Apple rolled out major improvements to Final Cut Pro X on Tuesday that promise to make life a little easier for remote video editors. The changes are designed to speed up workflows and enhance portability.
Here are all the changes this update brings.
“Now, more than ever before, users are editing remotely across a wide range of locations,” Apple explains in a press release published today.
“Today’s update to Final Cut Pro includes major improvements to proxy workflows that make libraries more portable and streamline remote work with large, high-resolution files.”
Final Cut Pro X users can look forward to enhancement to proxy workflows, automated tools for social media content creation, editorial workflow improvements, and more.
Final Cut Pro X is better than ever on the go
One of the biggest enhancements is the ability for video editors to create proxies in either ProRes Proxy or H.264 in dimensions as small as 12.5% of the original. They can also consolidate all their media files, including images and audio, to an external or network drive.
What’s more, it’s now possible for a Final Cut Pro Library to be relinked to existing proxies that have already been created.
When creating content for social media, editors now have automated cropping tools that make the final steps in the process easier than ever. Final Cut Pro X uses machine learning to identify dominant motion and intelligently crop a video into a square, circle, or more.
Photo: Apple
A new tool called Transform Overscan allows editors to see media outside the crop boundary when adjusting scale, rotation, and position so they can fine-tune the crop for the best finish.
New workflow improvements
“Video professionals can now work even more efficiently with a series of new workflow improvements in Final Cut Pro,” Apple adds.
ProRes RAW camera settings, including ISO, color temperature, and exposure offset are now displayed in the inspector where they’re easier to find. Other improvements include:
- Audio crossfades can be applied to adjacent clips in one step.
- A new context menu makes it easy to close a project or clear timeline history.
- Clips and projects in List View can be sorted by the last date each file was modified.
- When editing 360-degree videos, stereoscopic 3D video can be quickly stabilized. It can also be viewed in the 360-degree Viewer with separate streams for each eye.
Apple has also made “significant performance improvements” to Metal-enabled plug-ins for RED RAW and Canon Cinema RAW Light. Transcoding an 8K RED RAW video to ProRes 422 is up to two times faster on Mac Pro, and up to three times faster on MacBook Pro.
Upgrades to Motion and Compressor
Finally, there are some changes and improvements to Motion and Compressor. Creators can now import third-party 3D models for the first time, or choose them from a built-in 3D models library.
Photo: Apple
“They can even use behaviors or keyframes to manipulate the position, rotation, and scale of a model, and take advantage of existing replicators, emitters, lights, and cameras for further creativity,” Apple says.
Motion also gets a new Stroke Filter, which automatically outlines an object or text element using its alpha channel. Editors can then use those outlines to animate their offset, apply multiple stroke filters, or use gradient tools to create multiple strokes with different colors.
Get Final Cut Pro X today
All of these changes and improvements can be found in the latest Final Cut Pro X update, available to download today through the Mac App Store. It’s free for existing owners of the app, or a $299.99 purchase for newcomers. Motion and Compressor are available for $49.99 each.
Apple is still offering a free trial of Final Cut Pro X for new users. You can sign up for it via the company’s website.
