What is it?

First, what is nesting? At least as far as FCP is concerned, nesting is simply a sequence that acts as a clip inside another sequence. How do you nest a sequence? There are two ways to do this that only differ in the manner of execution. The resulting nested sequence is precisely the same in functionality. The first way is to select a number of clips in a sequence and go Sequence>Nest Item(s). On this command, FCP will ask you to name the new nested sequence, choose a sequence preset for it (since the nest will be a true sequence) and allow you to mixdown any audio tracks that might cause the nested sequence to exceed the number your Mac is capable of doing normally (you should generally do this anyway).

      

After doing this, the selected clips will form a single clip (the nested sequence) on the Timeline displaying the name you just used in the dialog box. An icon for this new sequence will also have appeared in the Project tab of the Browser window bearing this name. Want to get access back to the clips you just nested inside this sequence? Simply double click the nested sequence-in-a-sequence, or double click the nest sequence in the Browser to open it in the Canvas/Timeline. Since a nest is simply a sequence, you can always load it to get to its contents.You can also Option-double click a sequence to load it into the Viewer window, if you want to apply effects to it like a clip.

      

The second way to create a nested sequence is almost too easy. Simply drag one sequence from the Browser (or Viewer if you have loaded it there) into another one in the Timeline. There you have it; a sequence is nested in another sequence. It is now being treated as if it were simply an individual clip. In fact, you can do anything you would do to a clip to the sequence, such as loading it in the Viewer and applying Motion and Filter effects. But we get a little ahead of ourselves...

Why bother?

Once you have the concept down, its pretty easy to put Nesting to work for you. There are two main reasons for using nesting techniques: render order and render file protection. Render order is of incredible importance to anyone engaged in any sort of effects work. Remember that not all effects work is light sabers and morphing! Something as simple as applying a widescreen matte to a 4:3 picture or picture-in-picture effects can be accomplished much more quickly and efficiently if one uses the power of nesting rather than applying such effects to clips individually.

If you have a range of clips to which you need to apply the same effect, Nesting allows you to apply any effect to the entire range of clips at one stroke. In addition to speeding up your workflow from only having to apply a filter once (and potentially remove it once if it doesn't do what you want!), you also get the benefit of only having to change the values of one filter to affect all the clips in the nest the same way.

To make a bad analogy, say for instance you are watering plants. If they are scattered all over the house, it might take you all afternoon to apply the same amount of water to them all. However, if you move them all into the same location, i.e. nest them, you could probably hose them all down in less than a minute. Same goes for clips and sequences.

And let's not forget that it isn't just about applying effects filters. While nesting might speed up the process of applying one filter to many clips, it is an absolutely necessary procedure for some types of picture-in-picture and other motion effects. Say for instance you want a sequence of video clips you have scaled down to thumbnail size to move across the video frame. If you tried to line up all the clips and enter all their individual motion settings to perform this simple visual stunt, you would quickly find that it is impossible to figure out such values. The motion would be flawed, jerky and uneven, if you even managed to get close to the correct values. All you had to do was line up the clips as you want them to play in a sequence and nest it. Then apply the motion you want to the entire nest. This is an example of something that really cannot be done without nesting.

      

When to use it

But should you always apply your effects to a nest? To effectively use nesting as a tool, you have to have a correct understanding of render order. Some items can and should be nested, while others should not. What determines this? Ultimately, you work this out by evaluating how individual and specific the effects settings will be for each clip that you are considering nesting.

A good example of this consideration would be the case of applying a widescreen matte to a 4:3 picture and performing an Offset, or pan and scan, to move the area of the 4:3 frame into the widescreen matte viewing area. Because widescreen's aspect ratio is different from the 4:3 video rectangle we are used to (shorter and wider), a 4:3 picture that is cropped to imitate widescreen offers the editor the ability to move the 4:3 picture around behind the matte and focus on different parts of the 4:3 frame. We don't see that the 4:3 picture has been shifted around because the widescreen matte is blocking out its true edges. It gives the editor one more chance to tighten up a shot that the DP either couldn't or wouldn't compose tighter in the frame.

The amount of up or down positioning of the 4:3 picture behind the widescreen matte is called its Offset. Since we have this freedom to focus on the specific areas of the 4:3 frame, we will likely want to adjust the offset of EVERY clip individually that we are widescreen matting, until we have it all framed perfectly. If we apply the Widescreen filter (Effects>Video Filters>Matte>Widescreen) to a clip and look at its Filter control tab, we see that in addition to being able to set the size of the crop by its aspect ratio, we also have a control to manually set an offset for the clip to get it lined up the way we want.

Unfortunately, applying the Widescreen matte filter to each clip, then applying individual offset settings to each clip would be painful and slow. The key here is render order; knowing what is more efficiently accomplished through nesting and what is not. In this case, we would be more efficient if we edit all the clips in order, then nest them, and finally apply the Widescreen matte filter to the nested sequence.

Of course we still haven't given the clips the individual offsets they require. Double click the nested sequence and go back into the original nest contents. Then simply reposition the individual clips using the good old Canvas and Viewer wireframe tools and Motion tab settings. If you have both Canvas tabs visible for each sequence, you will see the effects of the motion settings of the nested sequence's contents ripple forward and be displayed in the parent sequence tab.

To make this clear, here are the steps in brief order:

1) Start with a fresh sequence. Edit the clips in the order you want them to appear.

