FCP X: Multi-Image Transitions
New with Final Cut Pro X are a series of wipes and transitions that create transitions between two clips that integrate video from a third clip. These are used extensively in sports and music programs. Over the years, filmmakers have developed an aesthetic short-hand for what transitions mean: Cuts provide a change in perspective and are used to reveal new information to the audience. Dissolves indicate a change in time or place. Wipes are used to... Read More
FCP X: Precision Editor (Video)
The Precision Editor is a new trimming tool, introduced with Final Cut Pro X. It is designed to trim video in a variety of way, including keyboard shortcuts and real-time. In this short, four-minute video tutorial, I’ll show you how the Precision Editor works, and a variety of different ways you can use it to trim clips. If you want to learn more about this feature, here’s an article that covers the Precision Editor in more detail. NOTE:... Read More
FCP X: Travel Matte
One of my favorite effects is a Traveling Matte. This is where you key a shape into a background video and fill it with different video. In Final Cut 7, it takes four layers to achieve this affect. In Motion, it takes, essentially, one mouse click. So, this week, I set myself the goal of creating this effect in Final Cut Pro X. It wasn’t as simple as I expected, but we can get there – and there are a lot of interesting effects to learn... Read More
FCP X: Create a Luma Key
OK, I’ll just say this right at the top – this article has a lot of heart in it. So, here’s the question: When do you use a Luma key? And the answer is: When you don’t have any color to work with. For instance, here is an animated dancing heart (courtesy of Pond5.com). Unlike a green-screen key, the background here is pure white. A chroma-key won’t work. Time to use a Luma key. I want to composite this dancing heart... Read More
FCP X: Hiding a Face
[ Caution: This tutorial may contain images too scary for young children, or, more likely, their parents. ] This is the face of an extremely famous, but as-yet-unaccused-criminal – Bob “Mr. Big” Sheep. The problem is that we need to hide his identity, because he hasn’t been arrested for anything yet. (I’m sorry this image is so graphic, but, sometimes, we need to deal with reality.) Final Cut Pro X provides several ways... Read More
FCP X: Chroma-key (Video)
Chroma-key, or green-screen key, is one of the outstanding new features in Final Cut Pro X. In this short seven-minute video, I show you how to create a chroma-key in FCP X, using three different examples that range from great lighting to abysmal. Along the way, I’ll show you where to look and what to adjust to clean up a key, a simple way to get rid of garbage in the frame, and how to reposition an image so it works better with the background.... Read More
FCP X: Modify Shortcuts
Recently, I wanted to change the key assignments on two keyboard shortcuts inside Final Cut Pro X – and I discovered it was trickier than I was expecting, which is why I decided to write this article. It seems that I am completely unable to remember that Shift+Command+I is the Import Files command. I keep typing Command-I, which opens the Import from Camera window. Sigh… Drives me nuts. So, I decided I would swap the two shortcuts. However,... Read More
FCP X: Chroma-key Advanced Features
The chroma-key filter in Final Cut Pro X was totally rewritten from FCP 7 and the new version is simply amazing. Using only the default settings, FCP X can pull a key where other filters often can’t. I am very impressed with its capabilities. [ For an article on how to use the chroma-key filter, click here. ] With the 10.0.3 release, Apple added a variety of specialized controls to further extend the power of this filter. This article looks... Read More
FCP X: Audio Preview Trick
This article was suggested by a question from Dan Sagalyn, who asked: [I edit a lot of interviews. In Final Cut Pro X,] I need to be able to view each audio channel at once when picking sound bites because I can see my questions on one channel and the answers on the other and that way I can zip around more quickly the material. My first reaction was that this isn’t possible, but in thinking about this, I realized there’s a very cool work-around... Read More
FCP X: Delete Clips in Primary Storyline
The Primary Storyline is a special place in Final Cut Pro X. It’s the first place clips go when we edit them to the Timeline and it is the clips in it that all other clips are connected to. Most of the time, this works fine. But, problems arise when we want to delete clips in the Primary Storyline without deleting the clips that are attached to them. In this case, we have four options: Put audio-only clips into the Primary Storyline Replace... Read More
FCP X: Import Layered Photoshop Files
FCP X has always been able to import Photoshop documents — except that if they had layers, FCP would mash them down to a single layer. Which sort of misses the whole point of having layers in the first place. Apple fixed this with the 10.0.3 release of Final Cut Pro X. NOTE: By the way, this technique works regardless of which version of Photoshop you are using. For instance, here is a four-layer Photoshop (PSD) file; incredibly well-designed,... Read More
Motion 5: Motion Tracking
Motion tracking allows you to link the movement of one image to a second image below it. In this example, I’ll show you how to motion track some text so it moves in sync with an image. Here’s how this works. Open Motion 5 (though this procedure works essentially the same in Motion 4) and create a new Motion project. In our example, we are working with NTSC DV media – however, this process works for all image sizes and video formats. The... Read More
