Im using Final Cut Pro 5 & I miss Vegas... what can I do

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Im using Final Cut Pro 5 & I miss Vegas... what can I do

Postby Cross/Zero Blues » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:20 pm

Ok basically I miss Vegas Video and Final Cut Pro 5 is annoying the hell out of me. I just can not get used to it. i did a basic video on it but the controls, the video sizes, the constant rendering of files other then .mov are driving me nuts.

I have two other options from the software guide and thats Avid or Z24 i think its called (I just DL'd it as its free).

I am just not happy with the way things work in FCP 5. I will use it if its my best option but as someone used to Vegas and its setup can anyone tell me what Avid's software is like for OS X and what they think comparing the two esp if you have experience with Vegas.

Thanks!!!
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Postby Athena » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:24 pm

It is your best option.

It's much harder to get through than the windows equivalents, but it is worth it.

Avid is even tougher to learn.
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Postby Athena » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:25 pm

Oh, and your sig is huge. 600x80 or smaller.
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Postby Cross/Zero Blues » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:30 pm

sorry i will change it. its my universal sig for all forums.

hmm well i guess i should just start asking questions about fcp but compared to vegas whats avid like? how is it harder?

i guess i am still just hoping against hope as fcp really just does not feel like i want it to *shrug*
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Postby Athena » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:35 pm

I don't know anything about Vegas, I have never used it. I hear it's intuitive. FCP is not. Avid even less so.

I will say FCP is set up pretty much like Adobe Premiere (the two are considered direct competitors), and since I use Premiere on my windows machine, it's been pretty easy for me to pick up, but I remember learning premiere, and I remember that it has a steep learning curve. I had a lot of frustration over the first few weeks I played around with it. FCP has been the same way, only a lot quicker, since it is so close to Premiere's interface. I've already started remastering a vid totally in FCP5.

Avid is set up kind of like those two, but the timeline is harder to understand... A lot of this is hard to explain, as I'd have to physically point out stuff to you... Maybe I could post screen shots. In any case, I like FCP a lot better, I think it's as capable as your going to need (probably more so), and will be easier (albeit not easy) to learn.
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Postby Cross/Zero Blues » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:47 pm

I understand what you mean with explaining. Explaining the flaws I find in FCP5 is hard enough esp comparing it to Vegas.

basically in vegas I was so used to being able to resize clips, edit them, use markers and things set to markers so much easier. I could drag the clips I wanted in to the video and the rendering thing is very VERY annoying.

I also liked the timeline setup more and I have found FCP5 to have a problem moving clips. It do not move them slowly or in small amounts a lot of times it just suddenly moves and takes many small moves to get it where you want it some times. (Not to mention causing re-rendering should you overlap anything god I hate that rendering problem!!!)

I also noticed that you have to make sub clips (or I have just not figured this out) you can not just pull your clip or copy it into FCP5's time line. With vegas I could click and drag or just copy and paste and it worked. With FCP I have had to make sub clips and I have a ton of stuff on my list not to mention labeling markers is still something I can not figure out and the videos I am watching do not get there own timeline like Vegas does where I can see them in the timeline of there own while I am editing or else I am just overlooking it as I am used to Vegas's setup.

I did try Premiere... twice and I walked away after about 15 min (Damn being ADHD) Vegas was just so much quicker for me for some reason it just worked and everything was there.

I got some basic help on FCP5 and learned enough to make a rough basic but I am having problems with the fact that the video clips I bring in do not auto resize to the clip i currently have and I have no clue how to change that not to mention FCP loves to go for common formats and none of those match what I normally use... just something I have to spend the time changing to a profile for my work but it just seems like FCP is for those doing much different products.
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Postby TaranT » Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:41 am

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Postby Cross/Zero Blues » Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:01 am

Thanks thats helping a lot I am running through it now. I am still curious to see if I have to deal with rendering in Avid as much as I do with FCP but other then that it looks great.
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Postby Shazzy » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:10 am

Cross/Zero Blues wrote:basically in vegas I was so used to being able to resize clips, edit them, use markers and things set to markers so much easier. I could drag the clips I wanted in to the video and the rendering thing is very VERY annoying.


Markers: You can set these either in your master clips or subclips by opening the clips and pressing m. You can also do that directly in your timeline in either your audio or your video section. In the example below, I selected my audio file and set a few markers.

