Changing duration of multiple clips in timeline

Is there a way to change the duration of multiple clips in the timeline or can you only do one at a time? (I have 300 high res stills a client gave me of his work to create a slideshow and they all came in with 10 second durations which I would like to change to 4 seconds).

Also, I created a 1080p project and used spatial conform and scaling to frame the 4000 x 3000 pixel images the way I want. Is there any benefit, such as a reduced file size on export if I were to batch scale the size of those images in an external program before I bring them into FCPX?

If you go into the Menu Bar at the top and go to Preferences, you can change the default time of still images when importing them into the project.
Not sure if you can or how you can change the duration of multiple clips. Did you try control clicking each clip you want to change and setting a time in the inspector window?

The preference setting only affects the default duration of a single clip in the event browser. If I click that clip and hit "E" it will bring it into the timeline at 4 seconds (my pref setting). But I am only able to select multiple clips in the event browser with the full 10 second duration.

I can select multiple clips in the project window, but the inspector does not allow you to change the duration. It only shows what the actual duration is.

Ahh really? Sorry than mate I'm of no help! lol

I think this could be another thing to send to Apple in the FCPX Feedback.

Yeah...I'm pretty sure it can't be done, but I didn't know if anyone knew of a workaround. Thanks anyway.

Did you try selecting the clips in the storyline, press CTRL-D and type in the new length? Worked for me.

There is no benefit in scaling to the output size. The only benefit is in processing and rendering time in FCP, which will be much greater on images of that size. Also with images with images with complex detail you can get scaling artifacts that can produce moiré patterning. Always better to scale in Photoshop.

Cntrl-D does in fact work to change duration to more than one image/clip/graphic at a time in a Timeline.

The default duration is just like in 7, but the way FCP X handles things it seems weird. In 7, your still was the Pref set default, but if you look at it in the Viewer, you saw In/Out points around 4 seconds, but enough handles to be 10 seconds. When you F10 it into a track it is 4 seconds.

In FCP X it still has the handles making it overall 10 seconds. If you highlight its name in the List view, it will grab the full 10 seconds, then hit Q, W, or E and the full 10 seconds hits the Timeline.

If you click its icon at the top of the list veiw, notice it only selects a 4 second range, then hit Q, W, or E and only 4 seconds hits the Timeline.

In Filmstrip view in the Browser, if you click one at a time, 4 second default range. If you Cmd-click to select several at once, the first one is 4 seconds, the rest are the full 10 seconds.

Apple needs to clean that up. Very messy way of handling stills.

I have found too many stills at really large frame sizes cause FCP X to become unstable.

BenB wrote: Cmd-D does in fact work to change duration to more than one image/clip/graphic at a time in a Timeline.

Sure BenB did mean Ctrl-D!

Thanks all for the help. I won't be back to my studio for about 8 more hours so I'll give the Ctrl-D a shot. That will be a lifesaver.

As for performance, I currently have 285 4K images on the timeline scaled anywhere between 45 and 54 % and haven't noticed any performance issues. Hopefully this 12 core with 48 G ram and two 512G SSD's is paying off. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Alright, guys...
This isn't working for me. I tried selecting all clips in the timeline, in the event viewer and in the project window and hitting ctrl-D (the same as control clicking and selecting "change duration" gives me a blank timecode window with an apparent trim icon. See image. Attempting to trim from one end of the timeline only affects that one clip. What am I doing wrong? I can't enter any number.

OK...nevermind. Have no idea what happened but now just selecting the clips and choosing change duration works. I don't know if this is a quirk or what but prior to my previous post I tried it several times and wasn't able to enter any number.

eehhh, so strange! Might be a bug or something.
Glad you got it sorted.

Control D only works in the Timeline with groups of clips.

@BenB
Yes, I finally got that to work. Several times when I tried it I was unable to enter a number in the timecode field. I wonder if this could be part of the instability issue you were referring to with many large images in a project.

Epic thread. Thanks!

CTRL-D does the trick. And here is another tip: I'm putting in lots of still frames, and I selected them all, and pressed CMD+T to make cross dissolves between all of them.

Later, I wanted to remove all of them with ease. This is how: Click the Show Timeline Index on your left, then search for cross or Cross dissolve and select all the results in the Timeline index and delete them all in one go.

Nice! :lol:

Google food: Remove multiple cross dissolves fcpx

Thanks for the great tip. I finished my project and fortunately did not have to delete all the transitions, but this is great to know for future use.

Yes, Im just now discovering the power of the Timeline index!

I have never seen or heard of any problems with Control-D. Be sure the Timeline is active (Command-2).