training/dvdcd.html

Apple Service and Support Website

The Service and Support Website provides software updates and answers to the most frequently asked questions for all Apple products, including Final Cut Express HD. You’ll also have access to product specifications, reference documentation, and Apple and third-party product technical articles:

• http://www.apple.com/support

12 Preface

An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

1 Setting Up Final Cut Express HD

Setting up Final Cut Express HD is as simple as connecting your DV camcorder to your computer with a FireWire cable.

The following sections describe how to connect your camera and the initial settings you need to specify so you can begin working in Final Cut Express HD.

Connecting Your Camera

The following illustration demonstrates how to connect your DV camcorder to the FireWire port on your computer, so that you can capture video (transfer the video from your camcorder to your computer) and output your program back to DV tape.

6-pin connector

Computer

to computer

DV camcorder

in VTR mode

FireWire

4-pin connector

to camcorder

To set up a DV system using FireWire device control (the technology that allows Final Cut Express HD to control your camcorder), you need the following equipment:

• Your computer and display

• A DV device, such as a DV camcorder or deck

• A 4–to–6-pin FireWire cable, available at an electronics store or an Apple-authorized

retailer

Choosing Your Initial Settings

The first time you open Final Cut Express HD after installing the software, you’re prompted to choose an Easy Setup and a scratch disk (where you’ll store your media).

Choosing an Easy Setup

Final Cut Express HD comes with several predefined Easy Setups based on the most commonly used settings, such as DV-NTSC and DV-PAL. Depending on where you live, you will choose one of these two options. See “The Differences Between NTSC and PAL” on page 15 to find out the setting you need. The Easy Setup you choose applies to all new projects and sequences until you choose another Easy Setup.

If you always use the same type of camcorder or video deck, you may never have to change your Easy Setup. If you do change your camcorder or video deck, it’s simple to change your Easy Setup.

To change an Easy Setup:

1 Choose Final Cut Express HD > Easy Setup.

2 Choose an Easy Setup from the Setup For pop-up menu.

To show all Easy Setups that are currently available, select Show All.

Choose an Easy Setup

from the Setup For

pop-up menu.

Select Show All to see a complete list of available Easy Setups.

A summary of your selected Easy Setup appears below the pop-up menu.

Tip: For best results, choose one of the two main Easy Setups: DV-NTSC or DV-PAL.

3 When you’re ready, click Setup.

The selected Easy Setup applies to all new projects and sequences. Settings for existing sequences do not change. For additional information about Easy Setups, see Final Cut Express Help, Chapter 4, “Specifying User Preferences, System Settings, and Easy Setups.”

14 Chapter 1 Setting Up Final Cut Express HD

The Differences Between NTSC and PAL

NTSC and PAL are standards for video. NTSC, or National Television Systems Committee, is the television and video standard used in most of the Americas, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. PAL, or Phase Alternating Line, is the television and video standard used in most of Europe, Brazil, Algeria, and China. (SECAM, a video standard based on PAL and used in France, Poland, Haiti, and Vietnam, is not supported by Final Cut Express HD. However, editing work is usually done in PAL and converted to SECAM.)

Important: Make sure to choose the Easy Setup that corresponds to your country.

The Differences Between Apple FireWire and FireWire Basic

Video devices vary greatly in their functionality and adherence to FireWire specifications for device control. For this reason, there are two versions of the FireWire protocol you can use for device control and capture in Final Cut Express HD:

• Apple FireWire: This is the default.

• Apple FireWire Basic: This is a simplified device control protocol for camcorders and

decks that aren’t compatible with the full Apple FireWire set. Using this protocol doesn’t affect the quality of captured video or audio.

To switch to the Apple FireWire Basic Easy Setup:

1 Choose Final Cut Express HD > Easy Setup.

2 Select the Show All checkbox, and choose the appropriate FW Basic Easy Setup for your

camcorder or deck from the Setup For pop-up menu.

For more information about FireWire technology, go to the Apple FireWire website at

http://www.apple.com/firewire.

