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Final Cut Pro X

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Final Cut Pro X is a non-linear trackless video editing application (NLE) created by Apple for the Mac. The original version of Final Cut Pro X was first released back in June 2011, and is available on the Mac App Store.

Final Cut Pro X is the successor to Final Cut Pro 7, a widely popular video editing application used by a wide variety of persons, including industry professionals and studios. Final Cut Pro X was very controversial when first released due to the fact that Apple essentially started with a clean slate, and rebuilt the app from the ground up for 64-bit machines. As such, many of the features deemed necessary by professionals were dropped for the initial releases.

Apple has since provided iterative updates to reinsert key features that were missing from the inaugural release. The current version of Final Cut Pro X is version 10.2.3.

Final Cut Pro X features a trackless magnetic timeline that allows clips to automatically slide into position. Users can thus edit footage in a storyline without knocking any other clips or audio out of place at other points on the timeline.

Final Cut Pro X supports Multicam footage, compound clips, and keyword management. All libraries, projects and events are organized in a logical structure that makes data management easy. Final Cut Pro X is well-known for its ability to scale between small underpowered machines as well as high-powered machines like the Mac Pro. Its implementation of proxy media and support for Intel’s Quick Sync Video, make it particularly attractive for MacBook users.

The great thing about Final Cut Pro X is that it’s a one-time purchase. Unlike competing apps like Adobe Premiere and Avid Media Composer, which both charge monthly or yearly subscription fees, Final Cut Pro X can be purchased for a one-time fee of $299. While the upfront cost may seem substantial, it will save most users a significant amount of money over the long term, as every update since its initial release over five years ago has been free.

Apple also offers a free 30-day trial of Final Cut Pro X on its website.

PSA: You can’t yet edit iOS 11 iPhone video in FCP X, fix likely coming soon

Apple’s ‘just works’ philosophy has hit a snag for those shooting video on an iPhone for editing in Final Cut Pro X: the app doesn’t yet support the new H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding used in iOS 11.

The HEVC codec is, as the name suggests, a far more space-efficient way to compress video, reducing the space needed to store video by as much as 50%. But right now, any HEVC video footage you import into FCP X will be unusable …


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Friday 5: Final Cut Pro tips for YouTubers [Video]

Final Cut Pro X is by far my most used app on the Mac, as I use it to produce a large swath of the content on our YouTube channel. As a long-time proponent of Apple’s flagship NLE, I’d like to use this week’s edition of Friday 5 to share some of my favorite Final Cut Pro X tips for those of you who use the app to create content for YouTube. Watch our hands-on video for a brief look at five handy tips.


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Friday 5: Final Cut Pro X – My favorite media management features [Video]

I’ve used a handful of NLEs on macOS, and each has their strength, but Final Cut Pro X gets so many of the little things right that my appreciation for the app grows a little bit each time I use it.

Final Cut Pro X may not be the most powerful way to edit videos, but it blends ease-of-use with power user features like no other app in its class. One such example of this graceful balance can be seen by observing the app’s many media management functions. Have a look at our hands-on video walkthrough for more details.


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Final Cut Pro X documentary hits crowdfunding goal, check out the trailer here [Video]

Final Cut Pro X has been used for everything from ads to Hollywood movies, but the software didn’t get the easiest of rides from the industry when Apple first launched the radically-different version of the app.

Now a film editor who has used FCP X for six independent feature films has decided it’s time that the software itself took centre stage, with a documentary about its controversial introduction and journey to two million users …


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How to: Quickly & easily create timelapse videos from video or stills in Final Cut Pro X

If you find yourself hanging out for a while at a scenic spot, creating a timelapse video can be a great way to share the experience with friends.

The iPhone, of course, has a built-in timelapse feature – and a very clever one it is too. So if you want to use your iPhone or iPad to shoot, you’re good to go. But if you want to use another camera, Final Cut Pro X makes it a really simple process to create a timelapse video, regardless of whether you’re working from video footage or still photos.

I had been holding out on this one hoping for better weather for the demo video, but as the weather gods aren’t cooperating, we’ll go with what I’ve got …


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Hackintosh: AMD or Nvidia for Final Cut Pro X? [Video]

If you’re looking to build a Hackintosh that can serve as a competent Windows gaming rig on the side, then a build powered by an Nvidia GPU is a good choice. In our most recent Hackintosh build, we paired an Intel i7 6700k with Nvidia’s fastest gaming GPU, the 1080 Ti.

The results weren’t all that surprising. Performance was good in a macOS environment even when using Nvidia’s beta web drivers. Performance was a lot better, though, in a Windows environment, where Pascal GPUs can really thrive.

If you’re interested in building a Hackintosh solely for video editing, however, then an Nvidia-powered GPU option might not be the best choice. Sure, Nvidia GPUs with their CUDA cores are generally superior for editing in an Adobe workflow, but if you’re building a Hackintosh machine solely for video editing, chances are you’re interested in running Final Cut Pro X.


