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

Working with Items in the Timeline

Anatomy of the Tool Palette" earlier in this chapter.

Figure 10.73. All selection tools are located on the top three buttons of the Tool palette. This composited shot shows the Tool palette with both selection tool pop-up selectors extended. The Selection (Arrow) tool is at the top, marquee selection tools are second from the top, and track selection tools are third from the top.

Selecting items in the Timeline

All the selection tasks described here use tools from the Tool palette.

Items you can select in the Timeline:

Clips, including multiple clips or ranges of clips
Transitions, which can be trimmed or deleted
Edits, which can be modified in several ways
Gaps, which can be closed or filled with media
Keyframes, which can be moved when they're displayed over the Timeline clip

Items you cannot select in the Timeline:

Tracks: You can't select a track, but you can select the contents of a track.

To select the entire contents of the Timeline:

Press Command-A.

To deselect the entire contents of the Timeline:

Press Shift-Command-A.

Selecting items with the track selection tools

The track selection tools offer a variety of ways to select the contents of one or more tracks. Don't forget: If you select an item that you've included in a linked selection, all the items involved in that linked selection will be affected by whatever operation you're about to perform.

Tip

Deselect an individual Timeline item from a group selection by Command-clicking the item.

To select all items on a single track:

From the Tool palette, choose the Select Track tool and click anywhere in the track.

To select all items on a single track forward or backward from the selected point:

From the Tool palette, choose the Select Track Forward or the Select Track Backward tool (Figure 10.74 ).

Figure 10.74. Choose the Select Track Forward tool from the Tool palette.

In the Timeline track, click the first clip to include in the selection.

That entire clip is selected, plus all the items in front of or behind it (Figure 10.75 ).

Figure 10.75. Using the Select Forward tool to click the first clip on any track to be included in the selection.

To select all items on all tracks forward or backward from the selected point:

From the Tool palette, choose the All Tracks Forward or the All Tracks Backward tool (Figure 10.76 ).

Figure 10.76. Choose the Select All Tracks Forward tool from the Tool palette to select clips on all tracks forward from the selection point.

In the Timeline, click the first clip on any track that should be included in the selection.

The contents of all tracks from that point forward or backward are selected.

Tips

The Track Forward and Track Backward tools select entire clips only; they do not make range selections.
When one of the Select All Tracks tools is active, you can quickly switch to the corresponding Select Track tool by holding down the Shift key.

To select an entire clip:

From the Tool palette, choose the Selection tool; or press A.

In the Timeline, use the Selection tool to click the clip you want to select.

The Canvas indicates the selection by displaying a cyan border around the video of the selected clip.

To select part of a clip or a larger selection including partial clips:

From the Tool palette, choose the Range Selection tool (Figure 10.77 ).

Figure 10.77. Choose the Range Selection tool from the Tool palette.

In the Timeline, click at the point in the clip where you want to start your selection and then drag a marquee around the range to select it (Figure 10.78 ).

Figure 10.78. Drag the tool across a Timeline clip to define the range you want to select. You can select partial clips with this tool.

A two-up display in the Canvas shows the first and last frames of your selection.

To select multiple whole clips:

From the Tool palette, choose the Group Selection tool (Figure 10.79 ).

Figure 10.79. Choose the Group Selection tool from the Tool palette.

In the Timeline, drag a marquee around all the clips you want to select. You don't need to include the entire clip; any clip you touch will be included in its entirety.

To select multiple noncontiguous clips:

From the Tool palette, choose the appropriate selection tool.

In the Timeline, Command-click the items you want to select (Figure 10.80 ). Command-click again on a selected item to deselect it.

Figure 10.80. Command-click to select discontinuous clips in the Timeline or to deselect an individual clip from a group selection.

[View full size image]

To select all items between the In and Out points:

Set the sequence In and Out points in the Timeline or in the Canvas.

In the Timeline Track control area, click to enable the Auto Select controls on tracks you want to include in your selection.

Choose Mark > Select In to Out; or press Option-A.

All items between the In and Out points on tracks with Auto Select enabled are selected.