Setting Up Scratch Disks

A scratch disk is the disk or disk space you allocate in Final Cut Express HD for digital video capture and editing, as well as for the storage of a project’s render files. Final Cut Express HD lets you specify up to 12 scratch disks for storing files. It’s best to set these after you set up your hardware but before you start to work in Final Cut Express HD. When you capture or render clips, media files are saved to the first disk in the list. When that disk is full, Final Cut Express HD goes to the next disk in the list until it’s full, and so on.

Chapter 1 Setting Up Final Cut Express HD 15

To specify one or more scratch disks and associated settings:

Choose Final Cut Express HD > System Settings, then click the Scratch Disks tab.

For additional information about scratch disks, see Final Cut Express Help, Chapter 4, “Specifying User Preferences, System Settings, and Easy Setups.”

Tip for Optimizing Performance

In most cases, the default values set in Final Cut Express HD System Preferences will be sufficient for your needs. However, you may choose to change certain settings to accommodate the requirements of your project.

• Limit Capture Now To: In the System Settings Scratch Disks tab, change this value from

30 minutes to 62 minutes. This will allow you to capture an entire 60-minute DV tape.

16 Chapter 1 Setting Up Final Cut Express HD

2 Getting to Know

Use the Viewer to

preview your clips before

you place them in your

sequence in the Timeline.

Your Editing Environment

There are four main windows in Final Cut Express HD: the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline. Each window plays an important role in the editing process.

If you want to get familiar with the windows and tools in Final Cut Express HD, read through this chapter. If you’d rather jump right in and begin editing, move on to Chapter 4, “Basic Editing,” on page 49, and refer back to this chapter as needed.

Use the Canvas to play back changes you make to your sequence in the Timeline.

Use the Browser to

organize the source

material in your project.

Use the Timeline to edit and arrange your sequence.

Organizing Your Clips in the Browser

The Browser is the central storage area where you organize all of the source material you’ll use in your project. To organize your media so you can work efficiently, you need to understand the basic organizational elements of Final Cut Express HD—projects, sequences, clips, and bins—and how they relate to the Browser.

Project

Sequence

Bin

Clip

What Is a Project?

A project contains all the clips, sequences, and file references you use while editing your movie. All of these appear in a project’s tab in the Browser. Although the source media files for your project are actually stored on your computer’s hard disk in a location different from the project file, you use the Browser to help organize and manage the clips and sequences used by your project.

My Project

Audio clip

ABC

Still image

Sequence

Video clip

There is no limit to the number of items that can be stored in the Browser. You can have multiple projects open in the Browser at one time. Each project appears in its own tab.

18 Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment

What Is a Clip?

A clip is the basic unit of media that you use to create sequences in Final Cut Express HD. Clips can be movies, still images, generators, and audio files. A clip is not the actual media file, but a reference to the media file stored on your computer’s hard disk. Clips are the building blocks from which all sequences are created.

The three kinds of clips you’ll see most often are audio, video, and graphics clips, but there are other kinds of clips that can be created within Final Cut Express HD. You can also subdivide a clip into separate pieces, called subclips, to further organize your footage.

What Is a Bin?

A bin is a folder inside of the project that can contain clips, transitions, effects, and generators. You use bins to organize these elements, sort them, add comments, rename items, and so on. This creates a logical structure for your projects, making your media easier to manage.

Bins exist only in project files. Changes you make to the contents of a bin, such as deleting, moving, and renaming clips or renaming the bin itself, have no effect on the original files or folders on your computer’s hard disk where the source material is stored. If you delete a clip from a bin, it is not deleted from the disk. Likewise, creating a new bin does not create a new folder on your disk.

You can create separate bins for different stages of your project or to separate your original and production footage. You can organize bins hierarchically and open them in their own windows. You can even put bins inside other bins.

To add a new bin to a project:

1 In the Browser, click the project tab where you want to add a bin.

2 Do one of the following:

• Choose File > New > Bin.

• Control-click the Name column, then choose New Bin from the shortcut menu.

• Press Command-B

A new folder appears in the Browser with Bin [number] highlighted.

3 Enter a name for the new bin.

What Is a Sequence?

