Don’t Call It A Comeback – Apple Releases A Big New Update to Final Cut Pro X

HDVideoPro by Neil Matsumoto

With its release, Final Cut Pro X was widely panned by the professional editing community, who have been leaving their beloved editing system in droves. For most pros, FCP X had the look and feel more in line with iMovie or iPhoto than a professional NLE system. Because of this, Adobe and Avid have been stealing many Final Cut Pro users in the past year with much improved systems of their own.

Well, Apple has been listening closely and today they released Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3, which introduces multicam editing that syncs up to 64 angles of video and photos; advanced chroma keying for handling adjustments in the app; and enhanced XML for an interchange with third party apps and plug-ins that support the Final Cut Pro X ecosystem. The update is free from the Mac App Store. V10.0.3 also includes a beta of broadcast monitoring that supports Thunderbolt devices as well as PCIe cards.

For professional users, one of the big knocks against FCP X was the inability to work on multicam projects. V10.0.3 releases new tools that fix that problem. You can now sync different clips using audio waveforms, time and date, or timecode to create a Multicam Clip with up to 64 angles of video, which can include mixed formats, frame sizes and frame rates. The new Angle Editor gives you more detailed access to your Multicam Clip to make more precise adjustments, and the Angle Viewer lets you play back multiple angles at the same time and perform edits between them.

V10.0.3 also builds upon one-step chroma key by adding more controls, including color sampling, edge adjustment and light wrap. Now, you can work on keying inside Final Cut Pro X, without having to export to a motion graphics application, and see the results in real time. This is a very welcome trend. read more...