To use Auto Select to select items between In and Out points:

In the Timeline Track control area, click to enable the Auto Select controls on tracks you want to include in your selection (Figure 10.81 ).

Figure 10.81. Click to enable the Auto Select controls on tracks you want to include in your selection. Enabled controls are dark.

Set In and Out points to define the part of the sequence you want to select (Figure 10.82 ).

Figure 10.82. Set In and Out points to define the portion of the sequence you want to select.

You can cut, copy, delete, ripple delete, or search the auto-selected area. These operations will include only the selected sequence section (defined by In and Out points) and only tracks with Auto Select enabled.

Chapter 16 to learn another slick Auto Select move.

FCE Protocol: Auto Select

When you paste cut or copied clips into a sequence, the clips will be pasted into the same tracks you cut them from
unless you make a change to the Auto Select controls after you cut (or copy) but before you paste . If you do make that change, then the Auto Select controls determine the track destination of pasted tracks. Clips will be pasted starting at the lowest-numbered Auto Selectenabled track.
Audio and video paste destinations are tracked separately. For example, if you enable a video Auto Select control between cutting and pasting but leave the audio Auto Select controls untouched, the video portion will be pasted according to your Auto Select setting, but the audio portion will be pasted into the same tracks you cut them from.
The Tool palette's Selection, Range Selection, and Edit Selection tools can override the Auto Select feature. No need to click those teeny control buttons: select a selection tool and then justselect.

To set In and Out points around a selected part of a sequence:

From the Tool palette, choose the Range Selection tool. If your desired selection is composed of whole clips, use the Group Selection tool.

In the Timeline, drag a marquee around the range you want to select.

Choose Mark > Mark Selection; or press Shift-A.

The bounds of the selection become the sequence In and Out points (Figure 10.83 ).

Figure 10.83. The boundaries of your selection become the sequence In and Out points.

To set In and Out points at two markers:

Position the Timeline playhead anywhere between the two markers you want to use.

Choose Mark > Mark to Markers; or press Control-A.

Sequence In and Out points are now set at the markers' Timeline locations.

Linking clips

Linking clips is Final Cut Express's scheme for grouping clips. When clips are linked, any action performed on one clip affects the other clips as well. Check out the sidebar "FCE Protocol: Linked Clips" later in this chapter, for the rules governing linked clips and the operation of linked selections.

To link a group of unrelated clips:

In the Timeline, select the clips you want to link (Figure 10.84 ).

Figure 10.84. Select the sequence clips you want to link in the Timeline.

You can select one video and up to 24 audio clips from different tracks.

Choose Modify > Link; or press Command-L.

In the Timeline, an underline appears beneath the linked clips' names, indicating their linked status.

To permanently unlink a group of linked clips:

Select the linked items.

Choose Modify > Link; or press Command-L.

In the Timeline, the underline beneath the linked clips' names disappears, indicating their unlinked status.

Tip

You can unlink a group of linked clips in a single operation, but linking operations must be performed one clip at a time.

Merged Clips and Linking

When you're editing sync video with production audio that has been recorded separately, you can sync up your audio and video takes in FCE and use the Modify > Link command to create linked audio+video clips. Select your newly linked Timeline clips and drag them back into the Browser to create merged clips. Merged clips will load into the Viewer as if they were a single clip. Audio and video will reference each other, keeping track of changes in sync, but original audio and video timecode data is preserved; it's stored with the merged clip.

Using linked selection

You can temporarily override the rules that govern a linked clip's selection. Editors frequently disable linked selection to select just the video (or audio) track of a linked clip, in order to create a split edit (that's an edit where a clip's audio and video tracks have different lengths).

You can disable linked selection for the entire sequence or for a single selection operation.

To turn linked selection on or off:

Do one of the following:

Figure 10.85. Activate linked selection by clicking the Linked Selection control. The control is enabled when the shading moves to the top half of the button.

Choose Sequence > Linked Selection.
Press Shift-L to toggle linked selection on and off.

To select an item without selecting any items that are linked to it:

Hold down the Option key when you select the item.

