Archiving your work in Final Cut Pro X 10.1

Why Archive?

Why do we archive a video project?  We archive a project in case we ever need to restore the project.  That leads to a natural follow-up question: why would we ever need to restore a project?  There are two reasons: we may need to re-export a project or we may need to make changes to a project.

So, what do we archive from all of our work on a project?  We archive whatever we need to restore the project at a later date as well as any reference material that is important to keep.(such as editing notes, graphical files and fonts)  We also want to organize everything in such a way that it’s easy to find things again in the future.

For Final Cut Pro X 10.1 and higher, what elements do we need to archive?  The elements can be broken down as follows:

• Libraries - Libraries consist of all of your Events.  Events consist of all of your raw media (video files, audio files, still images) as well as your Projects (the editing timelines).
• Motion Templates - Custom Transitions, Titles, Transitions, and Generators
• Associated Files - Document Files, Graphic Files, Fonts and other other files deemed appropriate

When archiving, you can consider not backing up your original media with the Final Cut Pro X project archive.  Why?  If you have the original media (perhaps on an SD card) and if it can easily be reimported or relinked, you can save the physical media and choose to restore it at a later time.  This is a good way to make efficient use of your storage if your work contains a lot of high-resolution video footage.  For projects that have a smaller amount of video footage, you could archive it with everything else.  It’s a choice between how big you want the file size of the archive to be and how easy you want a restoration to be.

Where do we archive all of these files?  Two good options to consider when archiving your work are disk drives and network based storage.(Dropbox, for instance)  Like any digital backup/archiving plan for important materials, you’ll want redundancy and you’ll want multiple locations.

How to archive in Final Cut Pro X

Now that we've established the "why" of archiving, let's dive into the "how" of archiving our work in Final Cut Pro X.  This workflow is based on the current version of Final Cut Pro X, which as of the publishing time of this article is version 10.1.

One note before we begin: Projects (capital P) refers to a Final Cut Pro X timeline whereas projects (lowercase p) refers generically to the complete effort in creating a video.

To archive, you’ll need to do some work in Final Cut Pro X and in the Finder.  Let’s start by doing the prep work in Final Cut Pro X.  Note: This article has been updated for a Final Cut Pro X 10.1.3 workflow.

1. Delete all render files from your Library

• There’s no need to save your project’s render files as they can easily be re-rendered.  These files are large and will substantially save space in what you will need to archive.  Check out this video to see how to delete your render files in your Library.  If you delete all render files in a Library, it will delete all of the render files for all of the Events and the Projects in that Library.
   

2. Delete Transcoded Media (Optimized/Proxy media)

• You will want to delete the transcoded media that you used to improve playback performance either as Optimized Media or Proxy Media.  You’ll need to use the Finder to delete all of this transcoded media.  Watch this video to see how you can easily delete the Transcoded Media.(You will also need to select the Optimized Media checkbox as well.)
   

3. Consolidate your Library

• This command will centralize all of your media into the location that you specify.  In a simple scenario, you will want to consolidate the media into the library that you are archiving.  It will bring a copy of any media that was linked externally into your library.  This could take up a lot of disk space depending on the amount of media.  To consolidate a library, follow the steps in this video.
   

4. Delete restorable media (optional)

• For media on memory cards or other physical media that you can easily re-capture or re-link later, delete the Original Media in the Library.  You’ll do this in the Finder in the same way that you deleted the Transcoded Media.  However, you will delete *only* the media in the Original Media folder that you know that you can easily restore.
   

5. Close the library

• Close the library within Final Cut Pro X by control-clicking the Library and selecting the close library option.

Now, let’s move to the Finder to do the rest of the archiving work.

6. Create an Archive folder

• In the Finder, create a folder at the location you wish to archive (for example, an external hard drive or network/cloud drive) to hold everything in your project.
   

7. Copy your Library file to the Archive folder

• Locate the Final Cut Pro Library file and copy it to the Archive folder that you just created.  Depending on the size of the file, this may take a while.
   

