Visual QuickStart Guide [Electronic resources] : Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X نسخه متنی

Editing and Effects Windows

The following brief descriptions of the features and functions of each of the four main windows are simplified summaries of the full list of features. Final Cut Express's designers went all out to support a wide variety of editing styles, and they have produced a very flexible editing system.

The Browser

The Browser (Figure 1.6 ) is the window where you organize and access all the media elements used as source material for your projects. It also contains your projects' sequences: the data files that contain edited playlists.

Figure 1.6. Use the Browser window to organize the media elements in your projects.

The Browser's Effects tab is your source for effects, filters, and generators, including the text generator (Figure 1.7 ).

Figure 1.7. The Browser's Effects tab displays Final Cut Express's effects, filters, and generators, as well as your own customized effects.

The Browser is not like a folder on your computer's Desktopit's not a collection of actual files. Instead, a Browser item is a pointer to a file on your hard disk. It's important to keep in mind that file storage is independent of Browser organization. That means you can place the same clip in multiple Browser projects, and each instance of the clip will refer to the same media file on your hard drive. For detailed information about the Browser, see Chapter 7, "Organizing Clips in the Browser."

The Viewer

The Viewer is bursting with functions. When you're editing, the Viewer acts as your source monitor; you can review individual video and audio clips and mark edit points. You can also load clips from the current sequence into the Viewer to refine your edits, apply effects, create titlesand, as they say, much, much more.

The FCE interface offers a stack of tabs in the Viewer that organize and display audio and video plus provide controls for any effects you want to apply to a clip. Here are quick summaries of the functions available on each tab.

The Viewer's Video tab

Video tab (Figure 1.8): View video frames and mark and refine edit points. This is the default playback window for a video clip.

Figure 1.8. The Viewer's Video tab.

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The Viewer's Audio tab

Audio tab (Figure 1.9): Audition and mark edit points in audio-only clips. Set level and pan or spread settings. The Audio tab displays the audio portion of an audio+video clip. Clips with two channels display two audio tabs.

Figure 1.9. The Viewer's Audio tab contains a few controls that don't appear on the Video tab.

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The Viewer's Effects tabs

Controls tab (Figure 1.10): Adjust the settings for a generator effect, such as the text generator.

Figure 1.10. A text generator on the Viewer's Controls tab. The Controls tab contains the tools you need to adjust the settings for a generator effect. The Filters tab and the Motion tab each perform this function too, but for different classes of effects.
Filters tab: Adjust the settings for any filter effects you have applied to a clip.
Motion tab: Apply and modify motion effects.
Color Corrector tab: Use onscreen controls to adjust the settings for the Color Corrector filter. This tab appears only on clips with the Color Corrector filter applied.

For more information on the Viewer, see Chapter 8, "Working with Clips in the Viewer."

To learn about creating effects, see Chapter 14, "Compositing and Effects Overview."

The Canvas

The Canvas is a monitor where you view playback of your edited sequence. The Canvas and the Timeline work together; the Canvas always displays the frame at the current position of the Timeline's playhead.

The Canvas (Figure 1.11 ) looks similar to the Viewer and has many of the same controls. You can use the controls in the Canvas to play sequences, mark sequence In and Out points, add sequence markers, and set keyframes.

Figure 1.11. The Canvas window.

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In addition to using the Viewer-like marking controls, you can perform various types of drag-and-drop edits in the Canvas edit overlay (Figure 1.12 ), which appears automatically when you drag a clip into the Canvas. You can also use the Canvas's Image+Wireframe mode to plot motion effects.

Figure 1.12. The Canvas window, with the Canvas edit overlay displayed. Drag a clip from the Viewer or Browser and drop it on the type of edit you want to perform.

For more information on the Canvas, see Chapter 10, "Editing in the Timeline and the Canvas."

Learn about applying motion effects in Chapter 15, "Motion."

The Timeline

Chapter 10, "Editing in the Timeline and the Canvas."

Figure 1.13. The Timeline displays a chronological view of your edited sequence.

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The Tool palette

Chapter 9, "Basic Editing."

Figure 1.14. The Tool palette's pop-up selectors pack 24 tools into this tiny floating toolbar.

The Voice Over tool

Use the Voice Over tool (Recording Audio with the Voice Over Tool" in Chapter 12.