FCE Protocol: Linked Clips

Here's how Final Cut Express handles linked clips:

Video and audio clips that originated from the same media file are linked automatically.
You can set up multiple linked clip groups.
You can switch linked selection on or off.
When linked selection is turned on, FCE treats your linked items as a single entity for most operations.
If you switch linked selection off, all your linked items will be treated as if they were unlinked, with the following exception: audio and video clips that were captured in sync continue to reference each other even when linked selection is disabled and will display out-of-sync indicators if moved out of sync with each other.
Locking a track overrides a linked selection. If a linked item is on a locked track, it won't be modified, even if you modify an item it's linked to.
Moving a linked clip's video to a higher track (for example, from track V1 to track V2) will automatically move the clip's audio to higher-numbered audio tracks (for example, from tracks A1 and A2 to tracks A3 and A4).

Moving Timeline clips

As with most things in Final Cut Express, you have a choice of methods for moving clips within and between sequences. There are a variety of drag-and-drop methods, plus the timecode entry method, which offers greater precision but a little less flexibility.

To drag a clip to a new position:

In the Timeline, select the clip and drag it to a new position (Figure 10.86 ).

Figure 10.86. Dragging a clip to a new location. The pop-up indicator shows the offset from the clip's original location.

In the new position,

do one of the following:

Drop the clip to perform an Overwrite edit (Figure 10.87 ).

Figure 10.87. Dropping the clip performs an Overwrite edit in the new location.
Drop the clip while holding the Option key to perform an Insert edit.

To shift a clip to another track at the same timecode location:

In the Timeline, select the clip you want to move.

Hold down the Shift key while dragging the clip vertically to another track (Figure 10.88 ).

Figure 10.88. Holding down the Shift key while dragging the clip to a higher track.

The clip maintains its timecode position at the new track location.

To copy a clip to a new location:

In the Timeline, select the clip you want to move.

Hold down the Option key while dragging the clip to another location (Figure 10.89 ).

Figure 10.89. Press the Option key as you start to drag to copy the clip. Continue pressing Option as you drop the clip copy to perform an Insert edit; or release the key before you drop to perform an Overwrite edit.

A copy of the selected clip is edited into the new location.

Tips

You can make copies of sequence clips by dragging them from the Timeline into the Browser. Select and then drag multiple clips to make a copy of each clip in a single operation. Remember that this clip copy will include any changes you have made to the clip in the sequence.
A quick way to make a Browser copy of every clip you've used in a sequence is to select the entire sequence in the Timeline (Command-A) and then drag the clips over to a Browser folder. Don't worry about wiping out your sequenceremember, you're making copies.

To copy and paste a clip into the Timeline:

Working in the Timeline, select the clip (Figure 10.90 ); or use the Group Selection tool from the Tool palette to select clips from multiple tracks.

Figure 10.90. Select the clip you want to copy and paste.

Cut or copy the selected material to the clipboard, and then

do one of the following:

To paste the material into the same tracks you cut or copied from, position the playhead where you want to paste the clip.
To assign different destination tracks for your pasted material, set the destination track by enabling its Auto Select control (and ensuring that all Auto Select controls on lower-numbered tracks are disabled), and then position the playhead where you want to paste the clip (Figure 10.91 ).

Figure 10.91. Position the playhead where you want the pasted clip to start; then target the track you want to paste into by ensuring that it's the lowest-numbered track with Auto Select enabled.

Choose Edit > Paste; or press Command-V.

The pasted material overwrites the sequence clips, starting at the playhead location in the destination track and extending for the duration of the pasted material (Figure 10.92 ).

Figure 10.92. The pasted clip overwrites the contents of the destination track.

Tip

Press Shift-V to insert-edit the pasted material in the new sequence location.

To reposition an item in the Timeline by entering a timecode:

In the Timeline, select the clip you want to move.

Enter a new timecode number; or use the shorthand methods detailed in Chapter 8, "Working with Clips in the Viewer."

As you type, a text entry window appears below the Timeline ruler (Figure 10.93 ).