2) Select all the clips, then choose Sequence>Nest Item(s). Name the nest "Widescreen Nest" and enable Mixdown Audio

3) Select the "Widescreen Nest" sequence in the Timeline and apply the Widescreen Filter (Effects>Video Filters>Matte>Widescreen)

4) Double click the "Widescreen Nest" sequence in the Timeline so that it loads into the Canvas. While it is loaded there, tear away the tab and place it side by side with the Canvas tab for the original, or parent, sequence so that you can observe how the changes you make in the one window are reflected in the next.

5) Make sure that "Widescreen Nest" Canvas tab is set for "Image and Wireframe", then make rough position adjustments directly in the Canvas tab for "Widescreen Nest"

You should see the position adjustment ripple up into the parent Canvas tab. Just make sure that you are moving your playhead up with each clip you adjust. The best part of this process is that if you are using an RT capable Mac G4, the Motion tab settings for clips are RT-enabled. You won't be able to play back the parent sequence that has the Widescreen filter applied without rendering, but you can play back the "Widescreen Nest" child, the offset of which is being corrected through simple Motion tab changes that are RT-savvy.

The upshot is that we have used nesting where it would save us an enormous amount of tedious work and rendering, but not used it where it would have been irrelevant or counter-productive.

The other benefit

There is another, less obvious benefit to using nesting in FCP: Render File Protection. In FCP's media management system, render files are maintained through their links to a sequence. Each frame of rendered video is linked to a specific frame in a specific sequence. This is why when you copy a rendered clip and paste it into another sequence or project, you have to render it again; it lost its link to the sequence, and thus its render files.

All of us at some point or other while working in FCP have accidentally committed an action that un-rendered our video. Sometimes this is as simple an action as adding a keyframe or edit point to a clip that has previously been rendered. Even picking up a rendered clip and moving it on the Timeline can lose the render files. When that red line jumps up on the Timeline, our fingers go racing for the command-Z Undo!

But there is a way to make the render file management system work for us rather than against us. When you nest a group of rendered clips, you isolate these original clips and their links to their render files from any form of editing by linking their render files to the new nested sequence. As long as you don't go messing around inside the child sequence, the render links will remain intact. This makes it possible for you to perform edits on the rendered material without un-rendering it since you are really only editing the parent sequence and not the rendered clips themselves! You can trim, keyframe and cut away to your hearts desire, even move the nested sequence around in the Timeline without ever jeopardizing the integrity of the original rendered clips. Although it may seem like no big deal, this saves tons of time-wasting renders when you experiment a lot with clip order.

There's gotta be a catch!

That sounds just great, Chawla! Isn't there anything negative about this powerful nesting procedure? Well, as usual, great functionality comes at a cost. Nesting does eat up system resources, so you have to be a little strategic in nesting.

One of the most common issues with nesting is that it bloats RAM usage and project file size. Every sequence in use by a project loads into RAM. Each frame of a sequence is actually a link back to a frame of video media on your hard drive. As such, when a sequence is loaded into the Timeline and Canvas, it takes up a big chunk or the available RAM, regardless of whether you are playing the sequence back or not. Having thirty sequences loaded up at a time can jack your RAM usage through the roof.

In OSX, RAM allocation is performed behind the scenes by the OS, which can result in Virtual Memory pageouts kicking in and declining performance if you don't have enough physical RAM to go around. In OS9, where you still have to assign a RAM allocation to each application, having too many sequences loaded can actually cause crashing, Type 1 and 2 errors or even possibly project corruption. Although the conventional wisdom is that FCP wants no more than about 200 MBs of RAM allocated, you have to go much higher than this if you are using many sequences simultaneously.

And the more complicated your nesting gets, the more sequences that will have to be loaded simultaneously. There is no real practical limit to the depth of the nesting you can create. You can nest sequences inside sequences inside sequences until its turtles all the way down, as the saying goes. The problem is that all those sequences have to load into RAM, and if you have RAM limitations, you can run into trouble.

Another problem that is common is the speed issue. It can take a long time to load up the correct rendering of a frame if its appearance depends on tracing its steps through four or five nests. You will likely find that keyboard navigation commands and device controllers like jog/shuttles and such get a little (or a lot!) sluggish when you start getting deep into the nests. If you don't like getting the "Preparing Video for Display" message, well, your life isn't going to get any simpler after you've nested eight layers deep!

Finally, the size of your project grows with each added sequence. Each sequence you add through nesting adds to this in project density and complexity. And if your sequences are long as well as deeply nested, your project size can swell all out of proportion. Sometimes the difference between a 10 MB project file and a 60 MB project file is a couple of two hour long nested sequences. And although I don't have any hard physical evidence, I have seen projects tank and exhibit strange errors once they get super-bloated. Eliminating a few extra, unused sequences usually clears up the problem.

So, you can see that some strategy has to go into nesting. Its a powerful tool in the hands of a person with vision and a deadline. But you have to use it where it will help you and make sure you aren't letting it restrain you in the process. As usual, the only way to really understand it is to use it a few times. Practice, as always is the best teacher there is. Have fun!

 
Charles Roberts teaches Video and Digital Media in the Communications Media Department at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, MA, and is the author of "Final Cut Pro 2 for Firewire DV Editing", published by Focal Press. He spends what little free time he has coming up with ways to eliminate the little free time he has left.

copyright © Charles Roberts 2002