Apple FINAL CUT EXPRESS HD User Manual

Final Cut Express HD

User Manual

Apple Computer, Inc.

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Preface 25 Final Cut Express HD Documentation and Resources

Getting Started

Onscreen Help

Apple Websites

Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Chapter 1 29 About the Post-Production Workflow

The Industry Workflow

The Post-Production Workflow

Chapter 2 35 Video Formats and Timecode

About Nonlinear and Nondestructive Editing

Video Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD

Audio Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD

Video Format Basics

Chapter 3 39 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences

The Building Blocks of Projects

Working With Projects

About the Connection Between Clips and Media Files

Filenaming Considerations

Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Chapter 4 55 Overview of the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Basics of Working in the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Using Keyboard Shortcuts, Buttons, and Shortcut Menus

Customizing the Interface

Undoing and Redoing Changes

Entering Timecode for Navigation Purposes

Chapter 5 65 Browser Basics

How You Use the Browser

Learning About the Browser

Working in the Browser

Using Columns in the Browser

Customizing the Browser Display

Chapter 6 79 Viewer Basics

How You Can Use the Viewer

Opening a Clip in the Viewer

Learning About the Viewer

Tabs in the Viewer

Transport (or Playback) Controls

Playhead Controls

Marking Controls

Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus

Recent Clips and Generator Pop-Up Menus

Chapter 7 91 Canvas Basics

How You Use the Canvas

Opening, Selecting, and Closing Sequences in the Canvas

Learning About the Canvas

Editing Controls in the Canvas

Transport (or Playback) Controls

Playhead Controls

Marking Controls

Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus

Chapter 8 101 Navigating and Using Timecode in the Viewer and Canvas

101

Navigating in the Viewer and Canvas

10 8

Working With Timecode in the Viewer and Canvas

Chapter 9 111 Timeline Basics

111

How You Use the Timeline

113

Opening and Closing Sequences in the Timeline

11 4

Learning About the Timeline

12 3

Changing Timeline Display Options

12 7

Navigating in the Timeline

12 8

Zooming and Scrolling in the Timeline

Contents

Chapter 10 135 Customizing the Interface

13 5

Changing Browser and Timeline Text Size

13 5

Moving and Resizing Final Cut Express HD Windows

13 7

Using Screen Layouts

13 9

Working With Shortcut Buttons and Button Bars

Part III Setting Up Your Editing System

Chapter 11 145 Connecting Your Equipment

14 5

Connecting Your Camcorder

14 6

Connecting an External Video Monitor and Audio Speakers

14 6

Opening Final Cut Express HD and Choosing Your Initial Settings

15 0

What Is FireWire?

151

What Is Device Control?

Chapter 12 153 Determining Your Hard Disk Storage Options

15 3

Working With Scratch Disks and Hard Disk Drives

15 3

Data Rates and Storage Devices

15 4

Determining How Much Space You Need

15 6

Choosing a Hard Disk

157

Types of Hard Disk Drives

Chapter 13 161 External Video Monitoring

161

Using an External Video Monitor While You Edit

162

Connecting DV/FireWire Devices to an External Monitor

163

Using Digital Cinema Desktop Preview

167

About the Display Quality of External Video

167

Troubleshooting External Video Monitoring Problems

Part IV Capturing and Importing

Chapter 14 171 Capturing Your Footage to Disk

171

Overview of the Capturing Process

17 2

Overview of the Capture Window

174

Transport Controls

174

Jog and Shuttle Controls

17 5

Marking Controls

17 5

Capture Tab

17 8

Capture Buttons

17 8

Preparing to Capture

17 8

Organizing and Labeling Your Tapes

17 9

Logging Your Tapes

Contents

18 0

Choosing a Filenaming Scheme

18 0

Determining How Much Disk Space You Need

181

Capturing Individual Clips in the Capture Window

185

Using Capture Now

187

Adding Markers to Clips in the Capture Window

18 8

Marker Controls in the Capture Window

18 8

Setting Markers

18 9

Recapturing Clips

18 9

Using Capture Project

191

About the Additional Items Found Dialog

19 2

Finding Your Media Files After Capture

19 2

Where Are Captured Media Files Stored?

19 3

Consolidating Media Files to One Folder

19 4

Modifying a Media File’s Reel Name Property

19 5

Avoiding Duplicate Timecode Numbers on a Single Tape

19 6

Logging Tapes with Duplicate Timecode Numbers

19 6

Avoiding Multiple Occurrences of the Same Timecode Number on a Single Tape

Chapter 15 199 Importing Media Files Into Your Project

19 9

What File Formats Can Be Imported?

200

Importing Media Files

203

About Importing Video Files

204

About Importing Audio Files

Chapter 16 207 Working With HDV

207

About HDV

208

HDV Formats Supported by Final Cut Express HD

208

About MPEG-2 Compression

210

HDV Apple Intermediate Codec Editing Workflow

210

Connecting an HDV Device to Your Computer

211

Choosing an Easy Setup

211

Capturing HDV Video to the Apple Intermediate Codec

212

Editing Video Using the Apple Intermediate Codec

213

Outputting HDV to Tape or Exporting to a QuickTime Movie

214

HDV Format Specifications

Contents

Part V Organizing Footage and Preparing to Edit

Chapter 17 219 Organizing Footage in the Browser

219

Using Bins to Organize Your Clips

220

Creating New Bins

221

Opening Bins in the Browser

222

Opening Bins in a Separate Window or Tab

225

Moving Items Between Bins

227

Sorting Items in the Browser Using Column Headings

228

Searching for Clips in the Browser

228

About Search Options

231 Searching for Items in the Browser 233 Manipulating Items in the Find Results Window

Chapter 18 235 Using Markers

235 Learning About Markers

238 Working With Markers

Chapter 19 251 Creating Subclips

251 Learning About Subclips

254 Manually Breaking Large Clips Into Subclips

257 Automatically Creating Subclips Using DV Start/Stop Detection

Part VI Rough Editing

Chapter 20 261 Working With Projects, Clips, and Sequences

262 Working With Projects 262 Working With Multiple Projects in the Browser 262 Choosing Whether the Last Previously Opened Project Opens on Launch 262 Viewing and Changing the Properties of a Project

263 Backing Up and Restoring Projects 265 Learning About the Different Types of Clips 265 Types of Clips 266 Sequences as Clips 266 Viewing and Changing the Properties of a Clip

267 Changing Clip Properties in the Browser 268 Viewing and Changing Clip Properties in the Item Properties Window

269 Changing the Properties of Affiliate Clips 270 Creating and Working With Sequences 270 Creating and Deleting Sequences

271 Opening and Closing Sequences

272 Duplicating a Sequence

Contents

272 Copying a Sequence Into Another Project

273 Nesting a Sequence

273 Basic Sequence and Timeline Settings

Chapter 21 275 The Fundamentals of Adding Clips to a Sequence

275 Creating a Rough Edit

275 Basic Steps Involved in a Rough Edit

276 How Clips Appear in the Timeline

278 Undoing and Redoing Actions

278 Overview of Ways to Add Clips to a Sequence

278 Methods for Adding Clips to Sequences 280 Determining What Parts of Clips You Want in Your Sequence 280 Preparing a Sequence Order in the Browser

281 Sorting to Create a Sequence Order

281 Visually Storyboarding in the Browser

Chapter 22 283 Setting Edit Points for Clips and Sequences

283 About In and Out Points 284 Learning About the Out Point Inclusive Rule 285 Things to Keep in Mind When Setting an Out Point 286 Setting Clip In and Out Points in the Viewer 288 Specifying an Edit Point Using Timecode 289 Setting In and Out Points to Include a Whole Clip 289 Reviewing Your Edit Points 290 Setting Sequence In and Out Points in the Canvas or Timeline

291 Options for Setting Sequence In and Out Points 296 Setting Sequence In and Out Points 297 Setting In and Out Points to Match a Clip or Gap 298 Setting In and Out Points Based on a Selection in the Timeline 300 Navigating to In and Out Points

301 Moving In and Out Points 303 Clearing In and Out Points

Chapter 23 305 Working With Tracks in the Timeline

305 Adding and Deleting Tracks 306 Adding Tracks 308 Deleting Tracks 309 Specifying Destination Tracks in the Timeline 309 Understanding Source and Destination Controls

310 Setting Destination Tracks

311 Changing Source and Destination Control Connections 311 Disconnecting Source and Destination Controls

313 Resetting Destination Tracks to the Default State

8 Contents

314 Locking Tracks to Prevent Edits or Changes 315 Disabling Tracks to Hide Content During Playback 316 Customizing Track Display in the Timeline 316 Resizing Timeline Tracks 318 Creating a Static Region in the Timeline

Chapter 24 321 Drag-to-Timeline Editing

321 Overview of the Drag-to-Timeline Editing Process

322 Dragging Clips to the Timeline

323 Doing Simple Insert and Overwrite Edits in the Timeline

326 Automatically Adding Tracks to Your Sequence While Dragging

Chapter 25 329 Three-Point Editing

329 Understanding Three-Point Editing

329 Overview of the Three-Point Editing Process

330 Different Ways to Do Three-Point Editing

332 About Edit Types in the Edit Overlay

333 Performing the Different Types of Edits

333 Performing an Insert Edit

335 Performing an Insert With Transition Edit

336 Performing an Overwrite Edit

338 Performing an Overwrite With Transition Edit

339 Performing a Replace Edit 346 Superimposing Clips 348 Three-Point Editing Examples 348 Example: Editing a Specific Clip Into Your Sequence 350 Example: Editing a Clip Into a Gap in Your Sequence

352 Example: Backtiming a Clip Into Your Sequence

353 Example: Editing a Clip With No Specified In or Out Points Into Your Sequence

Chapter 26 355 Finding and Selecting Content in the Timeline

355 Understanding What’s Currently Selected

356 Identifying Selections in the Timeline

357 How Selections Are Prioritized in the Timeline

357 Direct Methods for Selecting Content in a Sequence

358 An Introduction to the Selection Tools 360 Selecting Clips

363 Selecting a Range of Timeline Content 364 Selecting All Clip Items on a Track 365 Selecting All Items on All Tracks Forward or Backward

367 Selecting or Deselecting All Clips in a Sequence

Contents 9

367 Finding and Selecting Based on Search Criteria

369 Selecting a Vertical Range Between In and Out Points

370 Using Auto Select to Specify Tracks for Selections

Chapter 27 373 Arranging Clips in the Timeline

373 Snapping to Points in the Timeline

375 Moving Items Within the Timeline

375 Moving by Dragging

376 Moving Clips Numerically

378 Performing Shuffle Edits 380 Copying and Pasting Clips in the Timeline 380 Copying Clips by Option-Dragging 382 Copying, Cutting, and Pasting Clips in the Timeline

385 Deleting Clips From a Sequence

385 Deleting With a Lift Edit (Leaving a Gap) 386 Deleting With a Ripple Edit (Leaving No Gap)

387 Finding and Closing Gaps

Chapter 28 391 Cutting Clips and Adjusting Durations

391 Performing Basic Cut Edits 395 Changing the Duration of Clips in the Timeline 396 Opening Sequence Clips in the Viewer to Change Durations

Chapter 29 397 Linking and Editing Video and Audio in Sync

397 Linked Sync Relationships Between Video and Audio Clips 398 When Linked Clips Are Moved Out of Sync

401 Understanding Sync Relationships Between Multiple Linked Audio Items 402 Linking and Unlinking Video and Audio Clip Items in the Timeline 402 Linking Video and Audio Clip Items 404 Unlinking Video and Audio Clip Items 405 Selecting Individual Clip Items While They Are Linked 406 Getting Clip Items Back in Sync 406 Moving a Clip Into Sync 408 Slipping a Clip Item Into Sync 409 Moving or Slipping All Clip Items Into Sync at Once

411 Establishing a Different Sync Relationship Between Linked Clip Items 411 Marking a Clip as In Sync

413 Learning About Linking Behavior in Audio Channel Pairs

10 Contents

Chapter 30 415 Split Edits

415 Learning About Split Edits 416 How Split Edits Look in the Viewer and Canvas 417 Setting Up Split Edit Points in the Viewer 418 Setting Up a Split Edit While Playing a Clip 419 Modifying and Clearing Split Edits

421 Split Edit Examples

Chapter 31 425 Audio Editing Basics

425 The Goals of Audio Editing 427 Using Waveform Displays to Help You Edit Audio 428 Learning About the Audio Controls in the Viewer

431 Editing Audio in the Viewer

431 Opening Audio Clips in the Viewer

432 Viewing Audio Tracks in the Viewer

432 Zooming In or Out of the Waveform Display Area 434 Scrolling Through a Zoomed-In Audio Clip 435 Using the J, K, and L Keys to Hear Subtle Details 435 Turning Off the Audio Scrubbing Sounds 435 About Setting Edit Points for Audio 436 Dragging an Audio Clip to the Canvas, Browser, or Timeline 436 Trimming Audio Clips in the Viewer 438 Editing Audio in the Timeline 438 Timeline Audio Display Options 440 Zooming In and Out of Waveforms in the Timeline

441 Moving Audio Items From One Track to Another at the Same Frame 442 Using Audio Transitions to Smooth Audible Changes 442 Creating or Separating Stereo Pairs 444 Working With Audio at the Subframe Level 444 Subframe Synchronization of Audio and Video 446 Examples of Ways to Easily Edit Audio 446 Example: Replacing Unwanted Audio With Room Tone 449 Example: Fixing Awkward Audio Cuts in the Timeline

Part VII Fine-Tuning Your Edit

Chapter 32 453 Performing Slip, Slide, Ripple, and Roll Edits

453 About Trimming With Slip, Slide, Ripple, and Roll Tools

453 Sliding Clips in the Timeline

455 Performing Slide Edits by Dragging 456 Performing Precise Slide Edits Numerically

457 Slipping Clips in the Timeline

Contents 11

458 Performing a Slip Edit Using the Slip Tool 459 Performing Precise Slip Edits Numerically

461 Using the Ripple Tool to Trim an Edit Without Leaving a Gap 462 Performing Ripple Edits 466 About Ripple Edits and Sync Relationships of Clip Items on Other Tracks 468 Doing Ripple Edits on Multiple Tracks at Once 468 Asymmetrical Trimming With the Ripple Tool 470 Using the Roll Tool to Change Where a Cut Occurs

471 Rolling the Position of an Edit Between Two Clips

Chapter 33 477 Learning About Trimming Clips

477 What Is Trimming? 479 Controls That Affect Trim Edits 480 Selecting Edits and Clips to Trim

481 Tools for Selecting Edit Points 482 Selecting Single Edit Points 482 Selecting Multiple Edit Points 483 Trimming Clip In and Out Points 483 Trimming With the Selection Tool 485 Extending and Shortening Clips in the Timeline 486 Trimming Clips in the Viewer