Figure 10.93. Type +60 and then press Enter to position the clip 60 frames (2 seconds) later in the sequence.

Press Enter.

The clip is repositioned, if there is space at the new timecode location.

If you had selected an edit tool from the Tool palette before making the timecode entry, an edit of that type is performed in the direction indicated by the timecode.

Tip

Moving clips around via timecode entry is wonderfully mouseless and precise, but there are limitations: When you're repositioning a clip by entering a timecode, FCE won't allow you move the clip so that it overwrites another clip. Your clip will move as far as possible without overwriting, and you'll see a "clip collision" error message.

Finding and closing gaps

As you assemble a sequence, all that cutting and pasting and slipping and sliding may create gaps in your sequence tracks. Sometimes the gaps are too small to see in the Timeline, but a gap of even a single frame is easily detectable in Canvas playback.

This section contains a repertoire of techniques for detecting and closing gaps and explains FCE protocol for defining gaps.

To find gaps in a sequence:

Make the sequence active; then press the Home key to position the playhead at the beginning of the sequence (Figure 10.94 ).

Figure 10.94. Pressing the Home key positions the playhead at the beginning of the sequence.

Choose Mark > Next > Gap; or press Shift-G.

The playhead moves to the beginning of the first gap found (Figure 10.95 ).

Figure 10.95. The playhead jumps to the start of the first gap found.

If you want to close the gap, use one of the procedures described in the next section, "To close a gap."

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you reach the end of the sequence.

Tip

Press Option-G to jump the playhead back to the previous gap.

FCE Protocol: Gaps and Track Gaps

Final Cut Express defines two classes of gaps: gaps and track gaps.

A gap is any empty spot across all unlocked video or audio tracks.
A track gap is any empty spot on an individual track in a sequence; if you have a gap on one track, but a clip bridges the gap on a higher or lower track, FCE defines that as a track gap.

Some gap-closing techniques, such as Ripple Delete, work only with gaps, not track gaps. To close track gaps, lock all other tracks, leaving the gapped tracks as the only unlocked tracks in your sequence.

To close a gap:

Make the sequence active; then position the playhead anywhere in the gap.

Do one of the following:

Select the gap and press Delete.
Control-click the gap; then select Close Gap from the shortcut menu (Figure 10.96 ).

Figure 10.96. Control-click the gap; then choose Close Gap from the shortcut menu.
Choose Sequence > Close Gap.

Clips to the right of the gap will shift left to close the gap. These clips adjust their timecode location to occur earlier, and the sequence duration may change (Figure 10.97 ).

Figure 10.97. Clips to the right of the gap shift left to close the gap.

To find track gaps in a Timeline track:

In the Timeline, target the track you want to search (Figure 10.98 ).

Figure 10.98. To select a track to search for track gaps, target the track and enable the Auto Select control.

Press the Home key to position the playhead at the beginning of the sequence.

Choose Mark > Next > Track Gap.

The playhead moves to the beginning of the first track gap found (Figure 10.99 ).

Figure 10.99. The playhead jumps to the start of the first track gap found.

To close a track gap:

Do one of the following:

Tip

Sometimes a gap can't be closed because clips don't have space to shift back. If the command can't be completed, the Close Gap command will appear dimmed (Figure 10.100 ). Try the track-locking technique discussed next.

Figure 10.100. The Close Gap command is dimmed when a gap can't be closed because clips don't have space to shift back. Resizing one of the adjacent clips to fill the gap looks like a better option here.

To close a track gap without affecting other tracks in a sequence:

Press Shift-F4 to lock all video tracks in your sequence.

Press Shift-F5 to lock all audio tracks in your sequence.

Click the Track Lock control of the gapped track.

Your selected track is now the only unlocked track in the sequence (Figure 10.101 ).

Figure 10.101. Locking every track but the gapped track allows you to close the gap by shifting material on the unlocked track only.

Do one of the following:

Select the gap and press Delete.
Control-click the gap; then select Close Gap from the shortcut menu (Figure 10.102 ).

Figure 10.102. Control-click the gap; then choose Close Gap from the shortcut menu.
Choose Sequence > Close Gap.

Clips to the right of the gap will shift left to close the gap. These clips adjust their timecode locations to occur earlier, and the sequence duration may change (Figure 10.103 ).

Figure 10.103. Clips to the right of the gap shift left to close the track gap. Clips on the locked tracks have not moved.

If you want to unlock your sequence tracks after closing the gap, press Shift-F4 and Shift-F5 again to toggle track locking off.

To close a track gap with the Select Forward tool:

Snapping must be on; if necessary, choose View > Snapping to turn it on.

From the Tool palette, choose the Select Track Forward tool; then click the first clip to the right of the track gap (Figure 10.104 ).

Figure 10.104. Use the Select Track Forward tool to click the first clip to the right of the track gap.

The clips to the right of the sequence are selected, and the pointer changes to a four-headed arrow.

Drag the selected clips to the left until they snap to close the gap; then drop them as an Overwrite edit (Figure 10.105 ).

Figure 10.105. Drag the selected clips to the left until they snap to close the gap; then drop them as an Overwrite edit.

To close a gap by extending an adjacent clip (an Extend edit):

In some cases, you may prefer to close a gap in a sequence by extending the duration of a clip that's adjacent to the gap. One advantage of an Extend edit is that all the clips in your sequence can stay put, and you won't develop sync problems. To learn how to perform an Extend edit, see Chapter 11, "Fine Cut: Trimming Edits."

Tips

When you fine-tune gaps in sequences, take advantage of the Zoom tools to scale your view so you can see what you're doing. You may also find that turning on snapping simplifies selection and manipulation of gaps and track gaps.
Here's a quick way to read a gap's duration: Select the gap in the Timeline and then press Shift-A. The Mark Selection command sets sequence In and Out points, and your gap's duration appears in the Timecode Duration field in the Canvas. Wowit actually takes longer to describe it than to do it.

FCE Protocol: Deleting Items in the Timeline

You can delete items in the Timeline simply by selecting them and then pressing Delete. But if the Timeline window is active and you press Delete with no items selected in the Timeline, FCE protocol dictates that all material between the Timeline and Canvas In and Out points is deleted on all unlocked tracks.

Learn more about performing Delete edits in Chapter 9, "Basic Editing."

Copying and pasting clip attributes

A clip's

attributes comprise the settings applied to a particular media file in Final Cut Express. You can paste all the attributes of one clip onto another clip, or you can select and paste some of a clip's settings onto another clip without affecting other attributes. For example, you can apply just the filter settings from clip A to clip B without changing the video frames of clip B. Conversely, you can replace the video frames of clip B without disturbing the filters that have been applied to it by pasting only the video frames from another clip. If you just paste into a sequence without selecting a clip in the Timeline or the Canvas, the clip's media contents and selected attributes are included.

The Remove Attributes command offers an easy way to strip selected settings from a clip or to remove selected settings from multiple clips in a single operation.

To paste the attributes of a copied clip into another clip:

In the Timeline or the Browser, select a clip whose attributes you want to copy (Figure 10.106 ); then press Command-C to copy the clip to the clipboard.

Figure 10.106. Select the clip whose attributes you want to copy; then press Command-C.

Select the clip that will inherit the attributes; then choose Edit > Paste Attributes or press Option-V.

In the Paste Attributes dialog box, select the attributes that you want to transfer to the selected clip (Figure 10.107 ).

Figure 10.107. Selecting audio levels in the Paste Attributes dialog box.

Scale Attribute Times: Check this box to adjust the timing of the incoming keyframes to fit the duration of the clip inheriting the attributes. If this option is not selected, leftover keyframes will be cropped off the end.

Video Attributes:

Content: Paste the video frames only. If the receiving clip is a different length, incoming video frames are cropped or lengthened to match the duration of the receiving clip. The clip speed is not affected.
Basic Motion, Crop, Distort, Opacity, Drop Shadow, Motion Blur, and Filters: You can pick and choose among these options to apply the parameter values and keyframes you have set for each attribute.
Speed: Apply the same speed settings.
Clip Settings (Capture): Paste all capture settings that are logged with a clip. (You can review these settings on the Clip Settings tab of the Capture window.)

