Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Streaming Training Courses

Exporting a Quicktime movie out of Final Cut Pro using the current settings of a HDV1080i60 sequence, and then closing Final Cut Pro, and opening the Quicktime movie with Compressor to do the encode is over twenty percent faster than exporting out of Final Cut Pro to Compressor. A test was conducted using a Powerbook Intel duo 2.2 with 2 gb of RAM. The Project was 1:45 long, and to encode straight out of FCP, it took 19:35. To export the Quicktime out of FCP, and then encode the movie, took 15:27. These numbers are certainly subject to the machine doing the encoding. Aside from the benefit of the time savings you also end up with a Quicktime movie.

Posted at 7:50 PM |

Exporting a series of images from your sequence is performed a little differently than exporting a single frame image in Final Cut Pro. You can export a sequence of images in the format of your choice via exporting Using Quicktime Conversion. Set a range in your sequence for export using in and out points.

1 After you have opened a sequence into the Timeline, you can set your in and out points for export as a Numbered Image Sequence.

2 Go to File > Export > Using QuickTime Conversion.

3 Designate a place where you want the files to be saved. I recommend creating a new folder for this export.

4 Click on the FORMAT twirl down menu and choose Image Sequence from the list.

5 Click on the USE twirl down menu and choose a setting.

6 Click on the Options button in the Export Window to set other options for bit depth and compression under the Options button of the Export Image and Sequence Settings box.

7 Click OK after you have made changes in the Options menu, in this example JPEG Options, and in the Export Image and Sequence Settings box and Click Save in the Export Window to export your image sequence.

Posted at 9:34 AM |

When you are working on authoring a project with DVD Studio Pro, it is often a big help to set a default button style. A popular default would be to set your buttons up to have the text appear in the center of the button rather than the DVD Studio Pro default of below the button. To accomplish this all you have to do is set up your button the way you want it and then right click on the button, and select set as button default style. Now every time you left click and drag to create a button it will use the parameters you have assigned to your default button style. At the beginning of every DVDSP project if you know what the most common, or only button in your project is going to be, and set it as the default, it will certainly speed up your work flow.

You also may want to save each button as either a custom or project button style, so that it can be referred to thru the palette. You would want to do this if you were going to use the button style in future projects or if you were going to be changing button styles frequently within the same project.

Posted at 5:33 PM |

Here at GeniusDV, we recieve a large number of calls on a daily basis from editors seeking support on a wide variety of issues that can arise in a day in the life of a working editor , but occasionally, we receive calls that would seem better suited for someone who works in the paranormal!

one of our past Avid students, who produces two shows a week for his local church service, called us and stated that he was hearing strange voices as he was putting together his projects. Naturally, we all looked at one another and wondered if this guy had a late night and was hearing the voice of Jack Daniels, but as we dug deeper and deeper into his situation, we discovered something quite fascinating!

This producer was using a cheap, unshielded firewire cable and everytime someone was on a cell phone, or when the church used their wireless microphone system while he was capturing his material into Avid Xpress, those signals became mixed with his audio signal. He had the better part of an entire conversation and a sermon intertwined in his audio tracks. He went out and bought a heavy duty firewire cable and that solved his problem. We didn't need Scully and Moulder after all!

Posted at 9:30 AM |

Something that can easily get over looked in Final Cut Pro is making sure you have your filters in the correct order within the filters tab. Filters start at the top and effect one another as they progress down thru the list of applied filters. A perfect example of this can be seen when applying a matte and a blur. When the Blur is applied first the blurred image shows thru an unblured matte.

When the Matte is applied first the edges of the matte are blurred as well.

Anytime you run into a result that is not what you thought it should be you may simply need to rearrange the order of the filters. Once the filters have been applied you can simply drag them up and down within the filters tab to reset the order.

Continue reading "Filter order in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 6:22 PM |

Setting up a batch export to Compressor is as easy as doing a single export. I used to export sequences thru Compressor one at a time, and have to be available to start the next one. To export multiple sequences out of Final Cut Pro at the same time, first you highlight them in the Browser by Apple clicking on each one. Next right click on one of them and select Export / Using Compressor. This will open Compressor with all three sequences ready to have a Setting & Destination assigned to them. After assigning Settings and Destinations, which can be different for each sequence, just submit the batch and walk away. I often wait until the end of the day to export all the sequences that are ready, and simply let all the compression happen over night.

Posted at 3:18 PM |

Occasionally, you might be left to wonder "Where in the world did my scratch disk go?" Well, here are some perfectly good explanations on what may have happened. Usually when a scratch disk becomes unavailable it can mean one of the following: It may be turned off, disconnected, unmounted, moved, deleted, or renamed.

The next time you power up Final Cut Pro and the scratch disk can't be found, a dialog box with these options will appear:

Quit: This selection will allow you to quit without changing the preferences of the scratch disk.

Set Scratch Disks: This option opens the current list of scratch disks that are available and can be switched to. If your default scratch disk is unavailable, it will not appear in this list.

Check Again: This option will allow you to reconnect the scratch disk and wait for it to mount.

Posted at 9:27 AM |

While in the process of editing in Final Cut Pro, you can sometimes have second thoughts about a given clip's purpose or the action that it displays. A quick way to review the clip is to solo it. We have discussed soloing a TRACK before, but this is a single CLIP and this can come in handy if you have video in tracks that overlap the clip.

1 Place the position indicator over the clip in the timeline.

2 Click on the clip in the Timeline to select it.

3 Press Control S or go to Sequence > Solo Selected Item(s).

4 Play the clip by either pressing the space bar or clicking the play button in the Canvas Window. You will now see the selected clip playback and that all overlapping video tracks have been disabled.

Press Control S or go to Sequence > Solo Selected Item(s) to reactivate the other clips in your sequence.

Posted at 9:15 AM |

When you play back a Final Cut Pro sequence, you can tell which audio spots are hot by simply looking at the audio meter clipping into the red area, but you cannot pinpoint the specific problem areas within your audio clip so that you can address them.

You can detect specific hot spots in your audio by marking audio peaks in Final Cut.

Marking Audio Peaks

1 Make sure that you have UNselected all audio and video in the timeline.

2 Go to Mark > Audio > Peaks > Mark. Final Cut Pro will then place peak markers in the Timeline Ruler above the sequence hot spots. If a section of your audio has a hot point that lasts longer than a spike, a peak marker with a duration will appear over that area in the Timeline Ruler.

Now that you have detected audio peaks now its time to fix them.

Lowering Audio Hot Points

There are multiple ways but here are two:

1 Select the area of the audio clip that was marked as hot underneath the peak markers. You can do this buy creating through edits with the razor blade tool to designate the areas right underneath the peak markers, then going back to the selection tool to make your selections (Shift Click to make multiple selections).

2 After you have made your selections, go to Modify > Levels > and adjust the gain. If you make the changes Relative, if you have already keyframed the audio in this area the keyframes will be maintained. By making your changes absolute, you will blast away any keyframes that where previously set and all audio will be adjusted to the assigned dB level.

Another way to adjust the audio in these problem spots would be to Toggle On Cip Overlays at the bottom right of the timeline > control click on the pink overlays on your audio to create keyframe points that you can drag up or down to adjust levels.

Posted at 9:11 AM |

If you have exceeded your system's capability to play back the audio you have in your sequence in real-time, then you will hear beeping when you try to play back your project. If you look under user preferences in the General tab, you will see options for Real-time Audio Mixing and Audio Playback Quality. The Real-time Audio Mixing value is the number of tracks that FCP will playback without having to render. Keep in mind that any filter you add to an audio track counts as an additional audio track. For example, if you had 5 audio tracks, each with 2 filters, then you essentially have created 10 tracks. If you have exceeded the number of tracks set in this option, you will have to render. Although this number can be changed, your system hardware will ultimately dictate the Real-time audio Mixing setting.

In reference to the Audio Playback Quality, if you have this option set to High and you have placed audio at multiple sample rates into your timeline, when your sequence settings are set at 48k, FCP will have to struggle to convert all of those audio files during playback.

Posted at 9:20 AM |

You've just completed the most ambitious documentary you have ever produced, creating a large and involved timeline filled with various audio clips, graphic elements created in Photoshop and sequences on top of more sequences. Much to your dismay, one of your interviewees contacts you to say that a still image she given to you is no longer relevant to the subject your project covers. This is how you would EFFICIENTLY go about finding that clip in a massive timeline!

Searching for text or timecode in a sequence:

1. Press the home key to position the playhead at the beginning of the sequence to enable the ENTIRE sequence for search OR simply place the playhead where you wish to start the search.

2. Choose Edit > Find.

3. Enter the text or timecode number you want to search for.

4. Choose the type of item to search for in the pop-up menu.

5. Choose the tracks to search from in the Where pop-up menu.

6. Click Find or Click Find All.

Posted at 9:07 AM |

You can make your audio more dynamic in Final Cut Pro by panning sound effects from the left speaker to the right from within the Viewer Window. A sound effect, such as a passing car panning from the left speaker to the right, can add another dimension to your project and lessen the flatness of canned sound effects.

Before you try this, keep in mind that you only need a mono clip to perform this effect, so if you have a stereo pair, unlink the two and delete one of the tracks.

1 Double click on the audio clip to load it into the viwer.

2 Click on the channel tab in the Viewer Window.

3 Option click on the purple audio spread overlay in order to get the pen tool to create keyframes and drag the points of the line so that it looks like the diagram below. When you begin to move the purple overly you will see a pink line underneath it. It helps if you think of it in this way: think of anything above the pink line as being the right channel and anything below as being the left channel.

Now the audio in this clip will pass from the left speak through the right when played.

Posted at 10:59 AM |

If you have ever had the chance to do some editing on another editor's workstation, you will have noticed how different editors have created their own personal interface set up specific to their own particular ease of use. If you look at the Final Cut Pro interface, you will notice that there are button wells located over all the work area windows, allowing you to place shortcut functions in each of them. This ability will aid you in customizing your own personal workspace.

This eables you to be able to place the Import Files Button in the button well over the Browser or add the Add Audio Transition Button to the Timeline Button Bar.

Creating a Shortcut Button in a Button Bar

1 Go to tools > Button List

2 Drag an icon for the function that you desire from the list to the button well and release the mouse button.

Posted at 10:16 AM |

You have built an awesome 30 second spot within Final Cut Pro that is a definite eye-catcher and will stop anyone in their tracks! The client is overwhelmingly pleased, but requests one more thing of you. They need you to make a more compact version of that same spot that is 15 seconds long. Well, anyone who has been a commercial producer for any length of time can tell you that if at all possible, you don't need to re-invent the wheel. You will be borrowing the proper pre-edited clips from your original 30 second spot to provide the one two punch your client is looking for.

Sharing Clips Between Sequences by Copying and Pasting

1 Open the original project that you want to copy material from and select the clips you wish to copy from the timeline.

2 Press Command C to copy the clips(s).

3 Open the new sequence and drag it by its tab to a new location so that you are able to view it and the original sequence simultaneously.

4 Ensure that the Auto Select controls are active for the tracks in the new sequence you will be copying to.

5 Move the playhead to the area that you wish to copy the clip(s) to within the new sequence.

6 Press Command V and you will have shared clips between sequences.

Posted at 9:43 AM |

You may find it convenient in the process of planning the workflow for your film to create a new sequence in FCP for each scene and later edit them together in a finished master sequence. This particular workflow could really help you in the render department by allowing you the fexibility of being able to render all of your effects intensive scenes in separate sequences.

1 Drag the icon for your current sequence from the Browser into the Viwer Window.

2 Go to File > New > Sequence.

3 Double-click on the new sequence icon that appears in the Browser to open up the new Timeline Window.

4 You can now set in and out points in your sequence that was previously loaded into the Viewer.

5 Edit the source sequence into the master sequence just as you would a clip with an overwrite or insert edit.

Keep in mind that you could have also drug the sequence icon from the Browser into the timeline or have drug the video from the source sequence, located in the Viewer, into the Timeline.

Posted at 9:12 AM |

Here's another opportunity for all of you Final Cut Pro Artists out there to expand your filter library. Joe's Filters offers a set of 43 FCP plugins designed to enhance your video footage and to make the process of creating effects in Final Cut Pro faster and more efficient.

Here's a list of some of the plug-ins:

- Bevel and Emboss

- Drop Shadow

- Channel Blur

- Motion Blur

- Diffuser

- Noise Levels

- De-Interlacer

- Field Fixer

- Field Blender

- Time Bender

Try out the fully-functional demo version to see if these plug-ins would be a good addition to your collection.

Posted at 9:15 AM |

Whether you're an Avid Xpress Pro or Final Cut Pro editor, time can either be your best friend or your worst enemy and unfortuneately, it is usually the latter of the two. With this being said, there are some things you can do within FCP that can make your effort spent more productive. For instance, how about during the capture process, you ingest the entire tape instead of reviewing it first then logging.

Ok, I know that you are probably saying that ingesting all of that footage takes a ton of space and that's true but, l if you were working with a limited number of tapes it could save you a lot of time. When you figure that one gig of space can hold five minutes of video, the price of storage is quickly becoming more economical than the purchase of tapes.

The next question you probably have is, after you have captured such a large file, how do you break it up into usable segments that you want?

Tip
Note: This method would only work if you have recorded your footage on a DV camera and pressed the record stop and start button in-between takes.

- After you have captured the entire tape, select that one large file in the browser window > choose mark from the main menu > select DV Start/Stop Detect. Your captured file would then be broken up into segments that signify the record stops and starts between takes. If you shoot with this methodology in mind, it can save you a lot of time.

- If your media was captured with something other than a DV camera, as you are reviewing the footage of the large file in the viewer, press M to place markers at the points you think you may want to use.

- Click on the arrow icon next to the large file in the browser window and your marked clips will show.

- Select all of those marked clips and drag them to the Name tab in the Browser.

- Give your individual marked clips descriptive names.

Ask questions and share Final Cut Pro tips with others right here.

Posted at 9:36 AM |

You can easily manipulate a clip's motion path in the Viewer Window to achieve some impressive animated effects such as the Animated Filmstrip. This tutorial will only focus on creating a motion path for a single clip, but aftewards, if you feel comfortable with this is lesson, you should really try creating an Animated Film Strip.

1 Open up the clip that you wish to use in the Viewer Window by double clicking it in the Timeline.

2 Go to the View menu in the Canvas Window and choose Image and Wireframe.

3 You will be able to see the effect more clearly if you deacrease the scale of the clip, so go to the Motion tab in the Viewer Window and set the scale to 50.

