Re: PRE COMPOSE A TIMELINE?

Its not in the contextual menus. Just select the items in the seuqence you'd like to nest and choose option+c. Its also under the sequence menu. "Nest items."

Much like AE it will ask for a name of the sequence and will create a new sequence in the bin.

Nesting is kinda flaky and doesn't always do what it's told. If you render a nested item, then change something within the nested sequence, it doesn't always update automatically. Sometimes you have to force it to update by unrendering it. I usually just change the opacity and then change it back.

Also, another gotcha. If you copy and paste or option drag your nested sequence, the new copy is like a little orphaned sequence without a home. It has no relation to the first, and doesn't exist anywhere but the timeline it's in. Not in a bin or anywhere. So - if you want multiple copies of a nested sequence within a sequence, don't copy and paste. Always drag it from the bin into your sequence.

Another gotcha... If you duplicate a sequence, all the nested sequences will now lose their connection to the original nested sequences and become little orphans as well.

So, FCP isn't AE. But, if you're careful it can almost mimick AE version 3.0.