Tag Archives: Final Cut X

Improve the Filters and effects within Final Cut Pro

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Use Motion 5 Filters without leaving Final Cut Pro

 

Motion Filters are much more detailed than those in Final Cut Pro. We have recorded a tutorial that shows how to create filters in Motion and publish ALL of their controls into Final Cut Pro so that they work directly in Final Cut Pro.

motion filters

This means that you don’t have to export your video clips, out of Final Cut Pro, import into Motion – then make the adjustments with Motion’s filter controls, and then re-import into Final Cut Pro

what a procedure that you can now avoid!

 

 

In the tutorial we have used the example of the Contrast filter, which is part of the Color Correction sub set of filters in Motion 5. This filter offers special controls such as Pivot point, Smooth Contrast and the choice of contrasting Luminance only – all things you can’t access within Final Cut Pro.

 

Our tutorial shows how to install the Contrast filter inside Final Cut Pro so you can use these controls without leaving Final Cut Pro.

contrast filter

 

 

 

 

 

The same can be done for other Motion 5 filters that you want to use directly within Final Cut Pro. Just remember to “publish” the controls that you want to access within Final Cut Pro

 

 

This tutorial is part of our NEW 63 lesson training course available on the Mac App store for $9.99. 14 hours of video tutorials and 600 topics.

 

Use this link to access the Tutorial on The Mac App store.

 

We recommend the plug-in collection 
from FCPEffects:

Editingwhizmarchemail001

New update to Final Cut Pro X 10.0.8

Posted by Web Master in Courses and tagged with

The 8th free update for Final Cut Pro X Announced

There are in fact 3 x updates, for Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor.FCP Tutorials from 1.99

The new updates are free for those who have already purchased the applications, bringing the version numbers up to Final Cut Pro X 10.0.8, Motion 5.0.7, and Compressor 4.0.7. While the updates for the latter to are comprised mostly of bug fixes, the additions to Final Cut Pro X are more substantial:

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.8

There are a number of new features and enhancements, many of which focus on improvements for professional users. Among the updates is support for Sony XAVC codec up to 4K, the ability to view “ProRes Log C files from ARRI ALEXA cameras with standard Rec. 709 color and contrast levels,” and a long list of editing fixes, tweaks and enhancements that have been highly requested by pro users.

In Detail:

  • Support for Sony XAVC codec up to 4K resolution

Sony camera

  • Option to display ProRes Log C files from ARRI ALEXA cameras with standard Rec. 709 color and contrast levels

Log C

  • Resolves an issue where some third-party effects generated green frames during render
  • Resolves performance issues that could occur with certain titles and effects
  • Time reversed clips render in the background
  • Ability to use key commands to adjust Clip Appearance settings in the timeline
  • Ability to view reel number metadata located in the timecode track of video files
  • Mono audio files in a surround project export with correct volume levels
  • Drop zones no longer reset to the first frame of video after application restart
  • Fixes a performance issue which resulted from selecting multiple ranges on a single clip
  • Fixes an issue where the Play Around function did not work properly on certain clips when viewed through external video devices

Along with Version 10.0.8 of Final Cut Pro X, Apple has started a campaign , to ‘win back’ professionals. In this campaign, Apple will be reporting on stories from professional editors who are making the switch back to FCPX.

Apple’s campaign is being timed to coincide with this year’s NAB convention in Las Vegas from April 6th-11th.

Final Cut 1

Motion 5.0.7

The following items are included in the latest update, according to Apple:

  • Resolves an issue where some third-party effects generated green frames during render
  • Resolves performance issues that could occur with certain titles and effects
  • Fixes a stability issue when splitting layers in the timeline
  • Fixes an issue where launching a plug-in with a check box could require multiple clicks
  • Fixes a stability issue with CoreMelt plug-ins

Compressor 10.0.7

Apple has listed, the following as new in the latest update to Compressor:

  • Removes 1GB file size limit for uploads to Vimeo
  • Fixes a stability issue when playing back certain MPEG-2 files
  • Fixes a stability issue in Qmaster when processing multiple jobs

Also Apple has updated Video Codecs for Quicktime

Download icon

About ProApps QuickTime Codecs v1.0.2

This update adds the following video codecs for use by QuickTime-based applications:

  • Apple Intermediate Codec
  • Apple ProRes
  • AVC-Intra
  • DVCPRO HD
  • HDV
  • XDCAM HD / EX / HD422
  • MPEG IMX
  • Uncompressed 4:2:2
  • XAVC

This update is recommended for all users of Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, or Compressor 4.

