Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 User Guide

							 Chapter 10    Advanced editing 3 51
In the case of video-only or audio-only cuts and switches, the edit point can be mixed (with 
both black and white dotted lines). For example, when you cut and switch video only, you see 
a black dotted line for the video and a white dotted line for the audio. 
Black dotted lines indicate that different angles from the same multicam clip are 
on either side of the edit point.
A white dotted line indicates 
that the same angle is on 
either side of the edit point.
 •When you move the pointer over a multicam through edit, the pointer changes to the Trim 
tool, indicating that the edit will be a roll edit (because any other type of edit breaks the 
relationship between the clips on either side of the cut and switch edit point in the Timeline).
 •Many edits (such as split edits, markers, connected clips, and retiming effects) remain in 
place on a multicam clip in the Timeline even after you switch the angle. But certain editing 
operations are associated directly with the specific angle and are not retained when you 
switch angles: 
 •Video and audio effects
 •Keyframing (including audio volume and panning)
 •Role assignments
Switch angles in the Timeline 
 1 In the Timeline, Control-click the multicam clip you want to switch.
 2 Do one of the following: 
 •To switch the video angle: Choose Active Video Angle from the shortcut menu, and choose the 
angle you want to switch to from the submenu.
 •To switch the audio angle: Choose Active Audio Angle from the shortcut menu, and choose the 
angle you want to switch to from the submenu.
The clip switches to the video or audio angle you chose.
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Switch angles in the Inspector
Switching angles in the Inspector allows you to switch angles for multiple selected multicam 
clips at once.
 1 Select one or more multicam clips that you want to switch.
 2 Open the Info inspector.
 3 In the Info inspector, do one of the following:
 •To switch the video angle: In the Active Video Angle pop-up menu, choose the angle you want 
to switch to.
 •To switch the audio angle: In the Active Audio Angle pop-up menu, choose the angle you want 
to switch to.
 Display the names of the active video and audio angles in the Timeline
You can have Final Cut Pro display the names of the active video angle and the active audio 
angle in the multicam clip in the Timeline, in the following format: V: video angle name | A: audio 
angle name.
Active video angle
Active audio angle
 m Click the Clip Appearance button in the lower-right corner of the Timeline and choose Clip 
Names or Angles from the Show pop-up menu.
 Remove multicam through edit points
 mTo remove an individual multicam through edit: Select it and press Delete.
 mTo remove multiple through edits at once: Select the edit points (or select the clips on both sides of 
the through edits) and choose Trim > Join Clips.
Multicam editing tips and tricks
The following tips can help you streamline your multicam workflow:
 •Set the date, the time, and the time zone on your camcorder or recording device before you 
shoot footage for your multicam project. This provides useful information to Final Cut Pro 
during the automatic multicam clip creation process.
Note:  At any time, you can change the Content Created date and time of your source clips in 
the Browser. Just select one or more clips and choose Modify > Adjust Content Created Date 
and Time.
 •Because you can use the sophisticated automatic audio sync feature in Final Cut Pro to 
help ensure multicam synchronization accuracy, it makes sense to record audio on every 
camcorder and recording device in your multicam production. (Clear audio recordings provide 
the best results.)
 •Before you edit multicam clips in the Angle Editor, duplicate them in the Browser to maintain 
clean backup copies.
 •To double-check the synchronization of individual angles in a multicam clip, open the clip in 
the Angle Editor and turn on audio monitoring for two or more angles at a time. You will hear 
immediately if the angles are in sync or if you need to adjust them further.
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 •If performance becomes an issue while you’re working on a multicam project, do any of the 
following: 
 •Set Final Cut Pro to use proxy media by choosing Proxy in the Media section of the Viewer 
Options pop-up menu (in the upper-right corner of the Viewer). Proxy playback allows you 
to play back more angles at a time. To use proxy playback, you must have proxy versions of 
your media available, or you must create proxy versions. For more information, see Manage 
optimized and proxy media files
 on page 425.
 •Make sure that “Create optimized media for multicam clips” is selected in Playback 
preferences. For more information, see Playback preferences
 on page 443 . This option 
transcodes video to the Apple ProRes 422 codec format, which provides better performance 
during multicam editing. This option is turned on by default. If the original camera format 
can be edited with good performance, you can deselect this checkbox.
