Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 User Guide

							 Chapter 7    Edit your project 151
 •To indicate that a to-do item is completed: Select the Completed checkbox.
The marker turns green.
To-Do Item button
Select the Completed checkbox.
 •To make the marker a standard marker: Click the Standard Marker button.
The marker turns blue.
 3 Click Done.
Move or copy a marker
You can move or copy markers with the familiar Mac commands Cut, Copy, and Paste.
 1 Control-click the marker you want to move or copy, and choose an option from the 
shortcut menu.
 •To move the marker: Choose Cut Marker.
 •To copy the marker: Choose Copy Marker.
 2 Position the skimmer or the playhead where you want to move or copy the marker.
 3 Choose Edit > Paste (or press Command-V ).
The marker appears at the new location.
Nudge a marker one frame at a time
 1 Click a marker to select it.
 2 Do one of the following:
 •To nudge the marker one frame to the right: Choose Mark > Markers > Nudge Marker Right, or 
press Control-Period (.).
 •To nudge the marker one frame to the left: Choose Mark > Markers > Nudge Marker Left, or press 
Control-Comma (,).
Move between markers
You can move quickly from marker to marker in the Timeline or the Browser.
 m To go to the next marker: Choose Mark > Next > Marker, or press Control-Apostrophe (‘).
 mTo go to the previous marker: Choose Mark > Previous > Marker, or press Control-Semicolon (;).
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Manage chapter markers and their thumbnail images
Chapter markers are a standard feature in DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and podcasts. You can add chapter 
markers to your project so that when you share your finished movie, viewers can use the 
markers to quickly jump to those points in the movie. Applications and devices that recognize 
Final Cut Pro chapter markers during playback include iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, 
QuickTime Player, DVD Player, and most standard DVD and Blu-ray players.
Chapter markers make it easy for viewers to skip ahead to the section they want. They also allow 
Compressor, Apple’s professional transcoding application, and other DVD and Blu-ray authoring 
applications to create a navigable chapter list or menu, such as a chapter index menu. But even 
in simple projects without menus (such as podcasts), chapter markers provide viewers and 
listeners with the ability to quickly skip through sections of a program by using the Previous and 
Next buttons on their playback application or device.
A chapter marker thumbnail
 is a still image that represents a particular chapter. Final Cut Pro 
allows you to choose a specific video frame from the clip or storyline you’re marking as the 
chapter marker thumbnail image. In supported playback applications or devices, the chapter 
marker thumbnail images represent their corresponding chapters.
Create a chapter marker
 1 Add a marker to a clip in the Timeline where you want the chapter to begin.
By default, Final Cut Pro creates a blue standard marker.
 2 To change the marker to a chapter marker, double-click it and, when the marker’s information 
appears, click the Chapter Marker button.
Standard Marker buttonChapter Marker button
To-Do Item button
The marker changes to an orange chapter marker.
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Set the chapter marker thumbnail image
After you set a chapter marker, you can choose an appropriate video frame to represent that 
particular chapter.
 1 Click the chapter marker once in the Timeline to select it.
The marker enlarges slightly to show that it’s selected, and a chapter marker thumbnail pin 
appears to the right of the selected chapter marker. By default, the chapter marker thumbnail pin 
appears 11 frames after the chapter marker. 
Chapter marker
Chapter marker 
thumbnail pin
 2 To set the video frame for the chapter marker thumbnail image, drag the pin left or right in 
the Timeline.
As you drag, the Viewer displays the corresponding video frame.
Drag the pin left or right in the Timeline.
Note:  The chapter marker thumbnail image is the composited image from that location in the 
Timeline and includes titles and any other superimposed imagery.
If the chapter marker is in the primary storyline, you can drag the chapter marker thumbnail 
pin as far as the beginning or the end of the primary storyline. If the chapter marker is in a 
connected storyline, you can drag the chapter marker thumbnail pin as far as the beginning or 
the end of the connected storyline.
