A Better Way to "Preview" Effects in FCP?

Question

Okay, in Motion (which I've recently started using), you can browse various effects (filters, behaviors, etc.) in the Library Pane and see a helpful little thumbnail movie, along with a verbal description, which gives you a good idea of what kind of "effect" that particular Effect is going to have.
I'm told (though I've not used either app myself) that both iMovie '08 and Adobe's Premiere have a similar mini-preview function to help you choose the right filter and/or transition.
So my question is (before submitting another Feature Request to the FCP team): what is the closest thing to this much appreciated function in the current version of Final Cut?
I'm currently working on a project which demands a very wide variety of different (and sometimes even intentionally cheesy) filters and transitions. So I seem to spend a lot of time in my Browser's Effects tab searching for "something different", or wondering "what the heck does this one do?" -- and often having to actually drop the effect and/or transition into a Timeline (and then reading e-mails while it renders), just to get a sense of what it actually does.
So...
— Has anyone created some sort of "FCP Effects Previewer" that mimics the kind of function already built-in to Motion?
— Is there a website somewhere with easy-to-search little examples of every Final Cut filter and transition?
— Or has anyone even a created a pdf with clear verbal descriptions and accompanying screenshots of same (or even just simple diagrams to illustrate all the different wipe transitions)?
So far my Googling on this topic hasn't been very successful, but I'd appreciate any tips on where to look.
Thanks,
John Bertram
Toronto

Answer 1

Hi again.
FWIW, it was Motion which I've only recently started using. I've actually been working with FinalCut since version 4.5, though so far not for "paying clients" (in other words, just for my own indie film work, plus some pro bono projects for friends in theater and business presentations). So in that sense my work as a "professional" editor is mostly pre-NLE, cutting 16mm docs and TV episodes on Steenbecks a couple of lifetimes ago.
But you've raised an interesting point, which I guess could be summarized as the ongoing tension between making a Pro App "stronger" (more versatile, more compatible, more stable) while also trying to make its interface “friendlier" (easier to learn, easier to customize, easier to navigate, etc.). And I can certainly understand how, for those who've slogged their way up several years of learning curves, the former category is always going to be top priority in terms of how Apple allocates its development resources.
But whenever I venture into a previously unexplored quadrant of the Final Cut galaxy (and that can include even just an Effects Tab folder I've never opened before), I definitely experience that Newbie Chill all over again. So I've always hoped (perhaps naively) that FinalCut's development could pursue BOTH goals simultaneously -- overhaul the Media Manager; keep adding those new codecs -- while at the same time keep making the FCP interface a more inviting, more comfortable place in which to work.
When I think about the many FCP Feedback Suggestions I've submitted over the years (also for Logic Express then Logic Studio), I can see how a lot of them -- not all, but quite a few -- would fall into that second, “user-friendliness” category. The irony is that many of the feature requests I've submitted for the Consumer apps -- ways to make iPhoto, say (or Address Book, or Pages, or whatever) more powerful -- would fall into the first category, the it-really-should-be-able-to-do-this-or-that, "beefing up the engine" one. And those suggestions, when discussed in their respective forums, have sometimes drawn the criticism of "Hey c'mon -- it's just a Consumer App".
But every once in a while, a new version gets released, and some progress is made on both fronts. So I guess I’ll just keep tilting at both windmills for now.
Cheers,
jb