Create an Adjustment Layer for Final Cut Pro 11 Using Motion 5.9

This tutorial was suggested by Raymond Reilly.

An adjustment layer in Final Cut Pro is a special clip to which you can apply effects that affect all layers or clips below it. It is a very efficient way to add the same effect to multiple clips. The only problem is that it doesn’t exist.

While this is a standard feature in both Photoshop and Premiere Pro, it is missing in Final Cut Pro. However, it is easy to create in Motion and add to Final Cut. You can create a “pure” version with no effects applied or a version with effects already applied. Pure versions are more flexible, but pre-applying effects you use a lot can save you time.

Here’s how these are created.

NOTE: Apple changed these steps in Motion 5.9. If you have an existing adjustment layer, created in earlier versions of Motion, they will still work. If you are creating one today, you’ll need to follow these steps.

• Open Motion.

• In the top right corner, specify frame size, frame rate and duration. In ALL cases, you are creating images with the highest quality.

NOTE: The duration can be easily changed in Final Cut to any length you desire. Pick something relatively short to create in Motion. I like 10 seconds.

• When your settings are complete, double-click Final Cut Title to open a new title template.

CREATE A “PURE” VERSION

In the Layers panel:

• Click to select then delete the Type Text Here layer (upper red arrow)
• Enable the Title Background layer (lower red arrow)

• Your template now looks like this.
• Go to File > Save.

In this dialog:

• Give the new template a name
• Select a category into which you’ll save the file. I created one called “Larry” to hold all my custom effects
• Add a Theme if you wish, I generally leave this blank
• Don’t check either of the bottom two checkboxes

Because you selected the FCP Title template, Motion will automatically create a custom title effect and store it in the location you specify.

NOTE: For FCP to update properly, don’t have FCP running when you create this effect.

Quit Motion, then launch Final Cut.

Go to the Titles Browser. You’ll find the adjustment layer stored in the category where you saved it.

Drag this into a layer above the clips you want to affect in the timeline. Then, apply whatever effects you need. All clips UNDER the adjustment layer will have those effects applied to them.

ADD EFFECTS TO AN ADJUSTMENT LAYER

If you consistently use the same set of effects, for example, blurring and darkening a clip to use as background to text, you can apply those effects to the Title Background in Motion so that they are pre-applied to the adjustment layer in Final Cut.

To do this:

• Select the Title Background layer in the Layers panel.
• Apply whatever effects you desire.
• Adjust the settings to the value you want.

NOTE: It is often easiest to publish controls for these effects so that you can make additional adjustments in Final Cut. However, explaining how publishing works requires a separate tutorial.

As before, when you have added the effects you want, save the file as discussed earlier. Now, when you apply that pre-treated adjustment layer to your timeline, those baked-in effects will be applied automatically, saving you even more time.

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