 •Make sure that the hard disk holding your multicam source clips is fast enough to play back 
all of your media at once. You can check hard disk performance by choosing Final Cut Pro > 
Preferences and selecting “Warn when frames are dropped due to hard disk performance.” 
To find out if something else is causing playback issues, select “Warn when dropping frames 
during playback.” 
 •You can use photos (from a still camera) in a multicam clip. If the date and time (Content 
Created) information matches the contents of the other angles, the photos are automatically 
adjusted in duration to “fill in” the angle.
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							  354
Keying
Keying overview
There are times when you need to combine two clips to create an image with bits of both. A 
common way to combine two clips is to use a keying process, where the video of the top, or 
foreground, clip is processed to eliminate either a color or luma value in areas of the video and 
then is combined with the bottom, or background, clip.
For example, keying allows you to take a video clip of a person standing in front of a green 
background and replace that green with a street scene, making it appear as though that person 
is standing on the street.
This type of keying is accomplished using one of two keyer effects in Final Cut Pro:
 •Keyer : This general purpose chroma-keying effect is optimized for blue- or green-screen keying 
but can key any range of color you choose. See Use chroma keys
 on page 355 .
 •Luma Keyer: This is designed to generate mattes based on the image’s lightness—you choose 
to remove the white or black areas and whether or not the gray areas should be partially 
transparent. See Use luma keys
 on page 363 .
In addition to these keying effects, you may need to use a matte, a positioning effect, and color 
correction to ensure the foreground video looks natural when keyed over the background. For 
more information, see Finalize the key
 on page 368.
Another way to combine two clips is for the foreground clip to have an alpha or matte 
channel that defines which parts of the foreground clip to keep and which to replace with the 
background clip. This is common when working with computer-generated logos or animated 
graphics. For more information, see Compositing overview
 on page 372 .
Keying and compositing
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Use chroma keys
A challenging part of creating a good chroma key is shooting the chroma key video, and in 
particular, using a good, well-lit background that provides a uniform color to remove. A wide 
variety of specialized chroma key background options are available, from chroma key paint 
that includes highly reflective additives to chroma key cloth or paper sheets. Additionally, it is 
important to use the best camera you can access and avoid using a highly compressed video 
format such as DV or MPEG-2.
For the following examples, this woman will be keyed over a street scene. The light stands will be 
handled in Finalize the key
 on page 368.
Apply the chroma key effect
 1 In the Timeline, add the foreground clip (the chroma key clip with the color you want to remove) 
to the primary storyline.
 2 Drag the background clip (the clip you want to superimpose the chroma key clip over) so that it 
is connected below the foreground clip in the primary storyline.
Foreground
Background 
attached as a 
connected clip
For more information about connected clips, see Connect clips to add cutaway shots, titles, and 
synchronized sound effects
 on page 10 3.
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 3 Select the foreground clip in the Timeline, and click the Effects button in the toolbar.
Tip:  For best results, also position the playhead at a point within the foreground clip that shows 
the maximum amount of the color to be keyed.
 4 In the Effects Browser, select the Keyer effect.
Tip:  Type “keyer” in the Effects Browser’s search field to quickly find the Keyer effect.
 5 Do one of the following:
 •Drag the effect to the Timeline foreground clip to which you want to apply it.
 •Double-click the effect thumbnail to apply it to the selected clip.
The Keyer effect automatically analyzes the video to detect a green or blue dominant color 
and configures itself to remove that color. If the resulting key is not right or you would like to 
improve it, you can adjust the chroma key effect.
Adjust the chroma key effect
The following steps assume you have applied the chroma key effect.
 1 In the Timeline, select the foreground clip with the Keyer effect, and open the Video inspector.
Controls for modifying and improving the Keyer effect appear.
 2 If the Select tool is not the active tool, choose it from the Tools pop-up menu in the toolbar (or 
press A).
 3 To improve the key using controls in the Viewer, use the Refine Key and Strength controls to do 
any of the following:
 •To identify areas of the foreground clip that might still have some of the chroma key color showing: 
Click the Sample Color thumbnail image in the Video inspector and draw a rectangle in the 
Viewer over the area where the chroma key color needs to be removed.
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Note:  By default, the Keyer effect applies spill removal, which causes any leftover fringing of 
the blue- or green-screen background color you’re making transparent to appear as gray. To 
see the original color, set the Spill Level parameter to 0%.
