Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X, Motion & Compressor

Apple continues the evolutionary growth of Final Cut Pro X releasing its 33rd free update – to version 10.4.9 – this morning, along with updates for Motion and Compressor. While none of these features are revolutionary, all are useful and include:

• • Significant enhancements to proxy workflows (Learn more)
  • Automated tools to reframe projects for social media (Learn more)
  • Editorial workflow improvements (Learn more)
  • Motion now includes 60 new 3D models in the Motion Library (Learn more)
  • Motion also supports importing 3D models in USDZ format
  • Motion adds a new Stroke filter to quickly outline objects using its alpha channel
  • Compressor now supports applying camera and custom LUTs

AVAILABILITY

Updates are rolling out through Software Update, so it may take some time for the updates to show up on your system.

Additionally, the Pro Video codecs were updated. To upgrade these, go to System Preferences > Software Update. All updates are free.

NOTE: The following text is taken from Apple’s press release. I’ll have separate articles that look at each of these in more detail.

PROXY WORKFLOW ENHANCEMENTS

(All images courtesy of Apple, Inc.)

Today’s release includes major improvements to proxy workflows that make libraries more portable and streamline remote work with large, high-resolution files. For the first time within Final Cut Pro, video editors can create proxies in either ProRes Proxy or H.264 in dimensions as small as 12.5 percent of the original. They can also consolidate proxy media, images, and audio to an external or network-connected drive.

A Final Cut Pro Library can even be relinked to proxies already created for added flexibility. Editors can now link to proxy media generated by third-party applications via XML. Examples include Frame.io, a cloud-based creative collaboration platform for review and approval, plus asset management tools like Keyflow Pro and PostLab. If proxy media is not available for some clips, users can adapt workflows to display either the original file or an optimized version.

UPDATE: This new proxy workflow helps with sharing libraries and media between editors, but the basic collaboration process for Final Cut remains the same.

AUTOMATED SOCIAL MEDIA CROPPING

Using machine learning, clips in a project can now be automatically analyzed for dominant motion and intelligently cropped with Smart Conform to convert them into square, vertical, or any other sized video — perfect for popular platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Transform Overscan reveals media outside the crop boundary when adjusting scale, rotation, and position, which allows storytellers to easily reposition the crop. Video editors can also add a Custom Overlay to guide them when placing text and graphics within a non-landscape frame.

WORKFLOW IMPROVEMENTS

ProRes RAW camera settings, such as ISO, color temperature, and exposure offset are exposed in the inspector for the first time. Editors can also apply audio crossfades on adjacent clips in one simple step, use a new context menu to close a project or clear timeline history, and sort clips and projects in List View according to the last date each file was modified.

This release also introduces significant performance improvements with new Metal-enabled plug-ins for RED RAW and Canon Cinema RAW Light.

When working with 360-degree video, editors can quickly stabilize stereoscopic 3D video and view footage in the 360-degree Viewer with separate streams for each eye. They can also start working immediately with remote content while it is downloading in the background from web-based asset management applications, such as the Frame.io workflow extension.

MOTION IMPROVEMENTS

Motion creators can import third-party 3D models or choose from a built-in library of 3D models in the USDZ format for use in titles, generators, effects, and transitions. They can even use behaviors or keyframes to manipulate the position, rotation, and scale of a model, and take advantage of existing replicators, emitters, lights, and cameras for further creativity.

Also included in today’s Motion update is the new Stroke Filter, a tool that automatically outlines an object or text element using its alpha channel. Editors can customize outlines by animating their offset, applying multiple stroke filters to the same object, or using the gradient tools to create multiple strokes with different colors.

COMPRESSOR IMPROVEMENTS

Compressor is also updated today with support for custom LUT effects, the ability to use Camera LUTs to convert log-encoded footage to SDR or HDR outputs, and other workflow enhancements.

EXTRA CREDIT

• Here’s the link to Apple’s press release

---

Bookmark the permalink.