For information about sharing your completed movie, see Sharing projects overview
 on 
page 399 .
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							 Chapter 7    Edit your project 15 4
Correct excessive shake and rolling shutter issues
You can smooth a clip’s shaky footage by correcting the stabilization, rolling shutter, or both.
The stabilization feature in Final Cut Pro reduces the camera motion in your video so that shaky 
parts can be played back more smoothly. At any time, you can turn off stabilization for any clip so 
that it plays as originally recorded.
Many camcorders and still cameras include CMOS image sensors that expose the picture they’re 
recording progressively, instead of all at once. As a result, if the camera moves a lot during recording, 
or if the camera is recording fast motion, image distortion can occur. This causes the picture to appear 
wobbly or skewed. Final Cut Pro has a rolling shutter feature that can reduce this motion distortion. 
Fix a clip with excessive shake or rolling shutter distortion
 1 If the clip is not already in your project, add it to the Timeline and select it.
Note:  These operations act on whole clip selections, not on range selections. To get the highest-
quality and fastest results, isolate the problem section by cutting the clip with the Blade tool in 
the Timeline. Then apply the correction to just the video footage that needs correcting.
 2 To open the Video inspector, click the Inspector button in the toolbar (shown below), and click 
the Video button at the top of the pane that appears.
 3 In the Video inspector, do any of the following:
 •To reduce the shake: Select the Stabilization checkbox.
 •To reduce rolling shutter distortion: Select the Rolling Shutter checkbox.
When you turn on Stabilization or Rolling Shutter, its checkbox turns blue.
 4 To view the fix, play the clip in the Timeline.
To turn off stabilization or rolling shutter corrections for a clip, deselect the Stabilization or 
Rolling Shutter checkbox.
You can refine the corrections by adjusting the stabilization settings or the Rolling Shutter 
Amount setting.
Adjust stabilization settings
You can adjust how much of a correction is applied by the stabilization feature.
The stabilization feature has two independent phases:
 •When you apply the stabilization feature to a clip, Final Cut Pro analyzes the pixels in 
successive frames to determine the direction of camera movement.
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 •During playback and rendering, Final Cut Pro uses the motion analysis data to apply a 
transform effect to each frame, compensating for camera movement.
Use any of the three independent stabilization parameter sliders in the Video inspector to control 
the steadiness of your shot. When you apply stabilization to a clip, all three parameters are set to an 
average value of 2.5 by default. Each parameter can be set to a value between 0.0 and 5.0. A value 
of 0.0 turns off the parameter, and a value of 5.0 applies the strongest possible transformation. The 
higher you set each parameter, the more camera motion is compensated for in that axis.
x
Translation
y
x
Rotation
y
x
Scale
y z
 1 Select a clip in the Timeline, and open the Video inspector.
 2 Move the pointer over the Stabilization item in the Inspector and click Show to reveal the 
Stabilization settings.
 3 Do any of the following:
 •To adjust left, right, up, and down movement of a shot (x and y axes): Drag the Translation 
Smooth slider.
 •To adjust rotation around the center point of the image: Drag the Rotation Smooth slider.
 •To adjust forward or backward camera or lens movement (z axis): 
Drag the Scale Smooth slider. 
For example, if you want to remove horizontal, vertical, and rotational shake, you should set 
the Translation Smooth and Rotation Smooth parameters to a value above 0. You may need to 
experiment to see which values steady your shot the best.
 4 Optionally, choose a different stabilization method from the Method pop-up menu:
 •Automatic: Allows Final Cut Pro to choose the most appropriate stabilization method.
 •InertiaCam: Applies stabilization optimized for video footage that has camera moves such as 
pans and zooms. Use the Smoothing slider to adjust the amount of the InertiaCam effect.
Note:  When you choose InertiaCam, Final Cut Pro analyzes your video footage and if it 
determines there is an opportunity, it also offers the Tripod Mode checkbox. Select the 
checkbox to create the effect of a static camera that is mounted on a tripod.