Drag over an area where the chroma key color 
is not being removed.
To improve the key, you can drag the rectangle to adjust its position or drag its corners to 
change its size, and you can drag additional rectangles over any areas with the chroma key 
color still showing.
Tip:  Select Matte (the center button) in the View area in the Video inspector to see the matte 
that the chroma keyer is creating. This can make it much easier to see areas that are not 
keying well.
 •To refine any difficult areas, such as hair and reflections: Click the Edges thumbnail image in 
the Video inspector, draw a line across the difficult area in the Viewer (with one end in the 
area to keep and the other in the area to remove), and drag the line’s handle to adjust the 
edge softness.
Drag to set the edge softness.
You can use the following keyboard shortcuts to work directly in the Viewer:
 •To make a Sample Color adjustment: Draw a rectangle while holding down the Shift key.
 •To make an Edges adjustment: Draw a line while holding down the Command key.
 •To delete a Sample Color or Edges adjustment: Click a Sample Color rectangle or Edges line 
while holding down the Option key, or select the control and press the Delete key.
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 •To choose a different color if the Keyer effect chose the wrong color: Set the Strength parameter 
to 0 (to override the automatic initial color sampling). Then use Sample Color to choose the 
color to remove. Select Composite (the left button) in the View area to see the foreground clip 
combined with the background clip.
 •To adjust how strongly the Keyer matches a color in the foreground image to the default chroma 
key color: Use the Strength slider to adjust the tolerance (core transparency) of the Keyer 
effect’s automatic sampling. The default value is 100%. Reducing this value narrows the range 
of color sampled, resulting in less transparency in the keyed image. Increasing the Strength 
value expands the range of color sampled, resulting in more transparency in the keyed image. 
The Strength parameter is useful to retrieve areas of semitransparent detail such as hair, 
smoke, or reflections.
 4 To help fine-tune the key, use the View options:
Original (unprocessed 
foreground)
Matte (foreground-based 
alpha signal created 
by the keyer)
The name of the currently 
selected View button
Composite (foreground combined with background)
 •Composite: Shows the final composited image, with the keyed foreground subject over the 
background clip. This is the default view.
 •Matte: Shows the grayscale matte, or alpha channel, that’s being generated by the keying 
operation. White areas are solid (the foreground video is opaque), black areas are transparent 
(the foreground is not seen at all), and varying shades of gray indicate varying levels 
of transparency (the background video can be seen mixed with the foreground video). 
Viewing the matte makes it easier to spot unwanted holes in the key or areas that aren’t 
transparent enough.
 •Original: Shows the original, unkeyed foreground image.
 5 To further refine the matte, use the following controls:
 •Fill Holes: Increasing this parameter value adds solidity to regions of marginal transparency 
within a key. This control is useful when you’re satisfied with the edges of your key, but you 
have unwanted holes in the interior that you can’t eliminate via the Strength parameter 
without ruining your edges.
 •Edge Distance: Lets you adjust how close to the edge of your keyed subject the effect of the Fill 
Holes parameter gets. Reducing this parameter value brings the filled area of the matte closer 
to the edge of the subject, sacrificing translucency at the edges. Raising this parameter value 
pushes the filled area of the matte farther from the edge. Too much edge distance can result 
in unwanted translucency within parts of the subject that should be solid.
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 6 To suppress any of the background color that is appearing (spilling) on the foreground image, 
adjust the Spill Level control.
 7 To reverse the keying operation, retaining the background color and removing the foreground 
image, select Invert.
 8 To mix the keyed effect with the unkeyed effect, adjust the Mix control.
For information about making advanced chroma key adjustments, see the following instructions.
Make advanced chroma key adjustments
The following controls are available for use in difficult keying situations or for fine-tuning specific 
problems:
 •Color Selection: These controls are meant to be used after you begin creating a key using 
automatic sampling or the Sample Color and Edges tools. (However, you can skip those tools 
and create a key using Manual mode, described below.) The graphical Chroma and Luma 
controls provide a detailed way of refining the range of hue, saturation, and image lightness 
that define the keyed matte.
 •Matte Tools: These controls are for refining the transparency matte generated by the previous 
sets of parameters. These parameters don’t alter the range of values sampled to create the 
keyed matte. Instead, they alter the matte generated by the Keyer effect’s basic and advanced 
controls, letting you shrink, expand, soften, or invert the matte to achieve a better composite.
