2.35:1 letter box drama

Hello everyone

I'm new to FCP X - downloaded it about 48hrs ago I had some experience with FCP 7 and was starting to teach myself more when a friend said I should try X instead of putting energy into learning 7.
Must say I do like X. Except when it comes to letter box effect. In 7 it is really easy to move the clip inside the letterbox to re-frame it (so not to chop off someones head!), but I can't figure out how to do it in X.
I've tried the photoshop mask thing, and sure it works okay, but I'd rather be able to do it as in 7... anyone out there know what I should do?

Thanks heaps
Sean

Learn the crop and transform modes in the Viewer.
Or, get/learn Motion 5 because we can more easily create our own custom effects now with it's Rig & Publish functions.

There is even a section here for free effects regular folks are creating and sharing.
www.fcp.co/forum/9-free-fcpx-plugins-and-templates

I'd also very highly recommend Ripple Teaining's FCPX video series, and/or the Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro X book. Both are hands-on training. The ATPS book is supposed to be released later this week.

Hello

I know how to use the crop and transform modes

My question is simply why can't I move the clip inside the letterbox frame like 7.
If I move the frame it moves the letterbox...

Thanks

Oh, you mean inside a Mask! Yeah, you can do that in X. Look in the Keying section of Effects. It's called Mask. You can also make a custom mask in Motion to work the way you want it to.

As for moving an image around "inside" the mask, I'm not sure what filter in FCP 7 you're talking about. You can apply a mask, but then you have to adjust the mask and the image as I've said already.

What specific filter in FCP 7 are you referring to?

The effect is called widescreen in 7. I've done a quick video to show you how easy it is to use...

vimeo.com/29344079

Just wish I could find out how to do this in X with ease

this could be it

andyyoong.com/download-fcpx-filters/

I've created a much more flexible title generator for all your widescreen compositing needs...

alex4d.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/fcpx-widescreen-matte/

alex4D wrote: I've created a much more flexible title generator for all your widescreen compositing needs...

alex4d.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/fcpx-widescreen-matte/

Thanks heaps!!!

Alex,
Can it be that yesterday's update disabled the functionality of your widescreen generator? Your gradient-blur-generator still works though...

Thanks for pointing out the fault Reinout.

I've updated a new version of the Widescreen Matte effect that works in v10.0.1 at

alex4d.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/fcpx-widescreen-matte/

Brilliant! Thanks a lot!
I've been using your matte for most of my recent projects. I love the workflow of just placing the matte on top of my whole project and then individually aligning all the clips vertically. It makes it so easy to switch between standard 16*9 and wider ratios (good when clients want to quickly see the difference for example).

So I'm glad I can continue to use it. Thanks again!

I really like this plugin! Can you tell what the best way to crop the video in Compressor?