How do you use your monitors?

I am curious to see how you guys use your two monitors because I feel like I am not using the screen estate very well. I have two 24" monitors:
on the left: timeline/canvas/viewer/browser but it is too small for my time line and canvas.
And on the left I have the right monitor for only for Safari, Finder windows and other applications.
Once in a while I preview full screen so it's convenient of course to have a second monitor.

Basically I have an over populated left monitor and a pretty deserted right monitor.

How do you guys use your screen estate?

I'm usually good at dealing with a small Viewer and Browser, but where I constantly run out of space is for the Timeline, with lots of tracks, even at Reduced track sizes. So in your case, my instinct would be to create a shortcut-accessible FCP layout to put the Browser and Viewer/Canvas on the left (and make the Browser larger) while putting the Timeline on the right, stretched vertically to see more tracks.

I don't see the point of leaving a monitor free 100 per cent of the time. You can get FCP out of the way temporarily by pressing APPLE-H anyway.


www.derekmok.com

Same with me actually
I'm ok with small browser and viewer but I always have a lot of tracks...
I tried the whole TL on the left and canvas on the right. But there's a whole eye / hand coordination that's not working: looking back and forth L/R vs. Up/Down...
Maybe what I need is a huge monitor for TL - canvas and a small for Browser/Viewer....

I sit in front of the right monitor with the viewer at the top and timeline under that. On my left hand monitor I have a very large canvas, with the browser next to that filled top to bottom of the screen, so I can see a lot of clips at once. On the right of my right monitor is my broadcast monitor.

I have two 24" monitors. I keep everything on the right hand one. The left hand one is where I view all my notes from. If I use the "Video Scopes", I'll pull it over to the left hand monitor. If I'm in "COLOR", I spread the UI out between both monitors. I also use a Sony 32" HDTV to view the footage while I'm working on it. It runs off the Matrox.

I guess it also depends what you are working on.
I rarely go the browser.
In fact I'll always be limited with the need of having a window(canvas or viewer) above the TL
What size monitors do you use?

Depending on your monitor/stand, you could orient your FCP monitor vertically so you could have the timeline in the bottom half and your canvas on top. That way you can keep the up/down looking motion you're used to and still have a tall timeline.

I don't do it, and perhaps its a wacky idea, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I actually tried a little while ago and it does look weird and isn't very functional.
But good idea though!!

One setup I like is Timeline Viewer Canvas in one monitor, and the other rotated 90 degrees with the Browser, Audio Tool and Scopes.

Canvas, viewer, timeline on one and bins on the other.



www.strypesinpost.com

Left monitor, which I sit in front of with trusty ancient OS9 keyboard, pen and wacom tablet, is split approximately down the middle. Browser on the left running the full height of the screen because I don't need all those browser columns all the time but I do want as long a list as possible. Viewer window on the top right, canvas window below it. Tool bar and audio bar on the canvas window. On the right monitor, timeline and TC display only. Works well for me this way, especially as I oftentimes have a director or client sitting to my right. What I want them to focus on is the pacing in the timeline, the current duration and further over the third (output) monitor for fullscreen/output viewing. I'll sweat the details.

Click anywhere on the left monitor and hit ctrl+u to take FCP down to one screen. Useful when they start emailing you logos and grafix and stuff you need to drag into the browser quickly. shft+ctrl+9 takes you back to custom dual screen layout (shortcut depends on how many customs you have saved).

The only situation where I digress is when I'm not that familiar with the footage, or the client has very specific thoughts as to how the cut should go togther. Then I use the standard dual screen editing setup to make space for viewing bins together in large icon view for basic storyboarding and rough cut. I'll then switch back to my preferred mode for trimming, fx and audio.

To take it all into 2011, the server can be called up on the third monitor and with a wireless mouse and small wireless keyboard for the right hand and the pen and tablet and keyboard for the left, I can start dragging files to and from the network via dropbox whilst they send me another email with more new grafix and hit cmd+u to resize fcp to access the server windows and whilst waiting for files to transfer drag in the new grafix whilst going back to the right hand to setup a new server account for the approval file and go back to the left hand to call up mail to send them notification and login and then hit shft+ctrl+9 and prepare a duplicate timeline before hitting Send to Color and then watch the Tangent Wave light up so that I can go back to the right hand to start grading. Not counting of course the hot buttons on the wacom tablet for both left and right hand used here and there inbetween (save, render selection, render all, hide, etc.).

Thanks everybody!
Still haven't read a setting that would fit my needs...

xavpil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks everybody!
> Still haven't read a setting that would fit my
> needs...

I may be a bit daft, but I haven't see anyone mention an obvious thing (I probably missed someone mentioning what I'm about to mention)...


You should know how you like to work, in terms of window arrangements. And, this setup of windows can change depending on the stage of editing.

Why not use custom window layouts? If the ones provided with FCP don't suit you, make your own. I have custom layouts for loggin/capturing, rough editing, fine editing, color correction, and audio mixing. I have variations of these layouts for different monitor configurations, such as two-up 23" Cinema Displays, 17" Mobile, etc.

Beyond custom window configurations you'd be discussing the limitations of the current FCP UI. Perhaps, the next version of FCP will incorporate an Inspector window like Motion, and other things from Motion and other apps. This would help with the tabs in Viewer windows, etc.