4 Place the playhead in the Timeline at the first frame of the clip that you are animating, so that you can see it in the Canvas Window. Make sure Snapping is turned on in the Timeline

5 Make sure your selection arrow tool is active by clicking on it in the tool palette or by pressing A on your keyboard.

6 While holding down the shift key, click and drag the clip from its center towards the left side of the Canvas Window so that it is halfway off screen. Holding down the shift key constrains the movement of the clip, keeping it in a straight line as you drag.

7 While in the Motion tab, you will need to expand the window pane by dragging its bottom right corner to the right. Position the Window so that it is not covering up the Canvas Window.

8 The timeline idicator within the Motion Window will be parked over the first frame of the clip that is in the Timeline area. You should see a slightly highlighted range in the keyframe area representing the clip on which you are performing the animation.

9 Locate the center parameter within the Motion tab and click on the Keyframe Button to insert a keyframe for your current clip position. You will see that two keyframes are placed at the location of indicator bar in the Motion tab.

10 This step is a little confusing and I will explain why in just a moment. Move the timline indicator in the Motion tab and snap it to the end of the highlighted range representing the clip and press the back arrow key on your keyboard once to move the indicator backward one frame.

The white barrier in the keyframe area representing the end of the clip that we are working on is actually the first frame of the proceeding clip, this is why we had to move the indicator back one frame.

11 Go to the Canvas Window and Shift-drag the clip to the right of the screen. You will then see a motion path, representing the path that the clip will move along.

12 Play the clip from the beginning in either the timeline or the Canvas to review the effect.

Posted at 11:17 AM |

As there are with many functions in Final Cut Pro, there is more than one way to delete items in the timeline, such as the individual selection of items or in groups, and even selecting a range with in and out points in the canvas or timeline. Knowing the right method to execute for your given situation can save you a lot of heart-ache as well as a lot of time.

Perhaps you are editing a thirty second commercial spot for television and after you have built the timeline discover that a four second clip located in the center has become irrelevant. In this case you might find that a lift delete may work better than a ripple delete. It's all personal preference and the the keyword is preference. Don't let your options in a project be dictated by what you DO NOT KNOW.

Performing A LIft Edit (deleting one or more items leaving a space in your sequence):

1 Perform one of these options:

- Select an item or items by clicking them.
- Set in and out points in either the timeline or the canvas

2 Perform one of these options:

- Choose Sequence > Lift.
- Press Delete.
- Choose Edit > Cut (or press Command-X)

Performing A Ripple Delete (collapsing the space in your sequence):

1 Select item or range to delete, then perform one of these options:

- Choose Sequence > Ripple Delete.
- Press Shift Delete.
- Control-click the item or range you want to delete, then choose Ripple Delete from the Shortcut menu. You must manually select items in order to use this method.

Posted at 10:06 AM |

Being able to manipulate edit points so that you can tweak your finished project in Final Cut Pro is a must know and having multiple ways to do so is a plus! Perhaps you want to change the content of the clip without changing its duration or the duration of the entire sequence, then you want to perform a Slip Edit. Maybe you want to lengthen or shorten the in and out point of two adjacent clips, then you would want to use the roll tool. Today, we will discuss how to create a ripple edit.

Perhaps you are already familiar with the ripple delete, deleting a clip in the timeline resulting in the sequence collapsing to close the gap left by the deleted clip. Well, these two functions are very simililar in the way that they both effect the entire sequence duration by rippling their effect through to the out point. In this case, we will not be deleting anything, but simply adjusting the in and out points of a clip.

Ripple Editing In The Timeline:

1 The keyboard shortcut to activate the ripple tool is pressing the r key twice or you can activate it by going to the tool palette and selecting the Ripple tool.

2 With the Ripple tool selected, click near the edit point of the desired clip you wish to perform the ripple edit on. If you watch the ripple tool closely as you move near the edit point, the tooll will point in the direction of the clip boundary you are about to manipulate.

3 You can drag the edit point in either direction, making it longer or shorter, or simply start typing the number of frames you wish to move the point, preceeded by either a + (to add to the edit) or - (to subtract from the edit), then press the return key. This second option might seem confusing at first, because you are simply selecting the boundry you wish to manipulate then you blindly start typing a value into thin air. Don't worry, as soon as you start to type, with the boundary selected, a small box will appear so that you can see the value you are entering.

Your ripple edit has now been completed.

Posted at 9:38 AM |

You may find that in the midst of a Final Cut Pro project, you may need to export a still image for promotional purposes or just to email to someone for approval.

Exporting A Still Frame From Your Project:

1 Within the canvas or viewer windows, place the playhead overtop of the frame of video that you wish to export as a still.

2 Go to File > Export> Using Quicktime Coversion

3 After selecting the location where you wish to save the still, select the Still Image option from the Format pop-up menu.

4 Select a file format for your still. You can select the Option button for further export control of the image.

5 Click Save when you are ready to export.

Posted at 9:17 AM |

You can apply a mirror image effect to clips in Final Cut Pro simply by going to the Effects tab in the Browser Window > Going to the Perspective Folder and choosing the Mirror option. Double click on the clip in the sequence that you want to add the effect to in order to load it into the Viewer Window. Drag the Mirror Filter to the image in the Viewer Window and you will immediately see the effect applied to your clip. To manipulate the Mirror Filter, click on the Filter Tab in the Viewer Window and you will be able to see the changes you make to the image inside of the Canvas Window as long as the position indicator is parked over the clip in the timeline.

Posted at 9:15 AM |

We have talked before about how trimming is the essence of editing and how having a firm handle on the various trimming techniques in Final Cut Pro can broaden your creative horizons, well here is another technique that you can add to your arsenal.

Slipping Multiple Clips Simultaneously

A slip edit only effects the in and out points of one clip, but in this example, we have multiple selections and will be changing the in and out points of multiple clips. Think of it as reframing the action that occurs in each clip, while maintaining their individual durations.

1 Press A on the keyboard to ensure that the selection tool is active.

2 Select more than one clip in the timeline on which to perform the slip edit. Keep in mind that these clips do not have to be adjacent to one another. You can hold the Command key and select any clips you like.

3 Press S to activate the Slip tool.

4 Type in a positive or negative time code number then press enter. It may feel weird to start typing in thin air, but just enter a value and the clips will be slipped by that amount. If for some reason one clip in your selection can not be slipped, none of them will be slipped. In this example, I have slipped the selected clips 5 frames forward.

Posted at 9:49 AM |

While using the JKL keys to preview edits that you have made, you can selectively choose which audio tracks you wish to preview while playing back your edit.

1 Go to Final Cut Pro > User Preferences > Click on the Editing Tab

2 Make sure that the "Trim with Sequence Audio" selection is checked, then check the option for "Trim with Edit Selection Audio (Mute Others)."

3 Double click on an edit point in the Timeline to activate the Trim Edit Window.

4 Place the cursor point over the side of the Trim Edit Window where you want to preview the audio, either the incoming or outgoing clip, then use the JKL keys to play it back.

In step 3 you could have also selected multiple edit points by Command Clicking more than one. In this case, to play back a specific track, all you needed to do was go to the Track Pop Up Menu and select the track you wanted to hear while using the JKL keys.

Posted at 10:45 AM |

Travel mattes can add another dimension to your Final Cut Pro project by allowing you to conceal part of a video image with a shape, while selectively focusing on an area of interest in your video. This same principle can also add some flavor to a tailor made graphic that reveals selective areas of video through it.

1 First, you must decide what you want to designate as a background and place it on V1 in the Timeline. This could be a still or animated graphic like a texture, a premade graphic, or video footage. In this example, I simply chose another video clip.

2 In the V2 track, place the clip that you want to be the matte. I simply went to the Generator menu in the Viewer window > clicked the twirl down menu > chose shapes, then picked the Oval.

3 Place the video that you will be masking in V3.

4 Click on the video clip in V3 to select it.

5 Go to Modify > Composite Mode > Travel Matte and choose either Alpha or Luma. Depending on which mask you have chosen you would choose from these two. In this example with the Oval shape, I chose Travel Matte Luma which uses luminance as the mask instead of an alpha channel.

6 Render this area of your sequence so it can be reviewed.

Keep in mind that you can make adjustments to the matte layer by double clicking on it in the Timeline and opening it in the Viewer. Under the Motion tab you will be able to manipulate its parameteres. You can also manipulate the area of focus in your masked video clip on V3 by clicking on it in the timeline > going into image and wireframe mode, then simply dragging the video around in the Canvas window until you have revealed the desired area of interest in the mask.

Posted at 9:24 AM |

If you have ever used the Time Remapping Tool to manipulate a section of a clip's speed, then you have realized that whatever speed change that you perform in the clip has to be made up elsewhere in the clip. For example, if you ramp down the speed at the beginning of the clip, the end of the clip will have to play back faster in order to maintain the length of the original clip. You will have also noticed that the speed ramp does not extend to the audio of the clip, meaning you will lose sync with your audio after you perform the ramping effect.

Perhaps a more practical way to perform time remapping in Final Cut Pro is to create through edits that encompass the section of video where you wish to perform the speed change and manipulate the speed of that particular section. The effect will also extend to the associated audio with the clip, therefore keeping it in sync and the time change does not have to be made up elsewhere.

1 Go to the FCP tool palette and choose the razor blade tool.

2 Make sure the Link Selection icon is turned on in the timeline , then make a through edit in the select clip, within the timeline, just before the action that you want to manipulate with the speed change begins. You can do this by clicking the area of the clip with the Razor Blade Tool active. Make another through edit where you want the speed effect to end in the clip.

3 Go back to the tool palette and choose the selection arrow.

4 Right cllick on the segement of video that you want to manipulate with the speed change in order to select it.

5 Choose the Speed option in the pop-up menu and enter 200 into the percent field to speed up that area of the clip. Click OK.

Keep in mind that in contrast to using the Time Remapping tool, you will be changing the overall length of the clip depending on whether you are speeding the clip up, making the clip shorter, or slowing it down, making the clip longer.

Try out both techniques to see which one is right for you.

Posted at 9:12 AM |

In case you've missed this, Mattias Sandstrom offers some incredible free Final Cut Pro plugins.  They are called too much too soon.

This example uses the wind blur cross transition. He currently has 26 different filters and transitions available.

 
To install just drop the effects into the Final Cut Pro plugins folder.  I reccomend placing them in the Mac HD / Library / Application Support / Final Cut Pro system support / plugins folder.  

Here is a screenshot of all the free filters.

Continue reading "Free Final Cut Pro filters and transition effects" »

Posted at 2:17 PM |

You will find it useful to group tracks in LiveType in order to protect the integrity of an effect that may involve multiple tracks. Just the slightest movement of a track that is involved in a multilayer effect could throw the timing off for the entire piece. When grouped tracks are moved, they move together, so you don't have to worry about tweaking the effect out of sync.

Lets Group Some Tracks!

1 When you first open LiveType, you are given a single empty track. Type something into the track via the Text Entry Box.

2 Create another track by going to Track > New Text Track and type something into it as well.

3 Select a track in the Timeline or Canvas and you will see the Grouping button to the far left of the track grey out (The Grouping Button looks like a chain link).

4 Select the Grouping Button in the track that you wish to group with this track and the chain link icon will appear.

Now when you move either track, they will both move in unison.

Posted at 10:06 AM |

Let's say that you have been shooting footage at the Vans Skate Park and you've captured some serious stunts on tape to use as an intense sequence for a skateboarding documentary. Along with some pretty impressive airs you've also recorded some hair-raising wipeouts along the way. Perhaps for artistic purposes, or just because its cool to watch someone take a serious dive then walk away, you want to play the clip backward starting at the point of the skateboarder's crash. Having someone appear to fly off of the ground back onto their skateboard again is a very simple but attention grabbing effect that can be easily achieved with Final Cut Pro.

Getting A Clip To Play in Reverse in your Project

- Right click on the clip IN THE TIMELINE on which you want to perform the effect.

- In the speed field, you can either type a negative number (anything under or over 100% will also change the speed of the clip) or you could just click in the reverse box.

Now your clip will play in reverse within your project sequence.

Posted at 11:02 AM |

If you're tired of the same old collection of transitions that you've been using time and time again, gradient wipes are a fresh way to change up the pace and the appearance of a program sequence. When you are using a gradient wipe, you are basically telling Final Cut Pro to use a designated matte image to create a transition between two sequences. The initial transformation from clip A to clip B will occur within the darkest areas of the image you have chosen with the brightest images transitioning last. If you watch any television at all, chances are you have seen this technique before. Well, if seeing is believing then lets get into it!

Continue reading "Utilizing Gradient Wipes in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 10:11 AM |

Reconnecting offline media is a pain, there is just no other way to describe it, but there are some things you can do within Final Cut Pro to narrow the search. You can designate which folders and drives Final Cut Pro should look in before you attempt to reconnect your offline media. If you go to Final Cut Pro > System Settings, under the tab search folders, you can designate specific areas where FCP will perform the search. This is especially great if you have a large number of drives and if you work in a SAN (Storage Area Network) envrionment.

Designating a Search Folder

1 Go to Final Cut Pro > System Settings, then click on the Search Folders tab.

2 Click on the Set button to navigate to a new folder or click Set to replace a previously chosen folder or drive. Choose clear to clear any choice.

3 Click O.K.

Posted at 9:33 AM |

You've just completed building your timeline, but something doesn't look quite right. The action in one of the clips seems to be a little off. Perhaps you didn't let the athlete follow through with her tennis stroke or maybe the actor didn't fully exit the screen before you cut-away. You're not looking to make the clip longer or shorter, you just need to modify the action within that clip. This is the perfect time to perform a slip edit, assuming that you captured enough media for that scene to make the adjustment.

Making A Slip Edit
1 Go to the tool window and select the slip tool or just hit the S key on the keyboard.

2 Click on the clip that you want to perform the slip edit on and drag it to the left or right to adjust the action within the clip. An overlay will appear showing you the amount of media that is available to you on either side of the clip you're adjusting.

3 When you are pleased with the clips content, Release the mouse button, then play through the clip to review your changes.

Posted at 9:57 AM |

Here is a great response from one of GeniusDV's Instructors to a producer who was having problems getting iDVD to recognize chapter markers he had set in Final Cut Pro. This is great information.

Here are the steps to make the chapter markers work correctly in iDVD.

#1.... Make sure when you add your markers, that you are adding them to the
Final Cut Pro timeline (NOT inside the individual clips)

#2 Make sure you are pressing the M (Marker Button) TWICE. And make sure
you press the add chapter marker button. This will then add the appropriate
meta-data to each marker so iDVD will understand the chapter makers.

