Our training is designed to teach the workflow that utilizes more than just Final Cut Pro. In five information packed days a contemporary Final Cut Studio workflow is learned by those attending this class.   


Click on course links for Class Outlines and Schedule information..

Final Cut Studio Class (5 Days)
Final Cut Studio Training Bundle (9 days)
Advanced Final Cut Studio Class (Coming Soon)

GeniusDV is the only training center in North America to provide a 2 week Final Cut Studio course! Learn all the fundamentals of Final Cut Pro, Motion, SoundTrack Pro, Compressor, and DVD Studio Pro all in one luxurious classroom setting.  You will not find this type of training anywhere else!

 Here's what is included:

Dedicated Final Cut Pro system for maximum hands-on experience
Small Class size limited to 5 students!
Final Cut Pro Courseware
Framed Course Certificate upon completion
Final Cut Pro Support (phone, email, livehelp)
FREE opportunities to retake the same course at a future time
Special hand-outs and tutorials
Access to hundreds of updated tutorials
Luxurious training location (transportation to-from your hotel provided)
Courses are taught by Apple Certified users and instructors

*As an option you can become an Apple Certified Pro. You must register in advance and pay for an $150.00 examination fee. Testing is done at an official Apple testing center.

Still not convinced? Read our customer testimonials.

Other training options include:

Online Training
Our 'online' training is interactive with a 'live' instructor who is able to share your computer interface.  Click on the link for more information.

Onsite Training
Or, check out our rates for on-site training at your location.  We charge a flat rate so you may have multiple individuals attend the same course at no extra charge.

We take great pride when a student tells us that GeniusDV made the material easy to understand. We typically hear the comment 'I have learned more before lunch on the first day than in months of learning the software on my own'.

The first day of training focuses on critical Mac OS X settings that affect the workflow of using Final Cut Pro.  We'll teach you how to stay organized, and how to ingest media.  You'll also learn the most important editing tools and how to use them efficiently.

The second day of training focuses on keyframing and animation within Final Cut Pro.  We'll teach you how to create effect composites using filters and transitions.  You'll also learn a few tricks using Photoshop files as it relates to Final Cut Pro.

•  Keyframing
•  Markers and Subclips
•  Compositing
•  Filters and Transitions
•  Intro to Motion
•  Color Correction
•  User Preferences and System Settings
•  Sequence Management
•  Using Photoshop Files
•  Mattes and Masking

The third day of training focuses on audio and creating titles.  You'll learn how to integrate music and sound effects using Soundtrack Pro.  Then we'll show you how to effectively use LiveFonts.  We'll also teach you how to effectively use templates when creating titles.

The fourth day of training focuses on compression and DVD encoding.  We'll show you how to get your video up onto a website. You'll also learn some cool Photoshop tricks as it relates to video within Final Cut Pro.  For those of you who shoot with multiple cameras, we'll also cover Multicam editing.

•  Output Options
•  Compressing Settings
•  Embedding Specialized Markers
•  DVD Encoding
•  Archiving a Project
•  Getting Video on the Internet
•  Photoshop for Video
•  Multicam Editing

On the last day, we'll teach you how to author a DVD using DVD Studio Pro. 

DVD Studio Pro Training Course

Other Topics covered include:
•   Creating Menus with Overlays
•   Multi Angle DVD's
•   Working with Markers and Stories
•   Basic Scripting
•   Advanced Menu Design
•   Creating a Button over Video
•   Creating Transitions
•   Advanced MPEG Encoding

DVD@access
Discover how to create a web link with DVD@access, and how to activate it.

Industry professionals are using Motion to add complex effects to their productions. Complex motion graphics are no longer limited to high end post production houses. Anyone who has Motion in combination with Final Cut Pro is now able to produce stunning motion graphics and animations within their projects.

You can learn more about our personal genius training options here.

DAY 1 (using generators, objects, particles, and working with layers)

In this module you will learn the Motion interface windows. You will discover how to add basic objects and adjust their behaviors and filters. You will also be introduced to some critical (hot keys) or key board shortcuts. Next, you will be introduced to using particle simulations.

Using Motion generators
Learn how to apply motion generators from the library. Explore the use of abstract particles. You will also learn how to use gradients and how to render generated objects.

Working with layers and objects
Learn how to create a TV station ID. Explore how to build a multi layered composite. Then learn how to modify specific filters and behaviors that affect specific motion graphic elements.

Using Apple motion effect templates
In this section, you will learn how to edit Motion's effect templates, and how to create your own template files.

Motion particles and parameter behaviors
Explore how to build particle from a movie clip. Learn how to refine the Motion particle system. You will perform exercises that include modifying an object's motion parameters, and concepts that include (birth, death, and life rates).

Advanced Motion particle design
Discover how to modify particle behaviors, and how to use to particle proxies and ram preview. You will also learn how to create blending dust.

Using blend modes
Learn how to blend objects. This module will also teach you how to create titles and how to add logos. Explore how to change specific media properties. You will also learn how to add explosions and sound effects to your composite.

DAY 2 (using keyframing and designing text effects)

Drawing motion gestures
You will learn how to activate gestures, and how to utilize the gestures dictionary.

