Playing catch-up

[gwyn]

I haven't been online that much, and barely checked in with LJ, so it appears I have missed the natal day of not one, but three whole wonderful people on my friends list: malisita, sisabet, and kita0610. Ay yi yi, I can't believe I missed all three of you, but I still wish you a happy belated birthday and hope you are continuing the celebration!

I spent most of the weekend struggling with Final Cut Express, but I'm also trying to cut back on the personal stuff here, though that won't stop me from griping about this damned program (ha ha, you can't stop me!). I went through the whole FCE Editing Workshop book that many people rec'd to me, and it totally sucked. The guy spends almost all this time on stuff I don't care about, like animating and compositing ugly title graphics, but no time on stuff I really do want to understand, such as how to make a real honest to god superimposition (or... I don't know what they call it in computer editing... overlays? Whatever). It seems totally useless to have multiple video tracks if you can't get them to play with each other and allow you to superimpose one on the other so you can actually, you know, see them both. He also gives all these keyboard commands that don't work. I wasted hours just trying to figure out why F10 only made my windows all separate, before finally figuring out that I had to find workarounds because something changed in the OS. I still have never been able to make this mapping to the master clip command work. Nothing happens when I try to delete in and out points, either. The book is out of date for Panther, obviously, but... I am not a smart person. Figuring out different commands, trying to sort through the stuff in the quick ref card and the book and such that don't work, when I can't even understand the program, makes it that much harder for me to grasp. Even stuff that worked in the lessons stops working when I do it in my real file. I know smart people think this is easy, but I'm really, really struggling with it.

The manual is almost nonexistent, so this tutorial book, I'd hoped, would be an answer. Alas, non. He doesn't address most of the things I want to do -- be able to apply effects when there are only a couple frames of source to work with, the superimposing (which this guys dismisses with a "superimpose doesn't work for anything except titles, so don't bother), and lots of other stuff. I miss so much of the things iMovie does -- allows me to watch my work in a larger window instead of this teeny dark thing, and lets me open it in QuickTime any time I want, without having to wait to open the program, so I can see what I've done and get ideas, or use the scrubber for editing clips with finer precision. I find all the tools like slip and slide and roll and ripple (and who the hell decided on that naming convention for making things as confusing as possible?) so clumsy and hard to use without being able to use the arrow keys to move a frame at a time, etc. Even after hours of work, I came away with a whopping 25 seconds yesterday on a vid, and most of it has effects that came from the show, because I can't figure out how to make FCE do them. Plus, the commands don't work -- I have to choose render all, becuase simple rendering, even of a specific clip, refuses to work, ever. I miss good old iMovie for that, too -- you could preview things and how they would look without having to render. Now I can't see anything unless I render, and it's always, always wrong, so I have to do it at least 12 times. Plus? It's still wrong. I'm so confused, and kind of heartsick: I spent all this money thinking I was getting a program that would allow me to do the kinds of complex things I could do in my head. I wanted to make the vids I saw in my mind. But so far, that doesn't happen because nothing seems to actually work, or its commands have changed, or they're hidden somewhere I can't find them. Now I have to decide -- give up on what I spent, and go back to the largely featureless iMovie and just accept that I won't be able to follow my vision? Or soldier on, and still not be able to follow my vision. Not much of a choice. (Though, barkley, I did figure out how to get the booping to stop, totally accidentally!) If I can ever even finish another vid on this thing, I am bewildered by how you can possibly make a QT movie for iDVD (though clearly others have mastered this). It doesn't seem to acknowledge that this even exists. Maybe it won't matter because I think whatever I make here will be largely unshowable. Cripes, even the newbies with no taste will be making better vids just because they aren't bogged down by the tools!

