Results tagged “Final Cut Pro” from Final Cut Studio, Avid, Adobe, and Video Streaming

Final Cut Assistant is a freeware program available from Apple to help you make the most out of your Final Cut Pro system.  All the little annoying things you have to mess with in Final Cut Pro are all put together in a nice little package for you.  Functions included are listed here.





New Empty Project lets you avoid Untitled project files and unnamed sequences in your projects.  Use it everytime you start a project to name it.

Reset Final Cut Pro is like trashing your preferences.  Reset gets your user preferences back to their original state.

Restore from Backup allows you to choose from any of the available earlier versions of your User Settings.

The "Backup" that you are restoring is created when you "Save User Settings..." The Backup contains Window, Keyboard, Column, & Button Bar Layouts, as well as Favorites and User Preferences. This is much easier than saving each of these settings individually. The Backup is a .zip file located @ User/Backup/com.apple.FinalCutPro. The file name can be changed to a user's name for example. On a system where multiple editors use the the same OS user, this is a great way to maintain multiple User Settings. Personally I intend on coping the zip file to my iDisc so I always have access to my User settings.

 

Back Up Now backs up your User Settings

Deactivate Final Cut Studio allows you to deactivate it in order to move it onto another computer.  It removes licensing information without actually uninstalling Final Cut Studio.

Configure OS X for Final Cut Pro:  This is huge; sets your screen saver to never, and sets the hard disks to sleep never

The rest of the functions within the menu are pretty self-explanatory.  Even though all of these functions are available thru the Finder, it's nice to have them all wrapped up in a bow for you.

Once downloaded, Final Cut Assistant has it's own little icon in the Menu Bar for activation.



Final Cut Assistant is quite effective and will no doubt become part of your everyday editing process.

When you are not having sound coming out of your Final Cut system it can be a number of things. Lack of audio can too often be something that makes you say "Duh". Like  Is the volume muted? Or are there a pair of headphones plugged into the system?  I t could also be that there is no audio associated to a clip. 

Here are two troubleshooting techniques:

1. Do you see the audio meters moving when the clip plays?

2. Load a clip into the Viewer window.  Click on the audio tab at the top of the Viewer window.   Do you see an audio waveform?

 If you answered "no" to either of the last two questions, you're not hearing any audio, because there isn't any.

Apple just released the new iMac's and they are incredible. For the first time you can get into a Quad core Final Cut system for under $3000. That's right the iMac line now has a quad core machine. If that's not enough the top end iMac now has a 27 inch screen with 2560 by 1440 resolution, and a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card.

At GeniusDV we use iMac's in our classroom for our Final Cut Studio training. Aside from some limitations to what you can hook up to an iMac in terms of peripherals, the iMac's make for great Final Cut systems. I have personally edited  numerous jobs on an iMac, and find them to be quite satisfactory.

I always tell students that unless you need to have MacPro for whatever reason, consider getting both a MacBook Pro, and an iMac. I find that you can get so much accomplished having two systems. Personally I can't imagine not having a MacBook Pro, because I travel so much, and do plenty of editing at 30,000 feet. With this new iMac I can now have a powerful desktop system as the primary Final Cut Studio editing system, and the MacBook Pro system too, for thousands less than a high end MacPro system.

Adding a Timer overtop of your video is actually very easy. Using the Too Much Too Soon free plugins, you can create a timer that counts either up or down, and can move in real time, slow motion or fast motion. After installing these plugins, you will be able to access it from the Video Generators. Which will load it into the Viewer, where you can set the parameters.

Using Live Fonts in Motion or LiveType is a popular way to create professional titles with Final Cut Studio. If you have a particular Live Font you like to use often, you can save it as a Template in Motion, and it will appear in Final Cut Pro as a Master Template.