8. Copy Motion Templates (Transitions, Titles, Transitions, Generators)

• This is the hardest part of the current workflow for archiving.  It is particularly difficult given that you can’t necessarily just go to the separate sub-folders of the Motion Templates and copy them over.  You could potentially have referenced custom templates across many sub-folders.  It can get messy quickly.  There are two ways to handle this:
  • Copy only the Motion Templates that you used - This approach is easy if you gave all of your custom motion templates a category when they were published.(for instance “Bob’s Project”)  Then, you can find the “Bob’s Project” folders within each of the Motion Templates sub-folders to copy.  If you ever need to restore projects with this approach, you can copy these custom Motion Templates back in their corresponding location.
  • Copy all of the Motion Templates - You can archive the entire Motion Templates folder to make sure you have everything that was used in a project.  This will be a simple approach, but could also take up more space than is needed.  If you ever need to restore projects with this approach, you'll want to be careful that restoring these templates does not overwrite other templates that have been created since the archive was created.
• Your Motion Templates folder is always located in the User’s “Movies” folder.  To archive these elements, create a Motion Templates folder in the Archive folder and copy everything there.   You’ll want to adhere to any distribution rights regarding moving third party templates around.

9. Backup Associated Files - Within the Archive folder, create a folder or folders for all of your associated files.  This could include:

• Word/Pages/Numbers/Keynote/Powerpoint Documents
• Photoshop/Pixelmator files
• Fonts

NOTE: For archiving your work in Final Cut Pro X 10.0.9 and earlier, please refer to this article.

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Copyright 2014 - Bascomb Productions

How to delete render files in Final Cut Pro X 10.1

Need more hard drive space?  Watch this video to see how you can free up disk space on your Mac by clearing out Final Cut Pro X's render files in version 10.1.

When you delete all of an Event's render files, you will delete the render files for the projects contained within that Event.  This is new to version 10.1 with its implementation of Libraries as the container for both Events and Projects.

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Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

Perhaps a new light switch for Final Cut Pro X 10.1?

If the Final Cut Pro X user interface gets changed in the next major version, perhaps the light switches, which allow you to change various settings, will morph into the filmstrip icon that iMovie for Mavericks now uses.  Check out the screenshot below... perhaps it's a sneak peek into Final Cut Pro X 10.1?

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Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

Unboxing iPhone 5s

Are you curious as to what you get with an iPhone 5S?  Check out this video to see what's inside the box of an Apple iPhone 5S as well as a side-by-side comparison to the original iPhone and iPhone 3GS.

It’s Complicated: Archiving your work in Final Cut Pro X

[UPDATE: This article refers to archiving in Final Cut Pro X 10.0.9 and earlier.  To see how to archive in Final Cut Pro X 10.1 and later, please see this article.]

Why Archive?

Why do we archive our video projects?  We archive our projects in case we ever need to restore the project.  That leads to a natural follow-up question: why would we ever need to restore a project?  There are two reasons: we may need to re-export a project or we may need to make changes to a project.

So, what do we archive from all of our work on a project?  We archive whatever we need to restore the project at a later date as well as any reference material that is important to keep.(such as editing notes, graphical files and fonts)  We also want to organize everything in such a way that it’s easy to find everything again in the future.

For Final Cut Pro X, what elements do we need to archive?  The elements can be broken down as follows:

• Events - In other words, this is all of the raw media.  This could include video files, audio files (music, sound effects, voiceovers) and still images.
• Projects - The editing choices, or Timeline, of your work.
• Motion Templates - Custom Transitions, Titles, Transitions, and Generators
• Associated Files - Document Files, Graphic Files, Fonts and other other files deemed appropriate

When archiving, you can consider not backing up your original media with the Final Cut Pro X project Archive.  Why?  If you have the original media (perhaps on an SD card) and if it can easily be reimported or relinked, you can save the physical media and choose to restore it at a later time.  This is a good way to make efficient use of your storage if your work contains a lot of high-resolution video footage.  For projects that have a smaller amount of video footage, you could archive it with everything else.  It’s a choice between how big you want the file size of the archive to be and how easy you want a restoration to be.