Keying
Learn all the specifics required to pull a key, including how to treat edges, creating a garbage matte, fixing the choke. Also learn how to keyframe out a garbage matte. You will also learn how to add a zoom blur.

Nonlinear Editing
Use motion to assemble video elements. Explore how to add a lense-flare filter and how to add other cinematic graphics.

Audio and Markers
Discover how to mix a soundtrack within the Motion software. Learn how to utilize audio markers.

Key-framing
Experiment by animating a motion blueprint. Learn how to set keys manually and how to work within the keyframe editor. Discover how to stylize a floorplan object. You will also learn how to create circles strings. Explore new concepts such as, adding the rising gun, blurring a gunraise object, and adding crazy squares.

Creating text effects
In this section you will learn how to build a frenetic text effect. You will also discover to edit text parameters and how to animate text on a motion path. Learn about animating the tracking and slant of animated text. Also in this section you will learn how to create a motion blur. You will experiment with adding a personality to a text object. Learn how to create text presets, and how to edit text behaviors.

Integrating Apple Motion with other Apple Pro Applications
Learn the critical techniques required to integrate motion into Final Cut Pro, and learn how to create a DVD motion menu for use within Apple's DVD Studio Pro software.

Extra features of Apple Motion
Real Time Design
Behaviors Before Keyframing
JavaScript vs. Parameter Behaviors
Particle Systems
Text in Motion
Motion Coordinate System and Dynamic Guides
After Effects - Compatible Plug-ins

This class is part of GeniusDV's Final Cut Studio training bundle.

From seasoned editors to beginners the majority of Final Cut Pro users do not realize what all Soundtrack Pro can do. GeniusDV has developed an advanced Soundtrack Pro class, that has been designed to give students a much broader comprehension of what Soundtrack Pro can do. Starting by explaining the diference between an Audio File Project and a Multi Track Project, and when each is appropriate.

Students will learn the how to use Soundtrack Pro for all of the different aspects of producing audio. You will also earn how Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut Pro integrate with one another.

Specifically Students will learn how to set up Soundarack Pro to do a voice over, as well as using Soundtrack Pro to clean up a lesser quality recording. Students will receive instruction on both Filters and Effects, as Well as an introduction to Scoring. Audio preproduction will also be taught, focusing on the value of a good script, and how to both develop and adhere to it.

After the first two thirds of the day are spent reviewing the components of good audio, students will finish the day, by producing the audio for a 30 second ad, using the features of Soundtrack Pro.

Soundtrack Pro Course Outline 

In your Final Cut Studio edit suite, you've already installed a piece of industrial-strength color grading software -- and better yet, it's integrated directly with your existing Final Cut workflow.  It's called Color.

Complex color corrections are no longer limited to high end post production houses. Color is an incredibly powerful piece of color correction software, designed for professional colorists, that allows you to create stunning color grades and effects. While Color is tightly integrated with Final Cut, it can also interpret EDLs from other editing environments, including Avid and Premiere.

Length of Course: 1-2 Days  Most of our students who take this course already have a background in video, and those students are comfortable covering most of Color's toolset in a single day.  But this course is customized to your specific skills and needs: students who are newer to postproduction may wish to move more slowly through the core toolset and spend more time learning color and video theory.  Some more advanced students prefer to learn node-based Color FX trees in more depth, while others prefer to learn how Color handles film-resolution workflows.  Still others prefer to supply the instructor with some of the specific types of footage that they work with and spend part of the second day practicing the techniques specific to their studio's line of work. 

Cost:  Apple Color is a very specialized piece of software, and is best taught in a customized environment.  Therefore, we offer a flat-rate for this course.  We do not charge per person.  We primarily offer this course as an onsite training course. 

In our Apple Color course, you'll learn to:

• Understand scopes
• Diagnose and correct common color deficiencies in your footage
• Guarantee consistency between shots in a sequence
• Create moods
• Isolate and adjust specific features of your shot
• Simulate different times of day
• Relight scenes for corrective or creative purposes
  
• Draw your viewer's eye to specific parts of your image
• Simulate film stocks and processes, and
• Build sophisticated procedural effect trees.

To accomplish these techniques, you'll learn Color's core toolset:

• Primary color corrections use three-way color balance and contrast controls with individual shadow, midtone, and highlight controls
• Curve Controls allow for detailed color and luma channel adjustments
• Secondary color corrections isolate, refine, and selectively adjust portions of an image by combining powerful HSL keys and "vignettes" (shapes by any other name).
• Color FX are procedural, node-based filters that allow for sophisticated effects within the context of Color's high-fidelity toolset and color processing engine.
  
• Pan and Scan transforms actual images within Color's workflow
  
• Motion trackers allow you to automatically animate shapes, masks, and other effects
• Color's keyframe model allows you to manually animate just about anything in Color
  
• Color's broadcast legalizer competes favorably with high-dollar hardware legalizers
  
• Color integrates built-in support for physical control surfaces
  

Every Color course is customized to your needs and skill level, but our instructors have found this course outline to be an effective starting point: