Politics comes to FCPX, but in good way! Survey is a set of plugins that can display the Presidential election maps, charts and graphs right in Final Cut Pro X.
It may be chaos at the voting booths, but you can organize yourself for the results and avoid 51 layers on your timeline with UsefulFX’s Survey.
A set of 6 maps and 4 graphs show Electoral results, percentages/approval ratings, state—vs-state ranking, or even just colors to mark regions. These high-quality geographical maps can be customized for data, color, size, position, and legends, with labels for each state. All maps are at 4k resolution, so you can zoom and pan around to focus on any region with confidence.
(Right click for larger images)
These images also display the accompanying Titles that match the font family of the maps.
There are also 4 graphs, with the 3 of them displaying Electoral data, so 270 and 538 can be used as call-outs (for those who haven’t dared to risk trying to understand the mysteries of the U.S. Electoral College, there are 538 Electoral votes, which are distributed amongst the States by population - you need 270 to win). The last illustration is a circle graph that can be set as a percentage against any number you wish:
UsefulFX had this to say, “We got pretty excited by what we were getting out of our electoral charts, but realized to do more complete generic graphs, it would take much more time. We therefore decided to get the current set out the door before the election, and then add in more open graphs in a near-future update.”
To avoid burdening the Inspector, UsefulFX also said they declined to expose DropShadow parameters. Instead, they provide a Gradient generator which can be used to match the background in the other templates. This is good for DropShadows, or to include your own graphics or apply intermediate effects. These show how to add effects like a Drop Shadow to the Survey templates (or, frankly, to any title or graphic). In this case, we’re adding it to USA - Electoral Area, which displays each state according to it’s electoral weight.
1. We’ve already inserted the Electoral Area from the Generators tab, as well as the Upper Title from the Survey Titles section:
2. In the Electoral Area Generator, disable the Show Background toggle:
3. Create a Gradient Background from the UsefulFX-Survey generators. By default, it will match the background of the Survey templates.
4. You’ve now separated the foreground graphic from the background. Return to the Electoral Area generator, and find Drop Shadow under FCPX’s standard Effects - Stylize category. In this illustration, you can see we used the Search filter to find it more quickly. We then apply it to the Electoral Area generator. Remember, you won’t see anything if you haven’t disabled Show Background.
5. Tweak the Drop Shadow and Background, and continue to add any effect you like:
“We were pondering the election and the amount of graphics it requires, and how to avoid total chaos on the Timeline for our users. Obviously it’s better to do everything in the editing environment if you can, so you don’t have to go back and forth with your graphics apps, so the Survey set is a neat solution for this problem. Still, we wondered why we didn’t think of this when Canada was having it’s election, as it has only 13 Provinces and Territories. There’s always another election!”
UsefulFX’s Survey set is available at FxFactory. Current sale price is $99, normal price $129. More information on Survey can be found at the UsefulFX website.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