 •SmoothCam: Applies the default stabilization method described above, allowing you to adjust 
the translation, rotation, and scale parameters.
Note:  When a clip has too much motion (excessive panning, for example), stabilizing the clip 
may result in black bars on the edges of the video.
To avoid the black bars, you can:
 •Reduce the values for the Translation Smooth, Rotation Smooth, and Scale Smooth parameters.
 •Cut or trim the clip in the Timeline to remove the sections with the most shake. (You can 
locate the sections with excessive shake in the Tags pane of the Timeline Index. Click the 
individual Excessive Shake tags to select the corresponding ranges in the Timeline.)
 •Crop the edges of the stabilized video to remove the black bars.
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							  15 6
Audio overview
Final Cut Pro has many features designed to make processing and editing audio easier. For 
example, you can analyze and automatically enhance audio to address problems such as noise 
or hum, add effects to your clips, sync video and audio clips automatically, and match audio 
between two clips.
Audio-only clipAudio portion of a video clip
You can make the following changes to clips or to audio components within a clip:
 •Edit multiple audio channels: You can expand the audio portion of clips to reveal and edit 
audio components down to the single channel level. This allows you to apply different effects 
to different components or channels, and streamlines the process for making quick sound 
cutouts or other adjustments. See Audio editing overview
 on page 17 0.
 •Adjust volume: Quickly adjust a clip’s volume directly in the Timeline or in the Audio inspector. 
See Adjust volume
 on page 174.
 •Pan audio: Take advantage of built-in pan presets for both stereo and surround sound. See  Pan 
audio
 on page 17 9 .
 •Add audio effects: Add Audio Units effects, Logic Effects, or custom effects included with 
Final Cut Pro, such as reverb, to clips. See Add audio effects on page 19 0 .
 •Add keyframes to automate volume and effects: Vary volume or effect settings as a clip plays. See 
Adjust audio effects using keyframes
 on page 19 5.
 •Fade audio in or out: Fade audio in at the beginning or out at the end of a clip or an audio 
component with easy-to-use fade handles. See Fade audio in or out
 on page 17 6 .
Edit audio
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							 Chapter 8    Edit audio 15 7
You use the same tools used for video editing when you edit audio clips in Final Cut Pro. The 
following editing features are covered elsewhere in Final Cut Pro Help:
 •Change edit mode: Set the edit mode for a clip to video only or audio only. See Add clips using 
video-only or audio-only mode
 on page 11 4.
 •Add markers to clips: Add markers to mark specific reference points within an audio clip. See 
Markers overview
 on page 14 8 .
 •Trim audio: Make precision edits to the audio waveform—for example, to take out an 
unwanted sound in the recording. See  Trimming overview
 on page 12 2.
 •Add audio crossfades: Create a smooth transition when connecting two separate audio 
waveforms. See Add transitions to your project
 on page 214.
 •Use compound clips: Compound clips let you combine any video or audio clips into a single 
compound clip. From an audio standpoint, compound clips let you apply the same audio 
effect or enhancement to a group of clips, similar to applying an effect or adjustment to the 
overall mix. See Compound clips overview
 on page 269 .
 •Export audio: You can export your project as an audio file in either mono, stereo, or surround 
sound. You can also export media by role. See Sharing projects overview
 on page 399.
Audio editing basics
About audio waveforms
Audio waveforms are visual representations of the actual sound. Audio waveforms appear in clips 
in the following ways:
 •As the bottom portion of a video clip, colored blue
 •As a detached or an audio-only clip, colored green
Audio-only clipAudio portion of a video clip
An audio waveform’s amplitude and length change according to the underlying sound’s volume 
and duration. A short, loud sound such as a drum beat has a sharp, peaked waveform, whereas 
low-level crowd noise has a lower, more uniform waveform. These properties make it easier to 
find specific edit points when trimming clips or keyframing effects.
In Final Cut Pro, audio waveforms change according to a clip’s volume level or applied effects. 