A sequence is a container where you edit together a series of clips to create a new movie. Sequences can be a maximum of four hours in length. A sequence can contain your entire movie, or your movie can be composed of several sequences. You can have multiple sequences within a project; sequences can also be used as source clips and edited into other sequences. You cannot save sequences outside a project, but you can export them as movies or clips.

Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment 19

Selecting a Browser View

There are two ways to view your media in the Browser: icon view and list view. Icon view allows you to view your media as thumbnails. There are three icon views: Small, Medium, and Large. In list view, the Browser’s scrollable columns provide information about your files in an easy-to-access hierarchy. List view also allows you to sort and search for items within the Browser. For more information about list view, see Final Cut Express Help, Chapter 7, “Using the Browser and Managing Projects and Clips.”

To display Browser items as icons or in a list, do one of the following:

Choose View > Browser Items, then choose an option from the submenu.

Control-click in the Name column (or any place in the tab other than an icon), then choose a view option from the shortcut menu.

Press Shift-H to toggle through all four views.

Tip: To view a thumbnail of each clip while remaining in list view, control-click on a column title, and choose Show Thumbnails from the shortcut menu.

Note: In this book, the Browser is shown in icon view.

Deleting or Removing Items From the Browser

You can remove items from the Browser at any time.

To delete a clip, sequence, or bin from a project, do one of the following:

Select the item, then press Delete.

Control-click the item you want to delete, then choose Cut from the shortcut menu.

Note: Deleting a clip from a project does not delete that clip’s source media file from your hard disk, nor does it delete any other associated duplicates of that clip appearing in that project, including sequence clips.

20 Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment

Working With Clips in the Viewer

To view a clip, you select it in the Browser, then open it into the Viewer by doubleclicking. The Video tab of the Viewer acts as your “source” monitor; there, you watch your selected clip and mark the In and Out edit points, which define how much of the clip you want to edit into your sequence.

Viewer Controls

There are many controls in the Viewer. (Some of these appear in other areas of the interface, as well; for example, the playhead controls also appear in the Canvas.)

Timecode Duration field

Zoom pop-up menu

Playhead

In point

Scrubber bar

Shuttle control

Tabs

Marking controls

Clip name and the project it’s in.

Transport controls

Current Timecode field

View pop-up menu

Preview area

Out point

Jog control Generator pop-up menu

Recent Clips pop-up menu

Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment 21

The following is a quick summary of the Viewer controls:

• Tabs: There are five tabs in the Viewer: Video, Audio, Filters, Motion, and Controls. Each

tab in the Viewer provides certain editing functions. The Video and Audio tabs appear only if the clip currently opened in the Viewer contains video or audio media. For example, you only see the Audio tab when you open an audio clip or a video clip that includes audio. The Filters tab appears for all clips, and the Motion tab appears only for video and graphics clips. The Controls tab only appears if you’ve added a generator. For more information on generators, see Chapter 9, “Creating Titles and Credits.”

• Playhead and scrubber bar: These controls let you locate and move or jump to

different parts of a clip quickly and easily.

• Transport controls: You use these controls to move the playhead within clips and

sequences. The position of the playhead corresponds to the currently displayed frame.

• Jog and shuttle controls: You use the jog and shuttle controls to navigate more

precisely within your clip.

• Marking controls: You use these controls to set a clip’s edit points (In and Out points),

markers, and keyframes.

• Zoom pop-up menu: This pop-up menu lets you enlarge or shrink the image that

appears in the Viewer.

• View pop-up menu: This pop-up menu allows you to change the viewing format and

control the display of various overlays that can appear in the Viewer.

• Generator pop-up menu: You use this pop-up menu to select and open generators in

the Viewer for modifying and editing into your sequence. Generators are special clips that can be created by Final Cut Express HD; for example, they can be used to create color mattes and text of different types.

• Recent Clips pop-up menu: This pop-up menu allows you to open recently used clips

in the Viewer for modifying and editing into your sequence.

• Timecode fields: The Current Timecode field displays the timecode of the frame at the

current position of the playhead. The Timecode Duration field lets you view and change the duration of marked clips.