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

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New version of Event Manager X 1.3 for Final Cut

Posted by Web Master in Courses and tagged with

Intelligent Assistance have released an update for Event Manager X 1.3.

Event Manager X for Final Cut Pro X, is the ONE plug in that you must have to make the workflow of Final Cut Pro complete.

This Tutorial explains the recently released update: Event Manager X 1.3 – specifically the Changes in version 1.3: Notes, and settingFCP Tutorials from 1.99 label colours directly within Event manager interface, rather than having to set them in the Macs Finder window.

The tutorial discusses all the original features, as well as the updates in each of the more recent versions.

We have reviewed the new features and give explanations of the full feature set.

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

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Guide lines in FCP X

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Create your own guidelines on FCP X

Anyone who has been using FCP X for a while will have had the need to align clips.

Here is a simple way of creating your own compound clip or using the principles in this video to create your own generator in Motion.

For my way of thinking the Compound clip option is the simplest option, as I keep an Event and Project, always active, called “Callouts” that have all of my frequently used titles, clips and stills (like arrows, frames and circles)

Click here to see the excellent video from FCPXtv

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

VEO shop

FCP Tutorials from 1.99

Valentine’s Day Discounts

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Forget Cupid:

Use This Valentine’s Day Discount to Get Your Final Cut Training Tutorials Now!

EARLY BIRDS SAVE a whopping 50% OFF our Valentine’s Day Special Discount

from 13th March through to 19th March.

Valday MacBook

We are offering 50% discount off the normal price for all of our Final Cut Pro Tutorials at our on-line store.

Use this code: val50 (all tutorials – one per customer)

Offer is limited from 13th to 19th March only.

Tutorial: Event Manager X for FCP X

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Event Manager X for Final Cut Pro X,

is the ONE plug in that you must have to make

the workflow of Final Cut Pro complete.

We have produced a 12 minute video training lesson to cover the update to the 1.2.3 version and discuss the importance of Event Manager X , by way of explaining the full feature set.

With Event Manager X you get full control of your Events and Projects, by being able to manage the Events and Projects you want to be visible in Final Cut Pro X.

Event Manager X now features “Sets“, which are combinations of related Events and Projects for instant reload.  Very importantly, it also tracks Events and Projects that are on offline storage devices, so you can properly ensure all relevant Events and Projects are mounted. This tracking of offline storage devices means you can back-up or archive Events and Projects to external storage and when you take that storage offline you can still see where your Projects are located.

By default Final Cut Pro X will show you all Events and Projects on all mounted storage devices. But there is no in-built way to un-mount those Events and Projects. Nor any way to keep track of Events or Projects not visible or on unmounted storage devices. Event Manager X  lets you un-mount those Events and Projects and allows you to keep track of them even though they are invisible to FCP X or on unmounted storage devices.

Event Manager X quickly allows you to select a combination of Events and Projects that match a particular job, or are related to one subject.

Event Manager X allows you to see the full state of the mounted storage devices, including hidden Events and Projects; see the Events and Projects on unmounted storage devices; and can control combinations of Events and Projects as Sets for easy reconfiguring between jobs or clients.

Event Manager X for FCP X is available from:

Intelligent Assistance:

http://assistedediting.intelligentass…

 

Learn Final Cut Pro X from $4.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

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Tutorial: Archive a Final Cut Pro Project – remove unused media

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There is some confusion as to what the

Consolidate and the Duplicate functions

of Final Cut Pro X actually do.

I use both of these functions in a detailed walk-through of the workflow to archive a group of projects to an external archive HDD.