Coming up with original and creative ways to transition from one clip to another in Final Cut Pro is always a challenge. Here is an idea that I came up with on a job recently. First create a 14 frame space between the two clips that you are transitioning between, then add a Color Matte into that space. Now Keyframe the color across the 14 frame Color Matte to go from the dominant color of the outgoing clip to the dominant color of the incoming clip. You may want to change the direction of the Hue Direction Control, to get the look you are going for.

Too often, editors assume that 16 by 9 means Hi Def. 16 by 9 is not necessarily Hi Def, it could be DV Anamorphic, which is Standard Def. Thinking of the two aspect ratio in terms of shape is a more sensible approach to understanding the main difference between the two. 16 by 9 is the "Letterbox" or more rectangular shape, and 4 by 3 id the more "traditional" or more square shape.



If you start a project in one aspect ratio, and try to change it to another, it can be a frustrating situation if you don't follow the correct process. The best way is to load a new sequence setting instead of trying to change all of the Sequence settings. Additionally it is often necessary to reset the Distort in the Motion tab.

If you get into a situation where you need to provide both a 16 by 9 and a 4 by 3 version of the same project, it will be best to produce in the footage's native aspect ratio, and then drag the produced sequence into an empty sequence of the other aspect ratio. For example if you produced a HD sequence, and needed a 4 by 3 SD version, you would drag the HD sequence into an empty 4 by 3 sequence, and allow it to letterbox itself into that sequence.

Understanding the differences in aspect ratios, and how to set up your Sequence's properly is very important. Check out our video tutorial on this topic for step by step instruction, on many of the most important areas of dealing with aspect ratio, as well as using HD media, in a SD Sequence.

In Final Cut Pro adjusting the Anchor Point is both useful and easy to do. The Anchor Point is the point to which Rotation and Scale are based. By changing the Anchor Point you create completely different results than the default.  If you were to move the Anchor Point to the top center of an image, instead of the default center of the image, Rotation and Scale would happen from the top center of the image instead of the center.

Adjusting the Anchor Point is critical if you need to cause a graphic to behave a certain way. For example if you had an image of a tree in Track 1, and an image of a tire swing in Track 2, with the goal of seeing the tire swing rotate from the branch, you would need to set the Anchor Point at the top of the rope form in the tire swing image to create the look that it was swinging from the branch.  By default the Anchor Point would be in the center of the image. You can see below that when the Anchor Point is in the center of the image the rope does not stay attached to the branch.



To adjust the Anchor Point all you need to do is first make sure the Image control is set to Image + Wireframe, then turn on the Distortion tool by pressing the D key, or clicking on it in the Tool Palette, and then drag the Anchor Point from the default position in the center of the Wireframe to the desired position.

To become efficient with Final Cut Pro there is one thing you need to do.  Use keyboard shortcuts. One study showed that using keyboard shortcuts saves you up to eight hours a week. Here are two great ways to condition yourself to use keyboard shortcuts. The first is to use an Editor's Keyboard. These keyboards have the default unmodified commands printed directly on the keys they're assigned to, which encourages you to reach for the keyboard vs clicking on menus to activate a function.

The second and most important way to learn keyboard shortcuts is more psychological than anything. When you get to the point in a menu where you are about to click on a function, STOP, read the keyboard shortcut, click off the menu, and use the keyboard shortcut. By actually performing the keyboard shortcut, you will remember it easier than by just reading the keyboard shortcut next to the menu function, and thinking "I will use it next time". This is a very effective way to condition yourself to use keyboard shortcuts.

Within the Final Cut Pro File Browser, there are 36 columns, and another 36 you can add if you desire. Everyone is always tempted to add the thumbnail column, personally I think it adds too much real estate. Often there are a number of columns you never use and could stand to remove from the default view. You can also rearrange the order of the columns to get the columns set the way that best works for you. Once you come up with a column layout you prefer, control/right click at the top of any column to save it. It is a great practice to save it to your iDisk.

When working in Final Cut Pro, have you ever come across something that looks like this?