22 Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment

Opening Clips Into the Viewer

You can open clips into the Viewer from either the Browser or the Timeline. Clips appear in the Viewer with the last selected Viewer tab displayed. If you’re opening an audio-only clip, the Video tab disappears and the Audio tab is displayed. Although the Viewer can display only one clip at a time, you can open multiple selected clips into the Viewer, and they will appear in the Recent Clips pop-up menu.

To open a clip from the Browser, do one of the following:

Double-click the clip.

Drag the clip from the Browser to the Preview area of the Viewer.

Select the clip with the Up and Down Arrow keys, then press the Return key.

Control-click the clip, then choose Open in Viewer from the shortcut menu.

Clips opened from the Browser have a plain scrubber bar.

To open a clip from the Timeline, do one of the following:

Double-click the clip.

Drag the clip from the Timeline to the Preview area of the Viewer.

Select the clip, then press the Return key.

Control-click the clip, then choose Open [Clip Name] from the shortcut menu (where [Clip Name] is the name of the clip).

Clips opened from the Timeline have a dotted scrubber bar.

Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment 23

Playing Clips in the Viewer

You use the transport controls in the Viewer to play clips forward, backward, between In and Out points, one frame at a time, and looped.

Previous Edit

Play In to Out

Next Edit

Play Around Current

Play

To play a clip in the Viewer:

1 Double-click the clip in the Browser to open it into the Viewer.

2 Do one of the following:

• Click the Play button.

• Press the Space bar.

• Press L.

• Choose Mark > Play > Forward.

To stop playback, do one of the following:

Click the Play button again.

Press the Space bar.

Press K.

You can navigate backward in your clip at 1x (normal) speed if you want to search for precise locations to set your In and Out points.

To play a clip in reverse:

1 Double-click the clip in the Browser to open it into the Viewer.

2 Do one of the following:

• Shift-click the Play button.

• Press Shift–Space bar.

• Press J.

• Choose Mark > Play > Play Reverse.

Using In and Out Points

See “Setting In and Out Points” on page 51.

24 Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment

Working With Clips in the Canvas

The Canvas is the Final Cut Express HD record monitor, showing what your edited sequence will look like when it’s played. There are many controls and displays in the Canvas.

Before working with the Canvas, make sure it’s the currently selected window. Otherwise, your keyboard shortcuts might trigger the wrong actions.

To select the Canvas window:

Click in the Canvas (or press Command-2).

Name of the currently selected sequence and the project it’s in

Timecode Duration field

Zoom pop-up menu

Image display area

Scrubber bar

Shuttle control

Current Timecode field

View pop-up menu

Playhead

Jog control

Transport controls

Sequence markin

controls

Tip: Press Q to switch between the Viewer and the Canvas.

Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment 25

Canvas Controls

The following is a list of controls in the Canvas.

• Tabs: Each tab in the Canvas represents an open sequence. Each tab in the Canvas

has a corresponding tab in the Timeline.

• Image display area: This is the area of the Canvas where you can see the video from

your sequence play back.

• Playhead and scrubber bar: These controls let you locate and jump to different parts

of your sequence quickly and easily.

• Transport controls: These controls are used to play back your edited sequence.

• Jog and shuttle controls: These controls let you more precisely navigate within your

sequence.

• Sequence marking controls: These controls are used to mark your sequence with edit

points: In and Out points, markers, and keyframes.

• Editing controls: The edit buttons and the Edit Overlay allow you to perform seven

different types of edits.

• View and Zoom pop-up menus: These pop-up menus let you enlarge or shrink the

image that appears in the Canvas, change the viewing format, and control the display of various overlays.

• Timecode fields: Two timecode fields allow you to move the playhead to a specific frame

or timecode, as well as to change the sequence Out point based on an entered duration.

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Drag a clip to the image

area of the Canvas.

Edit Overlay

The Edit Overlay appears when you drag clips from the Browser or Viewer to the image area of the Canvas. The Overlay appears translucently over the image currently in the Canvas.

The Edit Overlay appears with its seven sections.

There are seven sections in the Edit Overlay, one for each of the seven types of edits that Final Cut Express HD can perform. If you simply drag your clip to the viewing area to the left of the Edit Overlay, you’ll do an overwrite edit. To perform any of the other edits, drag your clip to the overlay area for the edit you want to perform.

