It has been a quiet week for Final Cut Pro news, so that gives us the ideal chance to catch up on the latest free FCPX and Motion tutorials. One thing we have noticed from the last time we did a tutorial roundup is that there are a lot, lot more tutorials being produced.
Let us just mention that if you haven't seen the videos from the FCPExchange event at NAB, they are well worth a watch and contain a lot of information as well.
First 4 videos from FCPXExchange.
Second 4 videos from FCPExchange.
Last 3 videos from FCPExchange.
On to the tutorials and first up has to be Simon Ubsdell's Library 'super search' tool. By creating an all encompassing Smart Collection and hiding the Library, a 'search HUD' can be used. That is if the media has the right metadata. You might also like to checkout the rather heated debate on our Forum about this very clever trick.
Do you like kinetic typography? This short tutorial from Simple Video Making shows how to animate words in Motion. No verbal instructions, but easy to follow along.
This next tutorial from Haugen Creative shows the syncing of a four camera shoot from FCPX in Pluraleyes. Now, we have to ask the question why didn't he sync the clips up in FCPX using the audio. We don't know but it does show the workflow and that might be important tif you have a very long multi camera job that fails syncing in FCPX.
Red Giant to the rescue here as they have published a video that dives deeper into the PluralEyes/FCPX workflow.
Another short voiceless tutorial, this one about using FCPX markers from Sony Ci. Frame.io and Wipster have taken all the limelight on online approval tools, so it is interesting to see this type of interaction with Sony's online approval platform. Want to try Ci out? You can get a free workspace here.
The next tutorial does have narration, but for us unfortunately our Spanish isn't up to understanding the words! We posted it because we didn't think about using the chromakeyer for skin smoothing- very clever work from Luis Velázquez. The automatic translation subtitles do help a little, if rather comically.
AV-Ultra has a series of four Motion tutorials ranging from an introduction to the application, keyframes, text behaviours and dropzones. We have embedded all four in the playlist below. There is also an eight part FCPX set on YouTube.
As we said, there are many, many more FCXP tutorials on YouTube. A lot of them are not up to a particularly high standard, but it does provide an indication on how widely FCPX is being used.
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!
