Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor

[ Updated April 24 with additional info on Compressor.]

This morning, Apple Inc. updated Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor. The updates are free and available via the Mac App Store.

Apple gave me early access to the software, which allowed me to create new training for it, which I also released today: www.larryjordan.com/store/

Here’s an initial look at the new software. I’ll have much more to say about these new versions over time.

FINAL CUT PRO X (new version 10.2)

Here are Apple’s Release Notes:

3D titles

• Beautifully animated and easily customizable 3D text
• Simple templates to get started quickly
• Cinematic templates with built-in backgrounds and animations
• Large collection of text styles to create stunning looks with one click
• Customize your titles with hundreds of combinations of materials, lighting, and edges
• Additional controls to adjust environment, shadows, and more
• Instantly convert 2D titles to 3D
• Open any title in Motion to add multiple lights, cameras, and tracking

Advanced effects

• Display up to four video scopes simultaneously
• Apply super ellipse Shape mask to any clip
• Apply Draw mask to any clip, with options for linear, bezier, or B-spline smoothing
• New Shape and Color mask controls for every effect
• Instantly display the alpha channel for any effect mask
• Save custom effects as presets for quick access
• Color Board merged into the new Color Correction effect
• Rearrange the processing order of the Color Correction effect
• Improved keyframing with better motion smoothing
• Improved optical flow for beautiful slow motion on a wider range of content
• Better performance of FxPlug plug-ins and built-in effects that use multiple frames like Visual Echo and Trails

New Camera formats

• Support for Panasonic AVC-Ultra codec family
• Support for Sony XAVC S format
• Import Sony XAVC and XDCAM formats without separate plug-in
• Support for JVC H.264 Long GOP format
• GPU-accelerated RED RAW processing with support for dual GPUs Support for RED RAW anamorphic formats

Additional features

• You can now use Smart Collections at the event and library level
• Import window consolidates all options into a single sidebar
• GPU rendering when using Send To Compressor with support for dual GPUs
• CABAC entropy mode for multi-pass encoding
• XML 1.5 for third-party interchange. For legacy third-party applications, XML 1.4 continues to be supported

Final Cut Pro version 10.2 also addresses the following issues:

• Faster drawing of audio waveforms which improves performance especially when editing over a network
• Transform controls work correctly with photos in a secondary storyline
• Resizable Filter window for searching
• Freeze frames copy media across multiple libraries
• Slo-mo video clips from iPhone appear in the Browser with a badge
• Full-screen playback does not automatically superimpose transport controls
• Improved performance when skimming Long GOP video including AVCHD
• Exporting a Master File using i-Frame codecs like ProRes can play in QuickTime Player before the export completes
• Support for XAVC S video recorded at 120 fps and 240 fps
• MXF-wrapped AVC-Intra and Uncompressed files export faster

LARRY’S REACTIONS

The new 3D titles are lovely and I really like the new Materials section, which allows you to specify what material and texture covers the six faces of a 3D character:

• Front
• Front bevel
• Sides
• Side bevel
• Back

The 3D text effects, as implemented in Final Cut, are fun, fascinating and flexible. But they come into their true power when you use them in Motion. In fact, you’ll be seeing third-party 3D text effects from Ripple Training, FX Factory, and Motion VFX released in conjunction with this new upgrade.

The new masking tools are amazing – everything you want in a mask:

• Unlimited points
• Unlimited shapes
• Linear, Bezier, and B-spline curves
• Multiple masks applied to the same clip

Other new effects that I really like include:

• Moving Color Correction out of the Inspector and making it a stand-alone app. While I am not a fan of the color board, I am a fan of what this new effect flexibity provides in terms of broadcast safe and applying color correction before or after specific effects.
• Viewing multiple scopes at the same time is SO helpful. And the scope displays are really large, depending upon the size of your monitors.
• Smart Collections now span entire libraries and can search multiple events at the same time.
• Keyword limitations FINALLY disappeared by making the Keyword search box resizable. Now using more than 27 keywords is both possible and encouraged.
• More cameras are now supported with the addition of XAVC-S, native support for XAVC and XDCAM, Panasonic AVC-Ultra for images larger than HD, as well as others.
• Red RAW images are now GPU-accelerated. In fact the speed increase is so dramatic that the Red Rocket card may no longer be needed for some systems. (As a note, if you are planning on editing RAW files, the Mac Pro is the preferred system because it has the horsepower that RAW files require.)
• New XML format provides even more metadata support, along with improved transfers between programs.