I know that everything lately, too, seems ten times worse than it is. Sis_r doesn't want to talk to me right now; she hasn't found out about her treatment options and she doesn't want me to ask questions or be concerned, even though I have to do both in order to assess whether I can go to Escapade or not, or go down to her place afterward, or something else entirely. She's in avoidance mode, which I understand, but right now I can't afford that, so everything feels edgy and tense. This is why refuge in the impersonal stuff like grammar and usage posts and unusual movies appeals to me right now. Sigh.

And finally, mlyn has the final installment of her Fast and the Furious series up now, Bump Start. The series was the continuation of a story I did last year, and it has come to a nice conclusion, I think, for the boys that feels organic to the original universe. Pop over there and follow the link, and make sure to leave feedback! (I wish I was the type to run an archive or something... we need someone as wonderful as rusty_halo to create a F&F web archive and get everything in one place, really well run and set up, beautifully formatted, etc., the way All About Spike has been. I, however, am not the person, since I can't even figure out how to use FCE!)

Comments

[cranberryink.livejournal.com]

I would dearly love to set up and run a moderated F&F archive. One that takes good stories and filters out the junk. The only things stopping me are 1] all the really good writers in this fandom seem not to want to be archived (there are big DO NOT ARCHIVE signs everywhere), and 2] I don't know how to do one where people could upload stuff themselves. I only know how to run a pretty basic website, which means that I'd be the one uploading stuff. Which I totally don't mind at all (since I am both an organization and control freak), but people often like the autonomy of deciding when their stuff gets posted.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I used to have massive archive issues till rusty_halo came along. I'd had stuff stolen, plagiarized, ratings that I loathed slapped on them, people took them without my permission and made them look terrible, basically -- one person even cut off the whole end of the story. But Laura convinced me that archives can be for the good. It sounds like a lot of people just don't really see that -- which is too bad, because they might stand a better chance of reaching a wider audience. I know a lot of small fandoms, where people don't participate much beyond that one place, can also have a lot of folks who don't know much about the 'net and see archiving as dangerous to their real life identities. Unfortunately there's no way to really get around that, either. It's a shame -- I think this fandom could really be bigger if there was a good archive that was well presented and easy to search, access, etc. We just need to lure some really talented coders with excellent taste... hmmm... there's a con coming up!

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Composite shots/superimpositions/whatever they're called.

Do you see a line running through your clips when they're on the timeline? If so, proceed:
1. Put one clip on video track one.
2. Put superimpose clip on video track two.
3. With mouse, grap the line on the top clip and drag it down. A number will pop up on the side. This is a % of how opaque the top clip is. If it's at 100% you get the top clip being 100% opaque. If it's at 50% you get both clips bleeding through equally.

Beeping:
yay!
One other tip, I realized I do when starting a new project:
Lock the audio track down when you have it where/how you want it. (Click on the lock on the left of the track.) This way, if you drag in a clip with sound, it puts the sound clip below the music without messing with it. And you can delete the sound clip and beeping will stop.

Rendering and seeing stuff before you render:
If you keep the main timeline playhead over unrednered stuff, it usually shows up in the main viewer as what it will look like. It won't play, but you can step through it with the arrow keys to get an idea before you render.


And last, but not least, continued prayers for you and your sister.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I do see a line, and when I put the cursor on it, I get a fourpointed arrow... but if I drag it, the only box I get is a time code box (at least, that's what it looks like -- 00:00:00).I've tried a bunch of key combos but to no avail. Maybe it's something really weird I haven't thought of.

It only seems to want to take clip 2 and move it. The only thing I found that even remotely sounded like opacity was a comand for Levels, and of course every time I click that, it is set to 100%. I have to reset it each time i choose it. When I tried 50% thought I couldn't see any of clip 2. At 35, I can see a tiny bit of it, but it's the only percentage I've hit on where I can see some of the clip 2. You can see why I'm so frustrated.

GOod to know about the rendering, though -- having re render every time just seems not only impractical but wasteful. Inthe time it took me to make 24 seconds yesterday, I would normally have finished over 2 minutes of a vid. This song is like 3:45... I feel doomed. ;-)

[barkley.livejournal.com]

I'm home now where I have FCE open. I see what you mean about the four arrows and the level thing. (I have no idea what that levels option in the menu is for either.)