By using the “Duplicate Project + Used clips” option, I am able to archive a group of projects into one, then consolidate all the media and archive (duplicate) to another location and remove any clips that were not used in the project, hence saving disk space in the process.FCP Tutorials from 1.99

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

VEO shop

How to run both FCP 7 and FCP X on the same computer

Posted by Web Master in Courses and tagged with ,

Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro X share some of their resources so will not run on the same computer –

or to be more accurate in the same user on the same computer.

As those of you that own both FCP 7 and FCP X will know, Both applications cannot be run at the same time. Well here is the good news – and is so easy to do.

Just set up a new user – call it FCP X or something similar and launch FCP X from that user. You can then run  FCP 7 concurrently in your original user account. Of course you could run FCP 7 on the new user and FCP X in the old, if you prefer. Both can be run independently in either user account as well, if you wish. If you already have a second user account – no need to set up a new one.

You will need to copy your purchased (non Apple) Final Cut plug ins (third party effects/titles and generators) to the new account. You could copy your preferences if you want or set up new preferences in the  new account.

Warning: You might run into user conflicts if you copy the preferences/plugins directly from one account to the next so consider copying to an external hard disk and then copy from there to the new user account. (you could copy to the root folder on your Macintosh HD as well, then copy from there to the new user account)

If you are setting up FCP X on the new user account, this is how to copy your plug-ins and preferences to the new user.

Plug-ins:

Final cut X’s third party plug-ins are kept in the “motion templates” folder which is in the “movies” folder in your user folder

You will need to copy the contents of Effects, Generators Titles and Transitions. To make it easy for you only the third party plug-ins show as the Apple supplied plug-ins are elsewhere.

You need to copy the contents of the “motion templates” folder into the “movies” folder on your new user account. If you do not have  the “motion templates” folder in you new account’s “movies” folder then you could copy the whole “motion templates” folder across or create a new Motion templates folder.

Preferences: 

FCP X keeps its preferences in the User Library.

Copy the two files:

com.apple.FinalCut.LSSharedFileList.plist

com.apple.FinalCut.plist

Place them in the same location in your new user account.

If you want to move the FCP 7 to the new user you only need to move the Preferences to the new user.

FCP 7 keeps its Plug-ins in the System Library rather than the user Library: You do not need to copy these as the new user has access to them because they are in the system.

The preferences are in the user library:

The preferences do need to be copied.

Copy these into the same place in the second user account.

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

VEO shop

We recommend the plug-in collection
from FCPEffects:

Editingwhizmarchemail001

Recommended Effects for FCP X

Posted by Web Master in Courses and tagged with

I recently became aware of a range of excellent and very well priced plug-ins for Final Cut Pro X.

These really enhance the effects and transitions that can be applied to Final Cut Pro X. All these Plug-ins are also modifiable in Motion 5 to give even more individual looks to your project.

One of the things that date a project and its effects is if you (or more importantly, your audience) have seen the effect used before. the secret to applying effects and transitions is to make them look unique – the hard part is spending the time to make those individual looks.

Here is the the REAL secret: – find plug-ins that have a multitude of controls that are EASY and intuitive to use. Then you will spend less time creating those special looks.

The collection of Plug-ins from FCPEffects fit in with both those criteria.

Editingwhizmarchemail001

In particular, I am very much taken with the following Effects that offer facilities not available with the built-in effects supplied with FCP X. Each has it’s own page on their web site with video tutorials to explain, show and teach.

3D Perspective Plug-in

The 3D Perspective Plugin allows you to manipulate video and images in 3D space from inside Final Cut Pro X.

The Advanced Masking Tool.

The BG Advanced Masking Tools Plugin is an essential tool for any serious Final Cut Pro X editor. It’s extremely versatile & easy to use.
Use it to mask (crop) out objects from your scenes with precision. Or, use it to simulate shallow depth of field (DOF) & blur out backgrounds.

