Transcripts
1. Introduction: So you've finished a video
project in Final Cut. Now you just need to go through all your footage and grab
screenshots that will be useful for social media for designing your video thumbnails or
to post on your website. So you scrub through
your timeline, you'll find an image
that you like. You go to Share. Save green frame next and safe. And this is cool. If you only want to
save one or two images, whatever you want to grab, 1040 or even more screenshots. And you even have to give a unique name to
every single file. After a while, you
will realize that you're wasting so much. What if I told you that
you could add markers anywhere in your timeline and with a custom
keyboard shortcut, you could process
and export all of those into high quality images. My name is Robert.
I'm a photographer, filmmaker and I've composed several instrumental
music albums. I'm always looking for ways to be productive in my
creative process. And I have found that a
fantastic solution for this is automating whatever
I can to avoid wasting time. These days, cameras
capture incredible video. But if you want to preserve the best quality when
savings steel frames, you wanted to grab
those directly from your editing application, not after rendering
or exporting. Unfortunately, the process too, this is not always
the most convenient. In this class, I'll
teach you how to create a shortcut that
will allow you to batch, process and export high resolution steel frames
from Final Cut Pro X. You do not need anything
else other than Final Cut and the
shortcuts application, then you can download
for free from the Apple store in macOS,
Monterey or higher. Whether you're a
filmmaker in editor, content creator, or anyone that works with video
projects in Final Cut. What you will learn in
this class will save you so much time
in the long run. I am serious. It doesn't matter
how much experience you have with automation. Creating shortcuts or coding. I will guide you
step-by-step and you will learn an incredible way to
speed up your workflow. So stay with me and let's
dive into the process.
2. Overview & FCPX Setup: Hey, everyone. In this lesson, I want to show you what's
happening behind the scenes, so you understand how we will
automate everything later. What you're learning in
this class is not actually part of Final Cut
Pro native features, but we'll be using some
of its keyboard shortcuts triggered with AppleScript
to get what we need. It is essential that you pay attention to what
I'm talking about in this lesson because my
system is different from yours, and the keyboard shortcuts
that later we will automate could also be different
depending on your setup. This to work, you
have to understand what's happening at each
step of the process. For now, I would suggest opening your
favorite node taking app because we will need to write down a few
important things. Let's open Final
code prose menu. Let's go to command sets
and select Customize. If you have never changed any
of your keyboard shortcuts, you will be in the defaults. But if not, just make sure you select the preset
you want this to work with. I already have a couple of
actions listed in this node, and what I want to do is search how they
would be triggered. So let's look for marker. I have mine set to letter M.
Now search for next marker. In my case that's assigned
to Control plus this symbol. Then trim start.
Take note of that. Now search for next frame. For me is the right arrow. Now blade, which is Command B. Finally, we need
select T branch. X. Got it. Now, let's go back
to the main screen. We have to prepare the export
options in Final code Pro, so it can export a
sequence of frames. We go to File share and
select a destination. Here you can drag
image sequence, so it becomes another option. Here you can also pick the default file extension
you want to use. I usually go with JPEG. Just to verify that this
has been added correctly, I can go to the share menu
on the top right corner and there's the export
image sequence option. Now on the timeline, we want one continuous piece like
this without any cuts. This is just an
example, but it is important that we get
this working correctly. Remember, at this point, we only want to understand
how to do this manually. Okay? So I will
add three markers. I'll press the letter M because that's the keyboard
shortcut that I annotated. Now we need to convert these markers into
individual frames. Let me go to the beginning
of my timeline and press all the different
keyboard shortcuts in my node in the
following order. First, the one for next marker, then trim start, then
next frame, then blade. We do this one more time. Next marker, trim,
start, next frame, Blade, and one more time
for the last marker. Next marker, trim,
start, next frame blade. Finally, I will press the
shortcut for select clipage. Then press the delete key. We zoom in, we can see
our individual frames. If I go ahead and export
this as an image sequence, I will get three
separate snapshots. I know this process might seem slow and tilious right now, but you need to get this working manually before we
can automate it. If something is not
working at this point, you will not be able to make the whole process work later. So I suggest that you
go back and double check you have annotated the
correct keyboard shirts. Once everything works, we will turn all of this
into an automation. You can trigger with
a couple of clicks. See you in the next lesson.