#3 Highlight your sequence in the Browser window, Go to File Export -
QuickTime Movie, and select the pull-down to add chapter markers.

#4 Drag your exported sequence into an iDVD template, and you will see the
scene selection option which will list the individual chapters based on your
markers.

Posted at 9:36 AM |

If you are unable to change the duration of a Cross Dissolve while working in Final Cut Pro, chances are their is not enough pad on each clip to allow for it.

When I say pad, I'm talking about the fact that in order for FCP to perform a cross dissolve, their has to be enough media at the end of the out going clip and at the head of the incoming clip to allow for it.

Example: if your original captured media clip was 8 seconds long, when you set your in and outs for the clip, the in point should be marked somewhere around 3 seconds into the clip. It doesn't really matter where the in point begins Just don't place it at the very beginning of the captured media. The same goes for the end of the clip. Don't place your out point at the very end of the captured media, unless you know that you are definitely going to perform a straight cut into the next clip. The room that you are leaving at the beginning and end of clips is what FCP will use to perform the Cross-Dissolve.

Posted at 9:06 AM |

One of the many new features in Final Cut Pro 6.0, is the ability to use Motion Templates. This means you can make changes to a template directly within Final Cut Pro, without having to launch Motion.

Final Cut Pro ships with a basic set of templates. You can access these templates from either Effects / Master Templates menu, or the Generators Menu (within the Viewer window).

The first step is to design an animation using Motion 3.0

Continue reading "Creating Motion Templates in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 8:38 AM |

Within Final Cut Pro you can make quick notes for clips, bins and sequences within the browser by assigning labels to them.

No Color: None
Orange: Good Take
Red: Best Take
Blue: Alternate Shots
Purple: Interviews
Green: B-Roll

Assigning a Label to a Clip

1 Select the clips in the Browser that you want to label.

2 Either control click, if you have a one button mouse, or right click, with a two button mouse, on top of one of the selected files and navigate to the Label option, then choose a label. Each of the clips, will be labled with the assigned color and if you pull over the lower right corner off the Browser Window to the right, your clips will be labled accordingly in the Label field.

Changing Lable Names

Go to Final Cut Pro > User Preferences > Click on the Label tab > Change the name > Click OK.

Posted at 9:27 AM |

You can add a drop shadow to text and to a Picture In Picture effect (PIP) in Final Cut Pro by simply going into the Motion Tab in the Viewer Window and checking the Drop Shadow option. Double click on either the text or PIP effect in the Timeline to load it into the Viewer. You will then have the ablility to manipulate the drop shadow's angle, color, softness, and opacity over the video you are placing it on from within the Motion tab of the Viewer Window.

Posted at 9:24 AM |

Final Cut Pro has an incredible multicamera feature. There are some critical settings that you must check in order for multicam to work correctly within Final Cut Pro. 

Continue reading "Using Multicamera with Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 9:29 AM |

I'm sure you've run into a situation within Final Cut Pro where you want to have a preset duration for all of your clips. It can be frustrating having to load each clip into the Viewer window and set in/out points for the required duration.

Fortunately, you can use a combination of the 'edit selection tool' and the 'extend' function to create a timeline that includes all your clips at the specified duration.

Continue reading "Changing duration of multiple final cut pro clips" »

Posted at 9:55 AM |

You can even download additional automater actions that provide functionality to create a 'Magic DVD'. In other words, you could drag some media files onto a automater icon, and a DVD would be created automatically! Or you could create an action that exports media for the iPod. The possibilities are endless. After you've created your Automator action, you simply drag your files onto the 'Automator Robot' and everything is processed automatically.

For those who program with Apple Script, you can even create your own Automator actions that tie to your favorite programs. Fortunately, the Automater comes with a hefty set of prebuilt action for a variety of built-in programs that ship with OS X. Better yet, if you have Final Cut Studio installed, there are several pre-built actions that take advantage of SoundTrack Pro's capabilities.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create an Automator action to automatically convert audio files to 48 KHz.

Continue reading "Using Apple Automater to Change Sample Rates" »

Posted at 8:51 PM |

The slug generator and the Replace Edit function can assistant you in finding a visual rhythm for a piece of music you have laid down.

1 First, you must remap the Add Edit function to a key from the Keyboard Layout Menu. Go to Tools > Keyboard Layout > Customize.

2 Type in the words add edit into the search bar located in the upper right of the window in order to locate the function.

3 Unlock the Keyboard Layout by cliking on the lock icon at the bottom left corner of the window, then drag the Add Edit icon to a key to replace a function that you use the least. In this example, I have remapped my numeral 1 key. Close the Custom keybaord Layout menu.

4 Click on the generator menu, which is located in the lower right hand corner of the Viewer Window and choose the slug option. You will then see that slug has been loaded into the Viewer.

5 After you have laid down your music to an audio track, edit in the slug as you would any other clip, then use the A tool (the selection tool), to fully extend the slug. More than likely, the music that you have selected will be much longer than the slug. You can either extend the edit points for the slug clip in the viewer or keep editing in the slug clip to increase its length.

6 Lock your audio track(s).

7 Now you can press the space bar to play your audio track and hit the 1 key (or whatever key you mapped the add edit function to) to add an edit point on the fly as you find a rhythm to your music track. This will work best if have been previously familiar with the song that you are using and have become acquainted with its rhythmic variations.

8 When you press the space bar againg to stop playback, you will see that the Add Edit points have been placed into your slug track.

9 Place the timeline idicator bar in the middle of one of the slug clips, this will work best if you temporarily deactivate the Snapping capability in the timeline by pressing the N key, then load a video clip into the Viewer Window by double clicking on it in the Browser Window. Click the Replace Edit key and you will see that the slug where the position indicator was parked over has been replaced by the clip in the Viewer.

You can do this for all of the add edits you have created within the slug track, then use the Slip Tool along with various others to capture the action in the clips you have laid down and to fine-tune your sequence.

Learn how to use the Slip Tool and perform Ripple Editing in Final Cut Pro!.

Posted at 2:27 PM |

Final Cut Studio 2.0 provides for excellent integration of Apple Motion. The key is to learn when it's appropriate to use Apple Motion instead of doing the same task within Final Cut Pro.

A great example would be if you need a clean chroma key. You may have noticed that standard built in Chroma Key plug-ins that ship with Final Cut Pro sometimes do not provide the best controls for obtaining a good looking key.

That's where Motion comes to the rescue! Follow this short tutorial on how to send your Chroma Key elements into Motion so you can use the 'Primatte RT' filter. I think you'll find that the process is fairly easy, and you'll end up with a better key.

Continue reading "Sending media from Final Cut Pro to Motion" »

Posted at 4:23 PM |

In case you missed it, Paramount and Dreamworks announced that they will release their upcoming titles exclusively on the HD DVD format.

It looked like the Blu Ray format had the early lead, but now with Paramount and Dreamwork's announcement, it's anyone's guess.

Currently, Apple's DVD Studio Pro does not support burning of Blu Ray DVD's. It does support authoring for HD DVD's however. On a strange note, the DVD player included with Mac OS X can only play HD DVD's that were authored in DVD Studio Pro. This is true even if a compatible HD DVD player is connected to the system.

I hope the industry eventually decides on one format. Otherwise, things are going to be ugly in terms of compatibility issues. If one format doesn't win, the consumer will pay higher costs for players and burners. Just imagine, this would mean that you'd need to buy both a Blu Ray or HD DVD player in order to play both formats. Or, we'll pay a higher price for some sort of hybrid player that can handle both disks.

Posted at 9:25 PM |

Have you ever noticed when you author a DVD, that sometimes it will look perfectly fine on your television set, but then it will look horrible when you play it back on your LCD computer screen? Click on the picture(s) below and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Here's the problem:

DV-NTSC is an interlaced video format that draws all the even fields first, and then all the odd fields next. This is perfectly fine when played back on an interlaced television.

However, when you play an interlaced movie on a progressive monitor, such as a computer monitor, you end up seeing both odd and even fields blended into one frame. The result often looks terrible, especially on shots with a lot of motion.

Continue reading "Converting interlaced mpg2 movies to progressive scan" »

Posted at 9:54 PM |

If you are running short on time, and you have a voice-over track where the audio is inconsistent, what do you do?

Well, fortunately there is a quick fix that may help you compress the audio levels so you do not need to spot check every single edit. It’s called compressor / limiter. Here is out it works:

Continue reading "Compressor Limiter with Final Cut Pro to fix audio" »

Posted at 12:11 PM |

You can perform a fit to fill edit with multiple selected clips in the Browser by marking in an out points for multiple clips, selecting those clips in the Browser and dragging the top selection to the Fit To Fill overlay button located in the Canvas Window. You can either set in and out points in the Timeline or you can simply place the playhead over the clip where you want to start the edit and FCP will replace each consecutive clip in the timeline with each clip you had selected in the Browser Window. If you have chose more clips in the Browser than you have in your timeline, then you will recieve an "insufficient content for edit" error.

With this being said, you will likely find it much more practical to perform this procedure with a single clip at a time due to the nature of Fit to Fill procedure, which we will discuss later.

Performing a Fit To Fill Edit with a Single Clip

1 Make sure you have the destination track selected for the edit.

2 You can either set in and out points for the edit in the Timline or in the Canvas Window or park the playhead over the clip you wish to replace. In this example, I have chose simply to park over the targeted clip. Keep in mind that you can also park the playhead over a gap you wish to fill in the timeline as well.

3 Double click on a clip in the Browser to load it into the Viewer.

4 Set your in and out points for the clip.

5 Drag the clip from the Viewer over to the Canvas Window overlay marked Fit To Fill, then release. You will see that the clip in the Viewer has replaced the designated clip in the Timeline.

There is a very significant consequence to utilizing the Fit To Fill feature that is woven into the very nature of its functionality and that is: the speed of the clip that you are editing into the sequence will be adjusted so that the clip can fill that space without changing the length of the overall sequence. For instance, if you placed a clip with a three second duration into a gap that has a duration of seven seconds, the clip will have to be played back at a slower speed in order to fill that gap. The same logic applies if the duration of the clip is longer than the duration of the gap that it is filling. The clip would have to play back faster in order to maintain the finite duration of the sequence.

Posted at 7:44 AM |

When it comes to learning shortcut's for Final Cut Pro, there are hundreds of them. If you are new to the software, it is going to take some time to learn keyboard shortcuts.

I'll focus on a couple of important 'keyboard shortcuts' that are easy to understand, and immediately useful.

Continue reading "Top Keyboard Shortcuts for Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 1:31 PM |

Imagine if you are working on your Mac using Final Cut Pro or Avid as you receive the dreaded error message 'Disk Not Readable on this computer' What do you do?

I reccommend that you keep a program called 'Disk Warrior' from AlSoft in your arsenal of troubleshooting tools. It will fix most disk directory problems. It will also fix most many OS X problems. You can download a full version directly from Alsoft's website.

Posted at 10:57 AM |

If by surprise you are receiving either red or green lines througout your video in the canvas, you have probably pressed Control and Z by accident. When you see these zebra lines, Final Cut Pro is checking the luminance levels of your video, this is called Range Checking.

Along with these stripes you will also receive one of three symbols at the top of the current clip located in the Canvas Window. A checkmark in a green circle signifies that luminance levels for the current frame are safe and below 90 percent. There are usually no zebra lines present when this lone checkmark is present.

The next symbol is a checkmark in a green cirle with an arrow pointing upwards. This signifies that some of the luma levels are between 90 and 100 percent and you will see the suspect areas shrouded in green zebra stripes. This is also an acceptable level.

The next symbol is a yellow warning icon, which means your levels are over 100 percent. This icon is accompanied with red stripes over the problem areas.

Press Control Z to activate this function and press them again to deactivate it.

Posted at 1:30 PM |

A very important link is the end action override. This is an optional setting that can override the end action of the destination. The standard link sets the next destination; the override sets the end action of that destination, replacing its default end action. Overrides give you dynamic control over the navigation through a DVD. You can change the path through the DVD according to what the viewer has just watched.

Continue reading "Adobe Encore: Override End Action" »

Posted at 8:28 PM |

Understanding how to create navigation in a DVD can sometimes be overwhelming and confusing. Well one of the greatest misunderstood navigations is the end action. There are many ways you can navigate after your clip or menu ends. The end action specifies what happens when an item finishes playing, or when you have specified a duration for a menu and the viewer takes no action within that time.

Continue reading "Adobe Encore and End Action" »

Posted at 8:18 PM |

Final Cut Pro 6.0 introduces a new remarkable fx-plug filter called smooth cam. Smooth is an amazing filter that stabalizes a shot without a bunch of complicated settings and adjustments.

This processed can be done in the background. After clips are analyzed, you can seamlessly adjust the smooth cam parameters without rendering.

Continue reading "Smooth Cam filter in Final Cut Pro 6.0" »

Posted at 7:28 PM |

Usually, when you hear of setting markers in Final Cut Pro, you are simply marking a single frame to signify that something should happen at this point in your sequence, such as a soundeffect or the beginning of a music track. Did you also know that you can set a duration for a marker, enabling it stretch across multiple frames? You can set a marker duration for notation that an area is marked for a change in color correction or that audio needs to be tweaked in a certain area.

Creating A Duration For a Marker

1 Create a marker at the head of the area that you wish to mark by placing the playhead at that position and pressing the M key on your keyboard.

2 After you have created the marker, move the playhead to the right of the marker, where you wish for the duration to end.

3 Go to Mark > Markers > Extend and it will stretch the mareker to the playhead position.

Posted at 12:14 PM |

If you are a Final Cut Studio 2.0 owner, don't forget that you still have the power of using LiveType.

Livetype is often overlooked, because all of the LiveFonts, objects and backgrounds are now readily available in Apple's Motion 3.0

It is important that LiveType handles text differently than Apple Motion. Perhaps in a future release, Motion will incorporate all of LiveType's features.

For the time being, here is an easy tutorial on how to use Livetype to create a streaming glow effect.

Continue reading "Creating streaming glow effect with Livetype" »

Posted at 10:45 AM |

You can copy and paste the video and audio attributes of a clip such as: any applied filters, speed changes, basic motion and more, to other clips within a sequence.

Copying And Pasting Clip Attributes

1 Select a clip in your sequence that has a filter applied to it.

2 Copy the clip.

3 Select the clips that you want to appy the filter attribute to.

4 Go to Edit > Paste Attributes or Right/Control click and choose Paste Attributes

5 Take note of if the filter you are wanting to paste is a video or audio filter, then select the filter option from the Paste Attributes dialog box . Click OK.