Where do we archive all of these files?  Two good options to consider when archiving your work are disk drives and network based storage.(Dropbox, for instance)  Like any digital backup/archiving plan for important materials, you’ll want redundancy and multiple locations.


How to archive in Final Cut Pro X

Now that we've established the "why" of archiving, let's dive into the "how" of archiving our work in Final Cut Pro X.  This workflow is based on the current version of Final Cut Pro X, which as of the time this article is being written is version 10.0.8.  As you’ll see, things get complicated.  With Final Cut Pro X’s new paradigm, there is currently not an easy, straight-forward way to back up *everything* for your project.  Novice Final Cut Pro X editors need to enter the rest of this article at their own risk as a few steps will be a bit complex.(definitely not as simple and easy as the Camera Archive feature)

One note before we begin: Projects (capital P) refers to a Final Cut Pro X timeline whereas projects (lowercase p) refers generically to the complete effort in creating a video.
 

1. Delete All Render Files from the Events and Projects that you want to archive - No need to save your project’s render files as these can easily be re-rendered.  These files are large and will substantially save space in what you will need to archive.  Check out this video to see how to delete your render files in both your Events and your Projects.
    
   • Delete all (not just unused) of the render files from all of the Projects you want to archive
      
   • Delete all (not just unused) of the render files from all of the Events you want to archive
      
2. Organize and Consolidate your Events and Projects if necessary - These two commands help to centralize all of your media.
    
   • Organize Event Files - If you want to copy all of your Event’s media (the actual files) to the Event’s folder, you’ll want to use this command.  This is useful if the imported media was linked to rather than copied into an Event.
      
   • Consolidate Project Media - If you want to centralize the location of all of a Project’s media (its Events) to the same drive, you’ll want to use this command.
      
3. Delete Restorable Media and Optimized/Proxy Media - For media on memory cards or other physical media that you can easily re-capture or re-link later, delete the Original, Optimized and Transcoded Media Folders in the Event.  You’ll do this in the Finder.  Reference this Apple Knowledge Base article to guide you in locating the folders.
    
4. Create a Sparse Disk Image to store a project’s Events and Projects - With this step, you’re essentially setting up a virtual drive that you will copy your project’s Events, Projects and other files to for archiving.  This Sparse Disk Image will eventually be one file that can be opened up and seen as a virtual drive in the operating system.  I first saw the great idea of using Sparse Disk Images for archiving from Ripple Training.(Steve and Mark are great trainers and produce wonderful training material.  Highly recommended.)  Click here  to see a step-by-step on how to create a Sparse Disk Image.
    
5. Duplicate Projects and Events to the Sparse Disk Image - You’ll now make a copy of your Event(s) and Project(s) onto the virtual disk.  You’ll want to do this within Final Cut Pro X and *not* within the Finder.  Here’s where things can get tricky: how many Projects and Events make up your work?
   
   Let’s cover each case:
    
   1. 1. One Event and One Project - This is the most simple case and the easiest to archive.  You’ll want to make a duplicate of your Project onto the new sparse disk image and then have the referenced Event moved as well.  For this case and the following cases, you’ll also be faced with the choice of duplicating all clips in an Event or only the clips you used in the Project.  Your choice will depend on how much you want to archive for the future.
          
      2. One Event and Multiple Projects - This is relatively simple.  Follow the steps of duplicating one of the Projects and moving its associated referenced Event to the sparse disk image.  Then, make duplicates of the remaining Projects to the sparse disk image.
          
      3. Multiple Events and Multiple Projects - This is where things get complicated!  Simply put, you’ll want to duplicate every element from every Event for every Project.(ideally without duplicating elements)  There’s not a simple command to do this however.
          
