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

Effects Production Shortcuts

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

Nesting sequences: When you place a Final Cut Express sequence within another sequence, it's called

nesting a sequence. Nested sequences can streamline and enhance your effects work in a variety of ways. You can use nested sequences to protect render files, to force effects to render in a different order, or to group clips so you can apply a single filter or motion path to all of them in one operation. Nested sequences are discussed in Chapter 4, "Projects, Sequences, and Clips."

"Effecting" multiple clips: FCE allows you to adjust opacity levels for a group of clips. You can also adjust audio levels for multiple clips in a single operation. See "Setting a clip's opacity in the Timeline" in Chapter 15.

Favorites: Favorites are customized effects presets. For example, if you need to apply the same color correction to a large group of clips, you can tweak the settings once, save that filter configuration as a Favorite, and then apply it to the whole group without having to make individual adjustments. Favorites are discussed in the next section.

Tuning in Effects: Using Dial, Slider, and Point Controls

Here are some keyboard/mouse combos you can use to enhance your control over any effect parameter with a dial interface:

• Hold down the Shift key to constrain the dial to 45-degree increments.

• Hold down the Command key to gear down the dial's movement and make precise adjustments.

• Drag way, way out of the dial to reset the effect to the previous value.

• Scroll-wheel mouse users can make precise dial adjustments by positioning the pointer over the dial and nudging the scroll wheel.

Here are a few tips for effect parameters with slider interfaces:

• Expand the horizontal throw of any slider by widening the Parameters column in the column title bar. A longer slider makes it easier to adjust values.

• Hold down the Command key to gear down the slider's movement and make precise adjustments.

• Scroll-wheel mouse users can nudge the scroll wheel to make single-digit adjustments to slider values.

• Hold down the Shift key to add two decimal places of accuracy to a slider's value. (This command could be more useful if it incorporated gearing down as well.) You need to expand the horizontal throw of the slider by widening the Parameters column on the Filters or Controls tab before the double-digit accuracy becomes useful.

• The Point control is that little crosshairs button you use to select location coordinates for a clip's center point. You can select the Point control and then click the Canvas to specify a center point. That's very handy, but here's a way to use the Point control that's even better: Once you've clicked, keep the mouse button pressed, and you can drag the center point location around the canvas until you find a position you like. The Canvas will update even while you hold down the mouse button.