All the hype surrounding AI presents software developers making tools for creatives with a dilemma. How do they find the right balance between creating features that improve their tools versus replacing the editor?
One of the tasks editors are increasingly asked to do today is convert a horizontal timeline to vertical to post to social media. Premiere makes this process easy using Auto Reframe. Here’s how this works.
One of the tasks editors are increasingly asked to do today is convert a horizontal timeline to vertical to post to social media. Apple Final Cut makes it easy using Smart Conform. Here’s how.
I spent this last week immersed in editing in DaVinci Resolve Studio 19. Here’s how it compares to Final Cut and Premiere, along with features that drive me nuts.
Larry Jordan and Arie Stavchancky discuss how Dataclay tools connect databases with After Effects to automatically create customized versions of the same A.E. comp. Think of it as “mail merge for After Effects.”
At the recent the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas, I sat down with Blackmagic’s audio gurus to learn more about the Fairlight page. What I learned made a big difference in the sound of my projects. Here are three secrets that I’m now using in every project.
I want to add watermarks to the videos I edit in DaVinci Resolve – but I couldn’t find a “watermark” option. Then, I discovered “Data Burn-in.” Here’s how it works, how to create presets and where to use them.
Apple released the latest version of Final Cut Pro (11.1) last week, with several helpful new features Here are the details on what they are and how they work.
(Even if you don’t read the tutorial, watch the movie at the end.) Here’s how to create an animated flashlight beam that changes shape as you move it around an image, using Apple Motion.
Aiarty Image Matting is an AI-powered image background remover for natural blending with new backgrounds. It excels at matting complex images with hair, fur, semi-transparency, indistinct edges, or low light. Here’s Larry Jordan’s review.
Richard needs to change the size of his images, but is worried about them getting blurry. In this tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to safely scale images in both Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, without losing image quality.
Alain asked how to create an animated flashlight beam in Apple Motion. So I showed him; afterward I realized I was wrong. Here’s both what I showed Alain, then an even better way to create a flashlight effect.
This video showcases how to improve a gray, washed-out image using the color wheels in Final Cut, as well as applying different LUTs.
There are two principle ways to create titles in Premiere: Manually or using After Effects templates. Let’s take a look at both in this illustrated tutorial.
Last week, I demoed how to create a magnetic mask to remove a background. Later, I exported a still frame from FCP to promote the webinar. At which point, the weirdness started. Still frame exports don’t come close to matching Final Cut. Here are the details.
Editing may tell stories, but visual effects make those stories eye-catching. In this short video, Larry Jordan what visual generators are in Final Cut, how to modify them and ways to use them.
Twelve years ago I wrote a detailed article on how to use blend modes in Final Cut Pro. But there is more we can do now and, in this tutorial, I want to showcase four different ways to use blend …
Apple changed how adjustment layers for Final Cut are created in Motion with FCP 11. An adjustment layer in Final Cut Pro is a special clip to which you can apply effects that affect all layers or clips below it. The only problem is that it doesn’t exist. Here’s how to create it.
The Ken Burns effect provides automated image animation and it works for both horizontal and vertical projects. But there are several cases where keyframes work better. Larry Jordan illustrates both in this short video.
Drop zones are areas in a Final Cut Pro effect into which you can insert an image or video. But, there’s a key “gotcha” that you need to know to use them effectively. Larry Jordan explains.
Feathering converts a hard edge to a soft fade. Feathering an image out is easy. Feathering an image in, though, is much harder. Here’s what you need to know, as Larry Jordan explains.
There are four menu options to scale images in Premiere Pro. One is a really bad choice, while two aren’t bad. But one is clearly the best choice when you also want to animate image scaling. Larry Jordan explains.
Here’s a very fast technique that can reduce (or emphasize) wrinkles in an actor’s face – without resorting to plug-ins. Watch as Larry Jordan illustrates how this adjustment works – improving how an actor looks instantly!
The new Magnetic Mask is nothing short of amazing. Whether you want to remove a background, improve a color grade, or apply an effect to only a portion of the clip, the Magnetic mask is your new tool of choice. This video shows how it works.