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Final Cut Pro X: How to track objects using animated text callouts [Video]

If you’d like to add tracked text to Final Cut Pro X, there are many ways to go about doing so. For instance, I used to faux-track objects manually by using keyframes. Needless to say that was quite the tedious endeavor.

Tracking text is easier and much more accurate when using a plugin like MotionVFX’s mCallouts, which is powered by the excellent Mocha Tracking Technology from Imagineer Systems.

There are several packages in the mCallouts series, but each of them contain a heaping helping of callout styles that you can use to add tracked text to the objects in your Final Cut Pro X projects. In this brief hands-on video walkthrough, I’ll show you just how easy it is.
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Apple announces it has two million Final Cut Pro X users [Video]

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Apple has announced that it now has two million Final Cut Pro X users – or ‘seats,’ in the terminology used when speaking to an audience at the National Association of Broadcasters’ annual conference.

Apple said that it hit the milestone some five and a half years after launching version 10 of the professional video editing app. Notably, it said that the pace of adoption was increasing. While the company didn’t provide specific dates, it said that it had taken much less time to grow from 1M to 2M users than it had taken to hit that first million.

The milestone is significant given initial reactions to the app …


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Final Cut Pro Diary: Discovering that adjusting exposure & saturation is as easy as it is with photos

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I mentioned in my previous Final Cut Pro Diary piece that I attended one of Apple’s free workshops, Final Cut Pro for Storytellers. There was a lot to take in, and as a complete beginner at the time, I knew I’d only really remember some percentage of it.

As the tutor had been really helpful in answering individual questions as well as covering the syllabus of the course, and I was keen to understand how to adjust exposure and boost saturation, I figured that repeating the workshop would be a good plan. This would allow me to get some one-to-one help with my specific questions, while also getting to grips with more of the core material.

As it turned out, that plan worked really well, and is one I’d recommend to any Final Cut Pro novice …


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Final Cut Pro Diary: A video novice takes the step up from iMovie

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I’ve been a photographer since I was 14, but am very much a novice when it comes to video. I’ve used bicycle-mounted action cams to put together some basic cycling videos, but these were nothing more sophisticated than taking clips straight from the camera, importing them into iMovie and adding cross-dissolves.

In an age when tech writers are increasingly expected to be videographers too, I decided it was time to take the plunge into the world of moving images. Although iMovie is a remarkably capable piece of software, I reckoned I was inevitably going to want to take the step up to Final Cut Pro at some stage, so I might as well make the transition now, rather than have to learn everything twice.

If you’re also a basic iMovie user with ambitions of getting to grips with more professional video production, you may enjoy sharing the journey with me. And if you’re an accomplished FCP X user, I’m sure that I and others in my position would love to hear your top tips …


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Editors Keys launches Logic/Final Cut/Adobe shortcut keyboard covers for the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

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Editors Keys is known for its line-up of custom Apple keyboards/covers for everything from Logic and Final Cut Pro X to the Adobe Creative suite, Pixelmator and even Twitter. The keyboards/covers feature color-coded and specially printed keys to offer up more than 150 shortcuts for power users and beginners alike. Now the company is launching “the world’s first” silicone shortcut keyboard covers for Apple’s new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

Designed to make users more productive with as many as 250 shortcuts, and of course to not cover the touch-sensitive Touch Bar on the new machines, the covers also protect your new MacBook Pro from dust and spills with a super thin protective layer. The company notes that the skins are cut extremely precisely and provide minimal “physical typing distraction” compared to others. 


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How to store Final Cut Pro X libraries on a NAS by using a disk image workaround [Video]

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If you’ve ever tried to store a Final Cut Pro X library on an external hard drive connected to your local network, or via an actual NAS from a company like Synology, then you’ve likely been greeted with an unsupported volume type error. This error is there to let you know that you must store a library on a local, SAN, or supported SMB location.

However, it is possible to save a library on a NAS by properly wielding a disk image created via the macOS Disk Utility. Depending on your local setup and network speed, it could make a viable network storage option for your Final Cut Pro X libraries. Have a look at our hands-on video walkthrough to see how it works, and learn about this method’s pluses and minuses.
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Apple’s Luke Tristram demonstrates in-depth Final Cut Pro 10.3 workflow at LACPUG [Video]

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Back in April of 2011, Final Cut Pro X was previewed at the Los Angeles Creative Pro User Group meeting, or LAFCUG, which occurred during NAB2011. This preview happened several months prior to the official debut of Final Cut Pro X later that summer, which was a drastic departure from the previous Final Cut Pro 7.

Final Cut Pro X has evolved immensely since its debut release, reacquiring many of the features that were dropped from Final Cut Pro 7, and adding a ton of additional features along the way. The latest version of the app, version 10.3, is arguably the biggest update of the software since its debut.

