,

Tip #018: Export Multiple Segments or Clips at Once

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #018: Export Multiple Segments or Clips at Once

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

A hidden trick that makes exporting multiple segments even faster.

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While it’s true that you can only have one In and Out in the timeline, that is NOT true for the Browser. Clips in the Browser support selecting and exporting as many segments as you want.

To select more than one section in a clip, drag to set the In and Out for the first section, then press the Command key and drag to set as many additional sections as you want!

NOTE: To delete a selected range in the Browser, select it, then type Option + X.

With the ranges you want to export selected, choose File > Share and note that this menu now displays the number of segments you have selected.

BONUS

You can also use this technique to select and export multiple clips in the Browser, not just segments inside a single clip. As well, you can use this technique to select and edit multiple clips or segments into the timeline at once.

Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

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Tip #065: Faster Ways to Apply an Effect

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #065: Faster Ways to Apply an Effect

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Dragging is easy, but these tricks are quicker.

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Normally, to apply an effect, you open the Effects Browser (shortcut: Cmd + 5), then drag the effect on top of the clip you want to add it to in the Timeline.

Works great. Takes forever.

Here are two variations that are faster.

OPTION 1

  • Select one or more clips in the Timeline. (The real time-savings with this technique come when need to apply the same effect to multiple clips.) The clips can be located anywhere in the Timeline.
  • Open the Effects Browser and find the effect you want to apply to ALL the selected clips.
  • Double-click the effect to instantly apply it to all selected clips.

OPTION 2

  • Select a Timeline clip that has the effect you want to apply to other clips.
  • Choose Edit > Copy.
  • Select all the other clips in the Timeline to which you want to apply this effect.
  • Choose Edit > Paste Effects. This pastes ALL the effects attached to the first clip into the selected clips

VARIATION

  • Choose Edit > Paste Attributes. This allows you to select which of the effects applied to the first clip are applied to the selected clips.
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Tip #096: A Faster Way to Rename Keywords

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #096: A Faster Way to Rename Keywords

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Renaming a keyword is easy – if you know where to make the change.

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What happens if you’ve applied keywords to a lot of clips, only to discover that you misspelled one of the keywords. Or want to change a keyword for a different word?

Relax! This is easy.

  • Select the Keyword in the Library List
  • Press Enter to open the name for editing
  • Rename it
  • Press Enter to apply the name

Instantly, every clip with this keyword is updated to the new name.

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Tip #043: Optimize Premiere Preferences for Performance

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #043: Optimize Premiere Preferences for Performance

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Five Settings That Can Speed Your System

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Most of the time, you alter Premiere’s preference settings to suit your, ah, preferences. However, there are five preferences that also affect performance.

Preferences > Media

  • Growing Files. A growing file is a special media file that can be edited while it is still being recorded; think sports highlights. When checked, every 60 seconds Premiere will check your hard disk for changes. If nothing is changing, all you are doing is slowing down your system. My recommendation is to uncheck this.

Preferences > Memoryy

  • RAM reserved for… Keep this low. On my system, I set this to 4 GB. The remaining RAM is reserved and shared between Adobe apps. Once you quit, this RAM is released back to the OS.
  • Optimize rendering for…. If you have 32 GB RAM or more, change this to Performance.

Preferences > Playback

  • Enable Mercury Transmit. Uncheck this UNLESS you are driving a video, not computer, monitor (say via HTML or 3rd-party interface box). Mercury Transmit is how Premiere outputs video to a video monitor. If all you are using are computer monitors, you can turn this off.

File > New Project Settings

  • Renderer. This determines how Premiere generates render files. On recent Macs set this to Metal; and, shortly, Metal 2. On Windows set this to OpenCL. This enables hardware acceleration for effects, rendering and export.
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Tip #038: Magic Maintenance: Do a Safe Boot

… for Random Weirdness

Tip #038: Magic Maintenance: Do a Safe Boot

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Three steps for smooth operations.

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Keeping our systems running their best requires periodic maintenance. A Safe Boot is something you can do yourself and, for best results, I recommend you do this every couple of weeks. This will not affect the data or applications stored on your system.

  • Start, or restart, your computer while holding the Shift key down. Continue holding the Shift key for 30 seconds after you see the start-up thermometer appear.
  • Log into your computer. You know you held the Shift key down long enough if the words “Safe Boot” appear in the upper right corner of your screen. If they don’t, restart your system and press the Shift key until the log-in screen appears.
  • After login, go to Utilities > Disk Utility, select the name of your boot drive (generally, “Macintosh HD”) from the sidebar on the left then choose First Aid.
  • When repair is complete, restart your Mac and, this time, don’t hold any keys down.

BONUS

Sometimes, your system will act strange and Safe Boot won’t fix it. Here’s a more thorough repair process:

  • Restart your computer and press Cmd + R during restart. This will take a LOT longer than normal. This launches your computer from a hidden partition with a “recovery version” of macOS on it. This allows much deeper repair of the boot disk.
  • After a bit, a menu will appear allowing you to choose between four options. Choose Disk Utility.
  • Again, select your boot drive and click First Aid. When repair is complete, restart your computer.

