Final Cut tip: Changing the default colour

Over at the LAFCPUG forum, Casey Petersen asked if it was possible to change the default colour of the ‘color’ matte generator. Not directly, but you can create a new generator plugin with a different default colour:

1. Open FXBuilder from the tools menu.
2. Paste the following text into the Text Entry window:

scriptid "Color";
generator "Color - white", 120;
group "Matte";
input fillcolor, "Color", color, 255, 255, 255, 255;
InformationFlag("dontEraseDest");
InformationFlag("bypassCache");
code;
channelfill(dest, fillcolor.a, fillcolor.r, fillcolor.g, fillcolor.b);

3. Choose ‘Create Plugin…” from the FXBuilder menu
4. Enter “Color – White” as the name
5. Save it in
Your Startup HD/Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/Plugins
6. Restart Final Cut and you’ll have a new generator which produces a white matte by default.

Note that this won’t be broadcast safe. It might be better to use a different value in the script such as

input fillcolor, "Color", color, 255, 230, 230, 230

instead.