Media Offline means if you modify, move, or delete your media files on disk, the clips in your project lose the connection to the media files and they become offline, or unavailable.  An offline clip has a red slash through its icon in the Browser.  In the Timeline, the clip looks black or white with a "Media Offline" message in the Canvas.  In order to be able to see these clips in your project, you need to reconnect the clips to their corresponding media files at their location on the disk.

The Autosave Vault in Final Cut Pro is a folder that the application uses to save backup.  Final Cut Pro saves separate copies of your project to a certain location on your hard drive.  So if the power goes out, and you yourself did not occasionally save your project (by pressing Command+S) you would have to go to the Autosave Vault to find your autosaved copies.  This is the reason you should always leave the Autosave Vault turned on.

Normally the Autosave Vault is located under
 Users > Username > Documents > Final Cut Pro Documents > Auto Save Vault

Final Cut Pro users sometimes forget about this handy little feature; the Voice Over Tool.  The Voice Over Tool lets you record a single audio track directly onto a sequence while you watch it.  It's a great way if you want to provide an Editor's Commentary for a client.  You can use the built-in audio input on your computer, or any compatible USB audio mixer and microphone.  You can also monitor the sequence audio while you record.  A company called Digidesign makes an excellent device called an MBOX that provides professional-style XLR audio inputs.  The box connects to your computer through a USB cable, and you can plug your microphone into the MBOX.  You will have to install drivers for the box, but once you have, your input source settings will automatically appear in the input box.  The hardware and drivers must be connected before opening up Final Cut Pro

It's important to know, when using the Voice Over Tool, that the audio track is saved in the Capture Scratch.  Once you have made the hardware connections, you can find the Voice Over Tool under Tools > Voice Over.  To use the tool, you only have to press the red button to start the recording process.  You will need to set the duration you are recording and the target audio track in the sequence.  To set the Duration, you can set an In & Out point in the timeline.  For DV media, audio should always be set to 48K.  48K audio is an industry standard for DV media.  Therefore, in the Voiceover tool make sure you set your recording to 48K instead of the defaulted 44.1

Some editors like to lay a voice over track first and then edit to it.  This style is fine for some, but it is important to know that you have to have something on the video track in order to use the Voice Over Tool; it will not record on a blank timeline.  It also will not record past the end of a clip or a gap between 2 clips.  In this case just insert a slug on the video track and drag it out for the duration you plan on making your clip.   If you make a mistake in your recording, you can just trim back the track to where your mistake was and you are able to hear the last 5 seconds of your recording.

These days the YouTube Phenomenon has exploded, in my opinion.  Every time I look on my teenager's computer, he's watching something new on YouTube.  How can I get my videos on YouTube, you ask?  Well, let me first point out that the picture quality is less than optimal, especially when most of it looks like it's come from a cell phone.  Plus the fact that your video is going to be recompressed and transcoded into another format altogether.  The most popular codec is MPEG-4.  Let's assume you already have a sequence edited and ready to go.

•   First start out by setting an In & Out point in the timeline if you are only exporting a portion of your sequence; Otherwise, you can export your entire sequence.
•   Next, go to File > Export > Using QuickTime Conversion

•    When the Save window comes up, go to Format, and choose MPEG-4

•   Give your movie a filename, and make sure your extension is labeled as .mp4
•   Also make sure you've selected the correct place you want to save to (Desktop, or an external Hard Drive)
•   Click Save.  Be patient! The conversion process can be slower than average and is dependent on processor speed.  G4 machines are much slower, and newer Intel Power Macs are faster; but regardless, it's worth the wait since the image quality can't be beat for the small filesize

It's also important to know that your compression settings can be tweaked in order to produce a higher quality output.  By selecting the Options button (to the right of the Format selection) you can change the Video, Audio, and Streaming settings.   Although there are many different "recipes" sometimes you just have to experiment with it to get the right one that works for you.