 •Light Wrap: These controls are for blending color and lightness values from the background 
layer of your composite with the keyed foreground layer. Using these controls, you can 
simulate the interaction of environmental lighting with the keyed subject, making it appear as 
if background light wraps around the edges of a subject.
The following steps assume you have applied the chroma key effect.
 1 In the Timeline, select the foreground clip with the Keyer effect, and open the Video inspector.
Controls for modifying and improving the Keyer effect appear.
 2 Click Color Selection to reveal the following controls: 
 •Graph: Provides two options to set how the adjustable graphs in the Chroma and Luma 
controls are used to fine-tune a key:
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 •Scrub Boxes: Select to limit the Chroma and Luma controls to adjusting softness (edge 
transparency) in the matte you are creating. In this mode, you cannot manually adjust 
tolerance (core transparency), which is determined by the Keyer effect’s automatic sampling, 
plus any Sample Color rectangles you’ve added in the Viewer. ( To increase matte tolerance, 
add more Sample Color rectangles or adjust the Strength slider.)
 •Manual: Select to use the Chroma and Luma controls to adjust the softness (edge 
transparency) and tolerance (core transparency) in the matte you are creating. Make sure the 
Strength slider is set to a value greater than 0 before you switch to Manual mode; otherwise 
the Chroma and Luma controls are disabled. When you switch to Manual mode, the Refine 
Key tools and Strength slider become disabled, but samples you’ve made with those 
controls continue to contribute to the matte.
Important:  When you switch to Manual mode, it’s best not to switch back to Scrub Boxes 
mode. For best results, begin keying an image using the Sample Color and Edges tools in 
Scrub Boxes mode. Switch to Manual mode afterward if you feel it’s necessary to refine your 
matte using the Chroma and Luma controls. However, if you switch back to Scrub Boxes mode, 
you may experience unexpected combinations of additionally sampled and keyframed values 
that might be difficult to control.
 •Chroma: Drag the two graphs in this color wheel control to adjust the isolated range of hue 
and saturation that help define the keyed matte. The selected mode governs which graphs 
in the color wheel are adjustable. The outer graph controls the softness (edge transparency) 
of the matte you’re creating, and can be adjusted in either Scrub Boxes or Manual mode. The 
inner graph controls tolerance (core transparency), and is only adjustable when in Manual 
mode. Drag any side of either graph to expand or contract the graph’s border, which adds to 
or subtracts from the range of hue and saturation contributing to the key. In Manual mode, 
you can also drag inside the tolerance graph to adjust its overall position in the color wheel. 
To the left of the color wheel, a small graph displays the slope of chroma rolloff, the relative 
softness of matte edges in regions most affected by the Chroma control. Dragging the Chroma 
Rolloff slider (described below) modifies the shape of this slope.
Tip:  It’s possible to zoom in to and pan around the Chroma control to more precisely adjust 
the graphs. To zoom in to the Chroma control, move the pointer over the color wheel, and, 
holding down the Z key, drag to the left to zoom out or to the right to zoom in. To pan in the 
Chroma control, hold down the H key and drag in the color wheel in the direction you want 
to move it. To reset the zoom and recenter the Chroma control, move the pointer over the 
Chroma control and press Shift-Z.
 •Luma: Drag the adjustable handles in this grayscale gradient to modify the isolated range 
of the luma channel (the range of lightness and darkness) that also helps define the keyed 
matte. The upper handles (which appear only in Manual mode) adjust the tolerance (core 
transparency) of the luma channel’s contribution to the key. The lower handles adjust the 
softness (edge transparency) of the luma channel’s contribution to the key. The Graph mode 
governs which handles are adjustable. In Scrub Boxes mode, you can adjust only the lower 
softness handles, which modify the range of lightness and darkness affecting the edge 
transparency of the matte. In Manual mode, you can also adjust the upper tolerance handles, 
which modify core transparency within the luma channel of the matte. By default, the slope of 
the left and right sides of the Luma graph has a slight “S” curve. You can modify the shape of 
the curve by adjusting the Luma Rolloff slider (described below).
Note:  The luma softness handles may extend past the outer boundaries of the Luma control. 
This is due to the floating-point precision of the Keyer effect and is expected behavior. To 
reveal and move out-of-bounds handles, drag the slope line of the Luma graph.
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