Final Cut Pro HD For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 How to Use This Book 3 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organized 4 Part I: First Things First 4 Part II: Importing and Organizing Your Media 4 Part III: Editing Your Media 5 Part IV: Adding Pizzazz 5 Part V: Outputting Your Masterpiece 6 Part VI: The Part of Tens 6 Icons Used in This Book 6 Contacting the Author 7 Part I: First Things First 9 Chapter 1: Introducing Final Cut Pro 11 Understanding the Purpose of Editing 11 Exploring the Capabilities of Final Cut Pro 12 Appreciating nondestructive editing 13 Final Cut Pro versus the competition 13 New in Final Cut Pro HD (and the earlier version 4) 14 Going with the Final Cut (Work) Flow 16 Taking a Grand Tour of the Interface 17 The Browser 18 The Viewer 19 The Timeline 20 The Tool palette 21 The Canvas 21 Chapter 2: Getting Started 23 Hardware Requirements 23 Selecting and Configuring a Mac 24 CPU speed 26 Memory (RAM) 26 Disk storage for DV video 27 Monitors and LCDs 28 Doing DV? You need a FireWire port 29 DV videocameras and playback decks 30 Other optional hardware 30 Getting Started 32 Connecting and preparing all your hardware 32 Launching Final Cut Pro 34 Choosing an initial setup 35 Working with Projects and Sequences 37 Saving and autosaving projects 38 Setting up the Autosave feature 39 Managing projects 40 Adjusting Your Project and Sequence Settings 42 Choosing a different Easy Setup 44 Choosing a different preset 44 Creating new presets 44 Chapter 3: All About HD (High Definition) 47 What Is HD? 48 Supersharp image quality 48 Wide-screen aspect ratio 49 The many flavors of HD 49 How Final Cut Works with HD 51 The way things were 51 Final Cut Pro HD makes HD easy 51 Creating DVCPRO HD Video 53 Affordable HD Cameras — the Good and the Bad News 53 Part II: Importing and Organizing Your Media 57 Chapter 4: Capturing Media from Tape 59 Connecting a DV Camera or Deck 60 Understanding Timecode 61 Capturing in the Log and Capture Window 61 Navigating through a DV tape 62 Describing and capturing video — the long way 64 Logging clips 66 Changing your logging bin 67 Capturing the video — the short way 68 Locating captured clips 70 Letting Final Cut Pro Find Scenes for You 72 Capturing over Timecode Breaks 73 Batch-Capturing Clips 75 Chapter 5: Importing Media That’s Already on Your Mac 77 Your Media Files Are Welcome Here 77 Some Media May Need Rendering 78 Importing Your Media into Final Cut Pro 79 Importing one or more files at a time 80 Importing a folder full of files (or other folders) 81 Importing files by dragging them from the Finder 82 Importing music tracks directly from a CD 83 Importing Photoshop files (layers and all) 84 Converting MP3 (and Other Kinds of Audio) with QuickTime Pro 86 Chapter 6: Organizing Your Media 91 Working in the Browser 91 Using bins 93 Viewing clips as icons or in lists 93 Figuring Out the Browser Icons 95 Using Browser Columns 96 Understanding the column headings 97 Sorting clips by column 98 Working with column headings 98 Changing names and settings in a column 99 Making Copies of Clips 100 Adding Transitions and Effects to the Favorites Bin 101 Finding Clips Fast 102 Searching by clip name 102 More-powerful searches 103 Dealing with Offline Media 104 Recapturing deleted clips 106 Reconnecting an offline clip 106 Part III: Editing Your Media 109 Chapter 7: Editing Basics 111 Understanding the Editing Process 111 Getting to know the Timeline 113 Playing back video: The Viewer and Canvas windows 114 Looking at timecode data in the Viewer and Canvas 116 Moving Clips to the Timeline 117 Inserting and overwriting 117 Choosing the right track on the Timeline 119 Using a shortcut to insert and overwrite 120 Setting a clip’s In and Out points in the Viewer 