         • If you easily know all of the Events that are referenced in all of the Projects and are fine to back up everything, do that.  This “save everything” approach will be less hassle, but more costly in terms of the space needed for archiving.  For instance, if you created four Projects and all four Projects only referenced three Events, duplicate the four Projects and the three Events to the virtual drive.
            
         • If your multiple Projects reference an assortment of Events, your best bet is to archive each Project as if it stands alone.  This is potentially not as efficient as media would be duplicated, but it is a way to simplify the process.  When you duplicate a Project, you’ll want to make sure to duplicate the Referenced Events as well.
            
6. Backup Motion Templates (Effects, Titles, Transitions, Generators) - This is the hardest part of the current workflow for archiving.  There is not a way to do this within Final Cut Pro X and it will potentially require a lot of work in the Finder.  It is particularly difficult given that you can’t just go to the separate sub-folders for the Motion Templates and copy them over.  You could potentially have referenced custom templates across many folders.  It can get messy quickly.
   
   The most logical way to handle this is to give your project a category when publishing any custom templates.(for instance “Bob’s Project”)  Then, you can find the “Bob’s Project” folder within each of the Motion Templates sub-folders to duplicate.  To archive these elements, create a Motion Templates folder in the Sparse Disk Image and copy everything there.  You’ll want to adhere to any distribution rights regarding moving third party templates around.
    
7. Backup Associated Files - Within the Finder, create a folder or folders for all of your associated files on the virtual drive.  This could include:
   • Word/Pages/Numbers/Keynote/Powerpoint Documents
   • Photoshop/Pixelmator files
   • Fonts
      
8. Unmount and Store the Sparse Disk Image - Now, you’ll want to exit Final Cut Pro X and unmount your virtual drive (or sparse disk image).  You now have everything bundled up for archiving on to a drive or on to a network backup.
    

Complicated, eh?

The Future

Looking forward, what improvements can be made to archiving your work in Final Cut Pro X?

• One button Archiving!  A solution that gathers up the Motion Templates used in the Project would be of immediate need.  Editors will need to transfer projects between systems and they need to make sure that they can restore exactly what was created.
   
• Project Bundle/Project Folder - What about archiving multiple Projects at once?  Perhaps what’s needed is a Project Bundle, where one can put several Projects.  Then, archiving becomes a bit simpler if the bundle can be duplicated along with any referenced Event from any Project in the Bundle.  Perhaps the “Bundle” is already there... in the Project Library with the use of folders.  

I think archiving improvements all come down to applying Apple’s great skill in simplifying the user experience.  They’ve already made great strides in simplifying and improving the editing experience with Final Cut Pro X.  Now, let’s hope some strides are made in easily archiving your video projects.

For more from Bascomb Productions, subscribe to the YouTube channel or subscribe via Twitter.

Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

How to make a picture-in-picture in Final Cut Pro X

Do you need to show two videos on the screen at the same time in Final Cut Pro X?  Check out this video to see how you can create a picture-in-picture.

The version of Final Cut Pro X used in this tutorial is 10.0.8, but this technique will work in previous versions as well.

Looking for a little more visual separation between the smaller clip and the larger clip?  Add a Drop Shadow Effect to the smaller clip.

For more from Bascomb Productions, visit the YouTube channel or subscribe via Twitter.

Got requests?  Send in your suggestions via a YouTube message or via the website's contact page.

Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

How to fade to white in Final Cut Pro X

How can you fade to white in Final Cut Pro X?  Check out this video to see how you can use the Bright White Generator and a Cross Dissolve to fade to white in your video project.

The version of Final Cut Pro X used in this tutorial is 10.0.8, but this technique will work in previous versions as well.

For more from Bascomb Productions, visit the YouTube channel or subscribe via Twitter.

Got requests?  Send in your suggestions via a YouTube message or via the website's contact page.

Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

How to quickly animate words in Motion

How can you quickly animate a series of words in Motion?  Watch this video to see how you can use the "File" Text Generator in Motion.

The version of Motion used in this tutorial is Motion 5.0.7.