3. The Basic Shortcut: Hi, welcome back. Now that you understand how everything
works manually, let's start building
the automation. Open the Shortcuts App. Before anything else, there's one setup step you need to do. Go to the Shortcuts menu
and select settings, click on Advanced and then check the box that says,
Allow running scripts. This lets us use AppleScript
actions in our Shortcuts. This is just a safety feature, but since you are creating this script yourself, there's
nothing to worry about. Now let's create a new shortcut and name it snapshots
or whatever you want. Doesn't really
matter. Search for the Run AppleScript
action and add it here. Now, delete the default code that appears in the middle
and let's write our script. Tell application final code
Pro to activate and tail. In the next line, we had a
tiny delay of 0.5 seconds. This makes sure final code Pro is the active window
when the shortcd runs. Next slide, tell
application system events. Then repeat two times. This is just a very
basic version of our shortcd and we are still testing that it will
work as intended. So two repetitions
are now we need to add all those keyboard circles
you wrote down earlier. Let's type keystroke, then encodes the character
for next marker. For me, that's a
single code symbol. Then for the modifier, we specify like this,
using control down. You might not need this using part depending on your
specific circle set. Just match whatever
you wrote down. At the delay of 0.1. This small pause lets funnel code process each
command separately. Next, keystroke bracket for trim start using option
down another delay of 0.1. Here's where it gets different. For next frame, we cannot use keystrokes because
it's an arrow key. We need something called
the key code instead. If you are using custom
keyboard shortcs and not following the
defaults I have here, you may need to look online for the different keycodes
and their values. A good place to look for that is this table called
Iman reference. For my right arrow key, I already know
it's key code 124. Notice there are
no quotation marks around the number.
That's important. Another delay of 0.1, then keystroke B
using command down for the blade command
and one more delay. Since we started with
repeat two times, we need to close it
with end repeat. And since we started
with tell application, we close it with Entell. If I click this
small hammer icon, it will make everything look cleaner and with
the correct format. Now click the
Shortcuts Info button and add a keyboard
shortcut to trigger it. I will use Option three for now, but pick whatever works for you. Important that you
make sure this is not conflicting with any other keyboard short code or
this will not work. Now I'm back in Final Cut Pro. I make sure I have a
clip on my timeline. I will add two markers since
SRScript only repeats twice, make sure you're at the
beginning of your timeline, and with this specific
element focused, you don't want to click on the preview window
or anything else. Actually, the best is you
click here at the beginning. And don't move your mouse at
all when this is executing. We don't want to accidentally
move the playhead. One more thing I have
to mention is that the first time you
trigger your shortcut, you will probably get a pop up asking you for
accessibility permissions. That's totally normal. And let me go actually to
the settings panel, and then I will go to
privacy and security. Accessibility. You have to
make sure that in here, you have both the Shortcuts
App and Final Cut Pro added and with the
toggles turned on. After you do that,
you will be able to run the shortcut
without any issues. I will press Option three
to see how this runs. Okay, there we go. I was assuming our markers are
now two single frames. If for some reason your
automation didn't run, it's possible that the
keyboard shortcod you set is meant to do something
else inside the app. You may want to try different
keyboard shortcd or a different method to
trigger your automation. There's a lot of different
ways to run shortcuts, but another easy option
would be to add it either to your menu bar or
to your control center. Okay, here we got this, but we still have this big chunk of footage at the very end. How about we automate
removing that as well? Let's go back to
the Shortcuts App. After repeat, add keystroke X to select that extra footage. Remember this is the
shortcut you have for select clip wrench in final CP. We also need to add
another delay of 0.1. Now we need to press delete, which is another special
key that needs a key code. You can get that
from the reference diagram I told you before. The delete key is
code number 51. I will type that
again with no codes. Back in Final code Pro, let's try that one more time on a clip with only two markers. I click at the beginning of the timeline and press Option three. Perfect. I deleted
that extra footage and left me with just
my two single frames. Now we start to see the benefits of going through all
of this process. Let's move on to the
next section where we will refine this automation.
4. Customizing the Shortcut: We already have the
basic shortcd that converts timeline markers
into single frames. Now let's add some features to make it more flexible
and user friendly. Something that would improve
this automation is having an input field for
the user to type in the number of snapshots
that are required. In the shortcuts
app, search ask for input and drag it to
the top of your circle, change it to ask for a number
and type how many markers. Now we need to connect
this to our Apple Script. Click on the Run
Apple Script blog where it says with input. You will select
disk ask for input. This means that
whatever the user enters in the first step
will be passed here. In the Apple script itself, find the line that
says repeat two times and change it to
repeat input times. Now the script will process. However, many markers you specify instead of
always doing just two. One more thing I have found useful to automate
is the selection of the actual timeline before
the whole automation runs. Let's go to final
code PT commands and look for G in my case, it is Command two. Since I'm here, I want
to show you the keyboard shortcut for going to the
beginning of the timeline, also called previous Edit. In my case, that's
the up RO key. I think that's a
default for everyone, but it's the best of
you double check. This means that if
I'm in the timeline and I press the upkey, you will go all the
way to the start. What I'm trying to
avoid is having to worry about where my mouse
is in the interface. I just want to run the shortcut without having to
stress about it. Now that I got those two
extra keyboard shortcuts, let's add them to our script. These new shortcuts
for activating the timeline and going
to the beginning will go after the application
final code P is activated just before we start repeating all
