Blog Archives

Multiclips are new with Final Cut 5. This article explains how to use markers within a multiclip.

One of the more useful new goodies in Final Cut 7 is all the new functions that markers now support. Since we are talking about multiclips, I wanted to mention a specific marker feature you may not know about.

As you move into editing HD footage, you will quickly discover that there are many, many, MANY different HD formats. This article describes what you can do when you are forced to work with more than one HD format in a project.

Wendy is searching for a universal HD output format to simplify distribution of her projects. In this article, she discovers that’s easier to say than to do.

Nesting is the process of placing one sequence inside another sequence. There are many reasons why this technique is useful. This article highlights several of them, including ways to fix problems when your nested audio does not appear.

Here’s a quick little shortcut that just appeared in the latest version of Final Cut Pro that is almost impossible to find.

Normalizing is one way to raise the gain of an entire clip without creating any over-modulation. Prior to FCP 6, only Soundtrack Pro could normalize. Now, FCP can, too. Here’s how.

The debatable “nightmare” of offline editing is discussed, with Larry strongly recommending the creation of DVCPROHD 23.98 fps masters to keep the frame rate and image size constant and greatly simplify the final on-line edit.

Understanding the Media Manager is critical to successfully recapturing media, whether for creating the highest quality final master, or for resurrecting an old project. But the Media Manager is not that intuitive. This article walks you through what you need to know for successfully recapturing your project.

Here’s a quick tip on how to create still images so they can display in a PAL 16:9 sequence.

Panning balances audio playback between the left and right speaker to position the audio in space. In this quick technique, learn three ways you can pan multiple clips in Final Cut Pro.

Paste Attributes is an extremely flexible tool that simplifies copying settings from one clip to another. This tutorial shows you how.

With the release of Final Cut Studio 2, Apple created a new high-end codec entitled ProRes. With the release of Final Cut Studio (3) they expanded it from two variations to five. What is ProRes and how do you decide which version to use for your projects? Answering that question is the purpose of this article.

Since its first release, Final Cut Pro has integrated effects with video editing. In this tutorial, I show you how to create a picture-in-picture effect, then make it move using keyframes in the Motion tab.

Creating keys on the computer is easy – and they look great. Where problems occur is when those specials effects are shot with interlaced video and displayed on an interlaced TV set or monitor. This article describes how to avoid suddenly discovering that all your effects look out of focus.

What’s the best way to position text in Final Cut Pro, and why does the position shift as you change justification? This short article explains the why and how.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to position text in Final Cut Pro to get the highest quality. This article explains what you need to know.

Not all video is, um, video. In many cases, we need to integrate PowerPoint or Keynote slides into our video projects. This article explains what you need to know to make this work successfully.

Judging by my email, handling still images is by far the most confusing part of editing video — especially because the computer creates images using square pixels and video uses rectangular pixels, in a variety of shapes. This article explains everything you need to know to create great looking still images for your next video project.

You have probably used Final Cut’s audio mixer to mix your audio tracks in real-time. Did you know you can do the same thing with audio filters? This technique shows you how.

Sometimes, especially when merging clips, you get more audio tracks in a Final Cut Pro timeline than you want. This article describes a couple of different ways you can get rid of them.

It’s happened to all of us. We created an effect that looked great at the time, but now, after a night’s rest, we hate it. Here are two techniques you can use to remove all the filters from selected clips.

Final Cut creates render files for all transitions, effects, and audio mixes. This article explains what you need to know to keep these files under control and recover hard disk space at the end of a project.

I ran into an interesting problem over the weekend that I want to share with you because the solution is more complex than at first blush. Here’s the problem: I was asked to create a video for posting on line. The video had two components: me on camera talking, and screen shots, both of which were different sizes and formats. This article describes the process of creating a single, compressed file composed of multiple format video.

When you are working with multiple tracks of video, trimming clips on several tracks at once is essential. This article shows you how to trim multiple tracks quickly and accurately.

Steve Gagne sent in a question that sparked this tutorial. He was dissolving between chroma-key shots and in the middle of each dissolve, the foreground clip color-shifted to green. He thought this could be fixed using nests, but needed some help in figuring out how.