487 Precision Editing Using Timecode

491 Understanding Alert Messages When Trimming

Chapter 34 493 Trimming Clips Using the Trim Edit Window

493 Learning About the Trim Edit Window 495 Opening and Closing the Trim Edit Window 496 Controls in the Trim Edit Window 500 Using the Trim Edit Window

501 Playing Incoming and Outgoing Clips in the Trim Edit Window

501 Dynamic Trimming

501 Trimming an Edit in the Trim Edit Window 504 Reviewing and Playing Back Your Edits in the Trim Edit Window 504 Slipping a Clip in the Trim Edit Window 505 Listening to Audio While Trimming

Chapter 35 507 Adding Transitions

507 Learning About Transitions 508 Common Types of Transitions 509 Using Transitions in Your Sequences 509 How Transitions Appear in the Timeline

510 Having Handles at Edit Points 510 Aligning a Transition in the Timeline

12 Contents

511 Adding Transitions

511 Adding Transitions With Clips You Add to the Timeline 512 Quickly Adding the Default Transition to Clips in Your Sequence 513 Adding Transitions to Clips in Your Sequence 515 Moving, Copying, and Deleting Transitions 516 Moving a Transition to Another Edit Point 516 Copying and Pasting Transitions 517 Deleting Transitions 517 Modifying Transitions in the Timeline 517 Changing the Duration of a Transition in the Timeline 519 Changing the Alignment of a Transition in the Timeline 519 Changing an Edit Point After Adding a Transition

520 Replacing Transitions 520 Video Transitions That Come With Final Cut Express HD 524 Using After Effects Transitions

Chapter 36 525 Refining Transitions Using the Transition Editor

525 Using the Transition Editor 532 Applying a Modified Transition Directly to a Sequence in the Timeline 532 Trimming Transitions and the Surrounding Clips 536 Previewing and Rendering Transitions

Chapter 37 539 Sequence to Sequence Editing

539 Methods for Editing Clips From One Sequence to Another 540 Opening More Than One Sequence at a Time 540 Copying Clips From One Sequence to Another 544 Nesting Sequences 547 Editing the Content of One Sequence Into Another Without Nesting It

Chapter 38 551 Matching Frames

551 Working With Sequence Clips in the Viewer

552 Opening a Sequence Clip in the Viewer

553 Switching Between the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline

553 Using the Viewer to Adjust Sequence Clip In and Out Points

554 Using the Viewer to Adjust Motion and Filter Parameters

554 Matching Frames Between Sequence and Master Clips

555 Matching a Frame in the Canvas to Its Master Clip

555 Matching a Frame in the Canvas to Its Media File

556 Matching a Frame in the Viewer to a Sequence Clip in the Canvas or Timeline

Contents 13

Chapter 39 557 Working With Timecode

557 About Timecode in Final Cut Express HD

557 Displaying Timecode Affected by Speed Changes

558 Clip Time Versus Source Time

558 Changing Global Timecode Display Options

Part VIII Audio Mixing

Chapter 40 561 Overview of Audio Mixing

561 Audio Finishing Features in Final Cut Express HD 562 Overview of Audio Sweetening in Final Cut Express HD 565 Making the Final Mix

Chapter 41 567 Setting Up Audio Equipment

567 Choosing External Audio Monitoring Components 568 Choosing an Audio Interface

569 Choosing Speakers and an Amplifier for Monitoring

570 Setting Up a Proper Audio Monitoring Environment

572 Audio Cables, Connectors, and Signal Levels

572 About Balanced Audio Signals

574 Microphone, Instrument, and Line Level

574 Audio Connectors

576 Configuring External Audio Monitors

576 Connecting Speakers to Your Editing System

577 Setting Monitoring Levels and Muting System Sound Effects

Chapter 42 579 Audio Fundamentals

579 What Is Sound? 580 Fundamentals of a Sound Wave

581 Frequency Spectrum of Sounds 582 Measuring Sound Intensity 584 Signal-to-Noise Ratio 584 Headroom and Distortion

585 Dynamic Range 586 Stereo Audio 588 Digital Audio 589 Sample Rate 590 Bit Depth

14 Contents

Chapter 43 593 Audio Levels, Meters, and Output Channels

593 About Audio Meters

593 Average and Peak Audio Levels 594 Average Versus Peak Audio Meters

595 Analog Versus Digital Meters 596 About Audio Meters in Final Cut Express HD

597 Avoiding Audio Clipping 598 Setting Proper Audio Levels 598 Setting Levels for Capture 598 What Reference Level Should You Use for Mixing? 600 Outputting Bars and Tone at the Head of Your Tape 600 Stereo Versus Dual Mono Audio

Chapter 44 601 Mixing Audio in the Timeline and Viewer

601 Adjusting Audio Levels in the Timeline 605 Changing Audio Levels in the Viewer 607 Panning Audio in the Timeline and Viewer 607 Panning Audio in the Timeline 608 Changing the Pan of Audio in the Viewer 608 Changing Pan for an Entire Clip 609 Copying, Pasting, and Removing Audio Attributes

610 Adjusting Clip Levels and Pan Using Keyframes 610 Tools for Adjusting Keyframes

611 Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Keyframes in the Viewer

Chapter 45 623 Using the Voice Over Tool

623 About the Voice Over Tool 624 Setting Up Your Computer to Record Voiceover 627 Controls in the Voice Over Tool

631 Defining the Recording Duration and Destination Track

636 Recording a Voiceover

Chapter 46 639 Using Audio Filters

639 About Audio Filters 640 Overview of Audio Filters 640 Equalization (EQ) Filters 642 Compression 643 Expansion 644 Noise Reduction Filters 645 Echo and Reverb Filters

Contents 15

647 Working With Audio Filters 648 Applying Filters to an Audio Clip 650 Modifying and Removing Filters

651 Making Real-Time Audio Filter Adjustments

Chapter 47 653 Tips for Better Audio

653 Learning to Describe Sound Accurately 654 Efficiently Using the Frequency Spectrum 654 Tips for Cutting Dialogue

658 Tips for Cutting Music 660 Organizing Your Tracks

Part IX Effects

Chapter 48 663 Video Filters

663 Different Ways to Use Filters 664 Applying a Filter to a Clip 666 Applying Multiple Filters to Clips

667 Viewing and Adjusting a Filter’s Parameters

673 Displaying Filter Bars in the Timeline

673 Enabling and Rearranging Filters

674 Copying and Pasting a Clip’s Filters

675 Removing Filters From Clips

676 Video Filters Available in Final Cut Express HD

Chapter 49 689 Changing Motion Parameters

689 Creating Motion Effects in the Viewer 690 Adjusting Parameters in the Motion Tab

695 Using Cartesian Geometry to Position Clips

697 Examples Using Motion Settings 707 Creating Motion Effects in the Canvas 707 Choosing a Wireframe Mode 708 Manipulating Images in the Canvas 709 Zooming In to the Canvas

710 Using Wireframe Handles to Transform, Scale, and Rotate

Chapter 50 719 Adjusting Parameters for Keyframed Effects

719 Animating Motion Effects Using Keyframes

720 How Keyframing Works

721 Determining the Number of Keyframes to Use

722 Keyframing Tools in Final Cut Express HD

723 Setting Keyframes 724 Adjusting and Deleting Keyframes

16 Contents

725 Moving Between Keyframes

731 Adjusting All Opacity Keyframes of a Clip

731 Smoothing Keyframes With Bezier Handles

732 Understanding Bezier Handles and Curves

734 Smoothing Keyframes

735 Creating Keyframed Motion Paths in the Canvas

735 What Are Motion Paths?

736 Creating Motion Paths

737 Adding, Moving, and Deleting Keyframes in Motion Paths

738 Creating Curved Motion Paths Using Bezier Handles

740 Controlling Speed Along a Motion Path

743 Moving an Entire Motion Path in the Canvas

Chapter 51 745 Reusing Effect and Motion Parameters

745 Copying and Pasting Specific Clip Attributes

746 About the Paste Attributes Dialog

747 Copying and Pasting Clip Attributes

748 Removing Attributes From a Clip

749 Applying Filters Across Multiple Tracks at Once

Chapter 52 751 Changing Clip Speed

751 Speed Basics

752 How Changing Speed Affects a Clip’s Duration

752 Performing a Fit to Fill Edit

755 Speed Settings

755 Frame Blending and Reverse Speed

757 Making Speed Changes

Chapter 53 759 Working With Still Images and Photographs

759 Using Still Images and Graphics in Your Sequences

760 Creating Freeze Frame Stills From a Video Clip

761 Considerations Before Creating and Importing Stills

769 Changing the Duration of Still Images

Chapter 54 775 Compositing and Layering

775 Introduction to Compositing and Layering

776 Methods of Compositing

776 Different Ways to Layer Clips in the Timeline

777 Adjusting Opacity Levels of Clips

780 Working With Composite Modes

780 How Composite Modes Affect Images

781 Applying Composite Modes to Clips

782 Composite Modes in Final Cut Express HD

792 Using Travel Mattes to Hide or Reveal Parts of a Clip

Contents 17

794 Working With Layered Photoshop Files 794 What Happens When You Import a Multilayered Photoshop File 796 Using Video and Graphics Clips With Alpha Channels

797 Types of Alpha Channels Recognized in Final Cut Express HD 798 Working With Clips That Have Alpha Channels 799 Importing Clips With Alpha Channels 799 Changing a Clip’s Alpha Channel Type

801 Changing Canvas and Viewer Background Colors 802 Temporarily Excluding Clips From Playback or Output 803 Temporarily Disabling a Single Clip 804 Soloing Clips in Multitrack Sequences

Chapter 55 805 Keying, Mattes, and Masks

805 Ways to Layer and Isolate Elements in Clips 805 What Are Mattes and How Can You Use Them? 806 What Is Keying and How Can You Use It? 807 What Are Masks and How Are They Used? 808 Using Keying to Isolate Foreground Elements 808 Shooting Footage That Keys Well

810 Overview of Compositing Using the Chroma Keyer Filter

813 Working With the Chroma Keyer Filter 822 Using Mattes to Add or Modify Alpha Channels 822 Matte Filters Available in Final Cut Express HD 824 Using Masks to Replace or Modify Alpha Channels 824 Mask Filters Available in Final Cut Express HD

Chapter 56 827 Color Correcting Clips

827 What Is Color Correction? 828 Why Color Correct Your Footage? 829 Color Correction Starts During Your Shoot 830 Measuring and Evaluating Video 830 Luma (Luminance)

831 Chrominance (Chroma) 832 Whites 832 Illegal Broadcast Levels 833 The Color Correction Process 835 Looking at the Picture 836 Using the Color Corrector Filter 837 The Color Corrector Filter 837 General Controls 837 Color Balance Controls 838 The Color Corrector Filter Controls

844 Hue Matching Controls in the Color Corrector

18 Contents

Chapter 57 849 Using Built-in Generated Clips

849 What Is a Generator Clip? 850 Different Ways to Use Generators in Your Sequence

851 Graphical Video and Audio Generators Available in Final Cut Express HD 853 Creating and Adding Generated Clips to Sequences

Chapter 58 855 Creating Titles

855 How You Can Use Titles in Your Project 856 Installing and Choosing Fonts 856 Making Sure Titles Fit on TV Screens 857 Text Generators Available in Final Cut Express HD 858 Creating and Adding a Title Clip

862 Other Options for Creating and Adding Titles

Part X Real Time and Rendering

Chapter 59 865 Using RT Extreme

865 Introduction to Real-Time Processing Using RT Extreme 866 How Many Effects Can Be Played in Real Time?

870 Available Real-Time Effects 871 Display Quality and Accuracy of RT Extreme 871 Using Real-Time Controls in Final Cut Express HD 872 About Render Status Bars 873 Identifying Which Effects Can Be Processed in Real Time 873 Setting Real-Time Playback Options 876 Real-Time Audio Mixing in Final Cut Express HD 876 Improving Real Time Audio Performance

Chapter 60 877 Rendering

877 What Is Rendering? 878 Reasons for Rendering 879 Render Indicators in Final Cut Express HD

879 About Render Status Bars in the Timeline 882 About Item-Level Render Bars 883 The Rendering Process 883 Rendering Effects in Sequences 885 Commands for Rendering Effects

887 Rendering One or More Sequences 888 Rendering Part of a Sequence 889 Rendering Audio Items in a Sequence 889 Using the Mixdown Command 890 Temporarily Disabling Rendering

Contents 19

891 Auto-Rendering While You Are Away From Your Computer 892 Changing Settings in the Render Control Tab 893 Preserving Render Files 894 Tips for Avoiding Unnecessary Rendering 895 Reducing Render Time

Part XI Project Management and Settings

Chapter 61 899 Media Management

899 What Is Media Management? 900 Reasons to Manage your Media

901 What You Need to Know to Manage Your Media

901 Media Management Steps in Final Cut Express HD 902 Strategies for Media Management

Chapter 62 903 Backing Up and Restoring Projects

903 Backing Up and Restoring Projects 903 Using the Revert Project Command 904 Using the Autosave Feature 906 Restoring Autosaved Projects 907 Opening a Project File After Your Computer Is Unexpectedly Powered Off 907 Archiving Completed Projects 908 Creating an Archive of a Finished Project 909 Updating Projects From Previous Versions of Final Cut Express HD

Chapter 63 911 Elements of a Final Cut Express HD Project

911 About Clips, Media Files, and Sequences 915 About Icons and Project Elements in the Browser 916 Clip Properties

Chapter 64 921 Working With Master and Affiliate Clips

921 Using Master and Affiliate Clips 922 How Master Clips Connect to Media Files 922 Identifying Master Clips 923 Creating Master and Affiliate Clips

925 Breaking the Relationship Between an Affiliated Clip and Its Master

926 Independent Clips 928 Using Keyboard Shortcuts to Modify Master-Affiliate Relationships 929 Finding a Clip’s Master Clip 929 Master-Affiliate Relationships With Subclips and Freeze Frames

20 Contents

930 Master-Affiliate Clip Properties 930 Master Clip Properties

931 Affiliate Clip Properties

931 Media File Properties

Chapter 65 933 Reconnecting Clips and Offline Media

933 About the Connections Between Clips and Media Files 934 How the Connection Between Clips and Media Files Can Be Broken

935 Reconnecting Clips to Media Files 942 When Final Cut Express HD Reconnects Your Clips

Chapter 66 945 Choosing Settings and Preferences

945 Changing User Preferences 946 General Tab 950 Editing Tab

951 Timeline Options Tab

952 Render Control Tab

952 Locating and Trashing the Preferences File

952 Changing System Settings

953 Scratch Disks Tab

953 Search Folders Tab

955 Memory & Cache Tab 956 Playback Control Tab

957 External Editors Tab

Part XII Output

Chapter 67 961 Preparing to Output to Tape

961 Output Requirements 962 How to Output to Tape in Final Cut Express HD 963 Setting Up Your Editing System to Output to Tape

Chapter 68 965 Printing To Video and Output From the Timeline

965 Different Ways You Can Output Video From the Timeline 966 Printing to Video 966 Automatically Recording With Print to Video 966 Using the Print to Video Command 968 Recording From the Timeline 970 Outputting to VHS Tape

Contents 21

Chapter 69 971 Exporting Sequences for DVD

971 The DVD Creation Process

974 Adding Chapter and Compression Markers to Your Sequence

977 Exporting QuickTime Movies for iDVD

Chapter 70 979 Learning About QuickTime

979 What Is QuickTime? 980 The QuickTime Suite of Software Applications 980 QuickTime for Media Authoring 980 The QuickTime Movie File Format 983 How Final Cut Express HD Uses QuickTime for Import, Export, and Capture 984 Formats Supported by QuickTime 989 How Do You Export the Files You Need?

