Working with Timeline Tracks
Working with Items in the Timeline" later in this chapter. To add tracks to a sequence:
1. | Open the sequence in the Timeline (Figure 10.53 ).
Figure 10.53. A sequence in the Timeline. Note the open space above the last video track.
| 2. | Choose Sequence > Insert Tracks. | 3. | In the Insert Tracks dialog box, select the appropriate check box if the Insert field is inactive; then enter the number of new video or audio tracks you want to add. Final Cut Express supports up to 99 tracks for video and 99 tracks for audio. | 4. | Select from options for inserting tracks: - Choose Before Base Track to insert your tracks before the first track in the Timeline.
- Choose After Last Track to insert your tracks after the last track in the Timeline (Figure 10.54 ).
Figure 10.54. Adding new video tracks to the sequence. The location specified is after the last track.
| 5. | Click OK to insert the tracks. The new tracks are added at the specified location (Figure 10.55 ).
Figure 10.55. Two new video tracks (V3 and V4) have been added at the specified location above V2.
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To add a track to a sequence quickly: Do one of the following:
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Control-click anywhere on the track header; then choose Add Track from the shortcut menu.
To delete a single track from a sequence:
To delete empty tracks from a sequence:
1. | Open the sequence in the Timeline (Figure 10.59 ).
Figure 10.59. Open the sequence in the Timeline; then choose Sequence > Delete Tracks.
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2. | Choose Sequence > Delete Tracks. |
3. | In the Delete Tracks dialog box, select from the options for deleting tracks: - Click the Video Tracks and/or Audio Tracks check boxes to select track types.
- Choose All Empty Tracks to delete every empty track in the Timeline (Figure 10.60 ).
Figure 10.60. Click the appropriate check box to specify the track type you're deleting.
- Choose All Empty Tracks at End of Sequence to delete all empty tracks above (or below) the highest-numbered track used in the Timeline.
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4. | Click OK to delete the tracks. The selected tracks are deleted from the sequence; remaining tracks are renumbered consecutively (Figure 10.61 ).
Figure 10.61. All the empty tracks are deleted from the sequence, and the remaining tracks are renumbered.
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To lock a Timeline track:
Do one of the following:
Figure 10.62 ).
Figure 10.62. Lock a Timeline track by clicking the Track Lock control. Click again to unlock the track.
- To lock a video track, press F4 plus the track number of the track you are locking.
- To lock an audio track, press F5 plus the track number of the track you are locking.
To lock all Timeline video tracks:
To lock all Timeline audio tracks:
Tip
FCE Protocol: Lock vs. Target
One of the tasks when learning a new program is getting in sync with the logic behind the program design. If you are coming to Final Cut Express from another editing system, you'll probably notice a few things that FCE does differently. Understanding the difference between locking and targeting is important to your editing happiness, so let's get it straight. Locking a track keeps it out of trouble. So unless you're working on a particular track, you might as well keep it locked so that your editing operations don't have unforeseen consequences, like trimming or moving tracks that are stacked above or below the base tracks, out of your Timeline view (spooky music here). You have to take the responsibility for locking tracks because FCE defaults to unlocked tracks (unlike many other editing systems, which disable tracks by default until you enable them). Here are the keyboard shortcuts for locking tracks: Shift-F4 locks all video tracks. F4 plus the track number locks that video track. Shift-F5 locks all audio tracks. F5 plus the track number locks that audio track.
Lock 'em. Just do it. You're welcome. Even if you've selected a specific edit on one track with the Selection tool, any unlocked track is capable of responding to changes you make to that edit. If you have locked all the tracks that you don't want cut or moved, this capability is a great thing. For example, you can make multitrack cuts, moves, and lifts to dialogue tracks or multicamera sync setups and leave your locked music track right where it is. Target track controls are a scheme for mapping each source clip to its proper Timeline track. Even though you don't always need to specify a target track to perform an edit, it's a good habit to check your target assignments whenever you perform an edit. FCE also uses targeting as a way to specify the track when you perform a specific operation. For example, you target a track when you are getting ready to delete it. |
Mapping Timeline target track assignments
Specifying target tracks" in Chapter 9. To learn how to operate the Timeline's track-targeting controls and the protocols that govern target track behavior, read on.
To map a source clip's destination tracks in the Timeline:
Do one of the following:
Figure 10.63 ).