 

We recommend Final Cut Library Manager as a Must have Application:

FC Library manager 2

 

The Screen Splitter

There are a number of screen splitter plug-ins that have fixed shapes and angles. The flexibility of FCPEffect’s screen splitter plug-in is the vast ability to to modify and mix and match the various screen sizes to create  that individual look not seen before. The Screen Splitter plugin makes it incredibly easy to quickly put together beautiful split screen sequences in Final Cut Pro X.

Whip Pan & Tilt Bundle

Use the Whip Pan & Tilt Transition Bundle for Final Cut Pro X to add realistic, simulated camera movement transitions to your videos. There are various angles of action and the whips come with their own sound effects – very nice!

I highly recommend you look at these low cost plug-ins – highest priced is:  $39.95. – Look out for the range of discounts available, as well.

Oh!   And One more thing: they have a free plugin to download that bring a nice drop shadow effect – very useful:

Drop Shadow

We recommend the plug-in collection
from FCPEffects:

Editingwhizmarchemail001

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

VEO shop

Real world review of 7 to X – transfer FCP 7 projects to FCPX

Posted by Web Master in Courses and tagged with ,

Transfer FCP 7 projects to FCP X

Review of 7 to X from Intelligent Assistance

Along with last week’s major upgrade to FCP X from Apple was an announcement of the release of the, “just as important” ability to transfer legacy footage from FCP 7 to FCP X.

Intelligent Assistance say this about their new application:

“7toX for Final Cut Pro brings your Final Cut Pro 7 projects forward to Final Cut Pro X so you can use Apple’s powerful new professional editing tools to update or finish your older projects. The lightweight application is simple to use, with drag-and-drop support and progress information. 7toX translates important metadata from your Final Cut Pro 7 Project — including bins, clips and sequences — to a new Event in Final Cut Pro X (version 10.0.3) with the highest fidelity of any translation application for Final Cut Pro. In addition, the application provides clear, detailed reporting after every transfer.”

We recommend Final Cut Library Manager as a Must have Application:

FC Library manager 2

 

But how does it perform in the real world. I had an indepth look at the application today and here are the results:

The process is simple and happens without fuss.

1:- In FCP 7 choose the File menu and from the Export submenu, select XML… Name and save the XML file. (make sure all clips are on line)

2:-  When you launch 7 to X, an open dialog appears allowing you to locate your exported XML file.

You see a progress bar during translation and, when completed, you have a choice of opening FCP X directly or saving as a FCP X  XML file. I suggest you save as a file as It has crashed on me several times when opening directly in FCP X .

3:- Open FCP X and from file menu select Import> XML file.

In this real world test I used a FCP 7 project that contained:

12 x sequences

33 x tape based clips 1080/50i

326 Card clips that had been transcoded by FCP 7 as ProRes 422

How long did it take?

7 to X took a total of 8 x minutes to translate from the XML file created by FCP 7 ( FCP 7 took 1 x minute to create)

7 to x created a 1.8 Mb xml file

What resulted?

The result was the creation of  a new event, in FCP X, with all the FCP 7 project contained in it including a keyword collection of the 12 sequences from FCP 7.

The resulting timeline is below:

Now how accurate is it?

I did not expect that it would be seamless but there are some major drawbacks (I’ll look at some of those further on). But with that said the project come over completely including all the audio files and original clips.

These are some of the items that did not translate well.

Unknown transitions needed to be redone but dissolves/fades were fine. Manual fades are recognised

It does not like mixed overlapping formats of footage so that they show as multiple layered clips in the FCP X’s viewer.

View of the time line in FCP X

The frame above, as shown in the viewer – different formats are retained.

.

Gaussian Blurs come across at 50 % so need to be lowered back to FCP 7 levels.

Gaussian Blur as converted

Gaussian Blur reset to FCP 7 level

.

Filters and effects that are not recognised are marked in the FCP X time line with red markers and notes are added.

.

Overall impressions.

I am most impressed and will use the application extensively – what a bargain for $10.00

 

We recommend Final Cut Library Manager as a Must have Application:

FC Library manager 2

 

Tutorials: Final Cut Pro X from $1.99

47 individual lessons over 8 hours of tutorials,
Separate Basic and Advanced sections.

VEO shop