Posted at 12:07 PM |

With the introduction of the intel based iMac's and Mac Pro systems, you may have the opportunity to use your Avid software in conjunction with many of the video editing applications that are available for Macintosh.

This is particularly true for authoring DVD's. I have yet to find an easier DVD authoring program than Apple's iDVD. For sounds effects, and sound design I prefer Apple's SoundTrack Pro.

Better yet, if you are lucky enough to have Apple's Final Cut Studio, you can use the best of both worlds! For myself, I prefer to edit my content with Avid Media Composer, but then I'll use DVD Studio Pro for my DVD authoring. I also use Apple Motion and LiveType for effects and compositing.

You can even import Motion or LiveType project files directly into an Avid bin window without ever having to export the file from Motion or LiveType.

Better yet, the Avid software will build a real-time moving matte for you, which will enable you to make keyframe adjustments in terms of your objects position. Here's how it all works.

Continue reading "Motion and LiveType with Avid Xpress" »

Posted at 1:50 PM |

If you plan on exporting your Final Cut Pro sequence as a QuickTime movie, you may want to consider applying a de-interlace filter to your entire sequence. This is especially true for moving elements such as crawling text.

Also, if you do not plan on laying back to tape through the firewire port, you might consider exporting your QuickTime movie using a different codec. This will improve the quality of your graphics. Compressing graphics with the DV codec will cause them to lose quality since DV is compressed 5:1.

Continue reading "Quality of Text in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 10:16 AM |

A new key feature in Final Cut Pro 6.0 is the ability to make subclips 'indepedent'. This may not sound like a big deal, but it's a fantastic feature when it comes to managing and archiving your media within Final Cut Pro.

Here's how it works using a typical example:

Continue reading "Media Management in Final Cut Pro 6.0" »

Posted at 8:29 AM |

If your a seasoned Final Cut Pro user, you may have figured out that managing how clips are named is a crucial step to managing your media.

In previous versions of Final Cut Pro, renaming a clip in the Browser window meant that it's referenced media no longer had a matching name. This could be disastrous if you attempted to manage your media (archive your media) for a later time.

New to Final Cut Pro 6.0 there is a function in the Browser will automatically match your clip names to their refernced media file names.

Continue reading "Renaming Clips Final Cut Pro 6.0" »

Posted at 9:43 AM |

One of the new features in the Final Cut Studio 2.0 suite of programs is the ability to integrate motion templates directly within a Final Cut Pro sequence.

This new feature really ehances the integration between Apple Motion 2.0 and Final Cut Pro 6.0.

Final Cut Pro 6.0 also provides a better real-time engine with the ability to play Motion templates in real-time directly witin the Final Cut Pro timeline.

Continue reading "Motion 2 Templates in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 11:53 AM |

When you first open LiveType, you will see within the Canvas Window a blue line representing an empty track. Type something into the Text Entry box located to the upper right of the Canavas In the Inspector Window.

Making a Curved Track

1 While pressing the control key or right clicking if you have a two button mouse, click anywhere on the blue line and choose Add Control Point from the menu that appears.

2 You can now drag the control point and the end points to create a new angle.

3 Control click or right click the new control point that you have just created and choose Curve In from the menu.

4 Drag the new point (Bezier Handle) to create a curve.

5 Right click or control click the original control point you created again and choose Curve In.

6 Adjust the new Bezier Handle.

Posted at 11:25 AM |

Imagine that you have been working on a magazine style segment for a local news station that debuts some of the less traveled areas of your state, for a light news segment called 'On The Backroads.' You have built a beautiful segment complete with interviews, eye-catching cut-aways and some nice atmospheric music. Now, how do you end this masterpiece without it feeling like your piece just abruptly cuts off at the end. How about backtiming an audio clip to give a soft, natural ending to your piece?

Backtiming A Clip:

- Set the area where you want the music to start in the timeline by creating an in point and place your out point at the end of your sequence where the action stops.

- Load your audio clip into the viewer and set an out point at the end of your music clip.

- Make sure your tracks are patched properly so that you will only be editing into the audio track, then make your edit. Your music will end at the out point that you specified in the timeline and backtrack to the in point, giving you a natural ending.

Posted at 11:30 AM |

There are two types of text that you can utilize in LiveType, system fonts and live fonts. System fonts are plane text that you can later modify by keyframing or adding an assortment of presets and live fonts are a library of fonts that are already fully animated. In this example we will take a system font and add a preset to bring it to life.

1 Go to the Textures Tab and click on it to choose a background so that we can see our text better. Simply click on a texture selection, then click the button at the bottom of the pane marked Apply To New Track.

2 Go to the Font Tab and choose the Apple Chancery font from the list, then click Apply To New Track and type something into the Text Entry field in the Inspector Window. You will have to click into the text entry field before you start typing in order to get a cursor.

3 Find the Effects tab and choose Celebrate from the list, then click Apply at the bottom. Keep in my that the text track is still selected when you are applying the effect. Always make sure that the appropriate track is active before applying an effect preset. Press the spacebar to preview your animated text.

Be sure to check out LiveTypeCentral

Posted at 10:00 AM |

A great way to learn LiveType or even Motion is to open up one of the pre-made templates and examine it carefully. When you open a template in LiveType, you have the benefit of being able to view every element, effect and the relationships used to forge that particular piece. Pick it apart, change and replace elements, try to recreate it in another project. You're not confined to a world made of presets! Since their is very little literature out there for LiveType, here is how to get to the presets:

1 Go to File > Open Template and peruse through the categories.

2 Select the format you will be working in (NTSC, PAL, HD) then choose a template and click the OK button.

By selecting a title clip in the timeline, the text opens up in the Text Entry Box for manipulation. The same goes for the other elements of the template.

Posted at 9:14 AM |

When you click on the Clip Overlays button at the bottom left corner of the Final Cut Pro timeline,

you are then able to view the keyframe parameters that you have set for both video and audio clips. The graph is broken down into four parts: the Motion Bar, Filter Bar, Keyframe Editor, and the Speed Indicator Area. A handy function to be aware of is that you can choose to either hide or display these parameters depending on which you are currently working in.

Control click the clip overlays button. Your choices in the pop-up menu are to either view the keyframe parameters for Video, Audio, Display (Select) all parameters or Display (Select) none.

In this particular example, I placed a Sepia Filter on my clip, represented by the green bar, and I made an opacity adjustment which is represented by the blue bar. If I only wanted to see the filter parameter I could choose to hide all of the others by unchecking them in the video sub menu.

If you wanted to make an adjustment to the filter in the Keyframe Editor, you would control-click or right click in the Keyframe Editor area and choose the name of the filter that was applied from the list. A thin green rubberband will appear, giving you the chance to use the pen tool to set keyframes and make adjustements.

Posted at 9:28 AM |

It is easy to tweak effects in Live Type to achieve a particular movement or look once you have applied a prexisting effect to text, but keep in mind that creating a custom effect from scratch is an option as well!

1 After you have placed text in your timeline, add a blank effect track by clicking once on that text track to select it, then pressing Command E or go to Track > New Effect. You will see that a blank effect track without keyframes have been placed beneath the text you have created.

2 Name the effect by going to the Effects tab in the Inspector Window and double clicking on "New Effect."

3 Position the playhead were you want the effect to start in the blank effect track.

4 Press Command K to insert a keyframe.

5 Change a parameter from within the Inspector Window, whether it be a change in style, size, tracking, opacity, etc. Now, when you playback your text with the effect, you will see that the parameter changes you have made are represented by the keyframe.

Posted at 7:51 AM |

When you have text on a track in LiveType, you can manipulate a single character on that track to give it a unique movement and look all of its own.

1 Add text onto the track.

2 Go to the Text Entry Field and select a single character from within the text you have written. You will see a bounding box appear around the character in the Canvas.

3 Manipulate this one character by either dragging it to a new location, rotating it by dragging the handle in the upper left corner of the bounding box, change its size by dragging either inward or outward from the right handle.

4 You can even go to the effect tab > pick an effect > and click apply to add it to the selected character.

Posted at 9:05 AM |

If you're experiencing beeping in your Final Cut Pro audio track while building a project, chances are you have exceeded your real-time audio capability. While in Final Cut Pro, go to the main menu and select Final Cut Pro > User Preferences. A dialog box will open and you will see, by default, that the Real-time Audio Track Mixing option is set to 8 tracks. Keep in mind that any filters you add to an audio track counts as an additional audio track. For example, if you had 5 audio tracks, each with 2 filters, then you essentially have created 10 tracks.

You can set the Real-Time Audio Mixing value to any number that you like, but that doesn't mean that your hardware can handle it! Be mindful of your hardware limitations before changing this value. If you're working on fast drives, you could well exceed the default 8 tracks.

Posted at 9:10 AM |

If you are cutting a Documentary on a historical topic, you can just about count on having to incorporate still images into your timeline either via scanner or various storage media. It is to your advantage to know how to change the duration of a still image clip so it can be synchronized with the appropriate voiceover.

When you import a still image into Final Cut Pro, the default duration is 10 seconds and there are several ways to manipulate its length:

1 Go to Final Cut Pro > User preferences, then choose the editing tab.

2 Type a new value in the Still/Freeze Duration Field.

You can also:

- Double click the duration column in the Browser window and enter a new value.

- Double click the clip in the browser window to open it in the Viewer, then enter a value for that clip in the duration field.

- Choose a clip in the browser, click edit > item properties, then choose the timing tab and enter a new value.

- You can simply import the image into the browser window, then either perform an overwrite or insert edit to place it into the timeline, place the cursor at the end of the image and drag to adjust the duration of the image.

Posted at 11:15 AM |

When working with transitions in Final Cut Pro there are a couple of tricks to help you along the way including how set transition favorites to hot keys, and how to add multiple transitions all at the same time.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro transitions" »

Posted at 10:08 AM |

If you are unable to change the duration of a Cross Dissolve while working in Final Cut Pro, chances are their is not enough pad on each clip to allow for it.

When I say pad, I'm talking about the fact that in order for FCP to perform a cross dissolve, their has to be enough media at the end of the out going clip and at the head of the incoming clip to allow for it.

Example: if your original captured media clip was 8 seconds long, when you set your in and outs for the clip, the in point should be marked somewhere around 3 seconds into the clip. It doesn't really matter where the in point begins Just don't place it at the very beginning of the captured media. The same goes for the end of the clip. Don't place your out point at the very end of the captured media, unless you know that you are definitely going to perform a straight cut into the next clip. The room that you are leaving at the beginning and end of clips is what FCP will use to perform the Cross-Dissolve.

Posted at 9:27 AM |

There are several ways to output your finished sequence. The term output can mean several things. For some of us, you may never intend on outputting back to tape. The most common output format is to output to a DVD. Other choices include outputting back to tape, or to a multimedia format.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro Output" »

Posted at 11:18 AM |

One quick way to crank up audio levels in Final Cut Pro is to click on the Toggle Clip overlays icons at the bottom left of the Timeline Window >

park your cursor on top of the pink rubberband overlay in your audio tracks > click and drag the rubberband upward.

You can adjust specific areas of your audio by option clicking on the rubberband to set keyframes or nodes and pull selected areas up and dragging others downward.

Posted at 9:42 AM |

If your QuickTime movies have poor quality playback, it may be because you haven't turned on the 'use high quality video setting' within QuickTime Pro. Final Cut Pro users often complain about low quality rendering of graphics or titles, when in fact they simply aren't viewing the full resolution QuickTime movie.

Take a look at this sample title that was exported as a QuickTime movie blown up 500% using the standard DV-DVCPRO codec. You'll notice the quality is fairly decent, considering DV is compressed 5:1.

If you are encountering poor quality playback with QuickTime movies using the DV-Codec you need to make sure the high quality video setting is turned on within QuickTime Pro.

Continue reading "Poor Quality Final Cut Pro QuickTime Fix" »

Posted at 8:24 PM |

Another way to alter premade effects in Apple LiveType is to manipulate just one keyframe parameter, then apply the change globally to the entire effect.

1 Apply an effect to the text you have created. In this example, I have chosen the Dirst Stop effect under the Caricature menu.

2 Select the effect in the timeline.

3 Make a change to the effect by manipulating a property in either the Text , Style or Attributes tabs. In this example, I will be changing the XY scale larger under the Attributes tab.

Note: You can either select an existing keyframe in the effect by clicking on it or parking the locator bar over an area that does not have a keyframe and one will be made for you as you adjust a parameter.

4 Option click the LED next to the parameter that you have just changed to apply it to the entire effect. You will see that the X and Y parameters will be altered for the entire effect.

Posted at 9:35 AM |

The ability to set specific behavioral parameters to targeted objects within an Apple Motion project can provide you with animation that is truly eyecatching! For example, the Vortex behavior is set to one object and has the potential to effect every object that surrounds it, but you can specifically target the elements on which the Vortex behavior will apply its force.

Setting Specific Objects To Be Effected By the Vortex Behavior

1 Apply the Vortex behavior to one element within your project that you wish for other objects to circle around. You can do this in the Dashboard or the Inspector windows.

2 The Behaviors tab will supply you a list of affected elements. From the Layers list, drag the specific items that you wish to be effected by the Vortex Affect to the affected elements list.

All objects that you have placed within the Affected objects list will now circle around the object that you originally applied the Vortex behavior to in step 1.

Posted at 10:45 AM |

It is important to understand what each preference means, because each preference will affect the functionality of the Final Cut Pro software.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro User Preferences" »

Posted at 8:48 AM |

Understanding your Final Cut Pro system settings is critical before you jump into the software and begin editing. There are several critical settings you should check before beginning your first edit.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro system settings" »

Posted at 6:17 PM |

There is an interesting trick for changing the duration for multiple Final Cut Pro clips all at the same time. The catch is, you can only add or subtract frames. However, this is still a very powerful feature.

A great example would be when you want to put together a montage of clips, and you need to experiment with different durations.

Continue reading "Set Duration for Multiple Final Cut Pro clips" »

Posted at 8:39 AM |

Each item that you import into Motion is referred to as an object and each object is placed on a parent layer. As you continue to build your motion graphics project, and have constructed many composite layers, you will find it beneficial to lock layers in order to preserve the integrity of an effect. This will ensure that as you are working, those individual objects will not mistakingly get nudged out of sync, disturbing the effect that you have created.

