Using the Slip Function in Final Cut Pro

By Sandy on June 28, 2009 8:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes you will find a spot in your sequence where the content doesn't exactly start or end at just the right point in the space you have to work with. You can use a trimming function called Slip to adjust a clip's in and out points without changing it's duration or position in the Timeline. We refer to it as slipping because you "slip" a pair of In & Out points inside the available footage.

To perform a slip edit:

Double-click on your clip to load it into the Viewer
Move the playhead to the frame where you want the shot to start
Select the Slip tool by the keyboard shortcut, S
Position the pointer over the In point. The pointer changes to the Slip tool.
Click and drag the edit point to match the position of the playhead

It is important to remember that to slip a clip, it must have handles on both sides, meaning there must be additional media available on both the head and tail of the clip. If you are having trouble slipping a clip, check to make sure that the clip has handles on both sides.

Trimming in Final Cut Pro is like fine-tuning your sequence. The point is to make you a quicker and more efficient editor.