I discovered this technique to be very useful when I want to make a shot-by-shot comparison between an existing movie and a sequence.
Gamma settings control the gray-scale midpoint. The reason this is significant is that Macs, video, and Windows all use slightly different settings. This means that video that looks good on one system, may look washed out or too dark on others. Snow Leopard, however, has changed the rules. In this article, I explain what gamma is, how to use it, and where to set it.
How do you capture the screens from a game. There are a number of screen capture utilities on the market. This article explains which works best on the Mac for capturing a game.
Three of the most powerful keyboard shortcuts in Final Cut Pro are blocked because OS X uses the same three keys differently. This article shows you how to remap the OS shortcuts to release the power in Final Cut.
The world of HD is awash in incompatible formats. Worse, it has eight different frame rates. And selecting the wrong frame rate in After Effects can make your video uneditable in Final Cut Pro. This article explains what you need to know.
Flip cameras, and other inexpensive devices, capture footage in a variety of unusual formats. This article explains what you need to know to work with it inside Final Cut Pro.
Trying to decide what hard drive to buy? This article explains the differences between FireWire and SATA, and how to select the one that’s right for you.
This technique shows you how to get the most from your FireWire drives, from partitioning through formatting to daisy-chaining.
Here’s a secret technique that allows you to add the default transition to any number of selected clips in the timeline — all at the same time!
A quick technique to use when you need to find a specific clip.
Over the last few versions, Apple has added new options in Final Cut Pro that make finding clips a lot easier. In this Technique, I want to show you what some of them are. Whether you are looking for clips in the Viewer, the Browser, or the Timeline, here are some very cool, and little known, techniques.
This technique describes an interesting effect combining a traveling matte and a pond ripple filter which allows you to color an effect as it moves across the screen.
One of the biggest challenges editors face is getting organized at the start of a project, then staying organized during a project. Here is a collection of tips and techniques from a variety of readers than can give you the system you need to get on top of your project.
By default, Final Cut only displays one field of video – this makes images much easier to view while editing. But, sometimes, you need to see both fields. This very, very short article explains exactly what you need to know.
“Interlacing” is a term that confuses many people. This article explains what it is, how to work with it, and how to remove it in both video and stills.
Video is hard enough to understand. Throw in fields, frames, field order, and interlacing and it’s enough to make you cry. In this article, I explain what you need to know to successfully navigate around the land mines.
Apple released Final Cut Studio (3) on July 23, 2009. This is a quick look at the announcement and an exclusive interview with Richard Townhill, Director of Video Application Marketing for Apple, about the new software suite.
When I was writing my first book on Final Cut Pro a few years ago, I developed a nine-step editing workflow that answered the question: “What should I be doing right now?” However, over the years, I’ve learned more and Apple has released new software, so this nine-step process has become a bit outdated. Today I want to revisit and update it. Especially for editors that are new, or just getting back into the industry, my hope is that in following these steps, you’ll have a better way to keep track of what you should be doing “right now.”
The issue of converting to ProRes is addressed along with a walk-through of the pros and cons of the different version.
As you know, most versions of Final Cut Pro are tied to work best with certain versions of QuickTime. However, as time passes, it gets harder and harder to remember all the different permutations. Here’s a quick link to a website that has the answers.