“Should you upgrade?” is the wrong question. Here is a better answer on when to upgrade to Big Sur – along with links to help your transition go smoothly.
Most of the time, you want audio to stay perfectly in sync with the video clip it is attached to. But, sometimes, to get the sync perfect, you need to shift the position of the audio. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows you how to move a synced audio clip less than a frame to improve sync using Apple Final Cut Pro.
Emojis are little icons that have taken over the world. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add and modify emojis in a video project using Apple Final Cut Pro.
In Final Cut Pro, there are two audio commands that seem similar, but actually do two version different things: Detach Audio and Break Apart Clip Items. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows you the difference between the two.
Trimming and cropping are basic techniques in any video edit. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the difference between trimming and cropping a video clip using Apple Final Cut Pro.
Apple released minor updates for Final Cut Pro and Compressor, along with stability improvements and a name change.
Here’s a quick illustrated tutorial on how to create, find, access or delete backups for Apple Final Cut Pro X libraries.
After updating to Final Cut Pro X 10.5, many of Luke’s titles and effects became unavailable. Here’s how he fixed the problem.
Just as we use multiple cameras to provide different angles on the same scene in live production, we can use multiple cameras in Motion to simulate the same thing. Here’s an example, along with a finished movie.
Motion has a full range of lights and, more importantly, lighting presets that can add drama and visual interest to any scene – especially one that involves 3D objects. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use them to increase the drama in your projects.
There’s a small icon in the Motion interface that enables multiple views of a project. This is really helpful when working with cameras and lights. Plus, it is cool to look at.
Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows why the order in which you place effects on a clip makes a difference in the results in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add and modify keyframes to animate an element in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a clean chroma-key using both good and bad footage… and a carefully placed mask in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the differences between a hold frame and a freeze frame – and how to create both in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
Custom overlays in Final Cut Pro X can help with figuring out the best way to frame a scene for multiple aspect ratios, or other compositional tasks. Here’s how to create and apply them.
Here’s how to create a cast shadow of a Apple Motion element from scratch, which be animated and colorized separately from the object creating the shadow.
Watch Folders are a fast, automated way to compress files. But, when you nest them, they can simplify even highly complex compression tasks. Here are two examples.
There’s a feature in Adobe Media Encoder that can speed your compression work: Parallel Encoding, especially when you are creating multiple versions of the same source file. Here’s how it works.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to stitch multiple clips into a single movie during compression in Adobe Media Encoder.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to crop and reframe video, along with creating a short segment to test compression settings in Adobe Media Encoder.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to add overlays, like watermarks or timecode, to video during compression in Adobe Media Encoder.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to create Watch Folders to automate media compression using Adobe Media Encoder.
Apple’s new M1 SoC chips launched to incredible reviews – but the best is still to come, especially for media creators. Read Larry Jordan’s thoughts on this new technology.
Apple has expanded hardware acceleration on recent makes. Here’s what you need to know to vastly improve the speed of video compression.
OWC releases a new 4-port Thunderbolt 3 dock that provides more Thunderbolt ports to any Mac with Thunderbolt 3 and running Big Sur. This is actually a big deal. Here are my thoughts.
As part of a larger update, Apple released new versions of their Pro Video Formats. This free update is recommended for all media editors. Here are the details.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how job chaining in Apple Compressor can save significant time when applying multiple compression settings to a source file.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use Apple Compressor to crop or reframe a video clip prior to media compression.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to apply both still and moving watermarks to compressed video using Apple Compressor.
Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use Apple Compressor to create a custom compression setting for use in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
With the release of macOS Mojave and continuing into Catalina and Big Sur, older media codecs are no longer supported, nor displayed. Here’s a simple technique to find and transcode outdated files using Kyno.
New with the 10.5 update to Apple Final Cut Pro X is the ability to copy libraries, events and projects and, if necessary, create proxy media while all project media is being copied. This simplifies creating projects to share between editors.
Storage speeds vary widely. Here’s a tip to measuring them accurately.
I first saw these 10 inspirational filmmaking tips from Spike Lee posted to LinkedIn.com. I don’t know who compiled them, but I thought they were deeply insightful. and worth sharing with you.
Media professionals should wait on upgrading any mission-critical systems to Big Sur until there’s time for developers to test and upgrade their software.
Today, Apple updated Final Cut Pro X (10.5), Motion (5.5.) and Compressor (4.5) to support new computers with Apple silicon, along with a variety of bug fixes. Here’s the list.
Technology constantly changes, but older codecs and media don’t. What do you do if you can’t play older media in macOS Catalina or Big Sur? Watch as Larry Jordan shows how to use Kyno to potentially find and convert older media.
In this Apple Motion tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a burning effect using particles, blend modes and the world’s most amazing light saber.
In the past, we would use Safe Boot to repair and maintain our Macs. But that was then. Today, we need to use Recovery Mode. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows what you need to know to keep your Mac running right.
When you need to KNOW that your audio meets the technical spec, neither Premiere nor Final Cut can help. But Adobe Audition can. Watch as Larry Jordan shows how to use amplitude statistics to make sure your audio has the right levels and is distortion-free.
I first wrote this article to work-around a bug in Final Cut Pro X. But, Apple fixed the bug. Now, this is a step-by-step guide to importing chapter markers into Apple Compressor, which is useful for media created outside of Final Cut Pro X.
Final Cut Libraries store stuff. But how that stuff is organized is up to you. Here are a variety of thoughts on working with libraries in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
Thunderbolt 4 is already on the market – and it isn’t what you expect. What does it mean for Mac and PC users? Is our Thunderbolt 3 gear out-of-date? Larry Jordan interviews Larry O’Connor, Founder/CEO of OWC, a leading Thunderbolt manufacturer, to learn more.
After testing, a 7200 RPM RAID is about 30% faster than a 5400 RPM RAID. Also, journaling makes a difference. When speed is important, here’s what you need to know.
Disk Warrior is an essential Mac-based trouble-shooting, repair and optimization tool for any Mac system accessing spinning hard drives. I’ve used it for years and continue to highly recommend it.
Here’s a summary of the new features introduced at Adobe MAX (Oct. 2020) for Adobe Premiere Pro, with a link for more details.
Easy to connect, easy to use and extremely well-built. The OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter works exactly as you would expect. And what higher praise is there?
In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add effects to a multicam sequence for both single clips and an entire track in Adobe Premiere Pro.
In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a multicam sequence using video clips with different frame sizes in Adobe Premiere Pro.