120 Recycling a clip by changing its In and Out points 122 Selecting Clips on the Timeline 122 Moving a Clip That’s Already on the Timeline 125 Overwriting a moved clip 125 Swapping a moved clip 125 Inserting or overwriting a copied clip 126 Speeding Editing with Snapping 127 Resizing Clips That Are Already on the Timeline 127 Resizing clips directly on the Timeline 128 Resizing clips in the Viewer window 129 Understanding the limitations of resizing clips 131 Cutting a Clip in Two 132 Deleting Clips from the Timeline 134 Using lift edits and ripple deletes 135 Deleting a range of frames on multiple tracks 136 Chapter 8: Getting to Know the Timeline 137 Investigating Timeline Tracks 137 Locking tracks so that they can’t be changed 138 Muting and soloing audio tracks 140 Hiding video tracks so that they don’t play 141 Setting up destination tracks on the Timeline 141 Adding and deleting tracks from the Timeline 144 Customizing Your View of the Timeline 147 Making Timeline tracks big and small 148 Customizing other Timeline stuff 149 Navigating the Timeline 154 Moving the playhead anywhere on the Timeline 154 Moving the playhead linearly through the Timeline 155 Zooming In and Out of the Timeline 156 Some Timeline Details 158 Chapter 9: Editing Wizardry 161 Going Beyond Insert and Overwrite Edits 161 Replace edits 161 The Match Frame feature 163 Fit-to-fill edits 165 Superimpose edits 166 Splitting Video and Audio Edits 167 Splitting edits from the Viewer 168 Splitting edits on the Timeline 169 Using Advanced Editing Tools 170 Resizing clips with roll and ripple edits 171 Slip-slidin’ clips 175 Using Markers to Highlight Important Moments 179 Setting markers 179 Renaming, deleting, and designating markers 182 Searching for markers 183 Playing a Clip Backward 184 Changing a Clip’s Speed 185 Setting a constant speed 186 Setting a variable speed 187 Stopping Action with a Freeze Frame 191 Nesting a Sequence into Another Sequence 192 Adding a Voice-Over to a Sequence 193 Part IV: Adding Pizzazz 197 Chapter 10: Audio Excellence 199 Some Audio Basics 200 Capturing and maintaining high-quality audio 200 Understanding stereo and mono audio 201 Rendering audio 202 Three Ways to Set Volume Levels 204 Changing the volume of audio clips in the Viewer 205 Adjusting the volume of clips on the Timeline 210 Mixing with the Audio Mixer 212 Panning an Audio Clip 217 Creating Audio Transitions 219 Working with Audio Filters 221 Applying an audio filter and changing its parameters 221 Changing filter parameters over time with keyframes 223 Disabling and deleting filters 226 Getting quick access to your favorite filters 226 Exploring Audio Filters 226 Equalization filters 227 Echoes and reverberations 227 Compression and expansion filters 228 Noise-reduction filters 229 Copying and Removing Audio Attributes 229 Chapter 11: Composing a Soundtrack 231 Getting Started 232 Installing and launching 232 A quick overview of the interface 233 Creating Your Soundtrack 235 Getting video into soundtrack 235 Establishing your score’s master settings 238 Finding the right loops 239 Editing loops on the Timeline 241 Looking at your Timeline options 244 Changing volume, pan, and key 245 Other Stuff 249 Markers mark important moments 249 Applying effects 251 Making your own loops and one-shots 252 Exporting Your Score 252 Chapter 12: Creating Transitions 255 Exploring the Types of Transitions in Final Cut Pro 255 Applying Your First Transition 257 Looking at the Many Ways to Apply Transitions 259 Dragging transitions from the Browser to the edit point on the Timeline 260 Using the keyboard shortcut 260 Copying and pasting a transition 261 Editing Clips and Adding Transitions 261 Rendering Transitions 263 Rendering a single transition 263 Rendering all transitions in