Chapter 71 991 Exporting QuickTime Movies

991 About the Export QuickTime Movie Command 992 Choosing the Type of QuickTime Movie to Export 993 Exporting a QuickTime Movie File

Chapter 72 995 Exporting QuickTime-Compatible Files

995 About the Export Using QuickTime Conversion Command 996 Types of QuickTime-Compatible File Formats 997 Exporting a QuickTime Movie File for Web Distribution

1005 Exporting a DV Stream 1007 Exporting an AVI File

Chapter 73 1009 Exporting Still Images and Image Sequences

1009 Determining the Image Format for Still Image Export

1010 Exporting a Single Still Image 1012 Exporting Image Sequences

Chapter 74 1015 Exporting Audio for Mixing in Other Applications

1015 Ways You Can Finish Your Audio 1016 Organizing Your Audio Clips for Multi-Track Export 1017 Exporting Audio Tracks to Individual Audio Files 1018 Preparing to Export Audio Tracks as Audio Files

10 21 Exporting Audio Tracks as Individual Audio Files

22 Contents

Part XIII Appendixes

Appendix A 1025 Video Formats

1025 Characteristics of Video Formats 10 26 Storage Medium 10 26 Tape Size, Cassette Shape, and Tape Coating 10 27 Video Standards 1028 Type of Video Signal 1030 Aspect Ratio of the Video Frame

10 31 Frame Dimensions, Number of Lines, and Resolution 10 33 Pixel Aspect Ratio 1034 Frame Rate 10 35 Scanning Method 10 37 Color Recording Method 10 37 Video Sampling Rate and Color Sampling Ratio 1040 Video Compression 1042 Types of Video Signals and Connectors 1042 Composite 1043 S-Video 1043 Component YUV (Y´CBCR) and Component RGB 10 44 FireWire (Also Called IEEE 1394a or i.LINK) 10 44 FireWire 800 (Also Called IEEE 1394b) 10 44 SCART 1045 A Brief History of Film, Television, and Audio Formats

Appendix B 1047 Frame Rate and Timecode

1047 What Is Frame Rate? 1048 Understanding Flicker and Perceived Frame Rate 1049 Frame Rate Limits: How Many Frames per Second Is Best? 1050 Choosing a Frame Rate 10 52 What Is Timecode? 10 52 About Drop Frame and Non-Drop Frame Timecode 10 55 Timecode on Tape 10 56 Comparison of Various Timecode Formats

Appendix C 1059 Working With Anamorphic 16:9 Media

10 59 About Anamorphic 16:9 Media 10 63 Recording Anamorphic Video 1064 Capturing Anamorphic Media 1064 Viewing and Editing Anamorphic Media 1066 Rendering Items That Contain Anamorphic Media 10 67 Exporting Anamorphic Video to a QuickTime Movie

Contents 23

Appendix D 1069 Solving Common Problems

10 69 Resources for Solving Problems 1070 Solutions to Common Problems 10 75 Contacting AppleCare Support

Glossary 10 77

Index 11 0 7

24 Contents

Final Cut Express HD Documentation and Resources

You can use Final Cut Express HD to create movies of any budget, style, and format. Final Cut Express HD comes with both printed and onscreen documentation to help you learn how.

This preface provides information on the documentation available for Final Cut Express HD, as well as information about Final Cut Express HD resources on the web.

Final Cut Express HD comes with several types of documentation to help you learn more about movie editing and how to use the application:

Â Final Cut Express HD Getting Started

Â Final Cut Express HD onscreen help

Getting Started

The Final Cut Express HD Getting Started book provides an overview of the application and explains the basics of editing in Final Cut Express HD. If you are new to Final Cut Express HD and want to start using the application right away, read this book first.

Preface

Onscreen Help

Onscreen help (available in the Help menu) provides easy access to information while you’re working in Final Cut Express HD. An onscreen version of the Final Cut Express HD User Manual is available here, along with other documents in PDF format and links to websites.

To access onscreen help:

m In Final Cut Express HD, choose an option from the Help menu.

Onscreen User Manual

The

Final Cut Express HD User Manual

the application.

To access the onscreen user manual:

In Final Cut Express HD, choose Help > Final Cut Express HD User Manual.

provides comprehensive information about

Information About New Features

For information about features that have been added or enhanced since the last version of Final Cut Express HD, you can read the New Features section of the onscreen help.

To access the New Features document:

In Final Cut Express HD, choose Help > New Features.

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.

For information about Final Cut Express HD, go to:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress

To get more information on third-party resources, such as third-party tools, resources, and user groups, go to:

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

For information on the Apple Pro Training Program, go to:

http://www.apple.com/software/pro/training

To provide comments and feedback to Apple about Final Cut Express HD, go to:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutexpress.html

Apple Service and Support Website

The Apple 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

26 Preface

Final Cut Express HD Documentation and Resources

Part I: An Introduction

to Final Cut Express HD

Find out how Final Cut Express HD fits into the moviemaking process and learn about fundamental concepts of digital video editing and the basic elements of a Final Cut Express HD project.

Chapter 1 About the Post-Production Workflow

Chapter 2 Video Formats and Timecode

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences

1 About the Post-Production

Workflow

No matter what your project, Final Cut Express HD is the cornerstone of your post-production workflow.

This chapter covers the following:

Â The Industry Workflow (p. 29)

Â The Post-Production Workflow (p. 30)

The Industry Workflow

Before you start editing, it’s helpful to consider how post-production fits into the overall moviemaking workflow. Even though no two movie projects follow exactly the same steps, there is a common workflow that almost every project adheres to. From conception to completion, the basic steps to complete a film or video project are described below.

Step 1: Scripting

Scripting is where the movie is conceived and written.

Step 2: Preproduction

This is where budgeting, casting, location scouting, equipment and format selection, and storyboarding take place.

Step 3: Production

Production is where you create your footage, capturing performances using video or film cameras, as well as audio recorders. Lighting, cinematography, acting, and directing all come together to create the elements used to tell your story or deliver your message. For practical reasons, scenes are usually shot out of order, which means they have to be properly arranged during editing.

Step 4: Post-Production

Post-production is where you organize and assemble your production footage, putting scenes in proper order, selecting the best takes, and eliminating unnecessary elements. Production sound is synchronized (with the picture), edited, sometimes rerecorded, and mixed. Music is composed and added. Footage is color-corrected and special effects are created. The final movie is output to tape, film, or some other high-quality media format.

Step 5: Distribution

Distribution is when you release a movie for viewing. This may involve theater screenings, video and DVD releases, festival submissions, or web delivery.

The Post-Production Workflow

The post-production phase begins with the raw source footage and ends with a completed movie, ready for making distribution copies. As technology evolves, postproduction continues to proliferate into an increasing variety of jobs and tasks. Where there was once a single editor who was responsible for the majority of the postproduction process, there may now be a whole special effects team, an audio department, a colorist (responsible for color correction), and a number of assistant editors keeping track of all the footage. Final Cut Express HD is at the heart of the postproduction pipeline, allowing you to organize and assemble media from multiple sources into a finished product.

30 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Here is an overview of the basic Final Cut Express HD post-production workflow. As you begin your project, remember that there are no hard and fast rules for editing. Different editors have different working styles and, given the same source material, no two editors will cut the same finished program. The workflow described here offers just one example of how you might approach a typical project.

Industry Workflow

Scripting

Preproduction

Production

Post-Production

Distribution

Final Cut Express HD

Post-Production Workflow

Planning

Setting Up

Logging

and Capturing

Editing

Mixing Audio

Adding Effects

Outputting

Chapter 1 About the Post-Production Workflow 31

Step 1: Planning

Planning is where you choose your basic workflow, such as offline and online editing (for projects with a lot of media) or editing the uncompressed footage (for shorter projects with quick turnaround times), choose input and output formats, and plan for equipment requirements (such as hard disk space), timecode and sync requirements, special effects shots and color correction, audio mixing requirements, and so on.

Planning for post-production primarily means preparing for each of the upcoming post-production phases: choosing input and output formats; acquiring your original footage, music, and graphics; deciding on a logging and capturing method; choosing an editing strategy; and planning the scope of effects you will be adding so you can determine how much time and support you will need to dedicate to them.

Step 2: Setting up

In this phase, you set up your editing system by installing and connecting the hardware you need, as well as configuring your software. For example, before logging and capturing, you need to connect the video and audio from your camcorder or VTR (video tape recorder) to your computer. You also need to make sure that the correct presets are chosen within Final Cut Express HD, so that Final Cut Express HD knows what video and audio formats you are capturing and what kind of device control you’re using. (Device control allows Final Cut Express HD to remotely control video and audio devices.)

Step 3: Capturing and importing

Once you’ve set up your editing system, you need to sort through your raw footage and then transfer it to your computer’s hard disk for editing.

Capturing is the process of getting source media from your video camcorder or deck onto your computer’s hard disk. You can use the device control capabilities of Final Cut Express HD and your DV camcorder to do this. (Device control allows Final Cut Express HD to control a DV camcorder through a FireWire connection.) Final Cut Express HD allows you the flexibility of capturing individual clips or an entire tape.

You can also import QuickTime, audio, and graphics files, such as a music track from a CD, a still image, or a layered Photoshop file. You can import files at any time during your project. For example, if someone is creating an elaborate graphics file for an opening sequence, you may be in the midst of editing before the finished file is ready to import.

32 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Step 4: Editing

The editing process involves taking the video and audio you’ve captured, along with any music or graphics you’ve imported, and arranging these raw materials into a final edited sequence of clips. Most editors start with a rough cut, where they quickly arrange all of the clips for a movie in sequence. Once that’s finished, they work on finetuning, subtly adjusting the edit points between clips and refining the pacing of each cut. Basic audio editing and synchronizing are also part of this process, as well as adding transitions, such as fades and dissolves.

Often, the type of project you’re working on determines your method of editing. For example, documentary editing, in which the script often evolves in parallel with the editing, is quite different from commercial television and film editing, in which there is already a finished script to provide an order for clips.

Step 5: Mixing audio

Once your movie is edited and the picture is “locked,” meaning the duration of the movie is fixed and you no longer intend to change any of the edits, you can begin working more extensively on your audio. This involves:

Â Cleaning up the dialogue with more detailed audio editing, balance audio levels,

and equalization

Â Adding sound effects, music, and voiceover on additional audio tracks in the sequence

Â Mixing the levels of all the different clips together to create a balanced sound mix

You can use Final Cut Express HD for each of these processes. For more information, see “Overview of Audio Mixing” on page 561.

Note: You can also sweeten your audio with another audio application, perhaps even at another facility. To export your movie audio, see “Exporting Audio for

Mixing in Other Applications” on page 1015.

Step 6: Adding effects

Creating effects tends to be more time-consuming than cuts-only editing, so it’s good to focus on basic edits first and work on effects when the timing of your project is finalized. Effects are any enhancements you want to make to your footage, such as color correction, special transitions, animation, still or motion graphics, multilayered images (compositing), and titles. Final Cut Express HD has a wide variety of video and audio filters, each with parameters that you can keyframe to adjust over time in your sequence, as described below.

Step 7: Outputting

Once editing is finished, effects are added, and the final audio mix is complete, you can output your movie to videotape or film. You can also export to a QuickTime format for web delivery or use in a DVD-authoring application.

Chapter 1 About the Post-Production Workflow 33

2 Video Formats and Timecode

Before you begin editing, you need to decide what video format you will capture, edit, and output. The format you choose determines your post-production workflow.

This chapter covers the following:

Â About Nonlinear and Nondestructive Editing (p. 35)

Â Video Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD (p. 36)

Â Audio Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD (p. 36)

Â Video Format Basics (p. 36)

About Nonlinear and Nondestructive Editing

In the past, video editing was a time-consuming process. With linear editing, video editors had to edit everything onto a tape sequentially, one shot after another, from the beginning to the end. If you wanted to insert a series of shots in the middle of your edit, you had to reedit everything forward from that point.

Final Cut Express HD lets you do nonlinear, nondestructive editing. Unlike traditional tape-to-tape editing, Final Cut Express HD stores all of your footage on a hard disk, allowing you to access any frame of your footage instantaneously. Without the constraints of linear editing, you are free to combine shots in different orders and change their durations until you arrive at the exact sequence you want. Video and audio effects, such as scaling, position, rotation, speed changes, and multiple layers can also be applied and played back in real time. No matter how you process your footage, the underlying media is never touched. This is known as nondestructive editing, because all of the changes and effects you apply to your footage never affect the media itself.

Video Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD

Long before editing begins, the most basic decision you need to make is which format to shoot with. The format you choose affects the equipment needed for editorial work, as well as how the finished product will look.

Final Cut Express HD uses QuickTime technology, allowing you to use almost any digital video format available. This flexibility ensures that your Final Cut Express HD editing system always works with the latest video formats.

Â DV editing: Final Cut Express HD supports DV video natively, using your computer’s

built-in FireWire port for capture and output. Therefore, your system requires no additional hardware to edit DV material on your computer. You can capture, edit, and output the exact same data that is recorded on tape, resulting in no quality loss.

Â QuickTime-compatible files: Because Final Cut Express HD uses QuickTime technology,

almost any QuickTime-compatible file format can be imported and exported. This allows you to import files created in video editing, motion graphics, and photo editing applications. For a list of all formats that you can import, see “Learning About

QuickTime” on page 979.