Locking Layers in Motion

1 Shift click to make multiple selections for the layers you wish to lock in the Project pane.

2 Go to Object > Lock or press Control L.

You will see a red bounding box appear around the selected objects in the designated layers you have locked.

Posted at 9:52 AM |

It is quite simple to create text in Motion. In the Tool Bar area a the top of the Canvas Window, click on the T icon which is the text tool. Click in the Canvas areas and you will be give a cursor with which to write. The text that you type will form a new layer on which you can drag text behaviors from the library to the text on Canvas. Make sure that the text is highlighted before you drag and drop effects.

You can apply a Live Font to the text you have made by simply going to the Motion Library and dragging a font to the selected text on the Canvas. You will be able to determine if the text in the Canvas because it will have a bounding box around it.

Posted at 11:41 AM |

When building a graphic in Photoshop for Final Cut Pro, there are some important things to take into consideration while building your graphic.

Square vs. Non-Square Pixels

Using Photoshop with Final Cut Pro can be tricky if you do not follow some important steps. The most common mistake is to save a Photoshop graphic as a .psd file at 720 x 534.  This can be very misleading, especially since Photoshop shows DV-NSTC as being 720 x 534 in non-square pixels.

Continue reading "Using Photoshop with Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 11:04 PM |

Apple announces major upgrades to Final Cut Studio.

What's new in Final Cut Studio 2? At first glance, you may not notice a difference in the core Final Cut Pro 6.0 software. The upgrades are all under the hood in terms of how Final Cut Pro integrates with the associated Final Cut Studio applications.

It obvious, with Final Cut Studio 2.0 that Apple is focusing it's effort on high-end production facilities to gain market share away from Avid Technology. So if you are in the high-end production business, there are some huge announcements in this next release of Final Cut Studio. However, if you fall into the pro-sumer category of the business the upgrades to the software are more subtle.

So first off, whatever happened to those rumors about Final Cut Pro extreme? To answer your question, Apple has partnered with AJA to provide a product called IoHD. This product should satisfy those who are looking to compare something to Avid's Media Composer Adrenaline box.

Open Format Timeline: Final Cut 6 now has the ability to mix and match source material from a wide range of formats. What's most impressive is you can even match different frame frames. As an example, you could mix PAL, NSTC, and HD media all in the same sequence without having to render.

Apple PosRes 422 Codec: Apple has released a new codec that is virtually indistinguishable vs 10 bit uncompressed HD. They were showing 20th generation footage with a split screen vs 10 bit uncompressed media. It was impossible to notice any degradation.

Surround Sound Mix: With Soundtrack Pro you can now mix in full 5.1 surround sound in real-time.

New Application (Color): This looks like a programmed module straight from Apple's Shake program. Color is an extremely high-end color corrector.

For the rest of us, the most impressive upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2.0 is Motion 3.0. The newest release of Motion 3.0 comes with several key upgrades. My favorite upgrades these include:

Real-time 3D perspective: Not only can you animate objects in true 3D space, the particle generators can now be promoted to 3D! This provides for amazing 3D particles in full 3D space.

Motion Tracking: Motion now includes a 4 point motion tracker.

Vector Based Paint: There is now support for full vector based paint. Any object can become a paint source.

Audio Behaviors: You can now assign audio behaviors to individual filters or particles.

Improved Slow Motion which also includes modules for image-stabilization and something called 'smooth cam'. I watched in awe, as they provided examples of slowing down media to 2.5% speed without any jerkiness in the video. Yes, that's two and a half percent of original speed!

Improved Integration of Motion: Motion templates will now dynamically update within a Final Cut Pro timeline. They also will play in real-time without having to render within an FCP sequence.

It is hard to believe you can have so much power with one software package. I will warn you, the learning curve to using all these programs efficiently is becoming quite high. GeniusDV be offers training courses to help get you up to speed in learning these new products.

This is much more included with Final Cut Studio 2.0. You can read about all the additional details on Apple's website.

Posted at 6:00 PM |

At NAB 2007, Apple extended the Final Cut Pro family by adding a new scaleable media assett manager and workflow automator, Final Cut Server. This server app allows for content brosing, review and approval from within a studio or over the Internet. You will also be able to take advantage of a shot selection and editing tool that will allow for drag and drop intergration with Final Cut Pro 6.

Final Cut Server aslo integrates with the new Compressor 3 for high-quality format conversions for broadcasting, the web, iPod, Apple TV, DVD and mobile phones.

You'll find Final Cut Server on shelves by the end of summer with a retail price of one server for $999 (US) including 10 concurrent licenses and $1,999 (US) for one server and unlimited licenses.

Posted at 5:43 PM |

After making the necessary hardware connections, which instructions can be found in the article "Previewing Full Screen in a Dual Monitor Configuration in FCP," you can set up the Motion preferences to preview out to an external monitor.

1 Go to Motion > Preferences.

2 Click on the output tab.

3 In the Video output pop up menu, choose FireWire-Apple Firewire

4 Choose update during playback to have your external monitor and Canvas views updated live. Activating the "update dynamically on parameter change" option will mirror what's in the Canvas dynamically. Think of it this way, when you only have the update during playback selection checked, if you move the playhead in the Motion timeline to a new position by dragging it, the external monitor will not reflect that move until you start to play the timeline. Keep in mind that the playback frame rate will have to compensate for these options being checked.

Posted at 9:36 AM |

Adjusting audio can be done using clip overlays within the audio tracks of a sequence.

Clicking the clip overlay button will display a pink line across each audio track. This line can be adjusted up or down to increase or decrease the audio level of a clip. The clip overlay button is located in the lower left corner of the timeline window.

Continue reading "Adjusting audio levels Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 8:48 AM |

If you do not have a preview monitor on which to preview your work in Final Cut Pro, you can use one of your computer monitors to see a full screen preview.

1 Simply go to View > Video Playback > Digital Cinema Desktop Preview-Full Screen.

2 Go to View > External Video > All Frames so that FCP knows to send the information found in your project frame by frame to the external monitor.

May I point out that you may already posses the hardware to preview to an external NTSC monitor. Do you have an inexpensive Mini-DV camera with firewire and and S-Video ports? I'm talking about the type of Mini-DV camera that you would commonly take on a vacation. Do you have a television set with an S-Video in? If you do, then you're in luck!

1 Run the firewire cable from your computer to the Mini-DV Camera.

2 Run an S-Video Cable from the Mini-DV camera to the television set. Make sure your camera is in VTR mode and not in Camera mode.

3 Go to View > External Video > All Frames

4 Go to View > Video Playback > Apple Firewire NTSC (720x480).

Your audio source will have to be connected to the Mini-DV Camera for you to be able to monitor the audio. Now, you have a relatively inexpensive VTR!

Posted at 4:30 PM |

You can import backgrounds into LiveType of various file formats such as: AVI, Photoshop, PICS, PICT, PLS, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, GIF, DV, BMP, JPEG, SGI, Targa, TIFF, QuickTime, QuickTime image file and PNG. The past few LiveType tutorials that you have seen all contain backgrounds from under the Textures tab located within LiveType itself.

Placing a LiveType Background

1 Go to the Textures tab and pick a catergory from the Category menu. You will then see the options for that category listed below.

2 Select the particular background that you want and you will then see a preview for that background in the Media Browser Window. Click the Apply To New Track tab at the bottom. Notice that your selection is now placed below the background bar in the timeline.

Importing External Images to Use as a Background

1 Go to File > Place.

2 Navigate to the image you want to use.

3 Drag the image track in the timeline below the Background Bar.

Heres a tip for changing letter colors in Photoshop!

Posted at 1:31 PM |

The Record Button in the Apple Motion Canvas allows you to record keyframes as you change the parameters of objects. This is a quick way to keyframe a particular movement for an object by either dragging or by way of handles found in bounding boxes of selected objects. You can also record keyframes by using the record button and entering new values into parameter fields.

Recording Animation and Setting Keyframes in the Inspector

1 Select the object that you want to animate in the Canvas and you will see a bounding box appear around the object. The object I have chosen for this example is call "Big Frame Shadow" and is located in the Motion Library under Content. Scale the object down so that if fits entirely on the Canvas. The color of your canvas may be different than mine, but that is irrelavant.

2 Go to the Inspector Tab in the Utility Window, then click the Properties tab.

3 Find the parameter for Rotation. To the far right of the parameter, there is an icon that looks like a dash. This is the Keyframe Menu. Click on the Keyframe Menu and continue to hold your mouse button down and select Add Keyframe.

4 Move the Play head in the Mini Timeline ahead 25frames.

5 Click the Record Button.

6 Rotate the Rotation Parameter Dial 5 times.

7 Turn off the Record Button

8 Move the play head in the Mini Timeline to the beginning of your project and press the play button to review your animation.

Posted at 11:50 AM |

Final Cut Studio ships with a program called LiveType. You can do some amazing effects compositing directly within LiveType.

You can use Livetype for some amazing effects that do not use any actual type. In fact, Livetype treats objects no differently than how it treats type. This exercise involves using a simple square shape to build a complex composite. Keep in mind; you can expand upon this tutorial by using other exotic shapes other than a square.

Continue reading "LiveType Tutorial using Animated Mask" »

Posted at 6:02 PM |

There are many ways to trim clips. In the basic editing lesson, we explained how you could use the arrow tool (A) to trim clips.

Roll trim icon (R)

Ripple trim icon (RR)

Slip icon (S)

Slide icon (SS)

Continue reading "Trimming Tools for Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 8:51 AM |

An alpha matte defines areas of the screen to be dropped out from the visible picture. In fact, when you design any title within Final Cut Pro it is treated as an alpha matte. The title is automatically keyed over a video image below it.

This characteristic of titles that allow you to automatically see a video image underneath them is referred to an alpha channel. The alpha channel represents the transparent area of the image. The matte represents the solid part of the image.

Continue reading "Alpha Mattes in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 9:43 AM |

Do you shoot in 24P, 23.976P, 30i, 60i, 30p? It can be confusing what format to choose. Then if you choose 24P, you are faced with the question. Do you shoot with the standard pull-down method, or the advanced pull-down method?

Advanced pull-down is 2:3:3:2
Standard pull-down is 2:3:2:3

If you are going back to film, shoot with the Advanced Pull-down Method, and then edit directly in 24P when using Avid or Final Cut Pro.

If you are going back to video, then you should really edit at 29.97 and go back to video at 29.97. This method will give you the 'film look' with 29.97 television. If this is the result you want then shoot with the Standard Pull-down method.

For more information about video or film-making using 24P formats, you can visit the Adamwilt.com webpage. He has some fanastic tutorials that go into great details about the various video formats.

Posted at 8:03 PM |

Here is a training module on three point editing for Final Cut Pro.

Although this is a basic training module, there are some key concepts that other experienced editors may benefit from. This includes:

In Final Cut Pro, the timeline window is the where editing occurs. There are many ways to edit. This is a basic editing tutorial for beginner, although for the seasoned editor you may pick up a few tricks you didn't know about.

Continue reading "FCP Timeline Editing" »

Posted at 10:12 AM |

Organzing your cilps and media within Final Cut Pro is a critical step before you begin editing. Here is a detailed courseware module or some things to consider.

- Managing Media
- DV Scene Detection
- Labeling Clips
- Creating Storyboards

Continue reading "Organizing Tips for Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 2:51 PM |

If your looking to improve on the rendered quality of text or graphics within Final Cut Pro, you may want to consider exporting your finished sequence as a 10bit Uncompressed movie, instead of using the standard DV codec.

Continue reading "Qualify of graphics and titles in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 9:42 PM |

In Final Cut Pro you can now export a QuickTime movie with up to 24 embedded audio tracks. This is fantastic, especially if you need to send an audio mix to a sound designer. You can also use this as a method of transferring audio files to and from Avid ProTools.

Continue reading "Exporting Multiple Audio tracks with QuickTime" »

Posted at 11:58 PM |

If you were to add an HDV 1080i60 clip with upper-field dominance to a DV NTSC sequence with lower-field dominance, the clip would stutter and appear jerky during playback on an NTSC or PAL video monitor. The stuttering would be due to the fields in the 1080i60 clip playing in the wrong order but, when you add clips into a sequence, Final Cut Pro usually takes care of this problem for you with Automatic Field Dominance Correction.

If you should ever have to do this manually, the Shift Fields Filter's Direction Control will allow you to do so:

- If you need to match a clip with upper-field dominance to a sequence with lower field dominance, you would set the Direction Control to + 1

- To match a clip with lower-filed dominance to a sequence with upper-field dominance, the Direction Control should be set to -1.

The Shift Fields Filter is not necessary when editing clips and sequences with matching field dominance.

Posted at 9:55 AM |

What better way to acheive the audio effect you're looking for, than being able to tweak it in real-time as you're playing it!

Adjusting Audio Filters In Real-Time

1 Load the clip with the applied audio filter you want to adjust into the viewer window by double clicking it in the timeline.

2 Select the filter tab in the viewer window to manipulate the filter parameters.

3 Before you make a change to the filter parameters, move the playhead to the point in the clip where you want the change to begin.

4 Play the clip and begin manipulating the filter parameters and you will be able to hear your adjustments as the clip is playing.

Posted at 9:36 AM |

Final Cut Pro has a powerful feature that lets you map up to 9 favorite transitions or filters. By mapping customized transitions to your keyboard, you can save a lot of time when applying commonly used effects.

Continue reading "mapping Final Cut Pro favorite transitions" »

Posted at 10:33 AM |

All of the appications in the Final Cut Studio have right mouse click menus available. This may sound like an obvious tip, but I can assure you it isn't as obvious as you might think. It would be very easy to assume that there is no right button on a mighty mouse, or that you have to control click to get it. By default the right button is set to be a primary button the same as the left. To change it you need to go into the System preferences and select the keyboard and mouse option. You will see that both the right and left button are set to the primary button. Simply change the right button to secondary, and a whole world of menus.

Posted at 6:16 PM |

It is extremely helpful to be able to customize your own presets in Final Cut Pro when the existing ones just won't cut it. Perhaps, on this project you will be using a device that does not posess device control capabilities, then you would need to re-confiigure for a Non-Contorllable Device.

Creating New Presets

1 Go to Final Cut Pro >Audio/Video Settings.

2 Select the tab for the type of preset you wish to create.

3 Choose a preset from the list that will be your starting point (examples: DV NTSC 48 KHz, DV PAL 48 KHz, DVC PRO HD-1080i-50, etc.) then choose duplicate.

4 Enter the name and description of your custom preset in the Preset Editor window, then select the settings you desire and click OK.