Image

Rendering: Yes, you will have to render anytime you overlap clips, change something about a clip (such as it's opacity), or apply transitions. If your clips require rendering when you haven't done any of those things, then your sequence settings are wrong. Your source and your sequence settings need to match exactly.

Image


Cross/Zero Blues wrote:
I also liked the timeline setup more and I have found FCP5 to have a problem moving clips. It do not move them slowly or in small amounts a lot of times it just suddenly moves and takes many small moves to get it where you want it some times. (Not to mention causing re-rendering should you overlap anything god I hate that rendering problem!!!)


Snapping is probably turned on. Hit n or go to the View menu to turn it off.

Cross/Zero Blues wrote:I also noticed that you have to make sub clips (or I have just not figured this out) you can not just pull your clip or copy it into FCP5's time line. With vegas I could click and drag or just copy and paste and it worked. With FCP I have had to make sub clips and I have a ton of stuff on my list not to mention labeling markers is still something I can not figure out and the videos I am watching do not get there own timeline like Vegas does where I can see them in the timeline of there own while I am editing or else I am just overlooking it as I am used to Vegas's setup.


Well, there are lots of ways you can work with clips. You don't have to make subclips. One way is to open your master file in the Viewer, find the scene you want, hit i to set where the scene starts and o for where it ends (in and out points), then click and drag the picture to your timeline. Now you have a custom clip without a subclip. This kind of clip is attached to your master clip, so you could make it longer later if you wanted to.


Cross/Zero Blues wrote:I got some basic help on FCP5 and learned enough to make a rough basic but I am having problems with the fact that the video clips I bring in do not auto resize to the clip i currently have and I have no clue how to change that not to mention FCP loves to go for common formats and none of those match what I normally use... just something I have to spend the time changing to a profile for my work but it just seems like FCP is for those doing much different products.


Besides dragging custom sized clips on the timeline, you can insert a clip between two clips, replace, superimpose, and fit to fill. If you want me to explain these, I'd be more than happy to. These options come up when you drag a clip ontop of another clip in the Viewer.

Image

What formats are you using? FCP supports tons of codecs, but you'll have to move away from Windows-specific ones. If you have lots of space, you could edit in Uncompressed, Animation, or Apple Motion JPEG. Lower space codecs include DV/DVCPRO, PhotoJPEG, and Pixlet.
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Postby Cross/Zero Blues » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:21 am

If I could hug you I would lol.

I am glad to know I did not need to make sub clips, wish I had known sooner but oh well.

I will try the "n" Option to see if that corrects that.

On the markers I figured them out but I think because of the "n" option I was getting upset with them not being ref point and it would just blow by them. Plus I am used to being able to use the mouse to just click and drag much like you would on the desktop for multiple items to select a clip.

I def would love to hear more. I can say i have learned alot and I just finished redoing my clip with more success and I feel more comfortable with FCP. I also figured out how to use the blade to cut scenes. That was a huge help.

I would def like to ready any information you have. What you have shown me above is 100% just how I needed it explained to me for me to understand. Just perfect.

Thanks so much!
I stayed up one night playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and 4 people died.
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Overwrite

Postby Shazzy » Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:59 pm

Okay, we have 5 basic "drag-and-drop" edits. For these you will need your Canvas open, showing your Timeline sequence, and a clip open in the Viewer. You drag and drop the clip from the Viewer to the Canvas to get that rainbow-colored edit overlay.

The active clip is the one you can see in the Canvas, also the one that your playhead (the yellow arrow thing in your timeline) is hovering over in your Timeline.

Overwrite: Replaces the active clip with the Viewer clip, using the playhead as the starting point. I'll show you what that looks like now.

I already have a clip in my Timeline, and it's showing up in the Canvas because my playhead is over it. This is my active clip.
Image

Now I'm going to my browser to open my source file, VTS_01_2.dv, in the Viewer
Image

Image

I'm going to make a custom clip by specifying in and out points in the Viewer.

Image

Drag the Viewer clip to the Canvas and let it "drop" on the Overwrite box. Look at your Timeline and notice what has changed.

Image

Overwrite replaced a section of my active clip with my Viewer clip. It started at the playhead and replaced my active clip until it got to the end of the Viewer clip.
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Fit to Fill

Postby Shazzy » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:05 pm

Next edit:

Fit to Fill: Forces a clip to fit a certain length. If it's too short, the clip slows down. If it's too long, the clip speeds up.

