Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 User Guide

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Crop clips
The Crop effect makes it easy to remove unwanted areas of the image. It automatically expands 
the cropped image so that it fills the screen.
Adjust the Crop effect
 1 Select a clip in the Timeline.
 2 To access the Crop controls, do one of the following: 
 •Choose Crop from the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the Viewer (or press Shift-C).
 •Control-click in the Viewer and choose Crop from the shortcut menu.
 3 Click the Crop button at the bottom of the Viewer.
 4 To adjust the effect using the onscreen controls:
 •Blue handles at each corner: Drag these to adjust the crop of that corner. The cropped image 
always maintains the original aspect ratio.
 •Anywhere inside the window: Drag anywhere inside the crop window to adjust its position.
Drag a corner handle to 
change the crop window’s 
size (but not its aspect ratio).Drag anywhere inside 
the image to position 
the crop window.
Click Done to crop the image and expand it to full size.
 5 To individually adjust each edge using the Crop area of the Video inspector, use the 
Crop controls.
Note:  While you can use these controls to change the crop window’s aspect ratio, the final image 
still matches the original image’s aspect ratio, with additional content being cropped out so that 
the final image fits the original aspect ratio.
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 6 Click Done to have the crop applied and see the image zoomed to fill the screen.
You can animate the effect, creating the illusion of a pan and zoom camera move (effectively, 
a manual Ken Burns effect). For details on working with built-in effects, see  Work with built-in 
effects
 on page 235.
Pan and zoom clips with the Ken Burns effect
The Ken Burns effect creates a pan and zoom effect using the start and end positions you define. 
The Ken Burns effect is actually a Crop effect with two crop settings, one at the clip start and 
another at its end.
You can further customize the Ken Burns effect by controlling the smoothness of the animation. 
The motion applied to a clip when you create a Ken Burns effect is automatically smoothed so 
that the movement accelerates slowly as the animation starts, and decelerates slowly as the 
clip comes to rest at the end of the animation. This simulates the effects of friction and inertia 
that occur in the real world. In visual effects software, this trick is commonly called ease out and 
ease in.
By default, a Ken Burns animation performs both of these smoothing operations (Ease Out and 
Ease In), but you can customize the effect to limit the result to just easing out, just easing in, or 
making a linear movement with no simulated inertia or friction.
Adjust the Ken Burns effect
 1 Select a clip in the Timeline.
 2 To access the Ken Burns controls, do one of the following: 
 •Choose Crop from the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the Viewer (or press Shift-C).
 •Control-click in the Viewer and choose Crop from the shortcut menu.
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 3 Click the Ken Burns button at the bottom of the Viewer.
Two rectangles appear in the Viewer: a green one that defines the position and size for the start 
of the clip and a red one that defines the position and size for the end of the clip.
Select the green Start or 
red End rectangle to adjust 
the crop size and position.
Click the Swap button to exchange the Start 
and End positions.Click the Play Loop button to play the 
clip in a loop.
The default start and end settings result in a small zoom to the center of the image.
 4 To choose the part of the image that appears at the start of the effect, drag the green handles to 
change the crop size of the image, and drag the window to set its position.
 5 To choose the part of the image that appears at the end of the effect, drag the red handles to 
change the crop size of the image, and drag the window to set its position.
A superimposed arrow shows the direction the image travels when the clip is played.
 6 To have the clip with the effect play in a loop, click the Play Loop button.
 7 To exchange the start and end positions, click the Swap button.
 8 Click Done.
Customize the smoothness of a Ken Burns animation
By default, a Ken Burns animation performs both smoothing operations (Ease Out and Ease In), 
but you can customize the effect.
 1 In the Timeline, select a clip with the Ken Burns effect applied. 
 2 In the Viewer, Control-click anywhere in the image and choose an option from the shortcut menu: 
 •Ease In and Out: Applies the easing effect to the beginning and the end of the animation.
 •Ease In: Limits the easing effect to the end of the animation.
 •Ease Out: Limits the easing effect to the beginning of the animation.
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 •Linear: Removes all easing effects.
Tip:  Use the Crop effect and intermediate keyframes to create a Ken Burns–style effect that 
follows a more complicated path.
For details on working with built-in effects, see  Work with built-in effects
 on page 235.
Skew a clip’s perspective
The Distort effect is similar to the Transform effect, except that you can drag each of the corners 
independently of the others, allowing you to create a skewed look or add a 3D perspective to 
the image.
Note:  The Distort effect alters the shape of the video but does not actually move the video. To 
move the video to a different position, use the Transform effect.
Adjust the Distort effect
 1 Select a clip in the Timeline.
 2 To access the Distort controls, do one of the following: 
 •Choose Distort from the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the Viewer (or press 
Option-D).
 •Control-click in the Viewer and choose Distort from the shortcut menu.
 3 To adjust the effect using the onscreen controls:
 •Blue handles at each corner: Drag these to adjust the position of each corner, adding a 3D 
perspective to the image by making parts of it appear closer to you than other parts.
 •Blue handles in the middle of each side: Drag these to adjust the position of each side. You can 
create a skewed look by dragging them in the same direction as their edge (as opposed to 
toward or away from the center).
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 •Anywhere inside the window: Drag anywhere inside the window to adjust its position.
Drag each corner to set its position.Drag the center handles to set a side’s position.
 4 To individually adjust each corner using the Video inspector, use the Distort controls.
 5 When you are finished adjusting the effect and no longer need the onscreen controls, click Done. 
You can animate the effect and have it appear over a background. For details on working with 
built-in effects, see Work with built-in effects
 on page 235.
Work with built-in effects
Following are ways you can work with built-in effects.