COMPRESSOR (new version 4.2)

Here are Apple’s Release Notes.

New features

• Create an iTunes Store Package for iTunes Store submission
• Easily add your movie, trailer, closed captions, and subtitles to your iTunes Store Package
• Preview closed captions and subtitles right in the Viewer
• Zoom in the Viewer to watch content with true pixel accuracy
• GPU rendering when using “Send to Compressor” with support for dual GPUs
• Hardware-accelerated, multi-pass H.264 encoding on compatible systems
• Automatic bit-rate calculation to MPEG-4 and H.264 QuickTime movies
• Display and assign channels to QuickTime audio tracks prior to processing
• Optional matrix stereo down-mix when processing surround sound for QuickTime output
• CABAC entropy mode for multi-pass encoding

Compressor version 4.2 also addresses the following issues:

• Jobs submitted via Droplet now appear in the Active and Completed tabs
• Improved stability when using Apple AES3 Audio format with ProRes 422 HQ

LARRY’S COMMENTS

The big news, from Apple’s point of view, is the direct support for creating iTunes Store Packages. (Keep in mind that even after the Store Package is created, you’ll still need to use a delivery partner- such as Juice Worldwide, Quiver Digital, Walla or Zoo Digital.) This means that filmmakers can use Compressor to prepare their films directly for sale within iTunes, while only needing a third-party to verify and deliver the Package to Apple.

From my point of view, though, the BIG news with this update is that compression is now GPU-accelerated and compressing H.264 files- even multi pass compression – is now hardware-accelerated. While I have not had time to do speed tests – but BELIEVE ME I’m planning on testing this as soon as I can – Apple’s notes indicate compression speeds could be up to 3.3 times faster than the current version.

This would be great news, because I now compress all my YouTube and MPEG-4 videos using Adobe Media Encoder because it is multiple times faster than Compressor. It will be fun doing some speed tests between these two apps in the near future to see how they compare for speed, image quality and file size.

MOTION (new version 5.2)

Here are Apple’s Release Notes:

Introducing 3D titles

• Beautifully animated and easily customizable 3D text
• Simple templates to get started quickly
• Cinematic templates with built-in backgrounds and animations
• Save any 3D title and access it instantly in Final Cut Pro X
• Large collection of text styles to create stunning looks in one click
• Customize your titles with hundreds of combinations of materials, lighting, and edges
• Additional controls adjust environments, shadows, and more
• Instantly convert 2D titles to 3D
• Create advanced 3D looks with multiple materials and edges on each character
• Flexible surface shading with options for texture maps, diffuse and specular reflection, and bump mapping
• Cast shadows from 3D text onto itself and other objects in a 3D scene
• Add multiple lights, cameras, and tracking to any 3D title
• In-camera glint effects
• Support for sequencing 3D text animations
• Over 90 built-in materials including metals, woods, plastics, and more
• Combine layers of materials to create unique looks
• Customize any material and save as a new preset
• Easily add real-world attributes including paints, finishes, distress, and more

New Camera formats

• Panasonic AVC-Ultra codec family
• Sony XAVC S
• JVC H.264 Long GOP

Additional features

• 12 new generators including Manga Lines, Sunburst, and Spiral Graphics
• Improved keyframing including copy and paste in the Timeline
• Improved mask and shape creation for rectangles and circles plus conversion to bezier shape for more control
• Easily monitor background Share operations from within Motion
• Improved performance on Intel-based GPUs
• Better performance of FxPlug plug-ins and built-in effects that use multiple frames like Echo and Trails

Motion version 5.2 also includes the following:

• Improved stability when loading projects with missing filters or fonts
• Choosing a smooth option on an already smooth point no longer changes the curve
• Checkbox parameters display in the curve editor
• Double-clicking to add a new keyframe in the Curve Editor no longer changes interpolation of subsequent keyframes
• The Keyframe Editor vertical scroll bar displays the entire graph
• Keyframe Editor time scale is consistent

LARRY’S COMMENTS

I haven’t had time to play with Motion, yet, except a little bit with the 3D Text. Here, Motion provides additional tools for animation, keyframing, lighting and position control far beyond what Final Cut itself provides.

The new masking tools are more flexible than those provided originally in Motion, and new generators are always welcome.

SUMMARY

The new features add a lot of power, flexibility, and sheer fun to all three applications. Even better, there is still lots more to discover, because Apple made both major and minor tweaks throughout the entire application, which I’m looking forward to showing you in my latest training, as well as upcoming webinars and articles.

---

Bookmark the permalink.