For more from Bascomb Productions, visit the YouTube channel or subscribe via Twitter.

Got requests?  Send in your suggestions via a YouTube message or via the website's contact page.

Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

A few more thoughts on Final Cut Pro X 10.1

A few more thoughts have popped up since my blog post about what I would like to see in the next major revision of Final Cut Pro X.

So, without further ado, here are some additions to my recent list:

Integrate iCloud

Cloud services are not to the point of easily storing everything for video editing in the cloud for a professional user who might work on several projects with a lot of footage, but... I think there are some things that could be stored in iCloud that would allow Final Cut Pro X to start using the cloud.  Those things could be:

• Destinations and any associated logins/passwords
• Roles
• Keyboard Groups
• The Project Library (aside from the media and render files of course)
• Custom Effects (and custom settings for effects)

Versioning of Projects​

It would be great if Final Cut Pro X could utilize OS X’s versioning for files, where a user can go back in time to recover a previous version of a document.  This could be valuable for editors.  Maybe it could even lock down and identify specific cuts (e.g. “First Cut”, “Second Cut”)

Timecode Reader Effect

There’s a real need for professionals to have a Timecode Reader Effect, which would show the timecode from the original media that the video was recorded on.  I still have a need to deliver window burns (video with burned in timecode) to clients so that they can refer to the original footage for editing notes or suggestions.  Right now, I don't have a solution for this.

Custom Shape Mask

The circular mask works great for a lot of color corrections, but being able to draw a custom shape with control points and Bezier handles like in Motion would really make color correction more powerful.  I believe this can be done by third party products, but it’d be great to have it built in to the software.


Setups for Window Layouts

I would love to have presets for Final Cut Pro X window layouts, just as previous versions of Final Cut Pro did.  ​Being able to quickly move between a color correction setup, a keywording/Event setup and a Project Library/Timeline setup for editing would be great. That would make me a faster and more efficient editor.  Dragging the edges of windows around to make the right layout is easy, but something I don't wish to do often.

For more from Bascomb Productions, visit the YouTube channel or subscribe via Twitter.

Thoughts on Final Cut Pro X 10.1

Final Cut Pro X is a great editing tool.  I couldn't go back to Final Cut Pro 7 or go to Media Composer or Premiere for my video work.  I work so much faster in FInal Cut Pro X and I enjoy the user interface.(it just feels better to work in than Final Cut Pro 7, Media Composer or Premiere to me). 

But... what would I want in a future revision that I don't have yet?  I've compiled a list of things that I think would improve the Final Cut Pro X experience.

Here we go:

A New Relationship with Motion

This is the biggest and most important issue that I think needs to get addressed in the next major version of Final Cut Pro X.  I am not sure if the solution is round-tripping like Final Cut Pro 7 and earlier, but I would like to see a better workflow for doing custom animation work for video projects.

The new paradigm seems to be, more or less, that Motion is either a template/effect/transition building program for Final Cut Pro X or it's a program to create finished Quicktime movies.  This works great for users creating their own lower third titles, their own opening/closing video series animations, custom color effects and custom transitions, all of which need to be used frequently across multiple projects.

For someone doing custom animation work in Motion, the ability to get that work into Final Cut Pro X and to then make changes is not trivial.  Let me give you an example.  Let’s say I have a 3 minute video that has a few interview clips and I would like to create animations on top of this that are synced to what is being said.  How can I do this efficiently in the current paradigm?  One approach is that you use the Final Cut Pro Generators as one-time-use templates.

To do this, I need to first decide on the segment that I want to add an animation to.  Then, I could export just that range as a low-res Quicktime movie.  I then launch Motion, create a new Motion Generator with the same settings as the movie, import the movie as a reference, and then begin animating.  Once the animation is complete, I publish this project as a Generator, switch to Final Cut Pro X, open my Generators section, find the Generator I just created, place it in the timeline at the exact frame that the reference clip begins and voila.

