Final Cut Pro:
Control Buttons in the Canvas and Viewer
Cheat Sheet 20080314

There are three buttons in the Canvas and Viewer window:

SCALE - SYNC - VIEW

Button One - SCALE:

Select the size you want to view your image in the drop down menu or use Command-Plus (⌘+) or Command-Minus (⌘﹣) to resize.

Shift-Z (⇧Z) will automatically scale the image to fit in the window.

Scroll bars from zooming in
(note the SCALE button is 200%):

If you zoom in too far you will get scroll bars which create a choppy playback and turns off any video output to an external monitor. (Avoid scroll bars for playback situations - you’re asking too much of the software.)

SCALE - Fit to Window:

This choice fits the image to the size you've made your Viewer or Canvas.

SCALE - Fit All: This choice (shown below) includes all selected components of the action image extending outside the action image frame border (ie: composite layers that have been repositioned):

The image to the right shows the Timeline with the playhead over the components for the Fit All image above. Note there are two video tracks and Track 2 (see above) has been positioned so that it is not entirely included in the action frame area.

Button Two - SYNC:

• Sync Off - There no relationship between the video in the Viewer and the video in the Canvas.
  
  
• Open - Whatever video track the playhead is over in the Timeline is automatically opened in the Viewer and tread lines (seen right) appear in the scrubber bar of the Viewer.
  
  
  
• Gang - You can run two different videos in sync: one in the Viewer and one in the Canvas/Timeline and all the playheads in the Canvas, Viewer, and Timeline move in sync (ie: to compare a low-res and a high-res of the same shot or to compare a tight-shot and a wide-shot).

Button Three - VIEW:

Image - The image is shown.

Image+Wireframe - The image plus the wireframe for motion, position and scale manipulation is shown.

Wireframe - Only the wireframe for motion, position and scale manipulation is shown. (Note the ghost wireframe: This is because the playhead was over two stacked video tracks in the Timeline when this snapshot was taken. The ghost wireframe belongs to Track 2.)

Show Overlays - Various messages
are visible as alerts (ie: Title Safe, In and Out keyframes that you’ve put in the Timeline, a Marker you’ve placed, etc) The image below shows an In keyframe in the Timeline.

Show Title Safe - The outside line is your image outline; the middle line is your action safe area, the inside line is your title safe area and all text and action inside the title safe area will be seen on all output destinations (ie: old TV's, old computers); very important to use when compositing.

Show Timecode Overlays -
On top, you will see the In and Out positions in the Timeline (if you've set them). On the bottom, you will see the timecode(s) of up to 8 tracks each of your audio and video clips in the Timeline.

Show Excess Luma (⌘Z) -
This will point out any parts of the video that are too hot (helpful during color correction). The lines you see inside the text are actually moving when you are in Final Cut Pro.

RGB - Color information of the image is shown.

Alpha - Transparency information of the image is shown. It will show you which areas of your clip are transparent or solid. These areas can change if you apply filters. (This image shows the Alpha information of the image above.)

Alpha+RGB - Both color information and transparency information of the image are shown.

Each choice below determines the background of the Viewer or Canvas. Your choice does not affect your output - you have these choices for easier viewing depending on your image (ie: when using white text):

Black

White

Checkerboard 1

Checkerboard 2

Any questions?

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