(Page 1 of 1 pages for this article )

Filed under: Editing •Post Production •

Quicktip Day 01: Use that CAPS LOCK!

Quicktip #1 (February 1, 2009) Use that CAPS LOCK!

In Final Cut Pro, when working on an edit sequence with lots of graphic layers, it can take a few seconds to render the current frame for display (especially if working in HD):

Use the CAPS LOCK key to temporarily disable rendering and you can do a lot of really fast work in the timeline without having to wait on FCP to render the frame between adjustments. And you get an alert in the viewer and Canvas to let you know why you can’t see the frame:

I find this particularly useful when cleaning up my timeline, prepping an edit for online or OMF consolidation for audio mix, generally any kind of housekeeping or fine-tuning a multilayer edit.

(Page 1 of 1 pages for this article )

Hey Scott, great tip! This works most of the time for me, but on occasion after Hiding the FCP app it will still background render on me, or seem to forget that the CAPS LOCK is still on. I still see the yellow indicator, it just renders as if it wasn’t engaged. Is this just me?

-MJ

Posted by Matt Jeppsen  on  02/02  at  06:21 AM

---

I haven’t seen that happen on mine that I can remember Matt. It works pretty well. That said there are the occasional freaks when I bring FCP back out of hiding so I may not have really noticed it.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/02  at  07:30 AM

---

Hi Scott.  Actually, I had this problem last night.  When I use my scroll wheel on the ruler in the sequence timeline, I get the “caps lock” indicator.  It also happens when I use the mouse scroll wheel in the viewer “mini” timeline.  This is frustrating because it just started doing this out of the blue.  Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

britt_iv

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/22  at  08:04 AM

---

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: