Blog Archives

EditMentor is an online education tool that teaches the craft of editing. It is deep, extensive and well-thought-out. It is obviously a labor of love on the part of the EditMentor team, with a clear focus on education. Here’s a review.

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.)

Here are ten keyboard shortcuts that make Apple Motion a whole lot easier to use – and ones I wish I knew a month ago.

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.

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 add and frame multiple cameras to shoot a single scene in Motion.

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 illustrates how to add depth of field (focus) to a camera in Motion.

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 add a camera to a Motion project, then illustrates the difference between a framing camera and viewpoint camera in Motion.

When using Premiere, caption timecode for importing captions doesn’t matter. But it DOES matter when exporting. Here’s what you need to know.

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.

Motion has a virtually limitless package of lights that can be positioned for both 2D and 3D elements. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the four different light types in Apple Motion, and how they are used.

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.

In this illustrated, step-by-step tutorial, discover how to use Apple Motion to motion-track, blur or emphasize elements within a video frame.

Explore the capability of Apple Motion for your projects in more depth. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to use and modify particle emitters, then showcases two simulations: Repel and Vortex using Apple Motion.

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.

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.

The OWC Envoy Pro Elektron is a small, rugged, fast, bus-powered storage system that easily fits in your pocket. With speeds averaging over 900 MB/second, it can easily support multicam or traditional HD editing. Here’s a detailed review.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to animate clips using keyframes in Premiere Pro. He’ll also show how to add speed changes to keyframes using Ease In and Ease Out.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates different ways to create green-screen keys (also called “chroma-keys”) using both good and, um, awful footage in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan presents three simple ways to fix color problems in Adobe Premiere Pro. One to change the look, another to fix exposure and a third to correct color problems.

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 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.

“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.

Just as we use multiple cameras to provide different angles on the same scene in live production, we can use multiple cameras in Motion to simulate the same thing. Here’s an example, along with a finished movie.

Motion has a full range of lights and, more importantly, lighting presets that can add drama and visual interest to any scene – especially one that involves 3D objects. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use them to increase the drama in your projects.

There’s a small icon in the Motion interface that enables multiple views of a project. This is really helpful when working with cameras and lights. Plus, it is cool to look at.

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 add and modify keyframes to animate an element 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.

Here’s how to create a cast shadow of a Apple Motion element from scratch, which be animated and colorized separately from the object creating the shadow.

Watch Folders are a fast, automated way to compress files. But, when you nest them, they can simplify even highly complex compression tasks. Here are two examples.

There’s a feature in Adobe Media Encoder that can speed your compression work: Parallel Encoding, especially when you are creating multiple versions of the same source file. Here’s how it works.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to stitch multiple clips into a single movie during compression in Adobe Media Encoder.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to crop and reframe video, along with creating a short segment to test compression settings in Adobe Media Encoder.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to add overlays, like watermarks or timecode, to video during compression in Adobe Media Encoder.