The current version of Final Cut Pro X provides a limited range of resolutions and frame rates for projects.
This post shows how to edit timelines at any frame size and frame rate. Frame rates that Final Cut Pro X can edit and export range from less than 1fps to at least 1200fps:
Over the last few days there have been a couple of pieces of evidence that point to Apple launching a new version of the MacPro very soon – in time for their Worldwide Developer’s Conference next week.
What does this mean for Final Cut Pro X users, and users of other post-production software?
Many in the industry have accused Apple of giving up on professionals in order to go after the consumer dollar. The basis of this accusation is fact that the MacPro hasn’t been updated in almost two years and that Final Cut Pro X was launched without many features found in Final Cut Pro 7 and that it seemed to be designed for novice consumers.
My guesses as to why Final Cut Pro X was launched the way it was are for another time. My question is: What will it mean if Apple announces a new MacPro next week?
Judging by the user interface of Final Cut Pro X and MacOS X Lion, it seems that Apple want to move us away from accessing complex file systems and letting us manage our projects from within full-screen applications.
If this so, the way that Final Cut works with effects and helper applications will have to change. For now Motion-created effects, titles, transitions and templates must be installed in special folders in the Movies folder in the home folder. If we need to import Final Cut Pro 7 timelines or export clips to Motion or After Effects, we have to run separate apps.
In the case of effects, transitions and titles, there are ways user interface could be improved.
Inside Final Cut Pro itself is the best place to manage effects.
There is a version of Bad TV in Final Cut Pro X, but the version available in Motion has more controls. I’ve produced Bad TV a4d:
Here are some examples of different looks using the effect:
Here are the controls:
As Prometheus is coming out this week I thought I would make a title effect that recreates the computer interaction scenes from the 1979 film Alien:
Here’s what it looks like in action:
Here are some more Final Cut Pro X effects based on those available in Motion 5.
Black Hole
Your clip is dragged to a single point.
1. Default settings
2. Different control point, Amount: 700
Bulge
Your clip is pushed to or from a point.
Following on from the blurs collection, here are some more Motion effects published for use in Final Cut Pro X – this time it’s the colour modification effects.
Final Cut Pro X can use clips with non-square pixel aspect ratios. However if QuickTime movies don’t have the correct flags set internally, there is no way to tell Final Cut that a clip’s pixels are anamorphic.
In Europe since the late 90s the majority of standard definition video has designed to be viewed on widescreen TVs. Instead of coming up with a new TV standard, a signal was added to broadcasts that told TVs to stretch the source 720 pixel-wide image from an old-style 4:3 image to a modern 16:9 widescreen image. This is the ‘anamorphic flag.’
Many QuickTime manipulation applications don’t set the anamorphic flag on clips, which means that Final Cut doesn’t show the clip in 16:9 widescreen – the clip displays as 4:3 so everything looks tall and thin. In Final Cut Pro 7 and earlier there was a quick way to define clips as having anamorphic pixels, that feature isn’t available in Final Cut Pro X yet.
There are two strategies to fix this: use an application to re-encode the clip that sets the anamorphic flag correctly, or use an app that can manipulate settings within clips without any re-encoding.
This Final Cut Pro X title generator helps you apply effect, opacity and transformation changes to multiple clips at once.
It is named after a feature of Adobe After Effects – a compositing application that is used to animate graphics and video. If you have twenty or thirty layers in a project, if you an ‘adjustment layer’ above them, any effects applied to the layer are applied to all the layers below at once.
‘Alex4D Adjustment Layer’ is a title generator works in the same way in Final Cut Pro X. Once you add it to a project any changes you make to the title are applied to all the layers below. If you add a blur effect, all the layers below are blurred. If you use the transform controls to change the scale and position, the combined result of what the lower layers look like will be repositioned and have their scale changed.
These effects give you more control over how you change the playback speed of clips in Final Cut Pro X. They are a set of generators that give you animation graph control over which frame is being displayed of a source clip.
November 2012 update: The 10.0.6 update to Final Cut Pro X has broken these generators – they only work in 10.0.4 and 10.0.5.. This is because the way motion templates handle drop zone clips has changed. Sorry!
March 2013 up-update: I’ve created an effect that replaces these generators for Final Cut Pro 10.0.6 and newer. Go to its post to find out more.
Once installed, the three generators appear in the Alex4D section of the Generators browser:
alex4D old blog 