[ This article was first published in the April, 2004, issue of
Larry’s Monthly Final Cut Studio Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]
Remember my student, Pete, who provided the earlier tip on how to automatically create keyframes? Well, he obviously had way too much time on his hands in class, because he found another shortcut that I want to share with you.
Here’s a faster way to create a Favorite Filter.
1) Let’s say you have several filters assigned to the same clip. (This works with only one filter assigned, but it’s even cooler when you have several.)
2) If we use Effects -> Make Favorite Effect…
…all three of our filters are placed into the Favorites folder of the Effects tab. Now, sometimes, this is just ducky. But, in our case, we just want one.
3) So, in this case, simply drag the filter you want by grabbing it’s name from the Filter tab in the Viewer and …
…dropping it on top of the Favorites folder in the Effects tab.
Ta-DA! Instant Favorite effect with all your settings intact.
Update: Philip Hodgetts wrote in to clarify this tip on using dragging to create a favorite effect.
You might want to remind your readers that when you create a Filter Stack, it’s important to *not* open the folder if you want to use all the stack. (Your example was just the opposite – where you want to use one item.) When you open the folder for the filter stack, FCP will re-order the filters into alphabetical order, not the applied order. This can, as you know, often change the result.
Of course, if you only want to excise one filter from the stack, opening the folder is fair game.