Using Multiple Video Formats

You may find it necessary to use source material from a variety of formats in your project. If so, be aware that in Final Cut Express HD, clips with settings that don’t match your sequence settings (such as image dimensions or frame rate) need to be rendered before they can be played back.

Audio Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD

You can use a variety of audio with Final Cut Express HD, including audio files captured from tape, imported from audio CDs, or provided by musicians and sound designers. For more information, see “About Importing Audio Files” on page 204.

Video Format Basics

Most video formats are described by the following characteristics:

Â Standard

Â Image dimensions and aspect ratio

Â Frame rate

Â Scanning method

For a more thorough explanation of video formats, see Appendix A, “Video Formats,” on page 1025.

36 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Video Standards

A number of video standards have emerged over the years. Standard definition (SD) video formats have been used for broadcast television from the 1950s to the present. These include NTSC, PAL, and SECAM, regional video standards, with each used in certain countries and regions of the world.

Â NTSC (National Television Systems Committee): The television and video standard used

in most of the Americas, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

Â PAL (Phase Alternating Line): The television and video standard used in most of

Europe, Brazil, Algeria, and China.

Â SECAM: A video standard that is based on PAL and used in countries such as France,

Poland, Haiti, and Vietnam. SECAM is not supported by Final Cut Express HD. However, editing work is usually done in PAL and converted to SECAM for broadcasting.

Important: When you are specifying your initial settings, make sure you choose an Easy

Setup that corresponds to your country’s video standard. (An Easy Setup is a collection of settings that determines how Final Cut Express HD works with your editing system.) For more information, see “Opening Final Cut Express HD and Choosing Your

Initial Settings” on page 146.

Originally, all these formats were analog. Analog video uses a signal that consists of a constantly varying voltage level, called a waveform, that represents video and audio information. Analog formats such as VHS must be digitized, or captured, for use by Final Cut Express HD.

More recently, digital standard definition video formats were introduced, as well as digital high definition (HD) video formats. Most consumer camcorders today record standard definition digital video (such as DV) or high definition digital video (such as HDV).

Image Dimensions and Aspect Ratio

The horizontal and vertical pixel dimensions of your format determine the frame size and aspect ratio. For example, standard definition (SD) NTSC video is 720 pixels wide and 480 pixels tall. High definition video is either 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080, and is usually referred to by the vertical dimension and the frame rate (for example 720p60 or 1080i30).

The aspect ratio of a video frame is the width with respect to the height. Standard definition video has an aspect ratio of 4:3, while high definition uses 16:9.

Note: You may notice that 1280/720 or 1920/1080 is equivalent to 16:9, while 720/480 is not equivalent to 4:3. This is because standard definition digital video uses pixels that are rectangular, not square. For more information, see Appendix A, “Video Formats,” on page 1025.

Chapter 2 Video Formats and Timecode 37

Frame Rate

The frame rate of your video determines how quickly frames are recorded and played back. The higher the number of frames per second (fps), the less noticeably the image flickers on screen. There are several common frame rates in use:

Â 24 fps: Film, certain high definition formats, and certain standard definition formats

use this frame rate. This may also be 23.98 fps for compatibility with NTSC video.

Â 25 fps: Standard definition PAL

Â 29.97 fps: Standard definition NTSC

Â 59.94 fps: 720p high definition video frame rate. This can also be 60 fps.

For more information, see Appendix B, “Frame Rate and Timecode,” on page 1047.

Scanning Method

Video frames are composed of individual lines, scanned from the top of the screen to the bottom. Lines may be scanned progressively (one line at a time), or interlaced (every other line during one scan, and then the alternate lines on a subsequent scan). Standard definition video uses interlaced scanning, while high definition formats may use either interlaced or progressive scanning. For more information, see Appendix A, “Video Formats,” on page 1025.

38 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

3 Understanding Projects, Clips,

and Sequences

The basic elements in Final Cut Express HD are projects, clips, and sequences. Once you learn what these are and how you can use them, you can begin working in Final Cut Express HD.

This chapter covers the following:

Â The Building Blocks of Projects (p. 39)

Â Working With Projects (p. 43)

Â About the Connection Between Clips and Media Files (p. 47)

Â Filenaming Considerations (p. 49)

The Building Blocks of Projects

Media files, clips, and sequences are the elements that provide the main foundation for your work in Final Cut Express HD. You use projects and bins to organize these elements in your program.

What Are Media Files?

Media files are the raw materials you use to create your movie. A media file is a video, audio, or graphics file on your hard disk that contains footage captured from videotape or originally created on your computer. Since media files—especially video files—tend to be quite large, projects that use a lot of footage require one or more high-capacity hard disks.

Many media files contain multiple tracks. For example, a typical DV media file has a video track, audio track, and timecode track. In a Final Cut Express HD sequence, you can work with each of these media tracks as separate items, either in sync or separately.

Before you can edit in Final Cut Express HD, you need to capture media files from a video deck or camcorder to your hard disk. For more information about capturing media files, see “Capturing Your Footage to Disk” on page 171.

What Are Clips?

Once you have media files on your hard disk, you need a way of working with them in Final Cut Express HD. A clip is the most fundamental object in Final Cut Express HD. Clips represent your media, but they are not the media files themselves. A clip points to, or connects to, a video, audio, or graphics media file on your hard disk. (For more information on the relationship between media files and clips, see “About the

Connection Between Clips and Media Files” on page 47.)

Project

ClipClip Clip

Media files on your hard disk

Clips allow you to easily cut, trim, rearrange, and sort your media without manipulating it directly. You manage and organize your clips in the Browser. The three kinds of clips you’ll see most often are video, audio, and graphics clips, but there are other kinds of clips that can be stored within a project, such as a generator clip (a clip whose media is generated within Final Cut Express HD). You can also subdivide a clip into separate pieces, called subclips, to further organize your footage.

40 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

What Are Sequences?

A sequence is a container for editing clips together in chronological order. The editing process involves deciding which video and audio clip items to put in your sequence, what order the clips should go in, and how long each clip should be. Sequences are created in the Browser. To edit clips into a sequence, you open a sequence from the Browser into the Timeline.

Project

Sequence

Clip Clip

Clip

A sequence contains one or more video and audio tracks, which are empty when first created. When you edit a clip into a sequence, you copy the clip’s individual clip items to the sequence. For example, if you drag a clip that contains one video and two audio tracks to the Timeline, a video clip item is placed in a video track in the Timeline, and two audio clip items are placed in two audio tracks. In a sequence, you can move any clip item to any track, allowing you to arrange the contents of your media files however you want.

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences 41

What Are Projects?

A project contains all of the clips and sequences you use while editing your movie. Once you create or open a project, it appears as a tab in the Browser. There’s no limit to the number of items, including clips and sequences, that can be stored in your project in the Browser.

A project file acts as a sort of database for tracking the aspects of your edited movie:

Â video, audio, and still image clips

Â comments, descriptions, and notes for all your clips

Â sequences of edited clips

Â motion and filter parameters

Â audio mixing levels

Â bins, or folders within a project in the Browser, for organizing elements, such as clips

and sequences.

Project

Video clip

Audio clip

ABC

Still image

Sequence

To start working in Final Cut Express HD, you must have a project open in the Browser. For more information, see Chapter 5, “Browser Basics,” on page 65. You can have multiple projects open at the same time, each represented by its own tab in the Browser.

Note: A project does not contain any media at all, which keeps it small and portable. Even though project files refer to your media files, the media is not actually stored in the project. By separating the structure of your project from the associated media, your project can easily be archived or transferred to another computer, and it can be opened even if none of the media files can be located. Compared to media files, project files are relatively small and portable. You can make regular backup copies of your project without filling your hard disk.

42 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

What Are Bins?

A bin is a folder within a project that can contain clips and sequences, as well as other items used in your project, such as transitions and effects. You use bins to organize these elements, sort them, add comments, rename items, and so on. Bins help you to design a logical structure for your projects, making your clips easier to manage.

Project

Bin 1

Clip

ClipClip

Clip

You can create separate bins for organizing clips by movie scene, source tape, or any other category. You can organize bins hierarchically and open them in their own windows. You can even put bins inside other bins. There is no limit to the number of bins you can have in your project, or the number of items you can store in each bin.

Sequence 1

Clip Clip Clip

Bin 2

Clip Clip Clip

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 media files stored on your computer’s hard disk. If you delete a clip from a bin, the clip’s media file is not deleted from the hard disk. Likewise, creating a new bin does not create a new folder on your hard disk.

Working With Projects

How you use and organize your projects depends on the scope of your movie as well as your particular organizational style. These factors also affect your decision to use one or more sequences in your project.

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences 43

Organizing Your Projects

Typically, you create a new project file for each movie you work on, regardless of its duration. For example, if you’re working on a documentary about a bicycle manufacturing company, you would create a project for it. If you’re also working on an industrial training video about how to fix bicycles, that would be a second, separate project. Both projects could conceivably refer to some of the same media, but they are completely independent structures, each with their own clips, bins, and sequences.

Very large movie projects, such as feature films and documentaries with high shooting ratios (meaning most of the footage shot during production will not be used in the final movie), may contain thousands of clips. Although the number of clips and sequences you can store in a project is theoretically unlimited, Final Cut Express HD may take longer to search, sort, and update if there are too many clips. If you find that managing your project is becoming difficult, you can always break one project into several for the early editing stages.

Using More Than One Sequence in a Project

For some projects, it makes sense to use several different sequences within the project. You can use sequences in several ways including:

Â Sequences as scenes: Break a movie into a series of separate sequences for each scene.

Â Sequences as versions: Edit different versions of the same movie, with each as its own

sequence. Examples are a television commercial with several alternative sound mixes, or a documentary cut to feature film length as well as broadcast television length.

Â Sequences for special effects: This allows you to separate elaborate effects shots in

separate sequences so you can render them separately.

Creating and Saving Projects

When you create a new project in Final Cut Express HD, a new blank sequence is automatically created and named Sequence 1. You can change the sequence name to better reflect its content or the type of program you’ll be working on. The settings for the new sequence are determined by your current Easy Setup. (To check your current Easy Setup, choose Final Cut Express HD > Easy Setup.)

Note: When you open Final Cut Express HD for the first time, there are some initial settings you must specify before you can create and save projects. For more information, see “Connecting Your Equipment” on page 145.

44 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

new project.

A new sequence is

automatically created

when you create a

new project.

To create a new project:

m Choose File > New Project.

A new, untitled project appears in the Browser with an empty sequence. You can name the project when you save it.

This is your

To save a project:

1 Click the project’s tab in the Browser

2 Choose File > Save Project (or press Command-S).

3 If you haven’t named the project yet, a dialog appears. Enter a name and choose a

location for the project, then click Save.

To save all open projects:

m Choose File > Save All (or press Option-S).

If you haven’t named a project yet, a dialog appears where you can enter a name and choose a location for the project.

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences 45

Opening and Closing Projects

You can open and work on more than one project at a time. When you finish working and quit Final Cut Express HD, a message appears for each open project, asking if you want to save your changes. The next time you open Final Cut Express HD, all projects that were open at the end of your last session open automatically. You can have multiple projects open at the same time, each represented by its own tab in the Browser.

To open a project:

1 Choose File > Open.

2 Locate and select the project file, then click Open.

If you created the project in a previous version of Final Cut Express HD, you’ll be asked if you want to update your project. For more information, see “Backing Up

and Restoring Projects” on page 903.

To close a project:

1 Click the project’s tab to bring it to the front.

2 Do one of the following:

Â Choose File > Close Project.

Â Control-click the project’s tab, then choose Close Tab from the shortcut menu

that appears.

Â Press Control-W.

3 If you’ve modified the project and haven’t saved it, a message asks if you want to save

changes to the project. Click Yes to save the project.

46 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Control-click the tab and choose Close Tab.

To switch between

To switch between several open projects:

m In the Browser, click a project’s tab.

projects, click a

project’s tab.

To close all open projects:

m Close the Browser.

Any project that has its own window (because you dragged the project’s tab out of the Browser) remains open.

About the Connection Between Clips and Media Files

Clips are not to be confused with the media files you captured to your computer’s hard disk. A clip refers to a media file on your computer’s hard disk, but the clip is not the media file itself. Clips usually reference all of the content within a media file, but you can also create subclips that reference only part of a media file, or merged clips that refer to several media files at once.

A Final Cut Express HD clip refers to its media file via the clip property called Source, which describes the location of the media file in the form of a directory path. For example, the directory path for a clip’s media file might look like this:

/MyScratchDisk/Capture Scratch/MyProject/MyMediaFile

Note: Every file on your hard disk can be located by its directory path. A directory path describes where a file is located within the file and folder hierarchy of the operating system.

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences 47

To see a clip’s Source property:

1 Select a clip in the Browser by clicking it.

2 Choose Edit > Item Properties > Format (or press Command-9).

The Item Properties window appears.

3 Look at the directory path in the clip’s Source field.

4 If you can’t see the complete directory path, you can do one of the following:

Â Drag the right edge of the column heading to the right to increase the column width.

Â Move the pointer over the directory path in the Source field, then wait until a tooltip

appears showing the complete directory path.

Relationship Between Source Tapes, Media Files, and Clips

The relationship between source tapes, media files, and clips is described below.

Â Source tape: An original videotape from your production.

Â Media file: A QuickTime movie file created by capturing video, audio, and timecode

from the source tape to a computer hard disk. This is a copy of the original footage.

Â Clip: An object in a Final Cut Express HD project that represents a media file on the

scratch disk. A clip connects to a media file, but it isn’t the media file itself. If you delete a clip, the media file remains intact on the scratch disk. If you delete the media file, the clip remains in the project, but it is no longer connected to its media. You can create clips by importing or dragging media files to the Final Cut Express HD Browser.

Reconnecting Clips to Media Files

If you modify, move, or delete your media files on disk, the clips in your project lose the connection to the media files and they become offline clips. In this case, the word offline refers to the fact that a clip’s media file has become unavailable.

48 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

An offline clip has a red slash through its icon in the Browser. In the Timeline, an offline clip appears white (when you play back your sequence in the Canvas, offline clips display a “Media Offline” message). To view these clips properly in your project, you need to reconnect the clips to their corresponding media files at their new locations on disk. This reestablishes the connection between the clips and their media files.

Offline clips in the Timeline

Offline clips in

the Browser

Final Cut Express HD allows you to reconnect clips to media files in whatever way suits your project. For example, you can work on one project on two different editing systems that both contain the same media files. When you transfer the project from one system to another, you can easily reconnect the project clips to the local media files. For more information on reconnecting offline clips, see “Reconnecting Clips

and Offline Media” on page 933.