During a November, 2016 LAFCUG meeting, just after the announcement and subsequent release of Final Cut Pro 10.3, Apple representatives demonstrated the latest version of the video editing software in a much more in-depth fashion than what we saw on stage during the product’s October release in Cupertino.
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10 awesome new Final Cut Pro X version 10.3 features [Video]

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Final Cut Pro X 10.3 was released on Thursday, and although I haven’t had much time to play with it, it’s immediately apparent that this is a huge update. In fact, I think Apple did itself a disservice by labeling this a dot release instead of just calling it Final Cut Pro version 11.0.

The addition of Touch Bar support for the new MacBook Pros was the headlining feature of Thursday’s announcement, but it’s all of the other enhancements that make Final Cut Pro X 10.3 the most noteworthy upgrade to Apple’s trackless NLE since the original release over five years ago.

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Apple updates Final Cut Pro X & iMovie with support for Touch Bar in new MacBook Pros

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After accidentally leaking the existence of Final Cut Pro 10.3 on its trial website, Apple has officially unveiled the updated release at today’s Hello, Again MacBook Pro keynote. The update, which will available to download today on the Mac App Store, adds support for the Touch Bar in the just-announced 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro. The update also brings refinements to the app’s revolutionary Magic Timeline.
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How-To: Create animated charts for Final Cut Pro X using Keynote [Video]

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In our recent video about the upcoming dual camera feature on the new iPhone 7 Plus, we featured an animated graph charting iPhone camera improvements over the years. Instead of relying on Motion or a third party plugin to pull off the animation in Final Cut Pro X, we tapped into Keynote instead.

While it’s true that Keynote is primarily a presentation app in the same vein as Microsoft’s PowerPoint, it can also work as a handy Final Cut Pro X companion for producing quick animated graphs and charts. Watch our video walkthrough to see how it’s done.
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How-To: Use the Timeline Index in Final Cut Pro X to efficiently select multiple clips [Video]

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When editing projects in Final Cut Pro X, it’s easy to accumulate a wide variety of different clips in the timeline. These items can be spread out across the timeline in such a way that it can be cumbersome to select multiple clips at once using a cursor and keyboard.

Thankfully, a very handy tool, called the Timeline Index, makes finding, identifying, and selecting clips a breeze. The Timeline Index is not only useful for quickly identifying clips inside the project timeline, but it’s capable of filtering on specific types of clips, and selecting multiple clips simultaneously.
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How-To: Use Final Cut Pro X’s move event feature to archive events and save space [Video]

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Archive FCP X Events

Since the 12″ MacBook is significantly limited when it comes to attaching external peripherals, I generally do all of my editing work in Final Cut Pro X with events stored directly on device. Being that I shoot 99% of our videos in 4K, you can probably imagine how quickly my MacBook’s storage is exhausted.

Needless to say, I’ve become accustomed to archiving events on a bi-weekly basis to save on space. In this hands-on tutorial, I’ll share my easy-to-use workflow for archiving Final Cut Pro X events and media to an external drive.
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Hands-on: EditorsKeys Final Cut Pro X backlit keyboard [Video]

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I’ve been using Final Cut Pro X on a regular basis since it debuted back in June of 2011. With five years under my belt, I feel pretty comfortable navigating around the interface, utilizing custom keyboard shortcuts, and all of the other benefits that come with being intimately familiar with a piece of software.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts about Final Cut Pro X, you’ve probably concluded that I have a strong affinity for the app, despite some of the hate that it receives.

I’m also someone who likes to recommend Final Cut Pro X to new editors. I think that it’s easier to grasp and much more friendlier to work with on a Mac than competing apps like Adobe Premiere Pro.

So when EditorsKeys, a company that produces a keyboard specifically designed for Final Cut Pro X, asked me to do a review, I was intrigued.
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How-To: Use Final Cut Pro X’s proxy media feature to edit 4K video on the MacBook [Video]

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I love my 2016 MacBook for a variety of reasons, but there are still some areas where its Core M processor struggles to keep up. When it comes to exporting 4K video, the MacBook shines due to Intel Quick Sync Video hardware encoding. Editing 4K video, however, is much more taxing on the MacBook, especially when employing various effects and color correction.

Thankfully, Final Cut Pro X has built-in features that allow users to edit 4K video on even the most anemic of systems. In this post, we’ll show you how to leverage proxy media in order to successfully edit video on an underpowered Mac.
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Setups: My hardware setup for podcasting and voiceovers [Video]

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Podcast Voiceover Microphone Arm

As someone who regularly does voiceover work and records podcasts, I need a setup that allows me to easily record on a whim. Any modern Mac could work for this setup, but I’m especially fond of the 12″ MacBook with its USB-C port. That single port, which handles data transfer, power, and display output, helps to simplify my configuration because all it requires is one cable to get started.

In this post, I’d like to share with you my setup for voiceovers and podcasting. What you’ll find is a rig that’s extremely easy to use and happens to look decent as well.
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