Blog Archives

Any M1 system is impressive, when measured in performance. What these new 24″ iMacs lack, though, is more ports, more RAM and access to 10 Gb Ethernet. These first M1 iMac systems are targeted at consumers and general computer users. While they can be used for video editing – even serious video editing – be sure you can work with their limitations before ordering a system.

Bryan asked me to explain the media workflow for both master and proxy files from Frame.io’s “Camera 2 Cloud” into Final Cut Pro. It is surprisingly easy – provided you start in the right place.

Here’s how to create a logo or shape in Photoshop, fill it with moving video in Final Cut Pro, then place that over a moving background. This works with video or stills and with any text, logos or shapes you care to use. Plus, it is fun to create – once you know how.

This is a very fast and flexible technique to add multiple images to an Apple Final Cut Pro project, think a Zoom video, where each image is in a shape that can be scaled, animated, positioned and changed quickly and easily.

It’s easy to digitize SD video. But the quality isn’t great, the audio is often noisy and the results, for pros, are disappointing. Here’s a system to digitize older media and maximize audio and video quality.

When it comes to updating the operating system on my main production Mac, I’m a laggard. This is by intent. Still, I finally decided it was time to upgrade. Here’s what I learned in the process.

Audio is a huge part of any project. But, all too often, we ignore the audio to concentrate on the image – only to discover that the emotional heart is missing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows a variety of ways to set audio levels in Final Cut.

Audio is a huge part of any project. But, all too often, we ignore the audio to concentrate on the image – only to discover that the emotional heart is missing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add, modify, fine-tune and automate audio transitions in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Audio is a huge part of any project. But, all too often, we ignore the audio to concentrate on the image – only to discover that the emotional heart is missing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to work with double-system sound – where the audio is recorded separately from the video – in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Audio is a huge part of any project. But, all too often, we ignore the audio to concentrate on the image – only to discover that the emotional heart is missing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to work with auditions in Final Cut Pro to compare audio clips.

Here are almost two dozen hidden interface secrets to Final Cut Pro. How many of these do you know?

Auto-shrink is a new feature in Apple Motion that resizes text to fit within a specific area. This is a very useful tool when creating text graphics for Apple Final Cut Pro.

Apple released Final Cut Pro 10.5.2 this morning. Here’s what’s new.

Trimming clips in Final Cut Pro takes time. Here are some techniques, tips and keyboard shortcuts to help you work faster. (These apply to FCP 10.4 and 10.5.)

In this session, we step deeper into the 3D world of Apple Motion with a look at cameras and sets. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to move a single camera between multiple sets in Motion.

Everything in production was perfect – except someone wore the wrong color. How do you “fix it in post” in Apple Final Cut Pro? Here are two methods: Color masks and the Hue/Saturation Curves. One of them is CLEARLY better!

Many of the titles shipped with Final Cut Pro look, um, suboptimal. Here are some tricks you can use in both Final Cut and Motion, to make your titles look a WHOLE lot better.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial creating an animated reflection in Apple Motion, then publishing it to Final Cut with additional effect controls, to use as a template.

The microphone you use for recording audio is more important to audio quality than any cable, plugin, software or hardware you use to record it. Here’s my thoughts on how to make yourself sound better.

You don’t need to be an incredible artist – or a programmer – to create interesting and useful effects using Apple Motion. In this short video training, Larry Jordan shows how to create a custom transition in Motion for use in Apple Final Cut Pro.

You don’t need to be an incredible artist – or a programmer – to create interesting and useful effects using Apple Motion. In this short video training, Larry Jordan shows how to create a custom effect in Motion for use in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Every editor has their own list of features that they’d like Apple to implement. I’m no different. Over the years, I’ve been struck by five imponderable missing features in Final Cut that, try as I might, I can’t get Apple to explain why they don’t exist. Here’s my list.

I use blurs all the time, to keep a background from becoming too distracting, or improve a green-screen shot, or provide the illusion of depth. Here’s an in-depth tutorial on how to create them, what they look like, how to animate them and examples of their use.

At first blush, many of the backgrounds included with Apple Final Cut Pro are mostly unusable for text. However, when you adjust their settings – and combine them with a few well chosen effects – you’ll discover a wealth of creative options to make your projects more visually interesting. Here are six examples.

Whether you use Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro, exporting and archiving an XML file of a finished project is a good way to preserve it for the future. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial explaining how.

The Comparison Viewer is tricky to find, but very useful once you open it; especially when you are trying to compare the look between multiple shots. Here’s how to use it.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new, hidden, Transform Overscan feature in Apple Final Cut Pro to preserve important details when creating a picture-in-picture effect.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new Comparison Viewer in Apple Final Cut Pro, along with a quick way to modify colors across multiple clips.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create, import, modify and export closed captions in Apple Final Cut Pro.

There have been 12 updates to Apple Final Cut Pro since version 10.4.0 was released in Dec. 2017. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the new ways we can copy libraries, including the ability to create a proxy-only library, in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Here are the twenty most-read tutorials (and links) from Larry Jordan’s website for 2020. These popular tutorials span millions of views and extend back in time to 2012.

Two “Top Ten” lists of tips and techniques from “The Inside Tips” for 2020. The first is by number of views, the second is by reader ratings. These cover Adobe and Apple software, along with codecs, media, visual effects and production.

Here are some text tricks that can help position and display text in eye-catching ways using Apple Final Cut Pro.

“Should you upgrade?” is the wrong question. Here is a better answer on when to upgrade to Big Sur – along with links to help your transition go smoothly.

Most of the time, you want audio to stay perfectly in sync with the video clip it is attached to. But, sometimes, to get the sync perfect, you need to shift the position of the audio. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows you how to move a synced audio clip less than a frame to improve sync using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Emojis are little icons that have taken over the world. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add and modify emojis in a video project using Apple Final Cut Pro.

In Final Cut Pro, there are two audio commands that seem similar, but actually do two version different things: Detach Audio and Break Apart Clip Items. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows you the difference between the two.

Trimming and cropping are basic techniques in any video edit. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the difference between trimming and cropping a video clip using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Apple released minor updates for Final Cut Pro and Compressor, along with stability improvements and a name change.

Here’s a quick illustrated tutorial on how to create, find, access or delete backups for Apple Final Cut Pro X libraries.

After updating to Final Cut Pro X 10.5, many of Luke’s titles and effects became unavailable. Here’s how he fixed the problem.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows why the order in which you place effects on a clip makes a difference in the results in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a clean chroma-key using both good and bad footage… and a carefully placed mask in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the differences between a hold frame and a freeze frame – and how to create both in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Custom overlays in Final Cut Pro X can help with figuring out the best way to frame a scene for multiple aspect ratios, or other compositional tasks. Here’s how to create and apply them.

Apple’s new M1 SoC chips launched to incredible reviews – but the best is still to come, especially for media creators. Read Larry Jordan’s thoughts on this new technology.

As part of a larger update, Apple released new versions of their Pro Video Formats. This free update is recommended for all media editors. Here are the details.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use Apple Compressor to create a custom compression setting for use in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

With the release of macOS Mojave and continuing into Catalina and Big Sur, older media codecs are no longer supported, nor displayed. Here’s a simple technique to find and transcode outdated files using Kyno.

New with the 10.5 update to Apple Final Cut Pro X is the ability to copy libraries, events and projects and, if necessary, create proxy media while all project media is being copied. This simplifies creating projects to share between editors.