Let It Roll: Scrolling in the Timeline

25/06/08 12:40

Too many tracks in your Timeline, and you want to scroll up and down quickly? No need to grab the scroll bar on the right edge if you have a three-button mouse. Put the cursor over the Timeline, and use the third button to scroll up and down. It gets better; hold down the Shift key and you can scroll left and right (if you’re using an Apple Mighty Mouse, just scroll). Don’t stop now—place the cursor over the Viewer or Canvas, and you can scrub backward and forward. If you aren’t impressed yet by Apple’s thoughtful engineers, go try these shortcuts in a bin, on effect sliders, and even in the audio mixer.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

Free Stuff in Motion)

18/06/08 12:40

Looking for an easy to way add backgrounds, textures and other elements to your project without having to break the bank on expensive stock animation libraries? Fortunately the wonderful folks at Apple understand. Motion ships with tons of free content that you can use in your projects (all of it royalty-free).

To access this content from inside Motion choose the Library tab in the Utility pane (Command + 2).
2 Then choose the Content folder from the list.

Welcome to the world of free content!

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

Write It with Motion

11/06/08 12:40

One of the coolest new features in Motion 3 is the ability to use the Paint Stroke Tool to do a very cool write on effect. While there are lots of ways to customize this effect, lets take a look at the basics.

Select the Paint Stroke Tool (P).
2 Make sure your HUD is active (F7). From here you can choose several options, such as brush color, width, pen pressure and pen speed (yes, this works with graphics tablets).
At the bottom of the HUD there is a pull-down for shape style. Here you can choose dozens of different pre-built shape styles for the Paint Stroke Tool. Be sure to check out the very cool light strokes and organic elements.
4 To really get the effect right, make sure the check box for Write On is checked.
Draw your stroke.
Play back your Timeline and watch this ultra-cool effect.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

Make Your Gray Skies Blue in Final Cut Pro

04/06/08 12:40

It’s not unusual for your skies to be washed out. This is often a problem, because video doesn’t offer the same dynamic range as film (the difference between darks and highlights). Fortunately, Final Cut Pro allows you to isolate the color correction, so you can achieve a fix just to the problem area.

Apply the Color Corrector 3-way filter, and access the filter’s visual controls.
Using the Select Color eyedropper in the Limit Effect controls, select the desired color you’d like to keep.
Click the key icon to view the matte. Use the Select Color eyedropper while holding down the Shift key to add to the matte. You can click in the Viewer or Canvas window.
Finesse the matte by adjusting the Width and Softness sliders for the Chroma, Saturation, and Luma values in the Limit Effect controls. When the desired color is clearly selected, there will be no holes in your matte. Also, adjust the Softening slider to improve the matte. You may get a better matte by using fewer limiting ranges.
Click the key icon twice to toggle back to View Final.
Adjust the color balance wheels and saturation of the shot.

You may need to add a second color corrector to finesse the scene or isolate another problem area.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.