To make changes to this animation (assuming that I didn’t get it perfectly right on the first try), I open the “template”, make the changes, save the changes, go back to the Generators section in Final Cut Pro X, place the “template” on top of the previous one, and then delete the old one.  Repeat this process until the animation is finalized.

Does that work?  Yes.  Simple?  No.

Another approach is to export Quicktime Movies from Motion as you work on the animation and import these movies into the Final Cut Pro X timeline.  If you need to make changes, you go back to the Motion projects, make changes, export new Quicktime movies, import the new movies into the Final Cut Pro X Event, replace the old movies with the new ones and delete the old movies from the Event.

Does that work?  Yes.  Simple?  No.

Neither approach is a great solution.  The current workflows are prone to mis-steps, errors and/or heavy-lifting.  There’s got to be a better way.

With this, there's a choice of centralized vs. non-centralized functionality: do you put everything in Final Cut Pro X or do you have a lot of other programs, like the Final Cut Studio model, to handle a deeper level of creation?  Perhaps the solution is to allow Motion files and its associated media to be imported into Final Cut Events, so that they become a separate contained instance that can easily be opened and backed up?  Perhaps the solution is to allow more hooks into Motion that give the ability to make simple timing changes within an animation “template”?  Perhaps it’s an ideal situation to bring most of the capability and functionality of Motion into Final Cut Pro X so that editing and animation is one tool?  Being able to farm out animation work across multiple animators is a great argument for a decentralized approach.  Ease of archiving and changes is a great argument for a centralized approach.  It is a tough dilemma.

So, boiling this all down, what are the goals of a needed change in the Motion-to-Final Cut Pro X relationship?  Better ease of use, better ease of changes and better archiving.

Better Archiving and Restoring 

I list this next because part of the challenge (as it's always been) is that to archive a project with Motion templates, one has to backup the Final Cut Project, the associated Final Cut Events and the associated Motion templates/effects/transitions.  It's not terribly complicated to handle if you’re comfortable managing many elements and folders in the Finder.  If you’re not, it could be a bag of hurt if you want to restore a project a year later and found out that you deleted some Titles or Generators.

I would love it if I could click an "Archive" button and then the application gathers up all of the materials that went into that project and bundles them into one Project Archive (similar to the Camera Archive function for video capture).  That file could then be stored and moved for later use, either on the same system or another system.

Hold frames for Ken Burns controls

The Ken Burns controls for photo animation work great.  At first, its behavior didn’t work as I expected (not sure if it was buggy or if I had some odd photo files).  Now, it works great for me.  It's a great example of a process made better by not worrying about keyframes.  One addition that I would like is the ability to have paused frames at the beginning and end of an animation.  Often times I would like to end on a particular framing of a shot before cutting away.  Perhaps the simplest way to handle this is to have settings for holding the beginning and ending frames similar to how it can be done in Motion.

Guides/Grids

Some of this goes back to the choice of "How much of Motion is in Final Cut Pro X?", but I think it would be helpful to have guides in FCPX that would have snapping and alignment information.  A grid might be helpful as well, but that depends on how much animation work is done in FCPX versus Motion.

Put all of Compressor into Final Cut Pro X

Why list this?  I used to have Compressor open all of the time... probably more than Final Cut Pro because it handled so many encodings for me.  It would often work 24 hours a day for days on end.  After 10.0.6, my Compressor usage has gone away nearly completely.  Why?  Because most of my file encoding (both single file as well as batch/bundle) is now handled by the Share feature in Final Cut Pro X.  The “Add Destinations” and Bundles features added in Final Cut Pro X were huge improvements for Sharing.

I think there are two main things that are needed to bring Compressor completely over to Final Cut Pro X: custom preset creation and the ability to batch up multiple files from the Finder.  The clustering in Compressor is another matter.  I’m sure that’s a big feature for a lot of users and that might be enough to justify keeping Compressor separate.  It’s not that I want to see Compressor go away.  It’s a program that has served me well for years, but if I can simplify my workflow, I’m all for it.

