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

Anatomy of the Tool Palette

The Tool palette contains tools for selecting and manipulating items in the Timeline, Canvas, and Viewer. As you work in the Timeline with an assembly of clips in a rough sequence, you use the tools in the palette to do the following:

Figure 10.19 shows the Tool palette as it appears in the program.



Figure 10.19. The Tool palette as a compact floating toolbar.







Figure 10.20 shows the Tool palette with all its pop-up selectors fully extended. When you actually use the Tool palette to select a tool, you will see only one of these selectors at a time, but they are assembled in this illustration to show the location of every available tool.




Figure 10.20. The Tool palette with every pop-up selector displayed. You'll see only one of these bars at a time when you select a tool.







Here's a complete rundown of the tools you'll find in the Tool palette.




Selection tools




Selection: Selects individual items.



Edit Selection: Selects just the edit points inside your selection.



Group Selection: Selects whole clips or groups of whole clips.



Range Selection: Selects the area inside the selection marquee you draw. Select partial clips with this tool.



Select Track Forward: Selects all the contents of the track after the selection point.



Select Track Backward: Selects all the contents of the track before the selection point.



Track Selection: Selects the entire contents of a single track.



Select All Tracks Forward: Selects the contents of all tracks after the selection point.



Select All Tracks Backward: Selects the contents of all tracks before the selection point.





Edit tools




Roll: Rolls edit points.



Ripple: Ripples edit points.



Slip: Slips a clip's In and Out points.



Slide: Slides a clip in a sequence.



Razor Blade: Cuts a single clip into two sections.



Razor Blade All: Cuts clips on all tracks at the selection point into two sections.

Learn more about performing these edits in Chapter 11, "Fine Cut: Trimming Edits."





View tools




• 

  Zoom In: Zooms in on an image or within the Timeline.

• 

  Zoom Out: Zooms out from an image or within the Timeline.

• 

  Hand: Moves the Timeline or image view from side to side.

• 

  Video Scrub Hand: Scrubs the thumbnail image displayed on Timeline clips.





Image modifiers




• 

  Crop: Crops the edges of an image in the Viewer or the Canvas (in Wireframe mode).

• 

  Distort: Distorts a selection by click-dragging corner points.





Keyframe tools




• 

  Pen: Adds a keyframe.

• 

  Pen Delete: Deletes a keyframe.

• 

  Pen Smooth: Smoothes a curve by adding Bézier handles to the selected keyframe.




You can use the Pen tools in keyframe graphs on the Viewer effects tabs, in keyframe overlays in the Timeline, and on a motion path in the Canvas or the Viewer.