Here’s an illustrated, step-by-step tutorial to Apple’s Magnetic Mask, new with Final Cut Pro 11. This can create amazing results quickly – once you know how it works.
Recently, FxFactory updated their flagship product, FxFactory Pro, to version 6. To learn more about this update, I emailed Niclas Bahn, head of Business Development at FxFactory.
Today, Apple updated Final Cut Pro – Mac to version 11, along with updates to Final Cut Camera, Final Cut Pro – iPad and Logic. Here are the details and more links.
One of the highlight features in the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro is the Properties panel. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how it works.
In this interview, Larry and Costa discuss how the Telos Alliance got its name, its view of the marketplace and why their tagline is “Love what you hear” and how they make audio better.
In this interview, Larry and Phil discuss the mind-bending graphics that Pixotope creates, why it uses the Unreal Engine, and the need for graphic designers – at every level – to find ways to improve on their best work..
In this interview, Larry and Gary discuss the challenges of accurately tracking camera pan and tilt changes when shooting on an LED volume stage and how Cartoni is providing tripod heads that track this and send it to the computer. As well, Gary shares his thoughts on how to pick the right tripod for your work.
In this interview, Larry and Ian discuss digital sculpting, overcoming the fear of “the blank page,” and new releases from Maxon.
In spite of our best efforts, all too often we have audio that has problems: too much noise or hum. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to use Resolve’s audio effects to fix both those problems.
Your project is complete – except you need to burn captions into your video. This process is surprisingly easy in Apple Final Cut Pro – but darn hard to find. Here’s how to do it.
Captioneer is a Premiere Pro extension that creates animated captions directly in your timeline using .mogrt files which are easily modified by an editor. Here’s an interview with its developer: Nic Dean.
Sometimes, creating a custom effect can save you a lot of time – especially if you need to use it over and over. So, here’s an example of how to create a template in Motion, using a variety of useful Motion effects, that you can use directly in Apple Final Cut Pro. (I included both the movie and the Motion project.)
This was a fun project! I decided to compare how accurately Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve handle tracking shape masks used for color correction. I also included movies so you can judge the results for …
“Ducking” is the process of lowering the audio level of background music or background sounds during dialog. Resolve has a blindingly fast way to do this automatically – without keyframes. It’s called “sidechaining.” Here’s how it works.
Hidden in the Fairlight audio page interface are several tools which can quickly optimize dialog for quality and levels in DaVinci Resolve. Here’s what they are, how they work and how to set them for best results.
Joel asks: “I want the logo to enlarge, eventually getting to the point where a single letter fills the screen, and at the same time, the logo area gradually becomes the concert video. How do I do this?” There are at least three ways. Here’s an illustrated approach to all three.
Saturation and vibrance control the amount of color in an image. What’s the difference between them and which should you use? This tutorial shows how to use them for video.
Fx badges are hidden in plain sight in every Premiere Pro clip. But, what you may not know is how much they can speed adding and modifying audio and video effects. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows where these are, how they work and the tricks you can put them through.
Adobe added a variety of new features to enhance markers and text editing in two recent releases. This includes better searches, smoother edits and faster performance. Larry Jordan illustrates these new features in this short video.
Adobe updated text and graphic styles in the March, 2024, update. A “style” is a format, like a template, that is applied to text or captions. This tutorial explains how they work.
Looking for reputable video or audio plugins that “the pro’s use?” Recently Larry Jordan surveyed his audience to learn the answer to that question. Here are the results.
Not all slow motion looks the same. In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates the four different ways to create slow motion – including the brand new Smooth Slo-mo in Final Cut Pro 10.8 – and the different looks each of these options create.
In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to improve the look of your video using the new Color Adjustments effect in Apple Final Cut Pro 10.8.
New effects features in the 10.8 update to Final Cut Pro, when combined with existing effects features, can make your post-production life faster and more consistent. These include renaming custom effects and building effects presets.
This week, Apple released Final Cut Pro 10.8. While this significant upgrade contains multiple new features and lots of fixes, here are the key features and how to use them.
As I was writing about using Auditions in Final Cut Pro to compare different audio clips, I started wondering whether we could use auditions to compare different visual effects. The answer is that we can, but the process is not intuitive. Here’s how this works.
