Book Image

Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing

By : Iain Anderson
Book Image

Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing

By: Iain Anderson

Overview of this book

Final Cut Pro (also known as FCP, previously Final Cut Pro X) is Apple’s efficient and accessible video editing software for everyone, offering powerful features that experienced editors and novices will find useful. FCP is the quickest way to transform your raw clips into a finished piece, so if speed is important, make this a key tool in your editing arsenal. Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing is a comprehensive best practice guide for all editors. You’ll not only learn how to use the features but also find out which ones are the most important and when you should use them. With the help of practical examples, the book will show you how typical footage can be assembled, trimmed, colored, and finessed to produce a finished edit, exploring a variety of techniques. As you progress through the book, you’ll follow a standard editing workflow to get the feel of working on real-world projects and answer self-assessment questions to make sure that you’re on track. By the end of this Final Cut Pro book, you’ll be well versed with the key features of this app and have all the tools you need to create impressive edits.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Importing and Organizing
7
Section 2: Rough Cut to Fine Cut
13
Section 3: Finishing and Exporting

Animating with keyframes

Animation doesn't necessarily mean movement — it means changing the value of a property over time. You could:

  • Fade a clip in or out by animating Opacity.
  • Grow or shrink a clip over time by animating Scale (All).
  • Reveal a clip by animating Crop (Trim).
  • Brighten a clip over time by animating a color correction:
Figure 12.27: This Opacity starts at 0%, grows to 100%, stays there, then fades out to 30%

Figure 12.27: This Opacity starts at 0%, grows to 100%, stays there, then fades out to 30%

Keyframing is a universal solution that can be applied to almost any property in the Inspector — those are just a starting point. Here, we will start with the Inspector-focused controls, move across to the Timeline's controls, and then pop back to the Viewer too. If keyframes are too hard, there are alternatives, and you'll find out about those as well.

Animating in the Inspector

The keyframing system in the Inspector is bare-bones, but it still provides a simple, clean...