Batch Sharing of Projects

Being able to export several projects at once is a great feature.  In Final Cut Pro 7 and earlier, Batch Export was a function I used a fair amount.  I didn’t use it daily or even weekly, but those times that I needed it, it was a huge help.  In Final Cut Pro X’s Project Library, you can only select one project at a time to share.  It’d be great if after working on 15 video interview clips in separate projects to highlight all 15 and share them rather than having to select and export each one.

Better information on what's Sharing in the Background Rendering screen

Being able to batch up several projects and let them all queue up for rendering is great in Final Cut Pro X.  What would be even better is the ability to see the project names of what’s been queued up rather than (or in addition to) the preset name.  A history (like Compressor) might be nice to see if something failed, but not necessary.

Manual White Balance

Using the old Eye Dropper tool got you 90%-95% of the way towards white balancing your video.(if not 100%). Now, one has to know more about how color works, so that you can remove blue from the shot.  Perhaps the solution is something like in the iOS version of iPhoto.  It's an intuitive way to identify where your video was shot and then have the software adjust appropriately.  There's even an option for more manual control.

Charts and graphs

I’ve needed to create an animated chart or graph in Motion many times and there’s not an easy way to do it.  Often times, I go to iWork and use Numbers to create a chart or graph.  I’ll input the data, create the chart and either export a video or a still to then bring into Final Cut Pro X.  It’s a workaround and it’s not perfect.  For some reason, alpha layers don’t work as advertised in the Numbers export and I have to do a Color Key or a Luma Key if I want to overlay the graph.

A good solution?  How about a drag-and-drop Generator that allows one to create an animated chart/graph by inputting data.  Add in some controls for some build options and you've got a good graph/chart solution for a lot of people.

Motion Blur on/off for animation within Final Cut Pro X

This is a small one, but some elements that are in Final Cut Pro X don’t have motion blur turned on when they animate.  It’d be nice if it could be.  This might be done as a per element contextual click. (like Optical Flow)

Automated Dictation for Search, Transcription and Subtitling

I’ve found voice dictation in Mac OS X and iOS to be excellent.  I try to use it when I can simply to save time.  How can this be applied to Final Cut Pro X?  It could be used to create text for search, transcription and subtitling for use within a video, Project or Event.

Would it be 100% correct?  No, no tool for this is.  Proper nouns can be tough to translate.  So, there needs to be an easy way to correct this... Just as easy as it is to change text for a title.

Once the text is associated to timecode and connected to the video correctly, there are two things that could be done that would be helpful: transcription and subtitling.  Being able to export a transcription of a video/project could be useful for many people...certainly for documentary interview work as well as some educational use too.

Subtitle tracks from this text track would be a great addition to create more closed captioning for videos.  Who knows... Maybe even additional language tracks could be added in as well.

In closing 

Final Cut Pro X has quickly passed FInal Cut Pro 7 (and earlier versions) as my favorite and most efficient editing application.  I edit faster, which ultimately leads to better videos.  I have also found that I enjoy the editing process more.  That's not a very scientific observation, but I've found it to be true.  Hopefully, the suggestions presented above will help shape Final Cut Pro X into an even better experience for many more people.

UPDATE: Click here for a few more thoughts... 

For more from Bascomb Productions, visit the YouTube channel or subscribe via Twitter.

How to frame a photo in Final Cut Pro X

Photos can be framed easily in Final Cut Pro X with the Frame effect.  Watch this video to see how you can easily give your photos an added touch of design.

Subscribe to the Bascomb Productions channel to see new episodes of "I'll Show You".

Got requests?  Send in your suggestions via a YouTube message or via the website's contact page.

Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

How to add an arrow in Final Cut Pro X

Do you need to add an arrow in Final Cut Pro X?  Watch this video to see how you can quickly create an arrow that will highlight or point to an important area in your video.



The version of Final Cut Pro X show in this video is version 10.0.7.  Creating the arrow will work in all versions of Final Cut Pro X.  The ability to use transitions on a connected clip works in version 10.0.1 and later.

