FCS Tip- QuickLook

So i'm sure like everyone else, i'm often giving hundreds of files of assets(movies, stills, audio) by other people for me to use as b-roll in our productions. Normally, i organize them all into folders, and pull those folders into FCP, and then when needed, dutifully click and scrub through each clip until i find the one i need.

Now, i dont do this anymore. I hate clicking, i'm very much a shortcut kinda guy and anything i can do without moving to the mouse, i do it. This is why i love the QuickLook function in Leopard. When i need to find a shot, I command-tab over to the folder containing the 40broll clips, often named meaninglessly by a client or whoever, and hit spacebar. The movie launches instantly and i can review what it is visually, which is what im using to make my judgements, not filenames. The best part is i can then down arrow through the list and the next clip instantly starts playing, down arrow again, next clip, keyboard shortcuts, get it? If im looking for the best product insert shot, instead of clicking and dragging through 20 clips, i can now see them all instantly, already playing, just by down arrowing. And this works for psds, aiffs, movs, etc, etc. I find the one i want, hit spacebar, the preview closes, and the clip is selected and ready for me to drag into my viewer where i trim, adjust, and add to my timeline.

Now i realize im probably loosing some of the masterclip relation to clips already in my bins but seriously, how often do i use that? I much prefer the faster media browsing through QuickLook. And i mean come on Apple Engineers, Mail has QuickLook built into it, why not port this into FCP so we can have the best of both worlds.

I have been requesting something similar to this as a "New Feature" in FCP for years (look in the "Feature Requests" thread above...I posted it in there long ago)...it's one thing Avid has over FCP...the ability to preview (play) clips in the Browser in thumbnail mode. BIG timesaver - especially when you have hundreds of clips to scan through.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I like that feature too. I also use Adobe Bridge in a similar way. I edit a lot of sports highlights. Another editor and I have shared storage via MetaSan. We capture to the same bin. When I want to see what he has that I might have missed I click on a little hole in my FCP UI that I leave to the mostly hidden Bridge interface. I can see and play thumbnails there, and drag anything I like back into FCP.

-Vance

>and then when needed, dutifully click and scrub through each clip until i find the one i
>need.

Go to the browser, right click, select "view as icons". Activate the timeline (or Apple 3), hit "HHH" for the video scrub tool (which turns the curser into a hand with left and right arrows on it). Go to the icons in the browser, click on it, and move the mouse left or right to scrub through the clip.

The picture in the icons are also called "poster frames". You can change the poster frame by hitting and releasing the ctrl key when you scroll through the clip.



www.strypesinpost.com

Gerard, you've got to try QuickView!

my method is to have all those shots in a timeline,
or groups of themed timelines.

then i can scrub thru ALL my shots very quickly.

when you find the shot you want,
matchframe into the viewer,
and switch back to your edit timeline.
(or copy / paste the clip)


but yeah, quickview behaviour in the browser would be awesome!


nick

>you've got to try QuickView!

Yep. I use it all the time to preview music. Dead tight deadlines here. that's why I love Leopard.

Tried editing off the timeline before. Not really my thing... I like working off the storyboard mode in the browser. I usually have the bins all arranged, the clips all lined up and I can glance through all the shots available before I make my selection...

Quickview would be awesome, if just that it's better for scrubbing through the clips...



www.strypesinpost.com

Both of those suggestions are really good, i never used the video scrub tool before, kinda neat but i still like instant-on functionality of QuickLook.

I often create a workbench timeline where i can organize and group assets from but then i usually copy/paste to another timeline as needed. Tho MatchFrame is probably my favorite shortcut as of late, sooo many good uses.

clearly it's not the modern wonder that is QuickLook, but its pretty easy to aproximate the previewing capability that QuickLook offers right in FCP
... with a clip selected in the Browser, just press Enter then Space and its playing in the Viewer
... press Cmd 1, Arrow, Enter, Space and the next clip is playing

if you have Quickkeys or a similar macro's utility you can program this to a single keypress