Posted at 9:20 AM |

Adding dissolves in Final Cut Pro can sometimes be a tricky situation. If you are getting the dreaded '1 frame dissolve' that you cannot adjust, here are two solutions to your problem.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro dissolves operation not allowed" »

Posted at 7:19 PM |

If you have been using Final Cut Pro for only a brief amount of time, there is no doubt that you have become aware that there are more than just one way to do everything within this robust app. The advantages of flexibility in workflow and execution are a strong selling point for any NLE, but never the less, when you are in the process of learning the app, all of the choices and key commands present a daunting task in brute memorization. If you read more techinical and user manuals than you do novels in a year, then you'll probably have no problem bouncing between the manual and a standard keyboard until you've remembered the shortcuts but, a Final Cut Pro editors keyboard is a great learning instrument that can greatly reduce the degree of that learning curve. If you are just beginning your editing career or are a seanoned veteran, you can improve your efficiency and save time when you need it the most, like when have a client over your shoulder!

You can purchase this Final Cut Pro editing keyboard here. Read about the specifications.

Posted at 9:48 AM |

If you are building a monstrous timeline deep with layers, scrolling up and down to find the layers that you are currently working on can be quite a task. Creating a static region in your timeline will allow you to always keep the tracks that you are working on in front of you, regardless of where you are in the timeline.

Creating A Static Region

1 Click and hold on the upper thumb tab located within the scroll bar, as you drag upward to create a static area for as many video tracks you would like to have appear in the middle.

2 Click and hold on the lower thumb tab located within the scroll bar, as you drag downward to create a static area for as many audio tracks you would like to have appear in the middle.

Posted at 9:25 AM |

In DVD Studio Pro you do not have to use the "Simulate" button on the tool bar to simulate your project. If you want to see how a particular menu is going to look, and don’t want to have to navigate to it, you can simulate from any position in a project. From the graphical view, menu view, or the track itself all you need to do is highlight what you want the simulator to start at, and right click. The bottom selection in all of these scenarios is the simulate function, and will simulate from that point.

One thing to keep in mind when using the simulator is that you do not have the fast forward functionality, but it will be available once you burn the disc.

Posted at 11:47 AM |

If you ever receive a project where you need a special hyphen or international charater, then you need to look no further than the upper right hand corner of your Mac OS. The character palette is an icon that is in the shape of a flag and is home to many exotic characters that can be used in Final Cut Pro Projects.

- Choose a text generator in FCP then go to the control tab in the viewer and click in the text field.

- Highlight the character you want in the character Palette, then press the insert tab at the bottom.

Posted at 9:21 AM |

One very practical effect, is to create a moving filmstrip. Moving filmstrips can be a variety of sizes and speeds. They are practical in portraying several images in a limited amount of time.

Once you master the moving filmstrip effect, you'll be able to apply your skills to other advanced effects that contain many of the skills learned in this exercise.

*If you are an Avid Xpress or Media Composer user you can find the same steps for creating the moving filmstrip for Avid.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro filmstrip effect" »

Posted at 8:54 AM |

Here is a fantastic tutorial on how to use all your favorite Photoshop filters for video.

This training lesson is invaluable for anyone who uses Photoshop. We'll show you how to create a droplet that will process a set of actions so Photoshop will automatically do all the processing for you.

Continue reading "Photoshop for Video with Avid or FCP" »

Posted at 9:39 PM |

When you want to use the same clip, photo, or image in Motion there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. You do not want to reimport the same media more than once, because it will slow you down, and fill up the RAM. Instead you should simply duplicate the item, which will reference the same source media as the original. By highlighting the item in the layers tab of the project pane, all you need to do is press apple D to duplicate it. If you are going to be adding behaviors and or filters, you can wait until you have done so before you duplicate, so you won't have to do it twice.

Posted at 9:50 PM |

There have been plenty complaints in the DV discussion groups about audio that slowly moves out of sync as the playhead progresses down the timeline. For all of you Final Cut Pro users out there who are shooting your own footage, before you hit the record button, make sure that you are aware if you are recording audio at 12 or 16 bit. You'll have to go into the camera menu to determine this. Just in case you were wondering, 16 bit is where you want to be for the highest quality and dvd compliant audio. Now, after your camera has been set, its time to make Final Cut Pro aware of the specific sample rate by which you have recorded audio.

The major cause for a timeline that slowly slips out of sync is the fact that the editor does not keep his sample rates consistant across the board while working in FCP. Capture settings as well as sequence settings should all be uniform. 48k will allow for the best audio. Save yourself some time and make sure that you and the people who are shooting for you are capturing audio at 16bit in-camera and that FCP is configured to handle 48k. Remember, anything other than 48k is not DVD compliant and if you set the audio playback quality to high under the user preferences, while playing back audio that is not 48k, the conversion alone could cripple a less than robust machine.

Posted at 10:15 AM |

In DVD Studio Pro you have the ability to set the destination of the Menu and Title buttons for the entire disc. To set the button destinations for the disc, open the Outline view and highlight the disc. Next go to the Inspector and set the destinations of the buttons.

Continue reading "Menu & Title Buttons in DVD Studio Pro" »

Posted at 11:51 PM |

Another way to manipulate where a transition occurs between two clips is to open the Transition Editor and move the transition with the Roll Tool. For the sake of this lesson, If you do not have a transition aleady made, just Control-Click and choose to add the default transition to an edit point in your sequence. To see how to set a defualt transition, click here.

1 After you have placed a transition over an edit point in your sequence, double click on the transition to open the Transition Editor in the Viewer.

2 When you place the cursor over the transition in the editor, it will automatically turn into the Roll tool. If you look at the graphic above, you will see the absence of a cursor or a Roll tool This is due to the nature of the screen shot. The cursor will not show, but just in case you were wondering, the Roll tool looks like this .

3 Drag the transition to a new location.

Posted at 10:46 AM |

Using the Make Particles function in Apple Motion can be a creative way to add a transitional element to your productions. Taking something as simple as a graphic of a basketball, you can create a motion graphic that enhances a simple wipe transition.

Continue reading "Making Particles in Motion" »

Posted at 9:00 PM |

Some of the most creative projects that I have done have come from stopping at the end of an edited sequence, just when I thought I had exactly what I wanted, and tried something completely different! Granted, it doesn't work every time, like being deep into gravely serious subject matter and deciding to be humorous for the first time, but sometimes challenging your own vision beyond the forgiveness of the undo button can be the best thing you could ever do!

Creating a duplicate sequence can give you the freedom to test out a new idea or a new direction without effecting the original.

Duplicating a sequence:

1. Select the sequence you wish to duplicate in the browser.

2. Choose Edit > Duplicate.

3. Rename the new sequence and make as many changes and duplicates as you like.

Go ahead and get crazy!

Posted at 9:08 AM |

DVD Studio Pro makes creating chapter menus easy. Instead of having to create a button for every chapter, name it, and make the connection, DVD Studio Pro does it all in one move. Once you have your chapters set and named you only need to drag the track icon from the outline tab to the button that is to represent chapters. Once you hold the track icon over the button, a pop up menu will appear, you will want to choose the Create Chapter Index, Make Connections option.

Continue reading "Creating Chapter Menus in DVD Studio Pro" »

Posted at 11:59 PM |

By encoding with Compressor when you export from Final Cut Pro you can receive a higher quality encode than if you allow DVD Studio Pro to do the encoding. There are multiple settings in Compressor, and you can manipulate them to get the best possible encode.

To export through Compressor all you need to do is highlight the sequence in Final Cut Pro that you want to export, select the File menu, drag down to Export, select Using Copressor.

Continue reading "Increase Encode Quality for DVD Studio Pro using Compressor" »

Posted at 8:30 PM |

Using an Image mask in Motion is an easy way to add images into text or graphics. Import an image and some text, it doesn't matter which is on top. Select the image then under the object menu select the Add Image Mask option.

Continue reading "Adding Images Into Text in Motion" »

Posted at 4:14 PM |

Graphics or pictures often come in with a white background that you need to get rid of. With Motion you can get rid of a background in two clicks. Simply highlight the layer you need to remove the background from, click the Add Filters icon, drag down to keying, and click on the Luma Key option. If the image you are keying around appears faded, you simply need to adjust the threshold in the dashboard.

Continue reading "Keying out backgrounds in Motion" »

Posted at 5:51 PM |

To create buttons to use in DVD Studio Pro with Photoshop, you don't have to do anything special. Anything you create in Photoshop can be used as a button in DVD Studio Pro by simply dragging it into the project window and waiting for the popup menu to appear, then selecting the create button option.

Continue reading "Creating DVD Studio Pro buttons in Photoshop" »

Posted at 7:08 PM |

Customized menus in DVD Studio Pro are extremely easy. You can produce them with as little as two jpeg images. Simply prepare your background image in Photoshop, or export a still image from Final Cut Pro, and then create a overlay for your background. They will look like this:

Continue reading "DVD Studio Pro Customized Menus" »

Posted at 1:10 PM |

If you are using audio derived from different sources within your project, you must make sure that all of those files have a sample rate of DV quality such as 48khz. One way to make sure your sample rates are uniform is to use iTunes to convert your files to higher quality 48k DV files before you import them into Final Cut Pro.

Usually, when you insert a CD, iTunes will automatically launch, but if for some reason it doesn't, click on your iTunes icon to open it.

- In the iTunes menu bar, select preferences and a window opens.

- Click on the Importing icon in the top row of the menu bar to access importing options.

- click the Import Using menu and select AIFF encoder.

- In the settings pop up menu, choose the Custom option to access the AIFF encoder window.

- Select the option for 48khz as the desired sample rate in the drop down window. Set the sample size to 16 bit and the channels to stereo, then click ok.

- Click the Advanced icon in the preferences window.

- Within the iTunes Music Folder Location, create a new music folder for convereted files.

- In the song list window, click on the CD icon, which will in turn open up the cd contents > select the tracks you wish to import by checking the box next to it and deselecting the other boxes > click the import button.

The files will be saved in the folder that you created with the parameters that you have specified.

Posted at 11:51 AM |

Lets say you are producing a trade show video, that you want to be on a continuous loop, it is easy to do with DVD Studio Pro. After you have imported both your audio and video, you simply drag them into your graphical view and release them. If there is an empty track available, you can drop them into it, if not just let go of the audio and video into empty space in the graphical view, and DVD Studio Pro will create a track for you. Now you will need to right click over the track and set the track to be the first play.

Next you go into the inspector to set the track up to loop to itself. Opening the end jump menu, you will set the track up to end jump back to itself. This will cause the track to continually loop from it's end to it's beginning.

Posted at 9:54 AM |

Sometimes the presets for project formats in Motion do not include one for Anamorphic DV (16:9) .If there is not an option for an Anamorphic DV project when opening Motion, you need to choose the custom setting.

Under Pixel Aspect Ratio, select NTSC D1/DV Anamorphic, and then OK. Also consider setting your field order to none, which will reduce he fuzzy edges in on your graphics.

When your project opens if it does not look 16:9, you will need to open the view menu, and select correct for aspect ratio.

To create a preset for NTSC D1/DV Anamorphic simply go to the Motion/Preferences, and select presets. Clicking the + button will bring up a window that will allow you to create a new project preset. Simply edit the information and click OK. The next time you open Motion your new preset will be available to you.

Genius DV offers comprehensive training in Motion, as well as all of the Final Cut Studio applications. For more information click here.

Posted at 10:36 AM |

At first glance, SoundtrackPro may just seem like a cool way to create looped based music, but recently, GeniusDV has introduced Soundtrack Pro to Law Enforcement Agencies as a viable way to help their forensics department clean up audio that may be crucial to an investigation. That's right, SoundtrackPro can be used for more than just creating techno music and gunshots, but that's not all. Soundtrack Pro gives you the ability to time stretch audio files, allowing you to lengthen the duration of an audio project if it comes in just under the duration that it needs to be. This function works well if your project is coming in just short of the duration. Keep in Mind that if your project contains audio and if you have to perform a substantial stretch to make your project fit, you will be sacfrificing audio quality by way of tempo displacement and distortion. This effect can be applied to an entire audio project or just a section of it. In this excerise, we will only be applying the effect to a portion of a project. Use this function sparingly!

performing a time stretch

1 Open an audio project into Soundtrack Pro.

2 Select the Time Stretch Tool. This tool is located just above the time display area towards the upper left hand corner of the interface. You can also press the T key on your keyboard to activate it

3 Click and drag across the waveform representation of your project in a horizontal motion. You will see that a selection area that has been highlighted in the project area.

4 With the Time Stretch Tool active, drag the edge of the section that is highlighted. Dragging the edge to the right increases the duration of your project making the contents play back slower and dragging inward, to the left, will making the selection area shorter, decreasing the length of your program and allowing for a faster play back.

Use your newly discovered power wisely!

Posted at 10:50 AM |

A great way to achieve authenticity and to really make an effect your own lies in the ability to manipulate the timing of effects! The presets are a quick way to add life to your text but, you are by no means restricted to using canned effects in Live Type. You don't have to settle for a movement that's too fast, or an effect that starts just a hair before its cue or that ends a beat too early. Get the effect that you want and need by getting comfortable changing parameters of premade effects!

To Adjust the Timing of Effects

1 After applying a text preset to a system font, select the effect you want to manipulate in the timeline or simply select the text you typed while using a Live Font in the timeline.

2 Go to the Inspector and click on the Timining tab and you will see the present effects parameters for that given effect.

Don't be afraid to get in here and play around. You may even impress yourself!

Posted at 11:23 AM |

The particle emitter in Motion can create some mind blowing imagery, and applying each of your emitted objects a distinct movement all of its own can really hold the viwer's attention. For example, if you have created an explosion of animated leaf objects at mid-screen in your project, you can create a random seed to make the movement of the leaves seem more realistic.

Tip
Whithin the Emitter tab of the Inspector, click on the Generate tab in the Random Seed column to change the timing of the animation of the leaves. The motion of the animated leaves should now be offset. Keep tweaking to get the feel you want.

Posted at 4:40 PM |

When performing complex animations during keyframing, sometimes the keyframes you set can be obscured by others due to their proximity. If this should happen to you while in LiveType simply:

1 Click on the keyframe that is obscuring the view of the other.

2 Go to Mark > Next or Previous Keyframe to get to the hidden keyframe for manipulation.

Posted at 2:45 PM |

When troubleshooting issues that are caused by unusable preference files in Final Cut Pro 5, one thing that you can try is restoring FCP to the default settings. You can attain the default settings by deleting the FCP preference files, therefore resetting configurations such as scratch disk specifications, capture settings, window layouts, and so forth.