You’ll know that the clip you’re dragging is over a specific overlay when a colored outline appears around the border of the overlay.

Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment 27

Working With Clips in the Timeline

The Timeline displays a chronological view of an open sequence. In addition to showing a sequence’s tracks and the clips edited into them, the Timeline contains numerous controls for displaying and manipulating clips. All these controls are specific to the sequence in which they’re used; each sequence open in the Timeline can have its own set of controls.

Before working with the Timeline, make sure it’s the currently selected window. Otherwise your keyboard shortcuts might not perform the actions you intend.

To select the Timeline:

Click in the Timeline (or press Command-3).

Name of the currently selected sequence and the project it’s in

Sequence tabs

Current Timecode field

Base tracks

Audio controls

Clip Overlays control

Track Height control

Playhead

Video track

Divider

Audio tracks

Zoom slider

Zoom control

Track Layout menu

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Track Display and Organization

The following is a list of controls that affect the way your sequence and clips are displayed in the Timeline.

• Tabs: Each tab represents a sequence. You can have multiple sequences open

simultaneously, each with its own tab. Controls in Final Cut Express HD only affect the sequence whose tab is in front. Clicking another sequence’s tab brings it to the front, along with that sequence’s tab in the Canvas.

• Tracks: The main portion of the Timeline is divided into audio and video tracks, with

a divider between the two regions. You can drag the divider up or down to allocate more room to either the video or audio half of the Timeline. Audio tracks 1 and 2 are just underneath the divider, and all additional audio tracks continue downward. Video track 1 is just above the divider, and all additional video tracks continue upward. This way, linked video and audio clips keep the same relationship to one another even if they’re moved from one track to another.

• Zoom control: Use this control to zoom in and out of the contents of your sequence

in the Timeline. Zooming in shows more detail in the ruler, and the duration between the numbers in the ruler shrinks. Zooming out shows less detail in the ruler, but allows you to see more of the total duration of your sequence in the Timeline. If the playhead is visible, it stays centered when you use the Zoom control to zoom in on the Timeline. If the playhead is not visible, the Zoom control centers the current contents of the Timeline window instead.

• Audio controls: Click these controls to display the mute and solo buttons to the left

of each audio track in the Timeline. By default, these controls are hidden.

• Clip Overlays: Click this control to display opacity overlays (thin black lines) over your

video tracks, and audio level overlays (thin red lines) over any clips in the audio tracks of the Timeline.

These lines indicate how transparent or how loud each video and audio clip in your edited sequence will be when you play it back. Any keyframes added to these properties appear as handles, directly on top of the overlay. Overlays and their related keyframe handles also serve as controls themselves, and can be manipulated directly.

• Track Height control: Click this control to switch between four track display sizes—

Reduced, Small, Medium, and Large. The current setting is highlighted in blue and has a small dot in the center. Choosing a track height using this control resets all tracks to the new size, overriding any custom track heights previously selected.

To preserve the relative heights of individually sized tracks while resizing all tracks, hold down the Option key while choosing a new height with this control.

Note: When the track size is set to Reduced, neither audio waveforms nor thumbnails are displayed.

Chapter 2 Getting to Know Your Editing Environment 29

Timeline Navigation

The following is a list of controls that allow you to navigate through your sequence in the Timeline.

Playhead

Ruler

Drag the slider to scroll through your sequence.

• Ruler: The ruler along the top of the Timeline represents the total duration of your

edited sequence, from the first frame to the last. The ruler can be used for reference, to see the timecode corresponding to the location of clips in the Timeline. It can also be used as a navigation control that works exactly like the scrubber bar in the Canvas.

Sequences can be a maximum of four hours, but you don’t need to set a duration for any of your sequences. If you need more time for a particular sequence, editing more clips into it will automatically add to the total duration, until the four-hour limit is reached.

• Playhead: The playhead displays the current frame location in a sequence. The

Timeline playhead mirrors the Canvas playhead.

• Zoom slider: Like the Zoom control, the Zoom slider allows you to zoom in and out

of a sequence in the Timeline. Dragging the thumb tabs on either side of the slider adjusts both thumb tabs and leaves the visible area of the Timeline centered.

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