Mouse position and playhead position

My work flow:
I do something and then I place the playhead at the next point to work at.

Inserting some black space, putting a marker for example.
But then fcpx is executing the action on some random place where the mouse pointer is.

This results in a lot of second try positoning of the playhead.

Can I change this to a more logical behavior?

You insert a clip, you check the end, put the playhead there, do some other things, select or search the browser e.g. and of course the next action is not the random place of your mouse.

Annoying!

Thomas

The mouse position in the timeline evokes the skimmer. If skimming is active (toggle "s") the playhead is little more than a "bookmark", and the skimmer position determines where clips are placed. In a very early FCP X tutorial, Larry Jordan commented on this. He said the skimmer was too irritating for him in the timeline, it was the perfect tool to find things quickly in the browser.

A more philosophical approach takes Walter Murch, who questions "fast forward" in general when working in the timeline. You'll find the right pace only as long as you restrict yourself to realtime preview. And the skimmer is fast forward on steroids.

Thank you Axel,

that helped!

So the skimmer is the bad guy.
The only thing now is that I have to toggle the skimmer when I go to the browser.

But for markers and blackspace and editpoints it should definitly be the playhead who should rule.

Thomas

Hezel wrote: …But for markers and blackspace and editpoints it should definitly be the playhead who should rule.…

slightly off-topic, but… 
the full, unthrottled experience of FCPX is by using keyboard-shortcuts… e.g. to jump to markers or end of clip or wotever…

Or, using the Timeline Index…

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

Hezel wrote: …But for markers and blackspace and editpoints it should definitly be the playhead who should rule.…

slightly off-topic, but… 
the full, unthrottled experience of FCPX is by using keyboard-shortcuts… e.g. to jump to markers or end of clip or wotever…

Or, using the Timeline Index…

Karsten, I'd say it is absolutely ON topic.
Keyboard shortcuts are an excellent way to work and a good solution to the OP's issue with the skimmer.

lichinho wrote: …Karsten, I'd say it is absolutely ON topic.
Keyboard shortcuts are an excellent way to work and a good solution to the OP's issue with the skimmer.

hmm, yes, …no … yes… sort-of …
if you prefer mouse, or better, a trackpad, one can indeed question the 'philosophy' behind the GUI concept of skimmer and playhead … as Axel and Hazel do.

But, as far as I understand the Interface, FCPX is meant to be handled both hands; and, it was Sam Mestman/Steve Martin?, who demoed you can edit a whole project without any mouse-click.-

Guess, a matter of personal preferences … 'cause my left hand gets useless more and more, I consider voice-control, at last for some commands (the ones for left: switching browser/timeline, cam angles, Duration, Tools etc)… 'teaching' myself for quiet a while to get comfortable to yell at a machine, what it should do - mix of Crazy Ol' Man & Startrek! :lol:

Karsten Schlüter wrote: But, as far as I understand the Interface, FCPX is meant to be handled both hands; and, it was Sam Mestman/Steve Martin?, who demoed you can edit a whole project without any mouse-click.-

Mestman. I followed this and found there are serious limits. You can move everywhere in file/clip browser. You can go to timeline (with cmd+2 better than with tab) and do everything there with the keyboard only. One clip in particular made me excercise more (although I am a keyboarder more than a mouse-pusher anyway):
vimeo.com/194855528

... but I actually do like the skimmer in the browser, and I prefer filmstrip view there. It's not very intuitive to jump to other windows, because there are dead ends. In inspector i.e. you can't select a particular effect and reveal and edit it's properties with shortcuts alone.

I made myself a personal shortcut cheat sheet. Including q,w,e,i,o and other obviously basic shortcuts, I found 30 to be essential if I want to be effective and I learned about 60 by heart. With the aid of Commandpost, I even could make incremental moves to individual pucks on the colorboard, but to know all possible combinations would just be too much for me. That's a very long list, and I'm glad I didn't try it, now that the colorboard gets dropped by the wayside.

Karsten Schlüter wrote: Guess, a matter of personal preferences … 'cause my left hand gets useless more and more, I consider voice-control, at last for some commands ...

Sad to hear that. But glad to hear you're coping. Did you already try voice commands?

Hezel wrote: ...I place the playhead at the next point to work at...Inserting some black space, putting a marker for example....But then fcpx is executing the action on some random place where the mouse pointer is...

FCPX will do certain edit operations at the skimmer location. Once you learn to leverage this it can be very useful. There are two types of skimming, regular and clip skimming, which can be selectively enabled, or both turned off.

MacBreak Studio #331 covers how useful clip skimming can be for editing:

Oh, thank you!
The most important thing with fcpx seems to be, is to know where you can turn off funny behavior.
The video is so absurd, this guys almost getting an orgasm about a function, that is defenitly only something for someone who is editing without any structure.

My editing is to work with an inner kind of a "beat" or "rhythm" clipskimming is putting suff just randomly somewhere. I replay and stop to get the rhythm flowing. So the playhead is "the" point. The mouse (clipskimming) is just somewhere.

But thanks for this hint!

Absurd?!! They are demonstrating how to use a feature, and in so doing showed a lot of stuff, including something I did not know could even be done (marking a range in a secondary storyline).

There is a LOT to learn in those MacBreak Studio episodes. Maybe clip skimming is not for you, and I understand that what they demonstrate may not be useful to your workflow. But these episodes are always interesting.

Hezel wrote: ...My editing is to work with an inner kind of a "beat" or "rhythm" clipskimming is putting suff just randomly somewhere. I replay and stop to get the rhythm flowing. So the playhead is "the" point. The mouse (clipskimming) is just somewhere....

Clip skimming is not putting stuff "just randomly somewhere". It is putting it where *you* placed the skimmer. Once you get experienced with this it's very fast. However you can turn off clip skimming and/or overall skimming. There are even shortcut keys to expedite this. However once you get more familiar with FCPX you may find it unnecessary to turn off skimming.

Re "get a rhythm flowing", this is illustrated in this editing demonstration of the Oscar-nominated short film "Timecode", which was edited on FCPX. You can see he has clip skimming enabled, and it doesn't seem to cause him problems or place stuff "just randomly somewhere". The editing part of interest starts at about 3:35:

It takes a little time to get familiar with FCP X, that's the case with every software. But once you get there you will be very happy you have learned it. There are hundreds of people here who use Final Cut Pro X on very high-end productions and they seem to be quite happy with it.

www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/2015-c...nd-box-office-record

- Ronny