Deleting the Final Cut Pro 5 preference files:

1. Close FCP, if it is open.

2. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.

3. From the Go menu, choose Go to Folder

4. Type: ~/Library/Preferences/ (The tilde"~" refers to your home directory

5. Choose Go.

6. Drag the file named "com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist" to the Trash.

7. Double-click the folder named"Final Cut Pro 5.1 Preferences" to the Trash.

8. Drag the file named "Final Cut Pro 5.) Preferences" to the Trash

9. Drag the file named " Final Cut Pro POA Cache" to the Trash

10. Open FCP and it should be reverted back to it's installed defaults!

Posted at 9:12 AM |

If you are a Final Cut Studio or Avid Studio user, you will have access to the Boris FX title tool. This title tool allows you to create 3D text. In Final Cut Pro, it is called Title 3D. For Avid Users, you'll need to use the Avid FX plugin that is located in your effects palette.

So where are the 3D text features of this program? At first glance, it doesn't appear there are any 3D extrusion features build into the software. The trick is to create a solid shadow.

For Final Cut Pro users navigate to the generators menu and select Boris - Title 3D.

Then click on the controls tab within the 'Viewer Window' and click on the 'Click for Options' box. I also reccomend clicking on the deinterlace filter box. This will help with the quality of your text when it is rendered out.

Title 'Title 3D' box should now open, and you can design your title. The trick is to add a 'Solid Shadow' which will make your highlighted text appear as 3D.

You will find additional controls within the Title 3D window for the opacity, angle, and highlight color of the extrusion.

If you are interested in learning more about the Title 3D title tool or other amazing tips and tricks, consider taking a Final Cut Pro training course.

Posted at 3:43 PM |

A quick way to animate an object in your Motion project is to record the changes that you make to the parameters of the object during playback. You can also set how the keyframes are to be recorded by going into the recording options by navigating to Mark > Recording Options in the Motion main menu. Your choices are Reduced and Peaks Only. The Reduced option will create a more simple curve by adding fewer keyframes and the Peaks Only option will only record keyframes for large parameter shifts such as a sharp change in direction.

Recording Keyframes During Playback

1 After you have added the object that you want to animate to your project. You can choose one of the following options:

- Press A on the keyboard

- Click the Record button located in the Transport Controls of the Canvas Window.

- Go to Mark > Record Animation.

2 Click the Play button in the Transport Controls.

3 Move the object on Canvas. You will now see that with each movement has been recorded according to your settings in the the Recording Options dialog.

4 Press the stop button

5 Click the record button or press A to stop recording and review the animation you have just created.

You can manipulate the animation by clicking and dragging the control points in the motion path or by going into the Keyframe editor located in the Timing Pane.

Posted at 11:42 AM |

It is inevitable that after you have finished creating a motion path in Final Cut Pro you will need to go back and make adjustments to keyframes, or even remove some of them. Adjusting a keyframe's position is as simple as using the selection tool to drag them around. Here are a couple of ways to delete keyframes:

- Control-click (with a one button mouse) a keyframe or Right-click (with a two button mouse) a keyframe, then choose delete from the pop-up menu. Or....

- Select the pen tool, then Option-click a keyframe to delete it from the motion path.

Posted at 10:31 AM |

Time remapping, clips being played at variable speeds within a sequence, has become commonplace in television and film. Just think about it, every commercial promoting a car, countless music videos, In the post Matrix world what was once unique and curiously sleek has become a nut and bolt in every editor's tool box. But, I must admit, I still like it!

Time remapping gives you the ability to create smooth shifts between various speeds such as a punch being thrown at fast speed in a Steven Chow film and the impact being slowed down to emphasize the overwhelming force at which it was thrown. Skip the external compositor, because you can do it right within your edited sequences in Final Cut Pro.

These speed changes can be created in Four areas of the Final Cut Pro workspace; The Timeline, Motion Bar, Time Graph, and the Motion tab in the Viewer.

Tips

- Within the Timeline you can manipulate speed changes by utilizing theTime remap tool which will create a clip outline indicating which frame is being remapped to a specific time.

- On the Motion Bar, keyframes will appear that will allow for their selection and the ability to move forwards and backwards of the keyframes therefore, manipulating speed.

- The Time Graph allows you to add additional key frames, tweak, and to remove them while in the Keyframe editor in the timeline.

- The Motion Tab In The Viewer will display your speed manipulations for a clip via the time remap setting.

Posted at 10:20 AM |

Did you know that Final Cut Pro sometimes misinterprets alpha channel data by expecting you to have a straight channel when you could possibly have a premultiplied alpha? If you have been unahppy with the alpha channel you get when you put a Motion project into a FCP timeline, you may want to start by investigating here:

1 Choose the imported Motion project file in your browser.

2 Select Modify>Alpha Type Black.

Posted at 9:40 AM |

After performing the editing for a student run news program for a couple of years in college, one thing was very evident to me, correcting audio problems can be a beast!. I couldn't tell you how many times I received distorted video on a news segment that would have otherwise been very good. Here is just something to think of the next time you are contemplating audio in FCP.

If you are capturing from a pre-mixed master tape, then all of the audio should have already been adjusted to levels that coincide with the tone media at the beginning of the tape. When you use the gain slider in FCP's floating audio meter to level your audio in accordance to the reference tone, you should be as right as rain.

If you have received a tape directly from the field, even if it has bars and tone at the beginning of it, it is very likely that the audio on that tape will vary from shot to shot. In this case you would also need the Gain Slider to prevent your audio from being hot. Don't be afraid to adjust from clip to clip to tame wild audio.

Posted at 10:15 AM |

LiveType allows you to bring dramatic effect to your text by allowing you to insert images and even video clips inside of them.

1 Click on the track that contains the text that you want to fill with an image.

2 Go to the Attributes tab, click it, then click on the Matte Pane.

3 Under Matte to, select the choice for Movie or Image, then browse to the clip or image you want to use, then click ok. Your selection can now be seen inside of the text.

Posted at 10:15 AM |

24 audio items can be attached to a single video item in the timeline in Final Cut Pro or exist in a merged clip. With this being true, there are also some very complex sync relationships that can occur if you slip multiple audio items in relation to a given clip.

Three Ways To Get A Clip Back Into Sync:

- Move the clip back into sync by changing its location within the sequence.

- Slip the item back into sync (the location stays the same, but the portion of the item that is used is changed by slide-trimming.

- Mark the entire clip (even all out of sync items) as being in sync, therefore redefining the clips sync relationship.

It is not by accident that we have talked about audio on several occasions. The next time you go to a film festival take note on how many features have sound issues. Of the myriad of things that need to come together when you embark on such an adventure, quality sound can truly be a beast!

Posted at 1:39 PM |

You have painstakingly created your short film and have authored a masterful DVD on which to present it, so you think! Now its time to make sure the functionality of the DVD works the way you have envisioned in order to achieve the desired response from your target audience, WOW!

After you have built your project and have created a VIDEO_TS folder, you can test your project on Apples DVD Player which will allow you to preview your project using the actual compiled files.

Emulating Your Project:

1 Open DVD Player

2 Chose File > Open VIDEO_TS Folder, find the VIDEO_TS folder, then click Choose.

3 Select the play option on the Controller and your project will start playing. If your project contains subtitles, you must click the Subtitle button on the Controller to see them.

Posted at 10:35 AM |

If you are tackling a huge project and authoring several DVDs to form a set, you can save yourself a little time by using item descriptions across several projects to create similar menus. Item descriptions are text files that list all of the properties of an element and can be read by using Text Edit.

How To Save An Item Description

1 Designate the item that you wish to save a description of.

2 Select File > Export > Item Description.

3 Name the file, then select the location where you wish to save the description. The file is then saved in that location.

Loading a Description

1 Select File > Import > Item Description.

2 Find the file, then choose import.

Remember, all of the assets associated with this description must also be present when loading this file into a project. If the assets are not present, you will receive an error message.

Post your questions about Avid and Final Cut Studio right here!

Posted at 9:15 AM |

Located within the timeline pane, the keyframe editor allows you to see the values, placement and changes you make to keyframes, therefore creating an ideal environment for modification.

Displaying Curves For Animated Parameters:

1 Select the animated layer or object.

2 Within the Keyframe Editor, choose Show pop-up menu, then choose Animated.

Modifying A Keyframe:

1 Choose the keyframe on the curve you wish to modify.

2 Drag either up or down along the Y axis to change the value of the keyframe or drag left to right along the X axis to change its position in time.

Check out this unique training opportunity for Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and Motion!

Posted at 10:00 AM |

Whenever you select an object or an effect within your Motion project, the dashboard for that object or effect will appear by default to let you manipulate that element. The dashboard is like a floating dialog box that provides you a convenient way to modify layers as well as objects and effects. Different controls will appear depending on the element that you have chosen (Opacity, Blend Mode, Zoom, etc.).

While the dashboard contains the most commonly used controls for elements, the inspector window contains every parameter that can effect an object or layer. The inspector window can transform, change color, adjust footage properties and filters, and create keyframes as well.

The Dashboard and the Inspector window will allow you to put the finishing touch on some very impressive graphics and animations.

Posted at 3:15 PM |

The Real-Time Effects (RT) option in the RT pop-up menu of the timeline allows you to adjust the playback quality of real-time effects in Final Cut Pro.

These options allow you to determine which is more important to you, wether it be visual playback quality or the abundance of effects that can be played back in real time.

If you should choose Unrestricted real-time playback, you will maximize the number of effects that you can play back in real time but you also increase the likelihood that your sequence will drop frames during playback. If it is more important to you to view your sequence back at the highest quality, with no drop frames, then you should deselect the Unlimited RT option and select the High playback option.

Posted at 4:46 PM |

TYPE OF INPUT SUPPORTED

Before capturing media into Final Cut Pro, you need to assemble all of your source videotapes. Videotapes can consist of a variety of formats.

To avoid any confusion, Final Cut Pro makes it easy to configure the settings for your video format. Navigate to the Final Cut Pro Menu - Easy Setup.

You will see common settings for DV, HDV and HD formats. *If you don't see your format listed, click on the 'Show All' button. This will list all the supported formats that you can bring into Final Cut Pro.

This tutorial assumes you will be capturing into Final Cut Pro via a firewire cable. All of the steps are exactly the same, regardless of what format of videotape you have. However, you need to be aware that if you are capturing material that is not of DV format, an additional capture card will be needed in your computer.

This tutorial also assumes that you will be controlling your camera (in terms of shuttling through tape) through a firewire cable connection. Many consumer and professional decks do not include firewire as a controllable option. Final Cut Pro does support RS 422 controllable tape machines. To use this option, you will need to purchase a USB to serial adapter, and also a serial to RS 422 cable.

For a list of common capture cards, visit Apple's web site at www.FinalCutPro.com.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro Capturing" »

Posted at 3:15 PM |

An alpha matte defines areas of the screen to be dropped out from the visible picture. In fact, when you design a any title within Final Cut Pro it is treated as an alpha matte. The title is automatically keyed over a video image below it.

This characteristic of titles that allow you to automatically see a video image underneath them is referred to an image having an alpha channel.

The alpha channel represents the transparent area of the image. The matte represents the solid part of the image.

A great feature of Final Cut Pro is the ability to change what is placed into the matte. This is done by creating a new video track and placing a clip directly above a title. By changing the composite mode of the new clip, you can fill your text with a video image.

When you are finished with this exercise you should have something that looks similar to this.

The 'Jamaica' title is filled with the water from the pool. The track layout in the timeline window is shown below.

Continue reading "Alpha Mattes In Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 11:05 AM |

Have you become acquainted with this alert message while in Soundtrack Pro:

Disk Limit: Soundtrack Pro is dropping audio because you computer's hard disk cannot deliver all of the audio in time. Try removing long files or quitting applications.

This error message occurs when you have exceeded your system disk's ability to deliver in real time on account of the amount of data to be streamed from your drive. Keep these suggestions in mind if you encounter such an alert.

1 Remember, if you have multiple programs running simultaneously you are taking away from the pool of bandwith that can be available to Soundtrack Pro, so you may want to shut down other programs.

2 Six programs at 10 minutes each is easier on your hard drive than one large 60 minute clip, so remember to break it up if possible.

3 If you are using a laptop, it could help to have a faster external drive as opposed to using the internal drive.

Real time performance is not crucial to the act of exporting, so if you are receiving this message you can still kick out mixes, but audio will still be dropped. Choose Soundtrack Pro > Preferences > and choose the General Tab to access the Show Alerts menu and uncheck the overload message alert. Remember, if you're cranking past your disk's capabilities, turning off this alert does not change the fact that you will have dropped audio.

Learn to use the power of Apple's Final Cut Studio through this Unique Training Experience!

Posted at 11:55 AM |

Managing Media in Final Cut Pro can be a tricky process. When managing media it comes down to two primary issues. The first issue is the amount of storage required for digital video, and the second issue revolves around the physical number of files. It can be much easier to deal with one large file, than thousands of small files.

Continue reading "Managing Media in File Cut Pro" »

Posted at 7:43 AM |

Creating the 'Pleasantville Effect' in Final Cut Pro
If you are new to Final Cut Pro, and were wondering how in the world to create the 'Pleasantville Effect', here is a quick tutorial on how it is done.

Continue reading "Pleasantville Effect for Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 11:18 PM |

These days, understanding Adobe Photoshop is almost a necessity when it comes to editing on a non-linear editing system. Even with all the new title tools available, there are still many practical effects that may require Photoshop. One practical and very easy effect to create is a glass bug. You see them all the time in the lower right corner of the screen. It's a great way to add your companies signature or logo but without interfering with the visual piece since it is transparent. Here are the steps.

Continue reading "Photoshop for Video Creating Glass Bug" »

Posted at 2:02 PM |

If you are experiencing a sync problem with Final Cut Pro, 90 percent of the time it is because you are mixing audio sample rates, and Final Cut Pro is having a difficult time in resolving them to match.

First, verify that every clip within your browser window is exactly 48Khz.

If you see any sample rates that are not 48Khz, and your sequence is a DV-NTSC 48Khz sequence, then your sequence will may drift out of sync as Final Cut Pro tries to resolve different sample rates.

A real warning sign, is if you see a sample rate that is very close to 48,000 like 47.998, or 48.086. Since these are not standard DV sample rates, Final Cut Pro encountered a problem while recording the audio. You will need to re-record and re-edit this clips to your sequence.

