SUPER USEFUL: Use clean title as adjustment layer in Final Cut Pro X

I love the collaboration between Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5. You can make generators, titles, transitions and effects to Final Cut Pro X with Motion 5. Each of these behave little bit differently in Final Cut Pro X.

One thing I love in After Effects are adjustment layers and I just realized you can actually use titles as effects in Final Cut Pro X and they behave just like adjustment layers (actually you can go much further in Final Cut Pro X). For example if you color correct in Final Cut Pro X it's very easy to create illegal colors and to get those back to legal you're supposed to create compound clip and then apply broadcast safe filter to it. I also love compound clips but those can make your projects really complex and another thing is that you have to render everything once again after you apply effect to compound clip.

So titles process everything below in Final Cut Pro X even with effects applied to it. So why not just build clean title in Motion 5, put that to top "track" before starting color correction and add broadcast safe effect to it. This way everything is rendered straight to broadcast specs and you don't have to hassle that much with compound clips.

This technique works with all effects (also color board works on titles) so for example if you want to have certain look for some period of time simply add clean title to top track for that time and add effect to it. I think this technique has tons of potential for people who want to keep their timelines in order and don't want to create complex compound clip messes.



If you don't have Motion 5 you can download Adjustment Layer here . Just extract contents to your Movies/Motion Templates/Titles folder and you'll find it in Final Cut Pro X Titles under Adjustment Layer.



Best
Tapio Haaja
avseikkailuja.blogspot.com

Very nice !!!!:woohoo:

IIRC, we used to do this in FCP3+ ... applying a clean 2-way colour corrector to calm some 3rd party plug-ins - zMatte was a particularly high profile culprit. Okay, so part of me is groaning 'Here we go again', but it's a good low-impact workaround! Thanks.

How is it possible that I can't find the Motion Template Folder in my system? I have FCPX, but I don't have Motion 5.

Thank you anyway for sharing such a useful tip.

-Gianluca

For instructions on how to install FCPX/Mkotion templates without Motion 5 installed, see this FAQ:

fcp.co/forum/7-how-to-tutorials/2323-faq...nstall-fcpx-plug-ins

Great idea!!!

This actually is not possible in legacy FCP versions or any other NLE. Total Adjustment is this very technique already configured for free download.

rgbhouse.com/?p=74

You can use the trim controls on the adjustment layer to do some basic masking.
Keyframe to track an object.

Another trick is to use multiple adjustment layers within an audition to try out different looks.

Tested this with my own color grade effect and the color board with Total Adjustment and a textless title.

Place an adjustment layer on top of the clip(s) right click and duplicate as an audition (or alt y) Do this for as many looks you want to try. Cycle through each audition and add effects, color board adjustments to taste. You can also name each version in the info tab of the inspector.

[I found that if you drag an adjustment layer onto an existing layer and choose add to audition that the changes in the audition aren't reflected in the viewer, although if you finalize the audition they are applied]

Now that's a really great tip, thanks Rob!!