Turn off or reset the effect
 1 Select the clip with the effect in the Timeline.
 2 Do one of the following:
 •To turn off the effect and retain its settings: Click the blue checkbox next to the effect used 
( Transform, Crop, or Distort) in the Video inspector.
You can click the checkbox again to turn the effect back on, making it easy to compare how 
the clip looks with and without the effect.
Move the pointer to this area and click Show to 
see an effect’s settings.
Click a checkbox to turn 
an effect on or off. Click an effect’s icon to show 
or hide its onscreen controls.
Click an effect’s Reset 
button to return its settings 
to their default values.
 •To return all values for that effect to their default state: Click the Reset button .
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 •To turn off the effect in the Video Animation Editor: Open the Video Animation Editor by 
choosing Clip > Show Video Animation (or pressing Control-V ), and click the checkbox next to 
the effect you want to turn off.
Click an effect’s checkbox to turn the effect on or off.
Animate built-in effects
Use keyframes to have the effect’s settings change as the clip plays. This applies to all built-in 
effects except the Ken Burns effect.
 1 Select a clip in the Timeline.
 2 Choose the effect you want to animate from the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of 
the Viewer.
For this example, choose Transform (or press Shift-T ).
 3 Place the Timeline’s playhead at the start of the clip.
 4 Adjust the effect’s onscreen controls to set the start position.
 5 Click the Add Keyframe button in the upper part of the Viewer.
Click the Add Keyframe button to add the first 
keyframe to the animation.
 6 Move the playhead to the end of the clip.
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 7 Adjust the effect’s controls to set the end position.
A keyframe is automatically added. Additionally, for Transform effects, a line showing the image’s 
path appears.
Click the Left Arrow button to jump back 
to the first keyframe.Click Done when you are finished creating 
the animation.
The red line shows the 
path of the image’s center.
 8 To finish, click Done in the upper-right corner of the Viewer.
When you play the clip, the video moves smoothly between the keyframes, creating an animated 
effect. You can actually add multiple keyframes by moving the playhead to a new position and 
changing the effect’s controls. For more information on working with keyframes, see  Video 
animation overview
 on page 258 .
Smooth position keyframes
You can modify the shape of a clip’s path in the Viewer by setting individual keyframes to be 
smooth. This adds a set of Bezier handles that allow you to create intricate, complex shapes and 
enables more control over the way your clips move. You can also remove the curves and the 
handles used to create them by setting a keyframe to be linear.
 1 In the Viewer, select a clip that has keyframes applied. 
To learn how to add keyframes to a clip, see “Animate built-in effect,” above.
 2 Click the Transform button to display the position keyframes.
 3 Control-click any individual keyframe, and choose an option from the shortcut menu:
 •To convert the keyframe to a smooth keyframe: Choose Smooth.
Bezier handles appear, and you can drag those handles to control the curved shape of 
the path.
 •To convert the keyframe to a corner point: Choose Linear.
Bezier handles are removed from the keyframe, and the keyframe becomes a corner point.
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Adjust the Transform effect animation path
Transform animations have additional keyframe controls you can use to fine-tune the animation 
path. To show these, you first need to create a simple three-corner effect.
The Add Keyframe button changes to a Delete Keyframe 
button when you are 
positioned on a keyframe.
The center keyframe
 1 Select a clip in the Timeline and put the playhead at its start.
 2 Choose Transform from the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the Viewer (or press Shift-T ), 
and drag the onscreen controls to reduce the image’s size and place it in the upper-left corner.
 3 Click the Add Keyframe button.
 4 Move the Timeline playhead to the middle of the clip.
 5 Use the Transform onscreen controls to move the image to the upper-right corner.
A keyframe is automatically added, and a red line appears showing the animation’s path so far.
 6 Move the Timeline playhead to the end of the clip.
 7 Use the Transform onscreen controls to move the image to the bottom center.
A keyframe is automatically added, and the red line extends to this new point.
 8 To jump between the keyframes, click the white squares along the red line.
The first and last keyframes have white arrows.
By default, the red line indicates a smooth path (indicated by how it curves).
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 9 To control the curve of the path, click the starting or middle keyframe and drag the 
curve handles.
Drag these handles 
on a middle keyframe to  adjust the path’s curve.
The starting keyframe
The ending keyframe
 10 Control-click a keyframe and choose an option from the shortcut menu:
 •Linear: Use for direct, non-curved paths in and out of that keyframe.
 •Smooth: Use for curved paths in and out of that keyframe, providing a more 
natural movement.
 •Delete Point: Use to delete that keyframe.
 •Lock Point: Use to prevent that keyframe from being adjusted. It changes to Unlock Point 
once set.
 •Disable Point: Use to ignore that keyframe, but keep the keyframe in place in case you want to 
use it later. It changes to Enable Point once set.
Composite effects over a background
Often, Transform, Trim, and Distort effects result in the image being less than full size, with 
the empty areas filled with black. You can replace the black with a background by placing the 
transformed clip over a background clip, known as compositing.
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Do one of the following:
 mAdd a clip to the Timeline as a connected clip and then add the effect to that clip. 
This places the clip above the primary storyline clip, which automatically becomes the 
effect’s background.
A clip that’s composited over the primary storyline
The clip in the primary 
storyline that is the  background
 mIf the clip is already in the primary storyline, drag it above the primary storyline, positioning it 
over the clip you want to be the background.
The result is a composited image.
The Transform and Trim effects were used to composite this 
image over the background.
For more information about working with connected clips, see Add storylines on page 277 . For 
more information about compositing clips, see Compositing overview
 on page 372 .
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