How To See Which Clips Have Grades

Over the weekend, I came across an issue that made me think it was a new bug. After investigating a ton (with memory not serving me correctly at all), I realized that FCPX DOES NOT update the thumbnails in the timeline when clips get color correction.

I asked around and most people thought for sure the thumbnails regenerate to show the color change. Lot's of people who live in FCPX were shocked to discover that they do not change at all. DaVinci Resolve does this and also appends a rainbow line to show a change has been applied, but FCPX doesn't seem to have any visual indicator.

Situation: You have a timeline filled with clips, but some have been changed to appear black/white and others have not. You aren't easily able to distinguish which clips are black/white and which aren't because ALL of the clips shown in the timeline are their original color.

This probably isn't the norm for most. But think about a timeline full of clips that are shot with a flat profile and you need to apply a base color correction to them. You can easily lose track and skip a few clips and until you scrub them to show them in the viewer, there isn't a way to tell which clips have a color correction already.

But, I have a workaround. And yes, it's a solution with Roles.



I created a new Video Role called "Graded." I changed the color to a brown/gold so it stands out, but doesn't blend in with audio roles I have already. Each time I add color adjustments to clips, I change their role to Graded. Now, if FCPX crashes, I leave to get coffee, or get interrupted, I can easily see where I left off. And, when I drag in new clips after a client review, I can easily see which ones need a color grade or change based on the lacking "Graded" role and color.

Perhaps the FCPX team could add a visual cue to show which clips have effects and which do not. For now, my workflow is working well and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Good idea. Perhaps the role of "roles" (sorry) could be expanded in a future update. For instance they could kind of act like keyword collections. If a clip has a color filter on it, it changes color automatically. That way you wouldn't have to do it manually, which is a pain. Imma suggest this to Apple.

I use the Timeline Index, and have a code I put for the color grade. CG1, CG2, etc. I add that to the end of the name of those clips. I can then, in the Index, do a search for CG 2 and have fast access to those specific clips.

But yeah, I'd think an icon would help.

There was a time with FCPX did in fact update thumbnails to match color and effects changes, but not today. I'm assuming because the new interface was rewritten from the ground up, they're working on putting some of this stuff back.