Figure 10.63. Choose a new destination track from the Source control shortcut menu.
- Drag a Source control to your desired destination track (Figure 10.64 ).
Figure 10.64. Drag a Source control to your desired destination track.
- Control-click the Destination control of the track you want to target; then select a source track from the shortcut menu (Figure 10.65 ).
Figure 10.65. Select a source track from the Destination control shortcut menu.
Tips
| When you load a clip into the Viewer, the number of Source controls available in the Timeline automatically updates to match the number of tracks in that source clip. You can click the Destination control on a track you want to target, and the closest Source control will be assigned. Video targeting is limited to one track, so this is a quick way to target any video track with a single click.
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To return destination track mapping to default settings:
Chapter 12, "Audio Tools and Techniques."
To disable a targeted track:
FCE Protocol: Target Tracks
Once you specify target tracks, your edits will use the same target tracks until you change your target selection. If the target track is locked, it will not accept any additional audio or video.
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Making a Timeline track invisible
You can temporarily hide a track by making it invisible so that the contents of that track do not appear in the sequence when you play it back. This is useful when you tweak multilayered composited sequences.
You can also single out a track by making all the other tracks in the sequence invisible. This lets you focus on the contents of a single track temporarily. You can single out video and audio tracks independently.
Audio render files are protected from loss, but note that changing the visibility of a video track will cause a loss of any render files associated with the track. A warning dialog box appears when you attempt to change visibility on a track.
If you've invested a lot of rendering in a sequence, you can use a couple of workarounds to avoid re-rendering just because you turned a track off for a moment:
You don't need to turn off the entire track. You can disable an individual clip by Control-clicking the clip in the Timeline and unchecking Clip Enable in the shortcut menu. If you are interested in a short section of your sequence, you can disable just the clips you want to hide, and you'll sacrifice only the render file for that clip, preserving your render files for the rest of the sequence.
Undo and Redo might work. FCE has many layers of undo, and if you haven't been messing around too much in the interim, you can revert to the state before the render file loss.
Dragging Is Different
Final Cut Express has the common sense to allow drag-and-drop edits to override track target assignments. When you insert a clip into a sequence by dragging it to a specific track in the Timeline, the clip will be placed on that track even if you did not target it previously. If you've disabled a targeted track by disconnecting its Source control, things work a little differently. If you disable the video target and then drag an audio+video clip to an audio track, the video will be excluded from the edit. With disabled audio target tracks, dragging an audio+video clip to a video track will exclude the audio from the edit. Drag audio into target-disabled audio tracks (or video to disabled video tracks), and the drag-and-drop edit will override your disabled target controls. |
To make a track invisible:
1. | In the Timeline, click the Track Visibility control at the far left of the track you want to affect (Figure 10.68 ).
Figure 10.68. Click the Track Visibility control to make a track invisible.
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2. | If the sequence has been rendered, a dialog box will appear warning you about the impending loss of render files. If you don't need your render files, click Continue (Figure 10.69 ).
Figure 10.69. If making a track invisible will cause a loss of render files, you'll see this warning. You can turn off the warning on the Editing tab of User Preferences.
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3. | The track is made invisible. The render status bar updates to show which sections of your sequence have been altered and may require re-rendering (Figure 10.70 ).
Figure 10.70. The invisible track will be excluded from playback, and the render status bar updates to remind you about your lost render files.
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Tips
| You can still edit invisible tracks. Lock invisible tracks if you don't want them to respond to edits. Next time you build a sequence involving multiple takes or a multicamera shoot, try loading your synchronized clips into tracks above and below the base layer (V1 and A1 to A2), keeping the base layer clear to assemble your cut. You can turn on single tracks for viewing and then copy and paste your selections into the base layers.
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To single out a track for visibility:
Do one of the following:
Figure 10.71 ). All audio tracks except the selected track are muted.
Figure 10.71. Video track V4 will play back alone. All other tracks are made invisible.
Tip
| In addition to the Track Visibility control, each Timeline audio track has its own Solo and Mute buttons. These controls are hidden by default, but you can unearth them by clicking the Audio Controls button at the extreme lower left of the Timeline window (Figure 10.72 ).
Figure 10.72. Click the Audio Controls button in the lower-left corner of the Timeline window to reveal the Solo and Mute buttons.
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