Filenaming Considerations

Proper filenaming is one of the most critical aspects of media and project management. When you capture your media files, consider how and where your files may be used in the future. Naming your files simply and consistently makes it easier to share media among multiple editors, transfer projects to other editing systems, move files across a network, and properly restore archived projects. The following sections present several issues to consider when naming project files and media files.

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences 49

Avoiding Special Characters

The most conservative filenaming conventions provide the most cross-platform compatibility. This means that your filenames will work in different operating systems, such as Windows, Mac OS X and other Unix operating systems, and Mac OS 9. You also need to consider filenaming when you transfer files via the Internet, where you can never be certain what computer platform your files may be stored on, even if temporarily.

Most special characters should be avoided. Here are some suggested conservative filenaming guidelines for maximum cross-platform compatibility:

Avoid Example characters Reasons

File separators : (colon)

/ (forward-slash) \ (backward-slash)

Special characters not included in your native alphabet

Punctuation marks, parentheses, quotation marks, brackets, and operators.

White space characters such as spaces, tabs, new lines, and carriage returns (the last two are uncommon).

  ¢ ™ These characters may not be

. , [ ] { } ( ) ! ; “ ‘ * ? < > | These characters are often used

You cannot use colons (:) in the names of files and folders because Mac OS 9 (Classic) uses this character to separate directories in pathnames. In addition, some applications may not allow you to use slashes (/) in the names of items.

These characters are directory separators for Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, and DOS (Windows) respectively.

supported or difficult to work with when exported to certain file formats, such as EDL, OMF, or XML.

in scripting and programming languages.

White space is handled differently in different programming languages and operating systems, so certain processing scripts and applications may treat your files differently than expected. The most conservative filenames avoid all use of whitespace characters, and use the (underscore) _ character instead.

50 Part I An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD

Restricting Length of Filenames

Although current file systems such as HFS+ (used by Mac OS X) allow you to create filenames with a 255-character limit, you may want to limit your filename length if you intend to transfer your files to other operating systems. Earlier versions of the Mac OS only allow 31-character filenames, and if you want to include a file extension (such as .fcp, .mov, or .aif), you need to shorten your Mac OS 9-compatible filenames to 27 characters.

For EDL files, which may be stored on DOS-compatible disks, you should limit your filenames to 8-characters plus a 3-character file extension (.EDL).

Using Filename Extensions

Mac OS X and other operating systems can use file extensions when determining which application to open a file with, or what method of transfer to use for a network transfer. If you intend to transfer your media or project files to non-Macintosh computer platforms, you should use standard file extensions for your files. Some common file extensions include: .mov (QuickTime movie file), .xml (XML file), .zip (ZIP compressed archive file), .aif (AIFF audio file), .wav (WAVE audio file), .psd (Photoshop graphics file), .jpg (JPEG graphics file), and .tif (TIFF graphics file).

Adding Times and Dates to Final Cut Express HD Project Names

When you make a backup copy of your project file, adding the date to the project name helps identify the file among the other saved versions. If you add dates to a filename, avoid using special characters like the slash (/), since that may be interpreted by Mac OS X as a file separator.

The Final Cut Express HD autosave feature appends the date and time in the following format: ProjectName_03-21-04_1744. The filename above is a backup of a project called ProjectName. The date is March 21, 2005, and it was saved at 5:44 PM. Note that the name includes no white space. This filenaming convention is simple, consistent, and easily identifies the order in which the project files were created. (For more information about this feature, see “Backing Up and Restoring Projects” on page 903.

Using Multiple Hard Disks

If you have multiple hard disks and partitions, or volumes, that have similar names, they may cause problems during the capture process. Each hard disk should have a name that doesn’t contain the entire name of another disk or partition.

Â Avoid filenames such as: “Media” and “Media 1”

Â Create filenames such as: “Zeus” and “Apollo”

Chapter 3 Understanding Projects, Clips, and Sequences 51

Part II: Learning About the

Final Cut Express HD Interface

Get familiar with the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline, and learn how to customize the Final Cut Express HD interface to meet your specific needs.

Chapter 4 Overview of the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Chapter 5 Browser Basics

Chapter 6 Viewer Basics

Chapter 7 Canvas Basics

Chapter 8 Navigating and Using Timecode in the Viewer and Canvas

Chapter 9 Timeline Basics

Chapter 10 Customizing the Interface

4 Overview of the

Final Cut Express HD Interface

The Final Cut Express HD interface has four main windows and a Tool palette.

This chapter includes:

Â Basics of Working in the Final Cut Express HD Interface (p. 55)

Â Using Keyboard Shortcuts, Buttons, and Shortcut Menus (p. 57)

Â Customizing the Interface (p. 59)

Â Undoing and Redoing Changes (p. 63)

Â Entering Timecode for Navigation Purposes (p. 64)

Basics of Working in the Final Cut Express HD Interface

There are four main windows in Final Cut Express HD that you use while you are making your movie. You may want to open Final Cut Express HD so you can view these windows and familiarize yourself with them.

Note: If you’re opening Final Cut Express HD for the first time, you’re prompted to choose an Easy Setup (a collection of settings that determines how Final Cut Express HD works with your editing system) and a scratch disk (the hard disk where you’ll store your captured media files). For more information about these settings, see “Opening

Final Cut Express HD and Choosing Your Initial Settings” on page 146.

To open Final Cut Express HD:

m In the Finder, double-click the Final Cut Express HD icon in the Applications folder.

You may also choose to add the Final Cut Express HD icon to the Dock for easier access. For more information, see Mac Help.

You’ll see these windows when you open a sequence with clips already in it. These windows are covered in more detail in the chapters that follow.

Viewer: Used to preview and prepare source

clips for editing, as well as adjust filter and motion parameters to clips.

Browser: This is where

you organize the media

in your project.

Timeline: This displays

sequences.

Canvas: Allows you to view your edited sequence, as well as perform a variety of editing functions. Works in parallel with the Timeline.

Audio meters: These floating meters let you monitor audio levels.

Tool palette: This contains tools for selecting, navigating, performing edits, and manipulating items.

Before working in a window in Final Cut Express HD, you must make sure it’s the currently selected (or “active”) window. Otherwise, your actions and commands might trigger actions in another window.

Important: Menu commands and keyboard shortcuts apply to the active window.

To determine the active window:

m Look for the highlighted title bar.

To make a window active, do one of the following:

m Click anywhere in the window.

m Press one of the following keyboard shortcuts:

Â Browser: Command-4

Â Viewer: Command-1

Â Timeline: Command-3

Â Canvas: Command-2

Â Audio meters: Option-4

Note: There is no keyboard shortcut to open the Tool palette.

m Choose Window, then in the submenu, choose the window you want to display.

56 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Using Keyboard Shortcuts, Buttons, and Shortcut Menus

Final Cut Express HD offers several methods for performing commands. You can choose commands from the menu bar at the top of the screen or from contextual shortcut menus, or you can use keyboard shortcuts to perform many commands. Most people work fastest using keyboard shortcuts; others prefer to use shortcut menus or the mouse to access commands in the menu bar. Experiment to find out which method best suits your editing style.

You can also create shortcut buttons that appear at the top of each window in the window’s button bar. Learning about these basic interface elements will enable you to work faster and more efficiently.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts let you perform commands in Final Cut Express HD using the keyboard instead of by pointing and clicking. These shortcuts can help you work more efficiently. For example, to create a new sequence, you’d press Command-N; to zoom in, you’d press Command-= (equal sign).

Note: The default keyboard shortcuts for tasks are presented throughout this volume, as well as in menu commands and tooltips. (Tooltips appear when you move the pointer over a control in Final Cut Express HD and show the name of the control, as well as the current shortcut key or keys assigned to that control.)

Using Button Bars

You can create shortcut buttons and place them in the button bar along the top of the main windows in Final Cut Express HD—the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, Timeline, and any Tool Bench windows. (The Tool Bench is a specialized window containing tabs for specific tasks, such as the Voice Over tool.) You can then click any of the shortcut buttons in the button bar to perform commands, instead of entering keyboard shortcuts or using menus.

Button bar in the Browser with several shortcut buttons

Chapter 4 Overview of the Final Cut Express HD Interface 57

For more information on using and customizing button bars, see Chapter 10, “Customizing the Interface,” on page 135.

Using Shortcut Menus

Shortcut menus (also called contextual menus) are available in nearly every section of every window and offer a quick way to perform various tasks. The commands available in a shortcut menu depend on the location of the pointer. For example, a shortcut menu in the Browser shows options different from those available in a shortcut menu in the Timeline.

To view and use a shortcut menu:

1 Press the Control key and click an item (this is called Control-clicking), or Control-click

an area in a window in Final Cut Express HD.

2 In the shortcut menu that appears, choose the command you want, then release the

mouse button.

Note: If you have a multibutton mouse, clicking the right mouse button is the same as Control-clicking by default.

58 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Learning Commands by Using Tooltips

When you move the pointer over a control in Final Cut Express HD, a small box called a tooltip appears with a description of the control. Next to the description is the keyboard shortcut for using the control. You can turn tooltips off and on in the General tab of the User Preferences window.

This tooltip appears when the pointer is over the Play button in the Viewer.

To enable tooltips in Final Cut Express HD:

1 Choose Final Cut Express HD > User Preferences.

2 In the General tab, select Show Tooltips.

Customizing the Interface

Final Cut Express HD allows you to customize the interface in several ways. You can rearrange windows and move them to suit your needs and work style. You can also use various screen layouts provided by Final Cut Express HD. You can also position the Dock in the Mac OS X interface so that it takes up less room or is hidden.

Pointer between

three or more windows

Moving and Resizing Windows

All open windows in Final Cut Express HD—the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, Timeline, and Tool Bench—can be individually moved and resized to suit both your working style and the task at hand, even across multiple monitors. When all windows are arranged together on a single monitor, you can drag the border between any aligned group of adjacent windows to quickly resize all the windows at the same time.

Pointer between two windows

Chapter 4 Overview of the Final Cut Express HD Interface 59

To resize windows in Final Cut Express HD:

m Drag the border in the desired direction to resize the appropriate windows.

The windows on either side of the border are resized accordingly.

Any border between two windows in Final Cut Express HD can be dragged. When borders line up, such as the tops of the Browser and Timeline, they act as a single border—resizing one window resizes the other as well. See “Moving and Resizing

Final Cut Express HD Windows” on page 135 for more information.

Working With Tabs and Tabbed Windows

The Viewer and Browser contain tabs that let you access different functions. The Browser also contains tabs for open projects. Tabs in the Timeline and Canvas represent open sequences.

The Viewer contains tabs that specify functions within clips.

The Browser

contains tabs

for open projects

and effects.

Like the Canvas, the

Timeline contains a tab

for each open sequence.

The Canvas contains a tab for each open sequence.

60 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

To make a tab active:

m Click the tab.

To close a tab, do one of the following:

m Control-click the tab, then choose Close Tab from the shortcut menu

m Click a tab to make it the frontmost tab, then press Control-W.

You can drag tabs out of their main, or parent, windows so they appear in a separate window. This is useful when you are working on more than one sequence or project at a time.

To make a tab appear in its own window:

m Drag the tab out of its parent window (Browser, Viewer, Canvas, or Timeline).

The Effects tab is dragged out of the Browser and appears in its own window.

Drag the tab

to the title bar of the

original window

to put it back.

To put a tab back in its original window:

m Drag the tab to the title bar of its parent window.

Chapter 4 Overview of the Final Cut Express HD Interface 61

Moving Windows

There are several ways you can move windows in Final Cut Express HD. You can move a window by clicking its title bar, and then dragging it to a new position and releasing the mouse button. You can also hold down the Command and Option keys, and then click anywhere in a window and drag it to a new position.

Using Different Screen Layouts

Final Cut Express HD comes with a set of predefined screen layouts. These layouts determine the size and location of the four main windows in Final Cut Express HD (the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline), along with the Tool palette and audio meters. Some screen layouts include additional windows, such as the Tool Bench. Choose a layout that maximizes your screen space in the best way for your source material, editing function, screen resolution, and monitor type.

To choose a screen layout:

m Choose Window > Arrange, then choose an option from the submenu.

If none of the existing layouts meet your needs, you can create and save additional screen layouts that you’ve arranged yourself. See “Customizing Screen Layouts” on page 138 for more information.

Showing and Positioning the Dock

When you use Final Cut Express HD, your screen space may be limited by the presence of the Dock. You can make the Dock smaller so it takes up less room on the screen. You can also hide the Dock, so it only appears when you move the pointer over its (hidden) position. Another option is to position the Dock somewhere else on the screen. The default is on the bottom, but you can also choose to place it on the left or right side of the screen.

Decide how you think you’ll work best, then modify the Dock settings. You can then rearrange the windows in Final Cut Express HD to accommodate the position of the Dock.

62 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

To arrange Final Cut Express HD windows and make room for the Dock:

1 If desired, change the position of the Dock.

For specific information on changing the way the Dock looks and works, see Mac Help (in the Finder, choose Help > Mac Help).

2 In Final Cut Express HD, choose Window > Arrange, then choose your preferred layout

from the submenu.

The windows are rearranged to take into account the position of the Dock.

Undoing and Redoing Changes

You can undo changes you make in your projects, sequences, and clips. This is helpful if you make a change you don’t like and want to revert to an earlier version. You can also redo actions that you have undone.

By default, you can undo 10 of your previous changes. You can set Final Cut Express HD to undo up to 32 changes. The more levels of Undo you select, the more memory is needed. For more information on modifying the number of changes to undo, see “Choosing Settings and Preferences” on page 945.

To undo a change, do one of the following:

m Press Command-Z.

m Choose Edit > Undo.

To redo a change, do one of the following:

m Press Command-Shift-Z.

m Choose Edit > Redo.

Chapter 4 Overview of the Final Cut Express HD Interface 63

Entering Timecode for Navigation Purposes

Timecode allows you to navigate through your sequences to a specific point in time. Unlike Final Cut Pro, all clips in Final Cut Express HD start at 00:00:00:00.

Current Timecode field in the Canvas

When you enter timecode in a field, such as the Current Timecode field in the Viewer, Canvas, or Timeline, you don’t need to enter all of the separator characters (such as colons); Final Cut Express HD automatically adds them for you after each set of two digits.

For example, if you enter 00221419, Final Cut Express HD interprets it as 00:22:14:19. This stands for 22 minutes, 14 seconds, and 19 frames.

If you enter a partial number, Final Cut Express HD interprets it with the rightmost pair of numbers as frames and puts each successive pair of numbers to the left in the remaining seconds, minutes, and hours areas. Numbers you omit default to 00.