Audio Attributes:

Content: Paste the audio waveform only. If the receiving clip is a different length, the incoming audio file is cropped or lengthened to match the duration of the receiving clip. The clip speed is not affected.
Levels, Pan, and Filters: Apply the parameter values and keyframes you have set for each attribute.

Click OK.

The selected attributes are pasted into the receiving clip (Figure 10.108 ).

Figure 10.108. The audio levels from Voiceover Subclip 1 have been copied and pasted into Voiceover Subclip 2.

Tip

Pasting audio levels can be a quick way to add an audio elementsay, another sound effects trackto a scene you have already mixed. You can "borrow" the mix levels from a track that has already been adjusted to match action and paste those levels onto your new effects track. You can apply the same idea to video compositing: paste the motion path from one video layer to another that you want to track the same path, or paste and then offset the timing of the motion path.

To remove attributes from a clip:

In the Timeline, select the clip or clips whose attributes you want to remove.

Choose Edit > Remove Attributes.

In the Remove Attributes dialog box, check the attributes you want to remove (Figure 10.109 ); then click OK.

Figure 10.109. Select the attributes you want to remove; then click OK.

Making multiclip adjustments

Use the Modify > Levels command to adjust multiclip selections:

Use Modify > Levels to adjust levels for a group of audio clips.
Use Modify > Opacity to adjust opacity levels for a group of video clips.

To adjust audio levels for a group of clips:

In the Timeline, select a group of audio clips whose levels you want to adjust (Figure 10.110 ).

Figure 10.110. Selecting multiple audio clips with the Select Track Forward tool.

Choose Modify > Levels.

In the Gain Adjust dialog box,

do one of the following:

Choose Relative from the pop-up menu; then use the slider to adjust each clip's volume relative to its current level by the dB value indicated next to the slider (Figure 10.111 ).

Figure 10.111. Adjusting the audio levels relative to their current levels.
Choose Absolute from the pop-up menu; then use the slider to set each clip's volume to the dB value indicated next to the slider.

Click OK.

Tip

Use FCE's audio level meters to check your audio level adjustments. Choose Window > Audio Meters to display the meters.

To adjust opacity levels on a group of clips:

In the Timeline, select just the video portion of a group of clips whose levels you want to adjust.

Choose Modify > Levels.

In the Opacity Adjust dialog box,

do one of the following:

Choose Relative from the pop-up menu; then use the slider to adjust each clip's opacity relative to its current level by the percentage value indicated next to the slider.
Choose Absolute from the pop-up menu; then use the slider to set each clip's opacity to the percentage value indicated next to the slider (Figure 10.112 ).

Figure 10.112. Setting opacity levels to 80 percent for all selected clips.

Click OK.

Changing the playback speed of a clip

Changing the playback speed of a clip adjusts its duration by duplicating or skipping clip frames and creates either a slow-motion or a fast-motion effect. For example, if you start with a 1-minute clip and set the playback speed to 50 percent, Final Cut Express will duplicate each frame, doubling the clip length to 2 minutes. Your adjusted 2-minute clip will appear to play back at half speed. If you start with the same 1-minute clip and increase the playback speed to 200 percent, the adjusted clip will skip every other frame and appear to play back at double speed in 30 seconds. You can specify frame blending when modifying a clip's speed to smooth out the slow-motion or fast-motion effect.

Fit to Fill edit" in Chapter 9.

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

Working with Items in the Timeline

Selecting items in the Timeline

Selecting items with the track selection tools

Figure 10.74. Choose the Select Track Forward tool from the Tool palette.

Figure 10.75. Using the Select Forward tool to click the first clip on any track to be included in the selection.

Figure 10.76. Choose the Select All Tracks Forward tool from the Tool palette to select clips on all tracks forward from the selection point.

Figure 10.77. Choose the Range Selection tool from the Tool palette.

Figure 10.78. Drag the tool across a Timeline clip to define the range you want to select. You can select partial clips with this tool.