The Tool palette in Final Cut Pro has a few hidden gems that many people don't realize are there.  One in particular is the Hand Tool.  From the Tool Palette in the third from the bottom tool tray you can select the Hand Tool, or turn it on with the H key on the keyboard.

 

What the Hand Tool does is that it allows you to move the canvas around the viewing area of the canvas when it is zoomed in.  If you don't use the Hand Tool when zoomed in you will have to use the zoom sliders individually.  If you try to move the Canvas when the Hand Tool is not turned on, when you try to move the Canvas within the viewing area, you will actually move the top layer if the Image & Wireframe is turned on.  If Image & Wireframe is not on, nothing will happen.

The Hand Tool allows you to move the Timeline back and forth within a sequence, if you have a Mighty Mouse, you can achieve the same function by rolling the scroll wheel left and right.

Do you ever need a still image from a particular frame in your clip?  Creating a freeze frame in Final Cut Pro is actually really easy to do.

Park your playhead over any frame within a sequence and go to Modify > Make Freeze Frame or use the shortcut Shift+N.  This places a freeze frame of the clip into the Viewer window.  Unless you've changed your still/duration freeze frame preferences, you end up with a freeze frame that has 10 seconds of duration marked in the middle of the clip. This duration can be adjusted in either the Viewer or the Timeline, and you can also change the default duration. Now you can click and drag the still into your timeline and it will act the same way as any other image you import.

If you create a still frame and then insert it into the timeline at the exact frame it was created, it will look like the action freezes.  You can then make the clip start again at the next frame so the video will play, pause on a frame for however long, and then continue to play.

You can also export a still image from Final Cut to a stand alone media file.
 

Let's face it, the older we get, the shakier our hands and arms get. If you don't have the luxury of a handheld camera support or stablizer, no worries; just use SmoothCam.

SmoothCam is a filter that intelligently reduces unwanted camera movement from your shots. You can apply the SmoothCam filter directly in the Browser or to clips in the timeline. The SmoothCam filter, like all filters, in Final Cut Pro can be found in both the Effects menu and Effects tab of the Browser. Select the clip in the timeline, then choose Video Filters, Video, SmoothCam.

A great tool that will save you time and headaches is the Ripple tool.  The Ripple Tool is found in the Tool Palette and is also right next to the Roll Tool.  The keyboard shortcut to the Ripple tool is (rr). The Ripple Tool allows you to manipulate edit points within the timeline by allowing you to trim the in or the out of a clip forward or back depending on the media limits.  The ripple tool only allows for the edit of one side of the clip at a time, either the in or the out. The ripple tool automatically trims the clip, while closing the gap.  This saves you from having to delete the cut portion and then close the gap.  Ripple does it all in one step.

If you're like me, and you have alot of HI-8 tapes from the 90's laying around, collecting dust, it's really easy to capture and store that media with Log & Capture in Final Cut. If you are playing the HI-8 tape from a HI-8 camera you will need to run the analog signal through a transcoder of some sort to convert it to a digital signal. Canopus makes a great inexpensive converter. An easy way to accomplish this is by using a Digital8 camera. A Digital8 camera will play the HI-8 tape, and do the conversion automatically. You can also use the same Digital8 camera to convert your digital signal to analog for monitoring,

Once you have a digital signal going into your Mac, you can launch Final Cut Pro.  Go to the File menu and click on Log & Capture; you can also use the shortcut Command 8.  This will open the Capture window.  Be sure to note how much free space you have available and how many minutes you have to capture.

From the Tools Menu you can select Keyboard Layout, and then Customize. The keyboard short cut to customizing the keyboard is option H. To make changes to the keyboard layout, you will need to unlock the keyboard, by clicking on the lock in the lower left corner. Next you will want to select the keyboard combination. At the top of the keyboard layout are the modifier combination's. These tell us what modifier keys need to be depressed with the operative key to cause a result. We see that under the no modifiers tab the only unassigned key is the Y key.