If you are using Final Cut Pro 3.0, you will deffinately want to convert all of your audio CD's or MP3's to 48Khz. DO NOT leave them as 44.1Khz files. You can use iTunes of QuickTime Pro to convert your audio files to 48Khz before using them in Final Cut Pro.

The worse culprit is mp3 files that have really strange sample rates like 256,000 or 128,000. These will deffinately cause problems, especially if you are using Final Cut Pro 3.0

One of the new features in Final Cut Pro 4.0 is the support of Audio Units, but I still continue to convert all of my audio files to 48Khz. Using Audio units supposedly eliminates the need to convert sample rates, but I am still suspicous of mixing them.

One other common problem I have discovered, is that on some older G4 models. 1Ghz machines and below had two different firewire ports that talk to the same controller. This means if you have your camera or deck hooked up to one port, and your firewire drive hooked up to the other port, there can be a conflict. To fix this, loop all of your firewire devices so you are only using one firewire port.

Apparantly, this was fixed in the G4 1.25 and later models.

Finally, I have recently come across users that have upgraded to Panther 10.3.1 using Final Cut Pro 4.1.1 reporting that their sequences are drifting out of sync. This may be a temporary incompatibility issue, or just a fluke. For the time being I reccomend using Final Cut Pro 4.1.1 with OS X 10.2.8

Posted at 10:11 PM |

Immediately after Final Cut Pro is launched a splash screen will appear showing the licensing information, and the current version of software that you are running.

The very first time Final Cut Pro is launched, a 'choose setup' dialogue box will appear. This box will only appear once for each individual MAC OS X user. However, the setup parameters in Final Cut Pro can always be changed afterwards.

For users in North America, the most common setup is DV-NTSC. For European users, change the setup to DV-PAL.

The primary scratch disk will be set to the MAC HD, which you can change later. The user mode should be set to standard. This means all of the features in Final Cut Pro will be available to you.

Each time Final Cut Pro is launched it will search to find a firewire compatible device. If no connection is found, a dialogue box will appear.

If you do not plan on capturing immediately, you can click the continue button.

Continue reading "Final Cut Pro Interface Windows" »

Posted at 9:35 AM |

How to play a clip backwards or in reverse using Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Pro allows you to change the speed of a clip directly from the timeline. You can use the speed change function to reverse a clip, by clicking on the (reverse) checkbox.

The process is simple. Control click on the clip segment within the Final Cut Pro sequence and select (speed) for the contextual menu. If you have a two button mouse, you can right click on the clip segment instead of holding down the control key. Using a two button mouse is a good idea, particularly if you are editing on a laptop.

If you wish to play a clip backwards at more than or less than full speed, there are a couple of tricks to make this happen, especially if you already have existing clips in the Final Cut Pro timeline.

First, lock all of your tracks, except for the track that contains the clip you want to slow down. This an important step, because Final Cut Pro will attempt to keep everything in sync and may give you an error 'Unable to complete command. A conflict occurred during a trim operation.'

Second, if you are going to slow a clip down, make sure there are no other clips to the immediate right. It is best to place your clip at the end of the timeline so there is room for it to expand outward. Then you can measure how much room you need for the clips original placement.

Posted at 7:11 PM |

There are many issues that you may run across when working with Final Cut Pro. Here are some reccomended fixes for:

Drop Frames
Corrupted Preferences
Corrupted Media
'Unexpectedly Quit Errors'
Installation Errors

Continue reading "Troubleshooting Final Cut Pro unexpectedly quit errors" »

Posted at 11:31 AM |

The Media Manager allows you to create a copy of your project without media, therefore reducing the transfer time dramatically. With that being said, your fellow remote collaborators also need the same media files on their systems in order to access the projects you send. By using either the copy or recompress options within the Media Manager to make copies of the media files that are needed by your fellow collaborators, you are not actually creating any new media.

Creating an Offline Sequence Within a New Project File:

1 Select a sequence within the Browser.

2 Within the Media Manager select Make Offline.

3 Choose the sequence preset that matches the media on the destination workstation you are sending to.

4 Click OK in the Medial Manager.

5 Choose a name for the new project file, then select OK

6. Within your email, attach the project, or upload via FTP or web server.

Posted at 9:30 AM |

Occasionally, you will have to manually change the Alpha-Channel of a clip due to a misintepretation of an Alpha-Channel by FCP upon import of a file. For example, what should be transparent in a clip may be translated as black.

Changing an Imported Clip's Alpha-Channel

1 Within the Browser Window, select a clip then go to Edit > Item Properties >Format.

2 Either control click, if you have a one button mouse, or right click, with a two button mouse, the Alpha row in the menu. Don't click on the word Alpha, but somewhere along further in the row.

3 Choose an Alpha-Channel type from the menu. You can also control click or right click the Reverse Alpha row to reverse the alpha channel. You may have to try one or two settings before you find the right one, but that's part of editing.....Problem Solving!

Posted at 9:45 AM |

Motion truly has some impressive elements that you can manipulate into complex DVD menus within DVD Studio Pro or just to give that extra edge to a pre-made template. If you are placing markers in a Motion 1 or 2 project, then importing it into DVD Studio Pro, you may be surprised to find that your markers have been moved within DVD SP!

Make sure that when you are setting markers within your Motion project that you set them at least a half second apart or DVD Studio Pro will shift them for you during import. It's a DVD thing!

Posted at 9:10 AM |

Rather than searching frame by frame using playback controls or the J, K, L keys in Final Cut Pro, use timecode to move to a specific frame while in the viewer. You would then select which edit tool you wish to use and click the In and Out button to make the change.

Using Timecode To Reset In and Out Points:

1 Choose a clip then proceed to open it in the Viewer.

2 Enter the timecode value were the new in and out points will be in the timecode field just above the timeline area, then press return. OR, you can press Shift-I or Shift-O to move the playhead to the in and out points, then enter the timecode value to move the In or Out point.

3 Choose an edit tool in the tool palette.

4 Press I or O and the canvas and timeline will show the changes.

Posted at 11:45 AM |

Many of the quirks that tend to accumulate after prolonged use of Final Cut Pro can be eliminate by deleting the User Preferences. Check your scratch disk settings after you perform this.

Deleting The User Preferences

1 Launch the Finder Utility and navigate to /Library/Preferences.

2 Delete "com.apple.finalcutpro.plist" from the Preferences folder.

3 Delete the "Final Cut Pro User Data" folder from the preferences folder.

Posted at 9:27 AM |

Have you ever watched a movie where as you are cut to the next scence, there is a white flash. This is a very popular effect used in many Hollywood feature films and it can be acheived by using the Dip To Color video transition.

Using The Dip To Color Transition to Create a Flash of White Between a Cut

1 Place the playhead on the cut in the timeline where you want to perform the Dip To Color Transition.

2 Go to Effects > Video Transitions > Dissolves > Dip To Color Dissolve.

3 You will see that a transition will have been placed where your playhead is located. Double click on the transition in the timeline to access the Tansition Editor.

4 Within the Tranistion Editor, go to the Color Field and click on the sqaure icon representing the default color, black, and choose white from the color menu. Click OK.

Posted at 2:05 PM |

Being able to auto-sync clips can be a very handy feature when you have unlinked video from its audio source.

If you have unlinked video from its audio source in the timeline and somehow moved it out of sync, a red overlay will appear on both clips signifying how many frames by which the two clip are out of sync. If you right click or control click on the red overlay depicted in either the video or audio track, there are two options that can save you alot of trouble: Move Into Sync and Slip Into Sync. If you choose Move Into Sync, the Audio and Video clips will physically re-align themselves to regain sync. If you choose the Slip Into Sync Option, the clips will regain their sync but not physically move back together. This option would be good if you could not afford a shift if the timeline.

Learn the basics of Final Cut Pro Audio here.

Posted at 9:08 AM |

For even the most novice video editor, learning Adobe Photoshop is an absolutely necessity. Whether you're using Final Cut Pro, Avid, Premiere Pro, or Sony Vegas, the skill-set is the same.

For video professionals, we use Photoshop for a variety of tasks. Some frequent tasks include:

-Cutting out a graphics or logos and incorporating into a video production.
-Using Photoshop filters for moving video.
-Designing specialized logo's and titles to be keyed over video.
-Designing mattes or masks for to be used for video.

In this exercise, we'll focus on the basic task of cutting out a logo from someone’s business card to be used as a keyed element in a video project.

Continue reading "Photoshop for Video" »

Posted at 2:18 PM |

Using Final Cut Pro Media Manager to delete unused media can be a tricky process. The media manager within Final Cut Pro is an extremely powerful tool. It can also be very confusing if you have not used it before. This tutorial will focus on a common technique which can be used to delete unused media from a large clip.

Here is a special extended tutorial that will walk you through a common scenerio of deleting media that you do not need from a 'Long Clip'.

Continue reading "Using Media Manager in Final Cut Pro" »

Posted at 1:54 PM |

You can apply a mirror image effect to clips in Final Cut Pro simply by going to the Effects tab in the Browser Window > Going to the Perspective Folder and choosing the Mirror option. Double click on the clip in the sequence that you want to add the effect to in order to load it into the Viewer Window. Drag the Mirror Filter to the image in the Viewer Window and you will immediately see the effect applied to your clip. To manipulate the Mirror Filter, click on the Filter Tab in the Viewer Window and you will be able to see the changes you make to the image inside of the Canvas Window as long as the position indicator is parked over the clip in the timeline.

See how to paste clip attributes in Final Cut Pro!

Posted at 9:22 AM |

If you are working with multiple audio tracks within a Final Cut Pro sequence, you can solo an individual audio track without having to turn off all the other tracks within a FCP sequence.

In the lower left corner of the Final Cut Pro timeline, click on the small speaker icon. This will open a hidden palette where you can solo a track, or a series of tracks. To solo a track, click on a pair of headphones.

Posted at 10:21 PM |

After Effects 7.0 gives you a great new way to add a keyframe. In the past is was always confusion on how to add a keyframe at any random point in the timeline. Well, After Effects 7.0 has a great fix for this. It is called add or remove keyframe at current time. This button is located next to the arrows on your keyframe navigators in the timeline. Just click the diamond and a keyframe will be added or if you are on a current keyframe that keyframe will be deleted. This is a new great way to add keyframes easily and quickly without hassle

Posted at 2:30 PM |

If you do not have a preview monitor on which to preview your work, you can use one of your computer monitors to see a full screen preview.

1 Simply go to View > Video Playback > Digital Cinema Desktop Preview-Full Screen.

2 Go to View > External Video > All Frames so that FCP knows to send the information found in your project frame by frame to the external monitor.

May I point out that you may already posses the hardware to preview to an external monitor. Do you have an inexpensive Mini-DV camera with firewire and and S-Video ports? I'm talking about the type of Mini-DV camera that you would commonly take on a vacation. Do you have a television set with an S-Video in? If you do, then you're in luck!

1 Run the firewire cable from your computer to the Mini-DV Camera.

2 Run an S-Video Cable from the Mini-DV camera to the television set. Make sure your camera is in VTR mode and not in Camera mode.

3 Go to View > External Video > All Frames

4 Go to View > Video Playback > Apple Firewire NTSC (720x480).

Your audio source will have to be connected to the Mini-DV Camera for you to be able to monitor the audio. Now, you have a relatively inexpensive VTR!

Posted at 10:24 AM |

Here are some training tutorials on some of the basics of Final Cut Pro. GeniusDV also offers intensive hands-on training courses for those looking to learn more about Final Cut Pro.

Posted at 8:21 PM |

The Final Cut Pro editing keyboard is a fanastic way to familiarize yourself with the Final Cut Pro Editing software. These keys are color coded based an similar functions within the Final Cut Pro editing software.

Durability
These are real authentic tactile keys that are molded to replace the standard Apple Pro keyboard. Unlike shortcut-stickers, these keys will not wear out.

Portability
The Final Cut Pro keyboard hooks up via a USB connection. If you are a freelancer, you can carry the keyboard with you to those facilities that do not have a Final Cut Pro keyboard.

Add a Professional Look to your Studio
Add a professional look to your studio by including the Final Cut Pro editing keyboard as part of its profile.

Great for Educators
This keyboard is also ideal for educators that are trying to teach students the core keyboard shortcuts.

Posted at 6:12 PM |

TROUBLESHOOTING FINAL CUT PRO PROBLEMS by Larry Jordan. This article was first published at http://www.lafcpug.org/, March 8, 2004. Final Cut is a reliable, high-performance editing system. However, there are things you can do to both fix and prevent problems. This article focuses on tips to keep your hardware, operating system and project files up, running and optimized. (If I've left out something you feel is important, let me know so I can update the article.)There isn't enough space to provide the "why" behind all these recommendations. Where possible, links are provided so you can read more about it.This article is divided into the following sections:

Regular maintenance
Simple things to check
Simple ways to prevent problems
Optimizing your system preferences
More advanced ways you can prevent problems
Upgrades
Helpful repair utilities

Continue reading "Troubleshooting Final Cut Pro - Larry Jordan" »

Posted at 4:14 PM |

computer and ntsc monitor not in sync in final cut pro
Why is the external NTSC monitor not in sync with the Final Cut Pro sequence?
When you output from Final Cut Pro (using the View menu - all frames) you are sending your final sequence out through the firewire port. Most users tend to monitor their audio from the audio speaker on the back of the Macintosh. Converting the data stream from the firewire port to NSTC video requires some processing time. Therefore, you will notice a delay between your NSTC monitor and the audio monitoring from Macintosh. If you monitor your audio strictly from the firewire connection, then you will not notice a delay.

dv field dominance
What field in dominant when using DV video?
DV video is always even field first or (even field dominant).

final cut express keyframes
How do you add keyframes when using Final Cut Express, and where is the keyframer timeline?
Final Cut Express does not have the traditional keyframer that is present in Final Cut Pro. However, you can still manually add kefyrames by using (apple + k) when in the (image + wireframe mode within the viewer window). Only problem is, you will not be able to see where the actual keyframes are. You can still jump between them by using shift + k to move forward or option + k to move backward to each keyframe.

delete track final cut pro
How do I delete a track in Final Cut Pro?
To delete a track within Final Cut Pro, simply control click on any track and select (delete track).

final cut pro beeping capture beeping audio
Why does Final Cut Pro have beeping audio each time I play the sequence?
There are a couple reasons for this. The most common reason is because you have more than 1 audio filter applied to a segment. In Final Cut Pro 3.0 just about any audio filter will cause your sequence to beep until it has been rendered.

Posted at 9:36 PM |