Whilst we were all watching the keynote speech text blog on Monday, RE:Vision effects released the pro version of Twixtor for FCPX. Many thanks to Michael Horton at LAFCPUG for the tip.
We reported back in March that RE:Vision effects had released Twixtor for FCPX and that a pro version would be available soon. Twixtor Pro was released on June 11th, the same day as the keynote speech at WWDC and amid the new Mac Pro debate.
Although Optical Flow is built into Motion5 and FCPX too, Twixtor is the king of retiming video to give that impression footage was shot with a high frame rate camera. There are many skateboarding videos out there that demo the ultra slomo look, but you can achieve much more with Twixtor as demonstrated by this music video from Autozamm.
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One of the problems with retiming footage using any optical flow technology is that the background can get morphed at the same time as the foreground matter. We saw a couple of videos on the GoPro stand at NAB this year that had the ground 'bending' underneath slomo skydivers and wingsuit guys. Twixtor Pro adds the function of drawing mattes that enable the plugin to differentiate between the background and foreground matter.
"Final Cut Pro X users have been requesting Twixtor Pro support for some time now, and we have worked diligently to give users the rich experience and results they expect from Twixtor," says Pete Litwinowicz, President of RE:Vision Effects, Inc.
Twixtor Pro adds the following features to Twixtor regular:
* Twixtor Pro allows mattes to be used to disambiguate the motion of multiple objects, specifying up to 3 foreground layers.
* Twixtor Pro uses up to 12 hand-animated points to help guide Twixtor Pro's motion estimation. By using the tracking points, users can explicitly tell Twixtor where a pixel moves from one frame to the next in order to guide Twixtor Pro's calculation of motion vectors.
Twixtor Pro version 5.3 is supported within Final Cut Pro (FCP) X, version 10.0.4 and up. Twixtor regular continues to be support for FCP X, but now also requires FCP version 10.0.4.
Availability and compatibility:
* FCP X, 10.0.4 and up.
* FCP 6.0.3 and up, FCP 7 and up.
The price for Twixtor Pro v5 for FCPX is $595.00, with the standard version of Twixtor v5 for FCPX at $329.95.
More information about Twixtor and Twixtor Pro can be found on the RE:Vision effects website. This video tutorial was posted when the standard version of Twixtor for FCPX was released.
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!
