This lesson will cover the basics of putting together a sequence in Final Cut Pro. You'll also learn how to put in video transitions.

1. Set up your workspace similar to how you did in our Capture Lesson. Remember to set the Scratch Disc space, too.

2. Create a New Project by going to the File menu and choosing Save Project As. Give the project an appropriate name.

3. Capture and import your media. Organize it well inside the browser. Remember to create new bins for your shots. See the previous lesson for how to create bins.

4. Fine tune your clips.

When you captures your clips, you weren't sure how you wanted to edit them. Now is the time to go in and fine-turn your footage. Double-click on a clip to open it up in the Viewer so you can watch and find your new In and outpoints.

Here you can edit your footage, using the I and O keys to set in and out points, or by pressing on the arrow keys at the bottom left-hand side of the window.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:

J key: moves at reverse speeds. If you press it repeatedly, it will increase the speed at which the footage plays back from 1x to 2x to 4x to 8x.

K key: pauses the playback

Spacebar: plays the footage at anytime

L key: moves forward. If you press it repeatedly, it will increase the speed at which the footage plays back from 1x to 2x to 4x to 8x.

5. Label your clips if you want to. Remember when you Control-click a dialogue box comes up that allows you to label your clips.

6. Create a new Sequence

The default for Final Cut Pro is to have an unnamed Sequence in the Browser when you open up the application. If you want to create a new sequence, choose File>New from the File menu and choose Sequence from the submenu. A new numbered sequence appears in the Browser. You can rename either sequence by typing in the highlighted box.

7. Add Clips to your sequence.

Open up the clip you want to add to the sequence in the Viewer. Add the clip to your sequence by dragging it into the Canvas. You can specify which track you want to drop the media into by highlighting the Timeline's track controls.

When the Canvas Edit Overlay appears, position the image in the Insert section and release the mouse. The clips's video and audio tracks will appear at the beginning of the Timeline. Insert will place your clip in the timeline, pushing the rest of the clips back to accommodate the new clip.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:

The Arrow keys let you scroll around the editing space. The up-arrow key will move the play head to the previous edit point and the Down-arrow key move the playhead to the next edit point. The Home key takes you to the beginning of a sequence.

8. Add your next video track.

I prefer to edit with A and B tracks so that I can see the relationship between the two and put on transitions. Add a track by clicking on Sequence>Insert Track. In the Canvas, put the playhead on the frame where you want your new clip to start. Drag your second clip from the Viewer into the Canvas. Drop the clip on the Overwrite Edit area. This will place your clip in the spot that you indicated, overwriting any clip that is currently there.

Overlap them for 3-5 seconds to prepare to put the transition on.

9. Delete unwanted audio and add new audio. First you need to unlink the video and audio portions of the clip by clicking on the link/unlink button, which looks like a chain, at the top right-hand corner of the timeline. Then you can just click on the audio track that goes with the video and delete it from the timeline. Drag the desired audio into the audio track.

10. Change the In and Out points on a clip already in your Timeline.

Say you want to refine your clip even further after it's been put in the sequence. You have to open the clip from inside the sequence, do not go back to the Browser and open the clip from there. Double clip on the clip to open it and it will open in the Browser window. You will see a series of small dots at the bottom of the screen, which tell you you're editing the clip from the Sequence. From here you can fine tune the In and Out points. You save the clip and the new edits will be reflected in the timeline.

11. Put transitions between clips. Transitions are used to make edits seem less abrupt or create a visual interest. Go into the Browser and click under the Video transitions tab in the Effects menu. Choose from one of the transitions (the cross-dissolve fades out from one clip to the next and creates a nice effect). You should drag the transition onto the top clip in your Timeline.

To change the duration of the transition, hold down the Control key and click the transition in the Timeline. Choose Duration from the shortcut menu.

 

12. Render your clip.

You can use the scrub the playhead over the clips to see what your transitions look like, but rendering will allow you to view all the transitions and special effects that you've placed on your footage. You'll notice that there will be a red bar over the transitions that you haven't rendered, indicating that you need to render this portion of your sequence if you want to see the effects in realtime. Command + R (Sequence>Render selection) will render a section of your sequence. If you want to Render the whole thing, type Option+R (Sequence>Render All). Rendering will take some time if you have a long complicated sequence.

NEXT STEPS

Go to the following sections you'll learn how to put Chapter Markers on your clips.