For example, if you enter 1419, Final Cut Express HD interprets it as 00:00:14:19.

However, if the rightmost pair of numbers is not a valid frame number, then the entire number entered is interpreted as absolute frames.

For example, suppose the frame rate of your clip is 25 fps. If you enter 124, Final Cut Express HD interprets this as 01:24 (one second and 24 frames). However, if you enter 125, or 199, Final Cut Express HD interprets these as 125 frames or 199 frames, respectively. This is because the frame counter cannot be higher than 24 when you use 25 fps timecode. Since a number like 01:99 is not a valid timecode number, the entire value is interpreted as absolute frames.

64 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

5 Browser Basics

The Browser is where you organize all of the clips in your project.

This chapter covers the following:

Â How You Use the Browser (p. 65)

Â Learning About the Browser (p. 66)

Â Working in the Browser (p. 67)

Â Using Columns in the Browser (p. 69)

Â Customizing the Browser Display (p. 70)

Note: For information about organizing footage in the Browser, see “Organizing

Footage in the Browser” on page 219.

How You Use the Browser

The Browser is a powerful tool used to organize your project’s clips. In the Browser, you can sort, rename, and rearrange hundreds of clips in a multitude of ways. You can also customize how the Browser displays information about clips to suit your preferred work habits.

You can think of the Browser as a way of viewing and manipulating your clips as if they were in a database or spreadsheet. Each row represents a clip or sequence, and each column represents a property field containing information about that clip or sequence.

Note: For more information about the basic organizational elements of Final Cut Express HD—media files, clips, sequences, bins, and projects—and how they relate to the Browser, see Chapter 3, “Understanding Projects, Clips, and

Sequences,” on page 39.

Learning About the Browser

By default, you view items in the Browser in icon view, which lets you easily see items by type. For video clips, you see a frame of video to help you distinguish the contents.

Project

Sequence

Bin

Each tab represents a

project or an open bin.

Bins help you organize

clips in your projects.

Sequence

Clip

You can also view items in the Browser in different ways. When the Browser displays items in list view, all items appear in a sorted list.

You can also access effects through the Browser.

Columns display clip properties.

For more information about viewing items in the Browser in list view or icon view, see “Customizing the Browser Display” on page 70.

66 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Working in the Browser

Before you can work in the Browser, it must be the currently selected, or active, window. Otherwise, any commands or keyboard shortcuts you use may perform the wrong operations.

To make the Browser window active, do one of the following:

m Click anywhere in the Browser.

m Press Command-4.

Creating Sequences

Before you can begin editing clips into a sequence, you must create a sequence.

To create a new sequence:

1 Click in the Browser to make it the active window.

2 Choose File > New > Sequence (or press Command-N).

If no project is currently open, Final Cut Express HD creates a new untitled project and creates a new sequence within it.

Selecting Items in the Browser

You can select and modify individual clips, or many clips at once.

To select a single clip:

m Click an item.

To select a group of adjacent clips, do one of the following:

m Select an item, press and hold down the Shift key, then click the last item.

m Drag over multiple clips.

To select multiple, nonadjacent clips:

m Press and hold down the Command key while clicking multiple items.

Navigating Within the Browser Using the Keyboard

You can navigate to items in the Browser in various ways, depending on whether you are viewing items in list view or icon view (see “Customizing the Browser Display” on page 70).

To navigate within the Browser, do one of the following:

m Press the Up and Down Arrow keys to move up and down in a list of items in list view

or move vertically between items in icon view.

m Press the Right and Left Arrow keys to move horizontally between items in icon view.

m Press the Tab key to move between items alphabetically.

m Type the first few letters of an item’s name.

Chapter 5 Browser Basics 67

Copying and Deleting Items in the Browser

Copying or duplicating a clip creates an affiliate clip, which is a clip that shares properties with the original clip, or master clip. For more information about master- affiliate clip relationships, see “Working With Master and Affiliate Clips” on page 921.

To copy an item, do one of the following:

m Select the item, then hold down the Option key while you drag the item to a new bin

or to the Name column heading.

m Press Option-D to duplicate the selected item.

m Select an item, choose Edit > Copy, then choose Edit > Paste.

To duplicate a master clip, creating a new master clip instead of an affiliate clip:

1 Select a clip in the Browser.

2 Do one of the following:

Â Choose Modify > Duplicate as New Master Clip.

Â Control-click the clip, then choose Duplicate as New Master Clip from the shortcut

menu.

To delete a clip, sequence, or bin from a project:

m Select the item, then press Delete.

Note: Deleting a clip from a project does not delete that clip’s media file from your hard disk, nor does it delete any other affiliated clips, including sequence clips. When deleting a master clip, however, Final Cut Express HD warns you that affiliated clips will lose the master clip they refer to. Deleting a master clip turns all affiliated clips into master clips (in the Browser) or independent clips (in sequences).

Renaming Clips, Sequences, and Bins

You can rename items within Final Cut Express HD. Renaming clips does not change the names of media files on your disk.

To rename clips, sequences, and bins within Final Cut Express HD:

1 Select the clip, sequence, or bin.

2 Once the item is selected, click the item’s name, type a new name, then press Return

or Enter.

68 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Renaming a clip automatically renames all affiliated clips in the current project, because there is only a single Name property shared between a master clip and all of its affiliate clips. This affects all clips in the Browser and in all sequences within your project. For more information on master and affiliate clips, see “Working With

Master and Affiliate Clips” on page 921.

Note: Master-affiliate clip relationships exist only within a project, not across multiple projects.

Using Columns in the Browser

In list view, the Browser’s scrollable columns provide information about your clips and their associated media files.

The Browser can display many columns of information at once. You can customize the Browser to display only the columns you want, as well as rearrange columns and change their width. The Name column cannot be hidden, and always appears at the far left.

Information in Browser columns is based on the following:

Â The item properties of a clip

Â The clip settings you selected when your clips were logged and captured

Â A clip’s media file properties such as image dimensions and frame rate

Â The sequence settings of an individual sequence (the selected sequence preset)

You can change properties in some columns directly in the Browser by clicking or Control-clicking within the column, and then choosing an option from the shortcut menu. You can also modify these properties in the Item Properties window for a clip. For more information, see “Working With Projects, Clips, and Sequences” on page 261.

∏ Tip: If a field in the Browser contains more text than fits within the field or column, you

view the complete information by moving the pointer over the field and then waiting for several seconds. A tooltip appears with the full text of the entry.

Chapter 5 Browser Basics 69

Customizing the Browser Display

There are various ways you can display items in the Browser, depending on your needs and workstyle. You can display items in list or icon (thumbnail) view, choose columns you want to show or hide, and choose the frame you see for a clip in icon (thumbnail) view.

Choosing Views in the Browser

You can view items in the Browser in list view or icon view. List view provides detailed clip information in columns; clips within bins appear hierarchically, allowing you to reveal or hide the contents of a bin.

If you want to organize your clips visually, you can set the Browser to display your clips as icons. There are three icon view sizes—small, medium, and large. When you choose an icon view, items are rearranged in a grid. The large icon view is particularly useful when using larger (20-inch or greater viewable area) monitors.

Small icon view Medium icon view Large icon view

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

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

m 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.

m Press Shift-H to toggle through all four views.

70 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Working With the Browser in List View

When items are displayed as a list, the Browser displays information about the items in columns. You can customize these columns in several ways. You can:

Â Rearrange, resize, hide, and show individual columns

Â Sort clips by columns

Â View a predefined set of standard columns or a set of columns designed for logging

Â Change the Master Comment column headings

Â Display, hide, and scrub (move) through thumbnails of clips

To rearrange a column:

m Drag the column heading to the new location.

As you drag a column, the pointer changes to a rectangle.

To resize a column:

m Drag the right edge of the column heading to the desired width.

The pointer between two columns changes to a Resize pointer, indicating a column can be resized.

Chapter 5 Browser Basics 71

To hide a column:

m Control-click the column heading, then choose Hide Column from the shortcut menu.

Note: You can’t hide the Name column; it’s always displayed.

To display a hidden column:

m Control-click the column heading to the right of where you want to display the column,

then choose the column you want to display from the shortcut menu.

To display thumbnails:

m Control-click any column heading other than Name, then choose Show Thumbnail from

the shortcut menu.

A thumbnail column appears with images for all video clips.

Thumbnails appear as small images of your video clips.

When thumbnails are displayed, the image shown is the first frame of the clip or the In point of the clip, if one is set. You can scrub through a thumbnail by dragging in the image, but the frame shown in the Browser always reverts to the In point of the clip.

You can change the starting image (called the poster frame) if you want to display another frame in the thumbnail. For more information, see “Setting the Poster Frame” on page 77.

To hide thumbnails:

m Control-click the Thumbnail column heading, then choose Hide Column from the

shortcut menu.

72 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

To scrub, or move, through a thumbnail:

m Drag the thumbnail image in the direction you want to view.

The thumbnail you’re scrubbing through is highlighted.

Note: You can also scrub through clips that are displayed in large icon view (see “Scrubbing Through Clips in Icon View” on page 74).

To change the names of the Master Comment or Comment column headings:

1 Control-click a Comment column heading, then choose Edit Heading from the

shortcut menu.

2 Type a new name in the column’s Name field, then press Return.

Enter the new column name.

The Master Comment and Comment column headings are the only column headings you can change. Once you customize the name of a Comment column, it remains changed in that project file, even if you hide it. New projects you create use the default names.

If you want to change several Comment headings at once, use the Project Properties window. For more information, see “Working With Projects, Clips, and Sequences” on page 261.

Chapter 5 Browser Basics 73

Working With the Browser in Icon View

In large, medium, or small icon view, you arrange your clips graphically in the Browser. Video clips are displayed as a thumbnail of the starting frame of video, audio clips are displayed as a speaker, and bins are indicated by a folder icon. If a video clip has an audio track, a small speaker icon appears inside the clip’s thumbnail.

Video clip with audio

Thumbnails of

clips in icon view

Audio clip

You can use different views for open Browser windows and tabs. For example, you can keep the main tab of your project in the Browser in list view for organizational purposes, but open bins in their own windows or tabs using large icon view to quickly identify clips visually.

Scrubbing Through Clips in Icon View

In large icon view, you can scrub through video clips to see their content. You can also scrub through thumbnails of clips displayed in list view (see “Working With the Browser

in List View” on page 71). However, you don’t have all of the options you have in large

icon view.

Note: You can’t scrub through clips in small icon view.

74 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

To scrub through clips in large icon view:

1 Do one of the following:

Â Select the Scrub Video tool in the Tool palette.

Selection tool

Select the Scrub Video tool.

Note: When the Scrub Video tool is selected, you can hold down the Shift or Command key to temporarily make the Selection tool active to select, open, or move clips.

Â With the Selection tool selected, press Control-Shift to temporarily make the Scrub

Video tool active.

2 Drag the Scrub Video tool over the thumbnail.

Move right to scrub forward; move left to scrub backward.

Chapter 5 Browser Basics 75

Automatically Arranging Clips in Icon View

When you’re in icon view in the Browser, you can organize clip icons however you want. You can use the Arrange commands to automatically arrange your icons from left to right, either in alphabetical order or by duration, within the current width of the Browser or bin window. This is useful if the Browser or a bin window has overlapping icons or if you find yourself constantly scrolling to see icons.

To arrange items in the Browser into rows in icon view, do one of the following:

m Choose View > Arrange, then select by Name or by Duration.

m Control-click in an empty area of the Browser, then choose Arrange by Name or

Arrange by Duration from the shortcut menu.

Before using the Arrange command

After using the Arrange command

76 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Setting the Poster Frame

The poster frame is the picture that represents a clip in icon view in the Browser. When you look at clips in the Browser in large icon view or when you show the Thumbnail column in list view, the icon or thumbnail picture you see reflects either the In point for that clip (or the first frame of the clip if no In point has been set), or the poster frame you set for the clip in the Browser.

Poster frames are useful if you want to identify a clip visually in the Browser using a specific image, and can be especially useful if you’re working with a lot of clips or subclips with similar imagery. Any frame of a clip can be its poster frame.

To set the poster frame of a clip in the Viewer:

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

2 In the Viewer, navigate to the frame you want to use as the poster frame for the clip.

3 Choose Mark > Set Poster Frame (or press Control-P).

To set the poster frame in the Browser in large icon view:

m Scrub through a clip until you get to the desired frame, press and hold the Control key,

then release the mouse button.

Original poster frame

(before scrubbing)

The poster frame is

now set to the frame

you scrubbed to.

Chapter 5 Browser Basics 77

6 Viewer Basics

The Viewer is used for viewing a clip’s media and preparing clips before editing them into a sequence.

This chapter covers the following:

Â How You Can Use the Viewer (p. 79)

Â Opening a Clip in the Viewer (p. 80)

Â Learning About the Viewer (p. 82)

Â Tabs in the Viewer (p. 83)

Â Transport (or Playback) Controls (p. 84)

Â Playhead Controls (p. 85)

Â Marking Controls (p. 87)

Â Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus (p. 88)

Â Recent Clips and Generator Pop-Up Menus (p. 90)

How You Can Use the Viewer

The Viewer is extremely versatile. You can use the Viewer to:

Â Define In and Out edit points for clips before editing them into a sequence

Â Adjust audio levels and panning in the Audio tab

Â Open clips within sequences to adjust durations, In and Out points, and filter

parameters

Note: Changes you make to a clip opened from a sequence are applied to the clip only in that sequence. If you make changes to a clip opened from the Browser, the changes appear only in the clip in the Browser.

Â Add filters to clips and adjust filters applied to clips

Â Adjust the motion parameters of clips to modify or animate such parameters as scale,

rotation, cropping, and opacity

Â Adjust generator clip controls

Generators are special clips that can be generated by Final Cut Express HD, so they don’t require source media. Final Cut Express HD has generators that create color mattes, text of different types, gradients, color bars, and white noise. For more information, see “Using Built-in Generated Clips” on page 849.

Â Open a transition, such as a dissolve or a wipe, from an edited sequence for

detailed editing

For more information, see “Adding Transitions” on page 507.

Before you can work in the Viewer, it must be the currently selected, or active, window. Otherwise, any commands or keyboard shortcuts you use may perform the wrong operations. To display the Viewer (if it’s not open already), you must open a clip from the Browser or the Timeline (see the next section, “Opening a Clip in the Viewer”).

To make the Viewer window active, do one of the following:

m Click the Viewer.

m Press Command-1. (Press this again to close the Viewer.)

m Press Q to switch between the Viewer and the Canvas.