Figure 10.79. Choose the Group Selection tool from the Tool palette.

Figure 10.80. Command-click to select discontinuous clips in the Timeline or to deselect an individual clip from a group selection.

Figure 10.81. Click to enable the Auto Select controls on tracks you want to include in your selection. Enabled controls are dark.

Figure 10.82. Set In and Out points to define the portion of the sequence you want to select.

FCE Protocol: Auto Select

Figure 10.83. The boundaries of your selection become the sequence In and Out points.

Linking clips

Figure 10.84. Select the sequence clips you want to link in the Timeline.

Merged Clips and Linking

Using linked selection

Figure 10.85. Activate linked selection by clicking the Linked Selection control. The control is enabled when the shading moves to the top half of the button.

FCE Protocol: Linked Clips

Moving Timeline clips

Figure 10.86. Dragging a clip to a new location. The pop-up indicator shows the offset from the clip's original location.

Figure 10.87. Dropping the clip performs an Overwrite edit in the new location.

Figure 10.88. Holding down the Shift key while dragging the clip to a higher track.

Figure 10.89. Press the Option key as you start to drag to copy the clip. Continue pressing Option as you drop the clip copy to perform an Insert edit; or release the key before you drop to perform an Overwrite edit.

Figure 10.90. Select the clip you want to copy and paste.

Figure 10.91. Position the playhead where you want the pasted clip to start; then target the track you want to paste into by ensuring that it's the lowest-numbered track with Auto Select enabled.

Figure 10.92. The pasted clip overwrites the contents of the destination track.

Figure 10.93. Type +60 and then press Enter to position the clip 60 frames (2 seconds) later in the sequence.

Finding and closing gaps

Figure 10.94. Pressing the Home key positions the playhead at the beginning of the sequence.

Figure 10.95. The playhead jumps to the start of the first gap found.

FCE Protocol: Gaps and Track Gaps

Figure 10.96. Control-click the gap; then choose Close Gap from the shortcut menu.

Figure 10.97. Clips to the right of the gap shift left to close the gap.

Figure 10.98. To select a track to search for track gaps, target the track and enable the Auto Select control.

Figure 10.99. The playhead jumps to the start of the first track gap found.

Figure 10.100. The Close Gap command is dimmed when a gap can't be closed because clips don't have space to shift back. Resizing one of the adjacent clips to fill the gap looks like a better option here.

Figure 10.101. Locking every track but the gapped track allows you to close the gap by shifting material on the unlocked track only.

Figure 10.102. Control-click the gap; then choose Close Gap from the shortcut menu.

Figure 10.103. Clips to the right of the gap shift left to close the track gap. Clips on the locked tracks have not moved.

Figure 10.104. Use the Select Track Forward tool to click the first clip to the right of the track gap.

Figure 10.105. Drag the selected clips to the left until they snap to close the gap; then drop them as an Overwrite edit.

FCE Protocol: Deleting Items in the Timeline

Copying and pasting clip attributes

Figure 10.106. Select the clip whose attributes you want to copy; then press Command-C.

Figure 10.107. Selecting audio levels in the Paste Attributes dialog box.

Figure 10.108. The audio levels from Voiceover Subclip 1 have been copied and pasted into Voiceover Subclip 2.

Figure 10.109. Select the attributes you want to remove; then click OK.

Making multiclip adjustments

Figure 10.110. Selecting multiple audio clips with the Select Track Forward tool.

Figure 10.111. Adjusting the audio levels relative to their current levels.

Figure 10.112. Setting opacity levels to 80 percent for all selected clips.

Changing the playback speed of a clip

Figure 10.113. Select the clip in the Timeline.

Figure 10.114. Modify your entire clip's speed by a percentage or specify a duration; then click OK.

Figure 10.115. The size of the Timeline clip increases to reflect the duration change caused by modifying the playback speed, and the adjusted speed appears next to the clip's name.

Figure 10.116. Keyframe overlays allow you to sculpt audio levels right in the Timeline.

Figure 10.117. Motion keyframes also appear on the Timeline clip's overlay.