Hey guys, whats up.
My name is Serge,
and welcome back to my channel.
Today, we’ll take a look at three steps
you can take to speed up your editing workflow
in Final Cut Pro.
These steps will help both your computer
to run more efficiently,
as well as help you optimize your workflow
to help you edit faster.
First up, is selecting the proper resolution
and frame rate for your project.
For the longest time,
I assumed that if I edit my videos in HD,
Final Cut Pro would run faster.
I would film in 4K,
but then set my project resolution to HD,
assuming editing in HD would be faster.
But look at what happens
when you add a 4K clip to an HD timeline.
See the white dots at the top of this timeline window.
This means Final Cut Pro has to render this clip.
It has to convert my 4K clip to HD in real time,
and this tends to take up a lot of system resources.
But now, look at what happens
when I add the same clip to a 4K project.
There is no white dots at the top.
This means Final Cut Pro
does not need to render this clip.
Since my clip resolution in the same as my project resolution,
nothing needs to be done.
I can just drop this clip into my timeline
and go straight to editing,
without the need to render.
Same thing applies to your project frame rate.
If your clip is recorded at 24 frames per second,
but your project is set to 30,
Final Cut Pro has to to make up the 6 frames
by duplicating every fourth frame.
This may not seem like much,
but it’s just one more thing
Final Cut Pro has to do taking up system resources.
And, if if both your resolution and frame rate is different,
that takes even longer.
It may not be noticeable on single clips,
but in a longer project,
and if you have any effects applied to your clip,
the extra time it takes really adds up
slowing up your workflow.
So, if you film most your clips in 4K
at 24 frames per second,
make sure your project has the same settings.
In my experience,
this noticeably speeds up your workflow.
And, when your project is complete,
you can always export it in HD.
It may take a little bit longer,
but at least it won’t slow down
your machine when editing.
The second tip to speed up your editing
in Final Cut Pro is keyboard shortcuts.
More specifically, custom keyboard shortcuts.
A few months ago,
one of my favourite YouTube Creators,
Cody Wanner,
put out a video about three keyboard shortcuts
you need to modify to speed up editing,
and these have changed my life.
Three simple tips that saved me hours when editing.
I’ll show you one of them,
and if you want all three,
I’ll link Cody’s video in the description.
Command B.
This is probably my most used keyboard shortcut,
and all it does is split, or blade your clip.
I use this shortcut all the time,
so it doesn’t make sense having to hit two keys for it.
So, to change this,
from the menu bar select Final Cut Pro,
Commands, and Customize.
You can’t modify the Default Keyboard shortcuts,
so first thing you have to do,
is from this dropdown menu up here,
select Duplicate.
Give it a name and click OK.
Now, in this window, click on the B key.
In the bottom right,
you have a list of all the keyboard shortcuts
assigned to this key.
What we want to do here,
is set the No Modifier shortcut to Blade.
First, click the Blade Tool shortcut,
and drag it down to the Option Modifier spot.
Next, drag the Blade shortcut to No Modifier.
You can now drag the Blade tool shortcut
back up to Command modifier.
Click save, and close your commands window.
Now, wherever you want to blade your clip,
instead of hitting Command B,
all you have to do is hit B.
Try it out,
you won’t believe how much time this saves you.
And, if you want to switch to the blade tool,
something I do much less often,
Command B is the new keyboard shortcut for that.
Trust me, this is a huge time saver.
And make sure to go watch Cody’s video after this,
for his other two tips.
I’m not kidding when I say it’ll change your life.
The last thing I want to talk about today
is Background Rendering.
When you play back a clip in your timeline,
all Final Cut Pro has to do is play that clip.
Fairly simple, and on most computers,
there won’t be any issues.
But then, say for example,
you add an animated title above your clip.
Now, Final Cut Pro has to playback your original clip,
and the title clip at the same time.
A little bit harder.
Now you add a LUT or a color correction to your clip.
Final Cut Pro now has to play back the original clip,
the title clip, and perform calculations
for your LUT or color correction, all at the same time.
This slows it down even more.
Anytime you add something to,
or modify your original clip,
Final Cut Pro has to work harder,
and in turn slowing down your computer.
To help with this, by default,
Final Cut Pro renders files in the background.
What it does, in my example,
is take the original clip, the title clip,
any color corrections,
or other effects applied to my clip,
and create a render file,
basically combining all these clips and effects
into one generated clip.
So once it’s rendered,
instead of doing everything individually,
all Final Cut Pro has to do is just play back the rendered clip,
basically the same as just playing the original clip.
By default, all this happens automatically in the background.
Anytime you pause editing,
background render kicks in
and renders all the necessary files.
I
n theory, this should make editing much smoother.
The problem is, by default setting,
background render starts after just 0.3 seconds.
So if you pause for not even a second,
the background render starts,
then when you resume editing,
the render pauses, until you stop again.
This starting and stopping takes up system resources,
and can make Final Cut Pro slow right down,
sometimes even giving you the spinning rainbow wheel.
Also, depending on your computer,
what Final Cut Pro thinks it needs to render,
and what it actually needs rendering may be different.
If you have a newer, more powerful computer,
a lot of these clips will play back just fine,
without rendering.
If you’re using an older machine, like me,
you need to render these clips,
or else you get choppy playback,
even dropped frames.
So, to speed up your machine,
what you need to do is adjust these render settings.
From the menu bar, select Final Cut Pro,
Preferences, and click on the playback tab.
If you’re one of the lucky ones who have a new,
powerful machine,
you can turn background render completely off
by unchecking this box.
Majority of the time,
you won’t notice any playback difference,
and without always starting and stopping rendering,
you should see a performance increase in Final Cut Pro.
If you do have a clip with lots of effects applied to it,
you can always render just that clip manually.
If you’re on an older machine like me,
and need to render files,
what you should do,
is adjust the start after time.
recommend setting this be around 5 or 7 seconds.
This way, you eliminate the unnecessary render starts and stops,
but still have Final Cut Pro render your files
in the background when you take a break from editing.
In my experience,
this simnifically improved Final Cut Pro performance
on my 2015 MacBook Pro.
I know some of you may disagree with this,
and I’ll probably hear about it in the comments,
but once again, this is what works for me.
Try it out for yourself and see if it helps.
I want to know what you think,
and any other tips and tricks you’re using,
in the comments below.
I love learning new things.
If you enjoyed this video,
make sure to hit the like button,
and subscribe to my channel for more Final Cut Pro tutorials.
New videos uploaded every week.
Thanks for watching,
and I’ll see you back here next week.