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Copyright 2013 - Bascomb Productions

How to export a range from a Final Cut Pro X Timeline

Need to export only a portion of your project from Final Cut Pro X?  Watch this video to see how you can use the Range Selection tool in Final Cut Pro X (version 10.0.6 or higher) to output a segment in a Timeline.



When exporting a range, all connected clips within the range will export too.  With snapping turned on, the Range Selection tool will snap to keyframes as well as edit points within the range.

You can also select a range by selecting a connected object with the Range Selection Tool.

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Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

How to make your own seasoned microwave popcorn

Popcorn is a classic snack and microwave popcorn is a fast and easy way to have it anytime.  But did you know you can save money AND calories by making your own microwave popcorn at home?  A simple brown paper bag is the key to healthier popcorn you can enjoy at home or at the office in just minutes!

With a few minutes extra preparation, you can create your own custom popcorn flavors!  Butter and salt are classic, but why stop there?  You could try Garlic-Parmesan, Cinnamon-Sugar, Sea Salt & Black Pepper…play around with all the different spices in your spice rack and see what flavor combos you can come up with!

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Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

How to make your own microwave popcorn

Popcorn is a classic snack and microwave popcorn is a fast and easy way to have it anytime.  But did you know you can save money AND calories by making your own microwave popcorn at home?  A simple brown paper bag is the key to healthier popcorn you can enjoy at home or at the office in just minutes!

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Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

How to make your own custom light switch plates

Want to liven up the look of your house?  Watch this video to see how you can create your own custom light switch plates that will add unique designs to your home.

Tips on choosing a design: For interesting designs, try looking at magazines, calenders, postcards, or comic books. Your local used book store is a great resource!

Tips on positioning your plate- Try holding your design up to a light with the plate positioned behind it. The shadow of the plate against the design will help you see what your finished plate will might look like and more easily position your design!

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Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

How to create a countdown in Final Cut Pro X

Need to make a countdown?  Check out this video to see how you can quickly create a countdown animation in Final Cut Pro X.



The software version of Final Cut Pro X used in this video is 10.0.5, but this works in all previous versions.  As you see in the video, the countdown format is not limited to one style.  There are many different styles to choose from: number, currency, percent, scientific, spell out, binary, and hexadecimal.

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Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

 

How to do quick video fades in Final Cut Pro X

Fades to and from black are simple in Final Cut Pro X.  Watch this video to see how you can quickly apply fades to a video clip using Final Cut Pro X's Video Animation Editor.

The software version of Final Cut Pro X used in this video is 10.0.5, but this works in all previous versions.  In version 10.0.6 and higher, the drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the video object is no longer present.  To expand the video animation editor, you will need to use the menu bar or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-V.

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Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

How to make a freeze frame in Final Cut Pro X

Freeze frames are easy in Final Cut Pro X.  Watch this video to see how you can quickly and easily create a freeze frame in one of your video clips.

The software version of Final Cut Pro X used in this video is 10.0.5, but this works in all previous versions.

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Got requests?  Send in your suggestions via a YouTube message or via the website's contact page.

Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions

How to delete render files in Final Cut Pro X

Need more hard drive space?  Watch this video to see how you can free up disk space on your computer by clearing out Final Cut Pro X's render files.



The best time to clear out your render files is once a project is done... right before archiving the project and event off to a disk drive for long term storage.  For large projects, this will clear up a significant amount of disk space since rendering is done by default in ProRes 422.  Don't worry about deleting these files in case you want to return to the project in the future.  You can always render again.

If you need some extra space while still working on a project, check the "Unused Render Files Only" button.  This will clear out all of the Render Files with the project except for the ones that are currently being used by the project's timeline. 

The software version of Final Cut Pro X used in this video is 10.0.5, but this works in all previous versions.

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Got requests?  Send in your suggestions via a YouTube message or via the website's contact page.

Copyright 2012 - Bascomb Productions