Opening a Clip in the Viewer

The Viewer is where you look at source clips from the Browser before editing them into a sequence. You can also open clips that are already in a sequence in order to adjust durations and edit points, or edit filter parameters. There a variety of ways to open clips in the Viewer. You can choose the method that you find most convenient.

∏ Tip: You can tell whether a clip in the Viewer has been opened from the Browser or

from a sequence in the Timeline. Sprocket holes appear in the scrubber bar for clips opened from a sequence. You can also tell the origin of the clip from the name of the clip in the Viewer title bar.

80 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

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

m In the Browser, double-click the clip.

m Drag the clip from the Browser to the Viewer.

m In the Browser, select the clip and press Return.

Note: In the Browser, pressing Enter is different from pressing Return. Pressing Enter allows to you to rename the clip.

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

m In the Browser, select the clip, then choose View > Clip.

m In the Viewer, select a clip name from the Recent Clips pop-up menu in the lower-right

area of the window.

To open a sequence clip in the Viewer from the Timeline or Canvas, do one of the following:

m In the Timeline, double-click the clip.

m In the Timeline or Canvas, move the playhead over the clip, then press Return or Enter.

The clip on the lowest-numbered track with Auto Select enabled is opened in the Viewer.

m In the Timeline, select the clip and press Return or Enter.

m Drag the clip from the Timeline to the Viewer.

Sprocket holes

indicate that this is

a sequence clip

Chapter 6 Viewer Basics 81

Learning About the Viewer

The following is a quick summary of the Viewer controls. For a more detailed description of Viewer controls, see the sections starting with “Tabs in the Viewer” on page 83.

Clip name and the

Tabs

project it’s in.

Timecode Duration field

Zoom pop-up menu

Image display area

Playhead

In point

Scrubber bar

Shuttle control

Current Timecode field

View pop-up menu

Out point

Marker

Jog control Generator pop-up menu

Marking controls

Transport controls

Recent Clips pop-up menu

Â Tabs: There are five tabs that can be shown in the Viewer—Video, Audio, Filters,

Motion, and Controls—each providing certain editing functions. For more details, see “Tabs in the Viewer” on page 83.

Â Image display area: This is the area of the Viewer where you can see the video from

your sequence play back.

Â In point and Out point: In and Out points allow you to define a specific portion of a clip

to include in a sequence. A clip In point marks the first frame of a clip to be edited into a sequence. A clip Out point specifies the last frame of the clip to be used. For more information, see “Setting Edit Points for Clips and Sequences” on page 283.

Â Playhead: The position of the playhead corresponds to the currently displayed frame.

You can move the playhead to go to different parts of a clip.

Â Scrubber bar: The scrubber bar represents the entire duration of a clip. You can click

anywhere in the scrubber bar to automatically move the playhead to that location.

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

and sequences.

Â Jog and shuttle controls: You use the jog and shuttle controls to navigate within your

clip, much like traditional VTR controls.

Â Marking controls: You use these to set edit points (In and Out points) and add

markers and keyframes to your clips.

82 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Â Zoom pop-up menu: This lets you enlarge or shrink the image that appears in

the Viewer.

Â View pop-up menu: This allows you to control display options such as marker

overlays and title safe guides.

Â Generator pop-up menu: You use this to select and open generators in the Viewer for

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

Â Recent Clips pop-up menu: This allows you to open recently used clips in the Viewer

for modifying and editing into your sequence.

Â Current Timecode field: This field displays the timecode of the frame at the current

position of the playhead. You can enter timecode numbers here to navigate to a new position in the clip.

Â Timecode Duration field: This field shows the current duration between the clip In

and Out points. You can change the duration here, which automatically adjusts the the clip Out point.

Tabs in the Viewer

Each tab in the Viewer provides a specific set of editing functions: Video, Audio, Filters, Motion, and Controls. You can drag tabs out of the Viewer so they appear in a separate window. This is useful, for example, if you want to adjust filter or generator parameters while watching the results in the Video tab.

Video Tab

The video tab lets you view a clip’s video media, set In and Out points, and add markers and keyframes. This tab appears when you open a clip that includes video clip items. This tab is shown by default (see “Learning About the Viewer” on page 82).

Audio Tabs

Audio tabs display audio waveforms for audio clip items. If your clip has audio items, each audio item opens in its own Audio tab. (If you open an audio-only clip, you’ll only see Audio tabs with no accompanying Video tab.)

An audio tab may represent a single (mono) audio item or a stereo pair of audio items. Stereo audio items appear together in a single tab, while mono audio items appear separately in individual tabs. Controls in each Audio tab allow you to change the audio level and the stereo panning parameters, creating keyframes if necessary to adjust levels over time. You can also use an Audio tab to set In and Out points, markers, and keyframes for audio clips. To learn more, see “Audio Editing Basics” on page 425.

Chapter 6 Viewer Basics 83

Filters Tab

You use this tab to adjust parameters for any video or audio filters you’ve applied to a clip. You can also set keyframes to adjust filter parameters over time. For more information, see “Video Filters” on page 663. For audio filters, see “Using Audio Filters” on page 639.

Motion Tab

Every clip with a video clip item, whether it’s a video, still image, or generator clip, has the same motion parameters: scale, rotation, center, anchor point, and additional attributes such as crop, distort, opacity, drop shadow, and motion blur. The Motion tab allows you to adjust these parameters of a clip.

You can create motion effects by setting keyframes for motion parameters over time. For more information, see “Changing Motion Parameters” on page 689. Also refer to “Adjusting Parameters for Keyframed Effects” on page 719.

Controls Tab

You use the Controls tab to change the parameters for generator clips, such as the font and text size in a Text generator, or the size of a Circle Shape generator. The Controls tab appears only when a generator is open in the Viewer. For additional information, see “Using Built-in Generated Clips” on page 849.

Go to Previous Edit

Play In to Out

Transport (or Playback) Controls

Transport controls let you play clips in the Viewer. (The same controls also appear in the Capture and Edit to Tape windows.) These controls play clips at 100 percent (or 1x) speed. There are keyboard shortcuts for each control.

Go to Next Edit

Play Around Current Frame

Play

Â Play (Space bar): Plays your clip from the current location of the playhead. Clicking it

again stops playback.

Â Play In to Out (Shift-\): Moves the playhead to the current In point of a clip and plays

forward from that point to the Out point.

84 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Â Play Around Current Frame (\): Plays the selected clip “around” the current playhead

position. When you click this button, the playback begins before the playhead position based on the value in the Preview Pre-roll field in the Editing tab of the User Preferences window. Playback continues through the original position of the playhead, and then continues for the amount of time in the Preview Post-roll field in User Preferences. When you stop playback, the playhead jumps back to its original position. For more information, see “Choosing Settings and Preferences” on page 945.

Â Go to Previous Edit (Up Arrow) and Go to Next Edit (Down Arrow): When you have a

Browser clip open in the Viewer, these controls navigate between the In, Out, and Media Start and End points of the clip. When you have a sequence open, these buttons let you navigate between sequence edit points; sequence In and Out points are skipped over.

Playhead Controls

The playhead lets you navigate through and locate different parts of a clip quickly and easily.

Scrubber bar

Shuttle control

Playhead

Inactive video

Jog control

Playhead and Scrubber Bar

The playhead shows the location of the currently displayed frame within the current clip. The scrubber bar runs along the entire width of the Viewer, below the video image. To scrub through a clip, drag the playhead across the scrubber bar. You can also hold down the Command key to drag the playhead at a slower speed, so you can more easily locate specific frames. You can click anywhere in the scrubber bar to instantly move the playhead to that location.

The playhead’s movement in the scrubber bar is affected by whether “snapping” is turned on. When snapping is on, the playhead “snaps,” or moves directly, to any markers, In points, or Out points in the scrubber bar when it gets close to them. (To turn snapping on or off, choose View > Snapping, or press the N key.)

Chapter 6 Viewer Basics 85

To move the playhead to the next In or Out point, or Media End:

m Press the Down arrow key.

To move the playhead to the previous In or Out point, or Media Start:

m Press the Up arrow key.

To move the playhead to the beginning of your clip:

m Press Home on your keyboard.

To move the playhead to the end of your clip:

m Press End on your keyboard.

Jog Control

To move forward or backward in your clip very precisely, use the jog control. The jog control allows you to move the playhead as if you were actually moving it with your hand, with a one-to-one correspondence between the motion of your mouse and the playhead’s motion. This control is useful for carefully locating a specific frame (for instance, if you’re trimming an edit). For more information, see “Jogging Through a Clip

or Sequence” on page 106.

To move the playhead backward, one frame at a time:

m Press the Left Arrow key.

To move the playhead forward, one frame at a time:

m Press the Right Arrow key.

To move the playhead one second at a time:

m Hold down the Shift key and press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key.

Shuttle Control

This control lets you quickly play through clips at different speeds, in fast and slow motion. It also shifts the pitch of audio as it plays at varying speeds. In slow motion, this can make it easier to locate specific words and sounds for editing.

Drag the slider to the right to fast-forward and to the left to rewind. Playback speed varies depending on the distance of the slider from the center of the control. When the slider is green, playback speed is normal (or 100 percent speed). The further away from the center you move, the faster the playback speed. The keyboard equivalents of the shuttle control are the J, K, and L keys. For more information, see “Shuttling Through a

Clip or Sequence” on page 105.

86 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Marking Controls

Marking controls let you set In and Out points, add markers and keyframes, and navigate to matching frames in master or affiliate clips (this is called performing a

match frame

). There are keyboard shortcuts for each control.

Add Motion Keyframe

Mark Clip

Show Match Frame

Add Marker

Mark In

Mark Out

Show Match Frame (F):

When you click this button, Final Cut Express HD searches the current sequence for the same frame shown in the Viewer. Specifically, Final Cut Express HD looks for any sequence clips that are affiliated with the clip in the Viewer. If the frame shown in the Viewer is used in the current sequence, the Canvas/Timeline playhead is positioned to that frame. The result is that you see the same frame in both the Viewer and the Canvas, but the clip you see in the Canvas is actually an affiliate of the clip in the Viewer. This is useful if you want to see where you have already used a particular frame in your sequence.

Each time you click the Match Frame button, Final Cut Express HD navigates to the next occurrence of that frame in the sequence. To make sure you find the first occurrence of the frame, you can move the Canvas/Timeline playhead to the start of the sequence.

For a more comprehensive discussion of the Match Frame controls, see “Matching

Frames” on page 551.

Mark Clip (X):

Add Motion Keyframe (Control-K):

Click to set In and Out points at the boundaries of the clip.

Click to add a keyframe to the current clip at the position of the playhead for clip parameters such as Scale, Rotate, Crop, Distort, and so on. By default, this button sets keyframes for all clip motion parameters at once. For more information, see “Adjusting Parameters for Keyframed Effects” on page 719.

Add Marker (M):

Click to add a marker at the current playhead position. While editing you can use markers to make notes about important points in your sequence, such as areas to change, potential edit points, or sync points. For more information, see “Using Markers” on page 235.

Important:

If a clip is selected in the Timeline, and the playhead touches that clip, a

marker is added to the sequence clip, not the sequence.

Mark In (I):

Mark Out (O):

Click to set the In point at the current position of the playhead.

Click to set the Out point at the current position of the playhead.

Chapter 6

Viewer Basics

Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus

The two pop-up menus near the top of the Viewer let you quickly select the magnification level and a viewing format to control the way media in the Viewer is displayed.

Note: These menus also appear in the Canvas, and the options are the same.

Zoom Pop-Up Menu

Choose a magnification level from this pop-up menu. Your choice affects only the display size of the image; it doesn’t affect the scaling or frame size of the footage in the Viewer. You can also change the magnification level from the keyboard by pressing Command-= (equal sign) to zoom in and Command-– (minus) to zoom out.

Besides simply choosing a magnification level, you can choose one of the following:

Â Fit to Window: Increases or decreases the size of your media’s image to match any

size of the Viewer window. You can also do this by clicking the Viewer to make it active, and then pressing Shift-Z (Zoom to Fit).

Before

After

Â Fit All: This is similar to the Fit to Window command, but this command takes into

account clips whose borders extend beyond the current Viewer boundaries.

Before

88 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

After

Note: When playing back media with the Viewer scaled to 100 percent, both fields of interlaced video are displayed. If the Viewer is scaled to anything other than 100 percent and you’re displaying a DV clip, only one field is shown during playback or while scrubbing through the clip. When playing back media captured with a third-party video interface, some interfaces display both fields regardless of the scale of the Viewer, which may result in visible artifacts in the picture. These are display artifacts only, and do not exist in the video signal output to tape.

Important: Clips may not play back smoothly if you zoom in on them so far that part of

the image is obscured, and you see scroll bars to the right and below the Viewer windows. Other windows blocking the Viewer will also affect playback. Choosing a screen layout or pressing Shift-Z are easy ways to remedy playback quality in this situation.

View Pop-Up Menu

You can choose various options from this pop-up menu for how you view your clips and sequences in the Viewer.

View pop-up menu

Â Image or Image+Wireframe mode: Image is the default, and simply shows the video

of your clip or sequence as it plays back. Image+Wireframe is useful when you’re using motion effects or compositing. Each video layer in the Viewer has a bounding box with handles (or a wireframe) that can be used to adjust that clip’s size, rotation, and position. For more information on using motion effects, see “Changing Motion

Parameters” on page 689. You can also refer to “Adjusting Parameters for Keyframed Effects” on page 719. For information on compositing, see “Compositing and Layering” on page 775.

Â Overlays: Final Cut Express HD provides translucent visual cues, called overlays, that

help you easily recognize certain parts of your edit in the Viewer, such as the markers and In and Out points of clips in your sequence.

Note: To view overlays such as title safe guides, you need to enable this option.

Â Title and action safe overlays: These show you the boundaries within which you need

to keep your graphics and text so they’ll appear when the sequence is played back on television. For more information, see “Creating Titles” on page 855.

None of these view options affect either rendered output or material sent to tape.

Chapter 6 Viewer Basics 89

Recent Clips and Generator Pop-Up Menus

The two pop-up menus near the lower-right corner of the Viewer let you quickly choose source clips and generators.

Generator pop-up menu

Recent Clips pop-up menu

Recent Clips Pop-Up Menu

This pop-up menu shows recently used clips. A clip is not added to this list when first opened in the Viewer, but only when another clip replaces it. The last clip that was replaced in the Viewer appears at the top of the list. By default, the maximum number of clips that appear in this list is 10, but you can change this number. For more information, see “Choosing Settings and Preferences” on page 945.

The clip replaced most recently is at the top of the list.

