Summary

This has been another monster chapter, but there was a lot of ground to cover.

It’s your job to make the edit look good, as it’s not always possible to get everything right on set. If the cinematographer is a farmer who provides the ingredients, you’re the chef who assembles them into a meal. Video properties are how you cut and present those ingredients, showing only the best parts, and turning imperfect shots into perfect ones. Video effects are your salt, pepper, and spices, helping each shot to shine, while animation… actually, the metaphor breaks down a little here.

Animation can let you add life where the shots couldn’t, and it injects not just movement but also interest. The Magnetic Mask makes it easy to isolate part of a clip, either to separate it entirely, or to limit a color correction or effect. When you want to select just part of something, use Object Tracking to open up whole new workflows around advanced color...