the other sequence. I will keystroke
two using Commando. I will add a 0.1 delay. Now remember that
for the arrow keys, we need to use key
codes that we can grab from the diagram
I showed you before. It's keycode 126 for
the up arrow key. I add a 0.1 delay, and then we got all these repeating
block we growth before. At the show notification action after the Apple stree block, clear out the default
text and type done. This is just so we know when
the shortcut completes. Briefly, let me tell you a quick recap of what we're
seeing here in the shortcut. At the very top, we have
this input field that will pop up to the user asking
for the number of markers. Actually, I can press Play
and I can see this in action. How many markers? I'll
cancel it for now. In the Apple Script block, funnel cut pro gets
activated first just in case the mouse is
somewhere else on the screen. After a small delay, you will press the keyboard shortcut to activate
my timeline, then hit the up arrow to
jump to the beginning. That's where we need to be for the following keyboard
shortcuts to work. From there, the script
repeats a sequence, go to the next marker, it trims to the beginning, most one frame to the right,
and it makes a cut. It does this for the amount of markers the user specifies, splitting them into
separate frames. After processing
all the markers, keystroke X selects that
leftover forage at the end, and key code 51 will delete it. Finally, you get a done
notification when it's finished. Okay, let's test. I will add four markers to a clip
in final Code pro. Now I don't even have to
worry about selecting the actual timeline as long as I am inside
final Code pro. That's what happen
automatically. It asks how many
markers, I type four. I will click Done. And we see our notification
saying that it's done. I can zoom in and there's
my four single friends. Up until now, we have only tested these with small numbers, two or four markers. In the next section,
I want to show you how to use this
with a bigger project. I'll go through the
entire process of placing multiple clips in the Tlat and grouping them all together, and then you'll
really see the time saving benefits of this
automation. I'll see you
5. Class Project & Complete Walkthrough: Alright, at this point, I would like to tell you about your project for this class. What I want you to do is grab at least ten frames using
the shortcut we just built. I would love for you
to share a couple of your snapshots in the
project section of this class and
explain the benefits that this has brought
for your own use case. If you have done
any customizations on the shortcut to make it, do something else I
haven't thought about, it would also be great as
inspiration for other students. Now, what I want to
cover in this lesson is going through your
class project myself, so you can take a look at the entire process
from beginning to end. In Final Cut Pro, I'll go
and make a new project. I'll call it snapshots, and I'll set the
specifications of my camera, which is four k at 24
frenchs per second. Normally, I do this
after I finish my edits and I'm ready
to grab some friends. I will drag or paste
on my timeline all the clips I want to review. I try to avoid having any audio here I clips do have
audio attached. I will select them, right click, detach the audio and
delete those audio tracks. There's no point in making the system work harder
than it needs to. Once I have all my clips here, I select everything and
make it a compound clip. In my case, that's Option G.
You can also go to File New, and select compound
clip is the same. Groups, everything
together like it's one continuous piece,
color created clips, raw files, and whatever else you dropped will be in
this single clip. Now I will just navigate around
my timeline with my mouse and press M whenever I see
something worth capturing. If I want to be more precise, I can use the left
or right arrow keys to move frame by frame. After you have gone
through everything, you need to know how
many markers you added. Go to Index, click on tags, you'll see the total count here. Now we can close index by clicking the
label one more time. Okay, I'm ready to
run this shortcut. I'll press Option three. It asks how many markers. I enter the exact same amount I found in the previous
step and select done. Great. This worked
without issues. Now, with everything you
have learned in this class, here's something important
that I want to mention. If there's an action, you repeat over and over in your system, there's probably a
way to automate it. This is just an example of
this principle in action. In the next lesson, I'll
show you the very last step, which is how to
export everything. I will also share with
you a few tips that will be helpful when trying to
troubleshoot everything.
6. Export & Closing Thoughts: O, here we are in the
closing of this class, and I just want to cover a few details on the final export. Open the project we
have been working on. You should see all
the separate frames we created by running our
shortcut through the markers. Click Share and then
Export image sequence for file format. PNG or TF may give you
the highest quality, but honestly, JPEG works
fine for most things. I'm not printing anything. I'm just using this online, so that's what I go with. Once you choose a name, funnel code will start exporting all your
frames in a folder. Let's take a look here. Perfect. Before we wrap up, I want to tell you something important. In the class resources, you'll find a link to download my version of this short
code. But here's the thing. If you skip straight
to this final step, download the short code,
and simply try to run it, this may not work for you. This could be
because your system setup is different from mine. Maybe your final code pro
configuration is different. I have to emphasize
this because this is the one reason all of these may seem not to be
working in your case. Please go through
each lesson step by step and build this yourself. If you get stuck, of course, I'm very happy to
answer any questions in the discussion section, but you do have to
put in the work. Honestly, learning how
to use AppleScript to automate key press is useful
beyond this one task. It can truly open up a huge
amount of possibilities. Remember, once you've got
your screenshots exported, I would love for you to share a few in the
project section. Show off some of your
favorite captures and any customizations
you made to the shortcut. And if you find
this class useful, please do leave a review
here on Skillshare. It really helps with
the class visibility and lets other
people discover it. This shortcut continues to
be so extremely useful in my video production
workthlow and I hope it becomes just as
valuable for yours. Thank you so much for
watching All Z around.
Robert J. P. Oberg, Creative • Filmmaker • Photographer