Generator Pop-Up Menu

Use this pop-up menu to choose a generator clip, such as Bars and Tone, a Color Matte, Gradients, and Text. A generic version of the generator appears in the Viewer; you can then customize it using the Controls tab. For more information, see “Using Built-in

Generated Clips” on page 849.

Various generator effects

90 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

7 Canvas Basics

The Canvas provides an environment for viewing your edited sequence, and works in tandem with the Timeline while you edit.

This chapter covers the following:

Â How You Use the Canvas (p. 91)

Â Opening, Selecting, and Closing Sequences in the Canvas (p. 92)

Â Learning About the Canvas (p. 93)

Â Editing Controls in the Canvas (p. 94)

Â Transport (or Playback) Controls (p. 95)

Â Playhead Controls (p. 96)

Â Marking Controls (p. 98)

Â Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus (p. 99)

How You Use the Canvas

In Final Cut Express HD, the Canvas is the equivalent of a record monitor in a tape-to-tape editing suite; it displays the video and audio of your edited sequence during playback.

When you open a new sequence, it appears simultaneously in tabs in both the Canvas and the Timeline. The Canvas playhead mirrors the position of the Timeline playhead, and the Canvas displays the frame at the playhead’s current position in an open sequence. If you move the Timeline’s playhead, the frame displayed in the Canvas changes accordingly. If you make a change in the Canvas, it’s reflected in the Timeline.

The controls in the Canvas are similar to those in the Viewer, but instead of navigating and playing back individual clips, the controls in the Canvas navigate the entire sequence currently open in the Timeline.

Before you can work in the Canvas, it must be the currently selected, or active, window. Otherwise, any commands or keyboard shortcuts you use may perform the wrong operations. To display the Canvas, you must open a sequence from the Browser (see the next section, “Opening, Selecting, and Closing Sequences in the Canvas”).

Note: Most of the commands you use in the Canvas also work in the Timeline.

To make the Canvas window active, do one of the following:

m Click the Canvas.

m Press Command-2.

m Press Q to switch between the Viewer and the Canvas.

Opening, Selecting, and Closing Sequences in the Canvas

Sequences are represented by tabs in the Canvas and Timeline. All controls and commands in the Canvas affect only the sequence in the foreground.

To open a sequence in the Canvas:

m Double-click a sequence in the Browser.

m Select the sequence in the Browser, then press Return.

m Control-click the sequence in the Browser, then choose Open Timeline from the

shortcut menu.

m Select the sequence in the Browser, then choose View > Sequence in Editor.

If you have more than one sequence open in the Canvas, the tab in front is the active sequence.

To make a sequence active in the Canvas:

m Click a sequence’s tab to bring it to the front.

To close a sequence in the Canvas, do one of the following:

m Click a sequence’s tab to bring it to the front, then choose File > Close Tab.

m Click a sequence’s tab to bring it to the front, then press Control-W.

m Control-click the tab, then choose Close Tab from the shortcut menu.

When you close the tab of a sequence in the Canvas, its corresponding tab in the Timeline also closes.

92 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Learning About the Canvas

The following is a summary of the controls in the Canvas.

Name of the currently Tab for the open sequence

selected sequence and

the project it’s in

Timecode Duration field

Zoom pop-up menu

Image display area

Playhead

In point

Scrubber bar

Jog control

Current Timecode field

View pop-up menu

Out point

Shuttle control

Transport controls

Sequence marking controls

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

has a corresponding tab in the Timeline.

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

your sequence play back.

Â Playhead: The position of the playhead corresponds to the currently displayed frame.

You can move the playhead to go to different parts of a sequence.

Â In Point and Out Point: You can set sequence In and sequence Out points in the

Canvas or Timeline. You can use these as placement points to determine where clips are placed in the Timeline destination tracks when you’re doing three-point editing. For more information, see “Setting Edit Points for Clips and Sequences” on page 283.

Â Scrubber bar: The scrubber bar represents the entire duration of a sequence. You can

click anywhere in the scrubber bar to automatically move the playhead to that location.

Â Transport controls: You use these to play a sequence and to move the playhead

within your sequence. The position of the playhead corresponds to the currently displayed frame.

Â Jog and shuttle controls: These let you navigate more precisely within your sequence.

Â Sequence marking controls: These are used to add sequence In and Out points,

markers, and keyframes.

Chapter 7 Canvas Basics 93

Â Editing controls: The edit buttons and the Edit Overlay allow you to perform different

kinds of edits from the clip in the Viewer to your sequence.

Â View pop-up menu: This allows you to control display options such as marker

overlays and title safe guides.

Â Zoom pop-up menu: This lets you enlarge or shrink the image that appears in the Canvas.

Â Current Timecode field: This field displays the timecode of the frame at the current

position of the playhead. You can enter timecode numbers here to navigate to a new position in your sequence.

Â Timecode Duration field: This field shows the current duration between the sequence

In and Out points. You can change the duration here, which automatically adjusts the the sequence Out point.

Editing Controls in the Canvas

The Canvas can perform five basic types of edits to place a clip in the Viewer into the current sequence. The clip is placed in the Timeline according to the In and Out points set in the clip and the sequence, following the rules of three-point editing. The basic edit types are:

Â Overwrite: Replaces the clip items in the destination sequence track with the clip in

the Viewer.

Â Insert: Pushes clip items in the sequence forward to accommodate the clip from the

Viewer.

Â Replace: Replaces the clip item beneath the Canvas/Timeline playhead with the clip

in the Viewer, using the playhead position in both windows as a synchronization point.

Â Fit to Fill: Speeds up or slows down the clip in the Viewer to fit between the In and

Out points set in the Canvas and Timeline.

Â Superimpose: Edits the clip in the Viewer into a track above the sequence clip that

intersects the playhead.

Variations of overwrite and insert, called overwrite with transition and insert with transition, add the default transition when you perform the edit. This allows you to perform transitions such as dissolves in a single move. These edits are covered in much more detail in “Three-Point Editing” on page 329.

You can use the Canvas editing controls to perform edits. Once you’ve marked a clip in the Viewer with In and Out points defining how much of that clip you want to use, you can use the Edit Overlay or the edit buttons at the bottom of the Canvas to perform the edit.

94 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Drag a clip to

the image display area

of the Canvas.

Edit Overlay

The Edit Overlay appears only when you drag clips from the Browser or Viewer to the image area of the Canvas. The Edit 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. If you simply drag your clip to the image display area to the left of the Edit Overlay, an overwrite edit is performed. To perform any of the other edits, drag your clip to the overlay area for the edit you wish 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.

Go to Previous Edit

Play In to Out

Transport (or Playback) Controls

Transport controls let you play sequences in the Canvas, as well as move the playhead in the Timeline. These controls play clips and sequences at 100 percent (or 1x) speed. There are keyboard shortcuts for each control.

Go to Next Edit

Play Around Current Frame

Play

Â Play (Space bar): Plays your sequence from the current location of the playhead.

Clicking it again stops playback.

Â Play In to Out (Shift-\): Moves the playhead to the current In point of a sequence and

plays forward from that point to the Out point.

Chapter 7 Canvas Basics 95

Â Play Around Current Frame (\): Plays the selected sequence “around” the current

playhead position. When you click this button, playback begins before the playhead position based on the value in the Preview Pre-roll field in the Editing tab of the User Preferences window. Playback continues through the original position of the playhead, and then continues for the amount of time specified in the Preview Postroll field. When you stop playback, the playhead jumps back to its original position. For more information, see “Choosing Settings and Preferences” on page 945.

Â Go to Previous (Up Arrow) and Go to Next Edit (Down Arrow): These controls are

primarily used for quickly navigating from one edit point to the next in the Canvas. The Go to Previous and Go to Next Edit buttons move the playhead to the previous and next edit points in the sequence, relative to the current playhead position. If you have In and Out points set in your sequence, the Go to Previous and Go to Next Edit buttons navigate to these points as well.

Note: Similar controls also appear in the Viewer, Capture, and Edit to Tape windows.

Playhead Controls

The playhead lets you navigate through and locate different parts of a sequence quickly and easily.

Scrubber bar

Jog control

Inactive video

Playhead Shuttle control

Playhead and Scrubber Bar

The playhead shows the location of the currently displayed frame within the current sequence. The scrubber bar runs along the entire width of the Canvas, below the video image. To scrub through a sequence, drag the playhead across the scrubber bar. You can also hold down the Command key to drag the playhead at a slower speed, so you can more easily locate specific frames. You can click anywhere in the scrubber bar to instantly move the playhead to that location.

96 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

To move the playhead to the beginning of your sequence:

m Press Home on your keyboard.

To move the playhead to the end of your sequence:

m Press End on your keyboard.

To move the playhead to the next edit point, do one of the following:

m Choose Mark > Next > Edit.

m Click the Go to Next Edit button.

m Press the Down Arrow key.

m Press Shift-E.

Final Cut Express HD looks for the next edit, In point, or Out point. If overlays are enabled in the View menu, an L-shaped icon appears in the Canvas, indicating whether you are on an In or Out point.

To move the playhead to the previous edit point, do one of the following:

m Choose Mark > Previous > Edit.

m Click the Go to Previous Edit button.

m Press the Up Arrow key.

m Press Option-E.

Final Cut Express HD looks for the previous edit, In point, or Out point. If overlays are enabled in the View menu, an L-shaped icon appears in the Canvas, indicating whether you are on an In or Out point.

To move the playhead to sequence markers, do one of the following:

m Control-click in the Current Timecode field in either the Timeline or the Canvas, then

choose a marker from the shortcut menu that appears.

m Press Shift-Up Arrow to move to the next marker to the right of the playhead.

m Press Shift-Down Arrow to move to the next marker to the left of the playhead.

The playhead moves to that marker. If overlays are enabled in the View menu, the marker is displayed in the Canvas. For more information on setting markers in the Timeline, see “Using Markers” on page 235.

Chapter 7 Canvas Basics 97

Jog Control

To move forward or backward in your sequence very precisely, use the jog control. The jog control allows you to move the playhead in the Canvas as if you were actually moving it with your hand, with a one-to-one correspondence between the motion of your mouse and the playhead’s motion. This control is useful for carefully locating a specific frame (for instance, if you’re trimming an edit).

Shuttle Control

This control lets you quickly play through sequences at different speeds, in fast and slow motion. It also shifts the pitch of audio as it plays at varying speeds. In slow motion, this can make it easier to locate specific words and sounds for editing.

Clip or Sequence” on page 105.

Marking Controls

Marking controls let you set In and Out points, add markers and keyframes, and navigate to matching frames in master or affiliate clips (this is called performing a match frame). There are keyboard shortcuts for each control.

Mark In

Mark Out

Add Motion Keyframe

Add Marker

Â Mark In (I): Click to set the In point at the current position of the playhead.

Â Mark Out (O): Click to set the Out point at the current position of the playhead.

Â Add Marker (M): Click to add a marker at the current playhead position. While editing

you can use markers to make notes about important points in your sequence, such as areas to change, potential edit points, or sync points. Markers can be added to sequences in the Canvas and Timeline. For more information, see “Using Markers” on page 235.

Important: If a clip is selected in the Timeline, and the playhead touches that clip, a

marker is added to the sequence clip, not the sequence.

98 Part II Learning About the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Mark Clip Show Match Frame

Â Add Motion Keyframe (Control-K): Click to add a keyframe to the current clip at the

position of the playhead. This button adds keyframes for clip parameters such as Scale, Rotate, Crop, Distort, and so on.

Â Show Match Frame (F): When you click this button, the frame you see in the Canvas

appears in the Viewer. Specifically, the master clip for the sequence clip that intersects the Canvas/Timeline playhead is opened in the Viewer. The Viewer playhead is set to the frame shown in the Canvas, and the In and Out points for the sequence clip are set in the master clip in the Viewer. This allows you to easily get back to the master clip for any affiliate clip, in case you want to use the footage for another purpose, or if you want to see the original video and audio clip items of the master clip. For a more comprehensive discussion of the Match Frame controls, see “Matching Frames” on page 551.

Â Mark Clip (X): Click to set In and Out points at the boundaries of the clip that

currently intersects the Canvas/Timeline playhead. The clip on the lowest-numbered track with Auto Select enabled is used.

Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus

The two pop-up menus near the top of the Canvas let you quickly select the magnification level and a viewing format to control the way media in the Canvas is displayed. These menus are also present in the Viewer, and the options are the same. For details, see “Zoom and View Pop-Up Menus” on page 88.

Chapter 7 Canvas Basics 99

Apple FINAL CUT EXPRESS HD User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Final Cut Express HD Documentation and Resources

Getting Started

Onscreen Help

Onscreen User Manual

Information About New Features

Apple Websites

Final Cut Express HD Websites

Apple Service and Support Website

The Industry Workflow

The Post-Production Workflow

2 Video Formats and Timecode

About Nonlinear and Nondestructive Editing

Video Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD

Using Multiple Video Formats

Audio Formats Compatible With Final Cut Express HD

Video Format Basics

Video Standards

Image Dimensions and Aspect Ratio

Frame Rate

Scanning Method

The Building Blocks of Projects

What Are Media Files?

What Are Clips?

What Are Sequences?

What Are Projects?

What Are Bins?

Working With Projects

Organizing Your Projects

Using More Than One Sequence in a Project

Creating and Saving Projects

Opening and Closing Projects

About the Connection Between Clips and Media Files

Relationship Between Source Tapes, Media Files, and Clips

Reconnecting Clips to Media Files

Filenaming Considerations

Avoiding Special Characters

Restricting Length of Filenames

Using Filename Extensions

Adding Times and Dates to Final Cut Express HD Project Names

Using Multiple Hard Disks

Basics of Working in the Final Cut Express HD Interface

Using Keyboard Shortcuts, Buttons, and Shortcut Menus

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Using Button Bars

Using Shortcut Menus

Learning Commands by Using Tooltips

Customizing the Interface

Moving and Resizing Windows

Working With Tabs and Tabbed Windows

Moving Windows

Using Different Screen Layouts

Showing and Positioning the Dock

Undoing and Redoing Changes

Entering Timecode for Navigation Purposes

5 Browser Basics

How You Use the Browser

Learning About the Browser

Working in the Browser

Creating Sequences

Selecting Items in the Browser

Navigating Within the Browser Using the Keyboard

Copying and Deleting Items in the Browser

Renaming Clips, Sequences, and Bins

Using Columns in the Browser

Customizing the Browser Display

Choosing Views in the Browser

Working With the Browser in List View

Working With the Browser in Icon View

Setting the Poster Frame

6 Viewer Basics

How You Can Use the Viewer

Opening a Clip in the Viewer

Learning About the Viewer

Tabs in the Viewer

Video Tab