-Dave

The problem is that I know what I want, but can't seem to figure out how to make it happen so I was hoping that someone might give me an idea while sharing their set up.
I'll just have to live with my current set ups I guess.

xavpil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The problem is that I know what I want, but can't
> seem to figure out how to make it happen so I was
> hoping that someone might give me an idea while
> sharing their set up.
> I'll just have to live with my current set ups I
> guess.

It's not always easy to implement what you "want."


If Apple adjusts the UI of the upcoming FCP even a little by adding some interface elements from Motion, such as the File Browswer / Library / Inspector window, it could help workflows by making some interface element more contextual in nature. I, for one, hate having to click, click, click on various tabs to get to different things in Viewer windows. A more centralized way of set values for filters, motion, etc., "inspired" by Motion or iMovie would be helpful. And, by doing so (separating functionality from specific windows) you'd be able to show/hide different UI elements, making screen/window layouts more adjustable for different editing stages and monitor configurations.

We'll know soon enough if changes to the new FCP help you to implement what you want in a more obvious way...


-Dave

D-Mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> xavpil Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> I, for one, hate having to click, click,
> click on various tabs to get to different things
> in Viewer windows.
>

I haven't clicked on a tab in years!!!!
Short cut I created:
Cmd-Shft-A to go to the left tab
Cmd-Shft-S to the right
Very conveniently located keys: Thumb (on Cmd) and picky finger (on Shft) stay down the whole time and then scroll back and forth between tabs with the middle finger (left direction) and index(Right direction)

Should I submit to Mickael for the Tip of the week?! :-)

The default is cmd shift [ for left tab, cmd shift ] for right tab. shift apple ~ to go toggle windows.

On a single monitor setup, I tend to keep the entire left side of the screen for browser, and that side of the screen does get cluttered pretty fast.



www.strypesinpost.com

xavpil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> D-Mac Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > xavpil Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > I, for one, hate having to click, click,
> > click on various tabs to get to different
> things
> > in Viewer windows.
> >
>
> I haven't clicked on a tab in years!!!!
> Short cut I created:
> Cmd-Shft-A to go to the left tab
> Cmd-Shft-S to the right
> Very conveniently located keys: Thumb (on Cmd) and
> picky finger (on Shft) stay down the whole time
> and then scroll back and forth between tabs with
> the middle finger (left direction) and index(Right
> direction)
>
> Should I submit to Mickael for the Tip of the
> week?! :-)

I was speaking metaphorically. I should have been more concrete...


I do try to stick with the keyboard as much as possible. To me, it's akin to playing a piano... I avoid mousing as much as I can...


-Dave

coming late to this:

Left is a smaller 19" 4/3 monitor

that's for the Browser

Right is 23"

Viewer, Canvas, Timeline.

it's a lot like "Dual Screen Editing" set-up, but with the Timeline a bit larger at the expense of the Viewer & Canvas.
this is my "generic" set-up, mapped to Shift U.

my "Secondary" set-up (mapped to Option-U) is:
timeline large as can be with canvas small as it can be.
viewer gets short, but stretched out.
generally i want the larger timeline to see audio tracks, so the long skinny viewer is a bonus for viewing waveforms.

i use the smaller monitor for desktop preview.

for a recent job i was using that a lot, so used a variant of the single screen Editing default,
with the Browser Viewer Canvas across the top. larger than default, with the canvas quite narrow,
timeline smaller than usual.
this was for a fairly simple cut-down, so i wasn't going into the Browser too much.

i wouldn't mind a 3rd monitor for scopes, but i should probably just create a separate layout that includes them.

Xapfil, why do you need other apps on their own screen?
FCP stops as soon as you move away from it.
you seem to have specific needs, but aren't saying what they are!


i learnt a good trick a couple of years ago regarding Drag & Drop.
- hide FCP
- find the files you want, start dragging,
- use the App Switcher (Apple + Tab).
now you can switch to FCP, OR DRAG to the FCP icon in the App Switcher. (i find this simpler)
- FCP will appear, and you can drop the files into the Browser



nick

can the timeline stretch across both monitors or is this not recommended?

You could easily if you want to.



www.strypesinpost.com

We have two 24" monitors in our suites. How they are used depends on exactly what we're doing.

For example I have 15 different Window presets in Final Cut Pro.

For Color Correction I have a very small timeline, a very large Viewer that fills the screen vertically so I can easily grab all the controls, a separate Vectorscope, Wavform and Parade Window and a large Canvas.

For audio mixing and large timeline / compositing work, I have a Full Screen timeline mode where the right screen is completely filled with the timeline so I can make the tracks as large as necessary, the Audio Mixer on the left screen with everything else.

And I have a lot of other window layouts for all sorts of other tasks. The point is, there is no ONE layout that is efficient in Final Cut Pro. I literally switch window layouts sometimes dozens of times a day, sometimes just for one task. It's incredibly easy to do so why not?

And you can take the window layouts to other machines, which is what I've done here in the shop. They all have my layouts and the layouts of my other editors.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

You know, this thread could really use some screen shots

Did somebody say screen shots? Ok, here's my latest Blog Entry. FCP Interface: One Window Layout does not fit all.

[www.biscardicreative.com]

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

not to come-off too 'woody' - but surely "whatever works" would be the answer?! it's personal taste and workflow right? personally i have different window layouts for different processes in FCP, cutting rushes, sound layer editing, playback (fuller canvas screen etc) all layouts saved, for different stages in post.

Bluey,