a range 264 Modifying Transitions 264 Changing the duration of a transition 264 Changing the alignment of a transition 266 Moving transitions 267 Replacing and removing transitions 267 Fading In and Out 267 Saving and Organizing Custom Transitions 268 Using the Transition Editor to Customize a Transition 269 Chapter 13: Adding Text to Your Videos 271 Formatting Text for Display on a TV 271 Selecting the right font size 272 Avoiding thick and thin 272 Using textures and colors sparingly 273 Getting Started with a Text Generator 274 Creating Text with Final Cut Pro 275 Creating text and adding it to a video 275 Understanding the options on the Controls tab 279 Touring the text generators 282 Creating titles on colored backgrounds 285 Creating Titles with LiveType 286 Exporting a movie from Final Cut Pro to use with LiveType 287 Using LiveType to create a new title 288 Using Titles and Text Created Outside Final Cut Pro 291 Working with Photoshop and Final Cut Pro 291 Preparing Photoshop Text for Final Cut Pro 292 Chapter 14: Special Effects with Filters and Color Correction 295 Shooting Video with Effects in Mind 296 Making a Colored Clip Black and White 296 Getting That Old, Grainy Video Look 298 Changing Colors 300 Using mattes 300 Using the RGB Balance tool 302 Working with Color-Correction Tools 304 Selecting and changing the color of an object 307 Copying color-correction settings to other clips 309 Fixing or Adjusting Exposures 309 Comparing Results with the Frame Viewer 312 Checking Out More Handy Filters 313 Blurring the Action 315 Saving and Applying Customized Filters 316 Chapter 15: Motion Effects 319 Manipulating Images in Wireframe Mode 319 Scaling, rotating, and moving images 321 Cropping or distorting an image 322 Working in Wireframe mode in the Viewer 323 Changing Images with the Motion Tab 324 Using Keyframes to Change Motion Settings over Time 326 Using keyframes to set clip opacity 327 Editing existing keyframes 329 Using keyframes to set other motion values 329 Editing motion keyframes 332 Creating a Multiple-Screen Effect 333 Chapter 16: Compositing 337 Choosing a Composite Mode 338 Applying a Composite Mode 340 Understanding Alpha Channels 342 Compositing with Mattes and Keys 342 Creating a simple matte 343 Compositing with keys 347 Tips for getting clean keys 350 Part V: Outputting Your Masterpiece 353 Chapter 17: Recording to Tape 355 Setting Up for Recording 355 Looking out for dropped frames! 357 Recording to DV tape with a camera or deck 358 Recording to VHS 358 Recording to Tape 361 Recording directly from the Timeline 361 Printing to video 363 Editing to tape 365 Editing Online versus Offline 369 Chapter 18: Exporting Your Movie to a Digital File 371 Working with QuickTime Video 372 Getting to Know Codecs 373 Looking at the Video Codecs 374 Looking at the Audio Codecs 376 Knowing Your Data Rates 377 Export Away! 378 Exporting a Batch of Movies 381 Easy Exporting with the Compressor Application 383 Exporting video from Final Cut Pro using Compressor 384 Batch-exporting sequences with Compressor 386 Part VI: The Part of Tens 389 Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Editor 391 Try Out the Final Cut Pro Tutorials 391 Study (Don’t Just Watch) Movies and Commercials 392 Practice on Someone Else’s Real-World Footage 392 Go Online and Find a Community 392 Join a Final Cut Pro User Group 393 Upgrade Your Hardware 393 Upgrade Your Software 394 Curl Up with a Good Book 395 Chapter 20: Almost Ten Tips for Managing Big Projects 397 Keep Your Media Files Organized 398 Use Bins — Lotsa Bins! 398 Keep Your Clip Names Informative 399 Document Your Clips 400 Use the Find Feature 401 Stay Oriented with Markers 401 Break Scenes into Sequences and Nest ’em Together 403 Save on Hard Drive Space 403 Index 407