Today Apple has released a full point upgrade to Final Cut Pro that brings a raft of new features and improvements. This all ties in with NAB and is in fact the 15th free update to Final Cut Pro since the original release of Final Cut Pro X in 2011.

My personal favourite is all about quick and very stylish 3D text that offers so many options your mind will blow – and even more choices for modifying 3D in Motion – WOW.

All three apps were updated, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor.

 

These are the release notes for Final Cut Pro:

Here are Apple’s Release Notes:

3D titles

• Beautifully animated and easily customizable 3D text
• Simple templates to get started quickly
• Cinematic templates with built-in backgrounds and animations
• Large collection of text styles to create stunning looks with one click
• Customize your titles with hundreds of combinations of materials, lighting, and edges
• Additional controls to adjust environment, shadows, and more
• Instantly convert 2D titles to 3D
• Open any title in Motion to add multiple lights, cameras, and tracking

Advanced effects

• Display up to four video scopes simultaneously
• Apply super ellipse Shape mask to any clip
• Apply Draw mask to any clip, with options for linear, bezier, or B-spline smoothing
• New Shape and Color mask controls for every effect
• Instantly display the alpha channel for any effect mask
• Save custom effects as presets for quick access
• Color Board merged into the new Color Correction effect
• Rearrange the processing order of the Color Correction effect
• Improved keyframing with better motion smoothing
• Improved optical flow for beautiful slow motion on a wider range of content
• Better performance of FxPlug plug-ins and built-in effects that use multiple frames like Visual Echo and Trails

New Camera formats

• Support for Panasonic AVC-Ultra codec family
• Support for Sony XAVC S format
• Import Sony XAVC and XDCAM formats without separate plug-in
• Support for JVC H.264 Long GOP format
• GPU-accelerated RED RAW processing with support for dual GPUs Support for RED RAW anamorphic formats

Additional features

• You can now use Smart Collections at the event and library level
• Import window consolidates all options into a single sidebar
• GPU rendering when using Send To Compressor with support for dual GPUs
• CABAC entropy mode for multi-pass encoding
• XML 1.5 for third-party interchange. For legacy third-party applications, XML 1.4 continues to be supported

Final Cut Pro version 10.2 also addresses the following issues:

• Faster drawing of audio waveforms which improves performance especially when editing over a network
• Transform controls work correctly with photos in a secondary storyline
• Resizable Filter window for searching
• Freeze frames copy media across multiple libraries
• Slo-mo video clips from iPhone appear in the Browser with a badge
• Full-screen playback does not automatically superimpose transport controls
• Improved performance when skimming Long GOP video including AVCHD
• Exporting a Master File using i-Frame codecs like ProRes can play in QuickTime Player before the export completes
• Support for XAVC S video recorded at 120 fps and 240 fps
• MXF-wrapped AVC-Intra and Uncompressed files export faster

Release notes for Motion:

 

Introducing 3D titles

• Beautifully animated and easily customizable 3D text
• Simple templates to get started quickly
• Cinematic templates with built-in backgrounds and animations
• Save any 3D title and access it instantly in Final Cut Pro X
• Large collection of text styles to create stunning looks in one click
• Customize your titles with hundreds of combinations of materials, lighting, and edges
• Additional controls adjust environments, shadows, and more
• Instantly convert 2D titles to 3D
• Create advanced 3D looks with multiple materials and edges on each character
• Flexible surface shading with options for texture maps, diffuse and specular reflection, and bump mapping
• Cast shadows from 3D text onto itself and other objects in a 3D scene
• Add multiple lights, cameras, and tracking to any 3D title
• In-camera glint effects
• Support for sequencing 3D text animations
• Over 90 built-in materials including metals, woods, plastics, and more
• Combine layers of materials to create unique looks
• Customize any material and save as a new preset
• Easily add real-world attributes including paints, finishes, distress, and more

New Camera formats

• Panasonic AVC-Ultra codec family
• Sony XAVC S
• JVC H.264 Long GOP

Additional features

• 12 new generators including Manga Lines, Sunburst, and Spiral Graphics
• Improved keyframing including copy and paste in the Timeline
• Improved mask and shape creation for rectangles and circles plus conversion to bezier shape for more control
• Easily monitor background Share operations from within Motion
• Improved performance on Intel-based GPUs
• Better performance of FxPlug plug-ins and built-in effects that use multiple frames like Echo and Trails

Motion version 5.2 also includes the following:

• Improved stability when loading projects with missing filters or fonts
• Choosing a smooth option on an already smooth point no longer changes the curve
• Checkbox parameters display in the curve editor
• Double-clicking to add a new keyframe in the Curve Editor no longer changes interpolation of subsequent keyframes
• The Keyframe Editor vertical scroll bar displays the entire graph
• Keyframe Editor time scale is consistent

The release notes for Compressor:

 

New features

• Create an iTunes Store Package for iTunes Store submission
• Easily add your movie, trailer, closed captions, and subtitles to your iTunes Store Package
• Preview closed captions and subtitles right in the Viewer
• Zoom in the Viewer to watch content with true pixel accuracy
• GPU rendering when using “Send to Compressor” with support for dual GPUs
• Hardware-accelerated, multi-pass H.264 encoding on compatible systems
• Automatic bit-rate calculation to MPEG-4 and H.264 QuickTime movies
• Display and assign channels to QuickTime audio tracks prior to processing
• Optional matrix stereo down-mix when processing surround sound for QuickTime output
• CABAC entropy mode for multi-pass encoding

Compressor version 4.2 also addresses the following issues:

• Jobs submitted via Droplet now appear in the Active and Completed tabs
• Improved stability when using Apple AES3 Audio format with ProRes 422 HQ