Following these procedures should minimize the amount of time you spend trying to fix problems with your system.

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Tip #044: Optimize Premiere Preferences for Cache Files

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #044: Optimize Premiere Preferences for Cache Files

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Cache files help Premiere work faster.

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The Media Cache preferences have a significant impact on overall system performance because this determines where all your media work files will be stored.

Media Cache files and databases are work and temporary files that Premiere uses during editing – for example, audio waveforms and thumbnails – and when sharing media between applications. For best results, these should be stored somewhere other than where media files are stored, though that is not required.

The default settings store these on the boot drive in the Library inside your Home directory, but you can re-point these to any folder on any drive – provided the storage is fast enough. Cache files need to be on fast drive.

  • Media Cache Files. These are the data files themselves. Click the Browse button to store these to a different location. However, changing the location does not move any files that are already stored in the original location.
  • Delete unused media cache files. It is a good idea to delete these if your drive starts to fill up, just regain storage space. This option only deletes cache file that are not being used. Media and project files are not affected.
  • Media Cache Management. This allows you to schedule to automatically delete older cache files. I tend to delete files based upon age, rather than size.

If, by accident, you delete cache files that are being used, or new cache files are needed, Premiere will re-create them automatically.

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Tip #028: A Faster Way to Export – Part 2

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #028: A Faster Way to Export – Part 2

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Exporting isn’t just for single files anymore.

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There are two ways you can export faster:

  • Use keyboard shortcuts
  • Take advantage of background processing and export multiple clips or projects at the same time

This tip covers the second option. Tip #27 covered the first.

THE OLD WAY

In the Olde Days, we needed to wait for a project to finish exporting before we could do anything else. Then, Final Cut Pro X was released.

Final Cut was designed to both render and export in the “background.” This means that anytime you are not playing a clip in the Browser or the timeline, FCP X will render or export whatever needs to be rendered or exported.

There’s nothing you need to do to “enable” this – but you can take advantage of it.

THE NEW WAY

Let’s say you want to export four projects that the client just approved.

  • Select them in the Browser.
  • Choose File > Share. Notice that this menu now says: Share 4 Clips [ or Projects]

In the Export > Settings window, you will need to apply the same export settings to all the selected items, but the good news is that with one menu choice – or keyboard shortcut – you can export multiple files at the same time.

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Tip #027: A Faster Way to Export – Part 1

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #027: A Faster Way to Export – Part 1

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

One simple keystroke is all it takes – except, it doesn’t exist.

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When you’ve finished a project and it is time to create a master file, there are two ways you can export faster: you could create a keyboard shortcut or take advantage of background processing and export multiple clips or projects at the same time

This tip covers the first option. Tip #28 covers the second.

THE OLD WAY

Normally, you select what you want to export in either the timeline or Browser, then choose File > Share > Master file. (Or the export option of your choice.)

THE NEW WAY

However, in Final Cut Pro X > Preferences > Destinations, you have the option to assign a keyboard shortcut (Cmd + E) to the export/share option of your choice.

Because I tend to create multiple versions of my projects for various different distribution channels, I always export a Master file from FCP X. However, this process works for any Destination.

Right-click (Cntrl – click) the Destination to which you want to assign this shortcut and choose Make Default.

NOTE: A keyboard shortcut can be assigned to only one destination.

Close the Preferences window and you’re done.

The next time you want to export, type Cmd + E and – Poof! – the Export Settings window appears.

Faster than a mouse!

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Tip #006: One Click to Better Color!

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #006: One Click to Better Color!

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

One click and – poof! – a color cast is gone.

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With the 10.4 update to Final Cut Pro X, Apple made one small change to the Balance Color feature that converted it from useless to magical.

  • Put the playhead in the clip you want to color correct in the Timeline.
  • Select Modify > Balance Color.
  • In the Video Inspector, enable Balance Color and change it from Automatic to White Balance.
  • Using the resulting eye-dropper, click something in the image that’s supposed to be gray.

Poof! FCP X removes the errant color cast and your image looks great!

You can do more with the color wheels to create a look, but nothing is faster at fixing a color cast than this.

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Tip #036: Changing Monitor Resolution Means Faster Previews

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #036: Changing Monitor Resolution Means Faster Previews

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

Changing display resolution does not fix dropped frame problems.

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You probably know that changing the screen resolution in either the Program or Source Monitors from Full (highest quality) to 1/2 or 1/4 reduces the amount of time that you spend rendering because Premiere only needs to display 50 or 25 present of the total pixels in each frame of video.

While this decreases the load on the CPU and allows it to play more effects in real-time without rendering, it does not decrease the amount of data that’s required between your storage and your computer.

For example, this won’t fix dropped frame errors – which are almost always caused by storage that’s too slow to support the video format being played. Regardless of the display resolution, Premiere still needs to transfer the complete media file in real-time or faster.

Setting the screen playback resolution to 1/2 effectively quarters the number of pixels that need to be computed for each frame. This will reduce dropped frames caused by a slow CPU, but not by slow storage.

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