The waveform appears larger when the volume is high and smaller when the volume is low.
You edit audio clips in the Timeline by first listening to a clip’s audio through playback and 
skimming, and then applying changes to the clip, using the waveform as a reference.
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							 Chapter 8    Edit audio 15 8
About audio channels and audio components
Audio files can contain a single audio channel or multiple audio channels. Channels usually 
correspond to microphone inputs during recording or to speakers for multichannel output. For 
example, a stereo audio file usually contains left and right channels that match what you hear 
from the left and right speakers during playback.
Final Cut Pro automatically groups channels into audio components according to how the 
channels are configured for the clip. You can expand the audio portion of clips to view and edit 
audio components down to the individual channel level. You can then make separate volume 
or pan adjustments or apply and keyframe different audio effects for each component. For more 
information, see Audio editing overview
 on page 17 0 .
The number of audio components you see corresponds to the number of channels you’ve 
configured in your source clip.
Note:  Many popular digital audio file formats, such as AAC and MP3, use interleaved stereo files, 
which do not contain separate left and right channels. A stereo clip with interleaved left and 
right channels appears as a single audio component in the Audio inspector and the Timeline. If 
you change the clip’s channel configuration from Stereo to Dual Mono, the channels appear as 
two separate audio components.
Audio components
For more information about configuring audio channels, see Configure audio channels on 
page 171 .
Ways to view audio clips
When you work with audio waveforms in the Timeline, you can zoom in or out or change the clip 
appearance to make the waveform taller or shorter.
Final Cut Pro also includes several ways of viewing and working with audio and video within 
clips. You can: 
 •Expand a clip to view and edit audio components down to the individual channel level.
 •Expand a clip to see separate audio and video.
 •Detach audio from a video clip to work on the audio and video as separate clips.
 •Change the background appearance of a clip to show reference waveforms, which make it 
easier to see audio waveforms when the volume is diminished.
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							 Chapter 8    Edit audio 15 9
Show expanded audio components
You can expand the audio portion of clips in Final Cut Pro to view and edit audio components.
You can show expanded audio components for synchronized clips, multicam clips, and 
compound clips.
Do one of the following:
 mSelect the clip in the Timeline, and choose Clip > Expand Audio Components (or press 
Control-Option-S).
 mDouble-click the audio portion of the clip in the Timeline while holding down the Option key.
Normal clip view
Audio components
Collapse audio components
Do one of the following:
 mSelect either the clip or one of its audio components in the Timeline, and choose Clip > Collapse 
Audio Components (or press Control-Option-S).
 mDouble-click any of the audio components in the Timeline while holding down the Option key.
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							 Chapter 8    Edit audio 16 0
Show expanded audio and video
You can view audio and video separately in the same clip in the Timeline by expanding clips that 
have both audio and video. This can be useful if you need to zoom in to the audio portion to 
make edits.
Note:  If you create a split edit so that audio portions overlap, you won’t clearly see the 
overlapped waveforms unless you choose to show expanded audio for split clips.
 m To expand a single clip: Double-click the audio waveform of the clip.
 mTo expand a clip or clips you’ve selected in the Timeline: Choose Clip > Expand Audio/Video (or press 
Control-S).
 mTo expand all clips in the Timeline: Choose View > Expand Audio/Video Clips, and choose for all 
clips or for split clips.
Normal clip view
Clip with expanded audio
When you show expanded audio, the audio and video portions of the clip remain attached to 
each other. To create a separate connected audio clip, detach the audio. You can also use the 
Precision Editor to see a detached view of the video and audio portions of the clip.
Collapse audio and video
You can collapse the expanded audio/video view for a single clip, multiple clips, or all clips in 
the Timeline.
 mTo collapse a single clip: Double-click the audio waveform of the clip.
 mTo collapse a clip or clips you’ve selected in the Timeline: Choose Clip > Collapse Audio/Video (or 
press Control-S).
 mTo collapse all expanded clips in the Timeline: Choose View > Collapse All Clips.
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