I may have a solution as we may be talking about a different line.

Do you see the two clips here how they have a gray line in the middle and a black line at the top?



And then do you see how the black line on the top clip is moved down to the middle in this screen shot?


You might be trying to move the grey line instead of the black line because you don't have a black line. *g* If you don't have a black line like that then go to the bottom left of your screen and click on the zig-zag thing that's in the bottom corner. That will toggle the line to appear and not appear on your clips.





In order to move the line, your cursor shouldn't be in the four arrow thing. When you hover over that black line, it shoud change to an up arrow, underneath that is two horizontal parallel lines and under that is a down arrow.

++++

If you still can't get the line to move, double click on the top click so it comes up in the viewer window up top.

Then click on the motion tab up top.

Then expand the opacity option down below. And then beneath that you should be able to change the opacity of the clip.

I hope that makes sense.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Oops, that third picture should be this:




So it actually shows the ziggy line in the bottom left corner. *g*

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

OK, I will give it a try. I didn't see the black line last night, but I'll look more closely today. I had no idea what that bottom left corner thingie was for, and it isn't clearly explained in the manual (maybe it's because I'm an editor, I don't know, but I really, really hate things that don't provide glossaries or list definitions next to new terms, and provide examples of what they mean). I almost get the impression that Apple doesn't think $300 is enough money to spend to provide usage information for the consumer.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're having such a rough time with the program!

*hugs* for everything

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hey, don't forget to send me your new addres and let me know which of the current vid discs you want, and I'll make them for you. All the vids before the FCE nightmare began! ;-)

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! Sorry your weekend didn't get any better. Maybe movie and ice cream will help. Or a jaunt off to Vancouver, whichever. *Crosses fingers*

Oddly, Blackhawk Down is being shown for free tomorrow night on campus. It appears to be put on to draw attention to a Veterans group, which makes sense, but the timeliness makes me go "wow..." (since we were wanting to watch it and all). Now I'm having trouble deciding whether I should "spoil" myself and watch it tomorrow, or wait and see if we can do it on Saturday.

Plus I'm actually giddy at the thought of seeing Johnny Strong in something else. No one can ever accuse me of not being a fangirl, hmm?

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :}

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

If you make it to Escapade, it would be nice if someone was there with a ibook and you with your copy of FCE and we could sit together and play.

Exporting a movie for QT into IDVD should be Export - QuickTime file etc. Let me know when you get there and I can look for some online instructions.

working on a larger window there should be a view option. Look for Window and then Arrange. There are several choices - I like Standard.

Scrubber - if the clip is in the time line and ready to be rendered there is a scrubber roll bar lower left hand corner of the Canvas window. Same scrubber in the View window (which is where I put the clip that I plan to edit with). But using the arrow keys to step through like Barkley suggested also works.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Well, sadly, I can't install FCE on my iBook, since there's not enough memory. So poor sdwolfpup is going to get the brunt of my "auuughing" because she's actually in town, and uses FCP.

I have the windows set to standard, but they're just... small. I liked iMovie's big old grandpa-friendly interface with the nice big windows and big thumbnails. Plus the windows aren't just small, they're so effing dark. With a show like LFN, you can imagine how hard that is. When I make an Angel vid, I'll be like, "Is that a person? I think I see flesh color..."

The scrubber, though -- that only works before you've set in and out points. Once you've put that thing in the timeline, it doesn't let you screw around with the in and out anymore, you have to use those awkward tools. To me they don't have much fine precision -- that big brown bar is hard to guage a clip or two, and it doesn't show well in the canvas, I think.

Basically, yes, I find the whole thing unintelligble, awkward, inscrutable, difficult, and frustrating. People say "do this" but it doesn't do that, and I have no idea how to make it so.