You can do one of two things with FTF:
A. Set In and Out Points in the Timeline (or Canvas). FTF will take your Viewer clip, make it the right length, then REPLACE anything between those in and out points.
B. Don't set any points, and just drag the Viewer clip to your Canvas. The clip will speed up/slow down then REPLACE the active clip.

This is what my timeline looks like after a FTF. Notice the 18% on the clip. My clip was too short, so it slowed down to fit the length.

Image

If you try to replace a really long clip with a really short clip, or vice-versa, you might not be able to slow/speed the clip enough to fit the length. If that happens, you'll get a Insufficient content for edit error.
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Re: Fit to Fill

Postby Cross/Zero Blues » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:11 pm

shazzy wrote:Next edit:

Fit to Fill: Forces a clip to fit a certain length. If it's too short, the clip slows down. If it's too long, the clip speeds up.

You can do one of two things with FTF:
A. Set In and Out Points in the Timeline (or Canvas). FTF will take your Viewer clip, make it the right length, then REPLACE anything between those in and out points.
B. Don't set any points, and just drag the Viewer clip to your Canvas. The clip will speed up/slow down then REPLACE the active clip.

This is what my timeline looks like after a FTF. Notice the 18% on the clip. My clip was too short, so it slowed down to fit the length.

Image

If you try to replace a really long clip with a really short clip, or vice-versa, you might not be able to slow/speed the clip enough to fit the length. If that happens, you'll get a Insufficient content for edit error.


I wish I had known this it will be perfect for my next video and my V3 of the video I just made V2 of. I had so many small spots where it was such a small amount of time I needed the clip to be longer for. I did not know I could do this or i would have used it.

Thanks so much for this one Spec.

On the other big help to, lol

I def feel better about FCP it really is just getting used to the different layout but the features are there.

Now with vegas I used the main video and then another on top in the timeline (Much like how ours look currently) and there was a slider with which I could set the video to be transparent over the other. How do i do that here.

Also on Effects how do I do those. i did not try becuase I am used to being able to click on the end and select the effect I want to use at that point. (Vegas again) I am sure if I palyed with it it would be fine but I am sure you can tell me something I might miss there to.
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"Aww, now my heads not taped to the TV." - Strong Bad
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Re: Fit to Fill

Postby Shazzy » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:58 pm

Cross/Zero Blues wrote:
Now with vegas I used the main video and then another on top in the timeline (Much like how ours look currently) and there was a slider with which I could set the video to be transparent over the other. How do i do that here.



What you want are overlays. There's a button on your timeline, which I've circled in red for you.

Image

Now your timeline clips will have a little black line on them. You can click and drag this up and down to change the transparency.

Image

Now if you want to get fancy, you can make the opacity change at certain points. Hit p to get the pen tool (hit a to go back to your normal selection tool). With the pen tool, click on that black line and make points. Then you can drag the points up or down.

Image

There's another way to make points too. This is useful if you want exact numbers (33 opacity here, 77 opacity there, etc.) Go to the Motion tab of your Viewer clip.

Image

Open the Opacity section.

Image

Cross/Zero Blues wrote:Also on Effects how do I do those. i did not try becuase I am used to being able to click on the end and select the effect I want to use at that point. (Vegas again) I am sure if I palyed with it it would be fine but I am sure you can tell me something I might miss there to.


There are two kinds of effects: filters and transitions. If you want a filter, say Gaussian Blur, you just drag it from the Effects window onto the clip. If you want a transition, you drag between two clips that are right next to each other on the Timeline.

Transitions

Here I've added a Cross Dissolve to join two clips.

Image

This will only work if you have "room" for the clip to expand. Adding a transition means Clip #1 ends later and Clip #2 starts earlier, so there is "material" for the two to fade into each other.

If you don't have room, the transition won't drag onto the two clips. This is only a problem if you use subclips (which is why custom clips are better for this) or if your clip is at the very start or very end of your source file.

I hope that makes sense. I'm glad you're getting the hang of FCP. It's an awesome program to work with.
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Postby DeinReich » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:03 pm

Alternativley, you could install and run Windows through something like Parallels/Boot Camp and install Vegas that way. Not sure if the performance will be any good, though. Just throwing that option out there.

But yes, keep listening to Shazzy, hes doing great.
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