Confused about what size to create your images? This article explains what image size to use so they import correctly into Final Cut Pro HD.

In this article, various problems with playback are addressed and answered.

As you know, most versions of Final Cut Pro are tied to work best with certain versions of QuickTime. However, as time passes, it gets harder and harder to remember all the different permutations. Here’s a quick link to a website that has the answers.

When I was writing my first book on Final Cut Pro a few years ago, I developed a nine-step editing workflow that answered the question: “What should I be doing right now?” However, over the years, I’ve learned more and Apple has released new software, so this nine-step process has become a bit outdated. Today I want to revisit and update it. Especially for editors that are new, or just getting back into the industry, my hope is that in following these steps, you’ll have a better way to keep track of what you should be doing “right now.”

Video is hard enough to understand. Throw in fields, frames, field order, and interlacing and it’s enough to make you cry. In this article, I explain what you need to know to successfully navigate around the land mines.

By default, Final Cut only displays one field of video – this makes images much easier to view while editing. But, sometimes, you need to see both fields. This very, very short article explains exactly what you need to know.

Over the last few versions, Apple has added new options in Final Cut Pro that make finding clips a lot easier. In this Technique, I want to show you what some of them are. Whether you are looking for clips in the Viewer, the Browser, or the Timeline, here are some very cool, and little known, techniques.

A quick technique to use when you need to find a specific clip.

Here’s a secret technique that allows you to add the default transition to any number of selected clips in the timeline — all at the same time!

The world of HD is awash in incompatible formats. Worse, it has eight different frame rates. And selecting the wrong frame rate in After Effects can make your video uneditable in Final Cut Pro. This article explains what you need to know.

Three of the most powerful keyboard shortcuts in Final Cut Pro are blocked because OS X uses the same three keys differently. This article shows you how to remap the OS shortcuts to release the power in Final Cut.

How do you capture the screens from a game. There are a number of screen capture utilities on the market. This article explains which works best on the Mac for capturing a game.

This tutorial shows you how to create a glowing lantern effect in Final Cut Pro using the Light-rays Glow filter and some video generators. It isn’t fine art, but this will show you how to create some amazing effects, easily, on your own system.Easy, I thought… use Light Rays.

Looking for different ways to add some excitement to your transitions? This article explains a little understood transition in Final Cut that provides some truly exciting, and unusual, transitions.

Gradients are a smooth ramp from one color, or shade of gray, to another. Gradients can be easily created in Final Cut Pro, but the button to do so is very hidden. In this article, I show you how to create a gradient, how to adjust it, and provide some ideas on what you can do with it.

Have you ever wondered what that thin green line means at the top of some of your audio clips? Well, this short article let’s you in on the secret.

Handles are critical for transitions and trimming. In this article, discover what handles are and why they are necessary.

HDV uses rectangular pixels to represent its image. Each pixel is short and fat, which means it only needs 1440 pixels to represent an entire line of HD video. However, the computer (and some other video formats) use square pixels to represent the image. So, when you export from HDV to a QuickTime movie, Final Cut converts the pixels from rectangles to squares.

By definition, all DVDs are only standard-def (SD). If you need high-def, you need to create Blu-ray Discs, which are not the same thing. But what if you want to take HD material and put it on a DVD? You need to convert it. And this article, describes how.

Probably no subject generates more email than questions about the best way to prepare still for both HD and SD. In this article, David Scott provides this step-by-step approach to making your stills look great. (Note: For a video tutorial on this subject, CLICK HERE)

Here is a very slick technique to find audio in your sequence that’s distorting. It won’t fix it — but it will find it; and much, much faster than real-time.

Final Cut Pro allows you to import text into a text clip, which allows you to write your text in one place, then display it in Final Cut. The problem is, that importing doesn’t always work properly. This article describes the problem and provides a solution.

Not everyone needs HD. However, HD can make reframing a lot easier — especially when it is integrated into an SD timeline. This article provides an example of how this is done.

Here’s a technique you can use to create multiple keyframes in multiple clips at the same time with a single mouse click. Then, I’ll show you how to get more control over the keyframes you set.