Segment Freeze Frames in Final Cut Pro 7

By Sandy on December 11, 2009 10:01 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There's a handy new way to create freeze frames in Final Cut Pro 7 with alot less hassles than the older version; it's by using the new speed tools available. With the older version you had to place the playhead where you wanted to freeze it, press Shift+N to bring up the freeze in the Viewer, and then you would change the duration for as many frames as you wanted to hold the freeze. Next you would do an insert edit at the playhead, which almost always messes up your audio and leaves a gap in your track; so then you'd have to fix that or maybe move it to another track, which then just created a whole lot of unnecessary work.

continue reading for an easier step by step...

But now with the new speed tools in Final Cut Pro 7, it's a much easier step.

Turn on the Keyframe Overlay Button, so now you can see the speed ticks in the Timeline.

Park your playhead over the frame that you want to freeze, and move your mouse into the speed tick zone (the vertical lines below the clip); see how your pointer becomes the pen tool? Click once to set a speed keyframe.
Now you can type into the box (next to the RT drop down menu) +20, or however many frames you want to freeze for; enter. The playhead moves ahead 20 frames. Click again to make another speed keyframe.

Place the pen tool between your two speed keyframes, right click, and choose Change Speed Segment; this brings up the new Change Speed Segment Dialog Box. Where the rate says 100%, change to 0 and click OK; now your speed ticks dissappear for the duration of the freeze frame.

Note, you may notice that the clip speeds up somewhat after the freeze; this is because Final Cut is looking at the total duration of the clip; if there's not enough frames, it will have to make up for it somewhere else.
If you don't want the speed to increase after the freeze, you could just add another keyframe, right click, and choose Change Speed Segment and change the rate back to 100% again.

Needless to say things have become a lot easier with the new Speed Tools in Final Cut Pro 7. Be sure to check out this article for more information on how to use Final Cut Pro 7's other speed tools.