Apple
Final Cut Express
by Douglas Dixon www.manifest-tech.com
Editing
Interface
Input
/ Capturing Video
Editing Tools
Transitions,
Filters and Effects
Titles
Compositing
Audio
Output
Editing
Express
References
At NAB 2007, Apple unveiled Final
Cut Studio 2, a significant upgrade to
the industry's leading video production
suite that delivers new creative tools
designed expressly for editors. Final
Cut Studio 2 includes Final Cut Pro 6,
Motion 3, Soundtrack Pro 2, Compressor
3, and DVD Studio Pro 4.2. Final Cut
Studio 2 also introduces Color, a
professional color grading and finishing
application for ensuring consistent
color and creating signature looks.
Digital
media is hot, and both Apple and Microsoft
have been working diligently to develop and
enhance the Macintosh and Windows platforms
for digital media entertainment and
production. Each platform now includes broad
support for video and audio and imaging,
through interfacing to hardware devices and
processing with a variety of editing and
authoring applications. As usual, the
Windows platform offers a wide and sometimes
confusing variety of choices, while Apple
has been working diligently to provide an
integrated collection of both built-in
consumer applications and higher-end
professional tools.
To get
started with digital media, Apple provides
the iLife suite of applications bundled with
OS X, including the iTunes music player,
iPhoto photo album, iMovie video editor, and
iDVD authoring tool. Then for professionals,
Apple has developed higher-end tools,
including Final Cut Pro for movie editing
and DVD Studio Pro for DVD authoring. These
offer significantly advanced capabilities,
but still with accessible drag and drop
interfaces. Until recently, however, these
two tiers of applications left a big gap
between the free bundled iLife tools for
beginners and the large step up to the
separate Pro tools at $999.
Apple's
introduction of Final Cut Express at
Macworld in January now offers a more
accessible and affordable alternative: the
same interface and workflow as the
Emmy-winning Final Cut Pro, but now
available for DV editing at only $299 (www.apple.com/finalcutexpress).
This opens up a new alternative for creating
professional-looking productions to users
such as video enthusiasts, event
videographers, corporate producers, and
educators.
This
article explores the Final Cut Express
workflow and user interface, and highlights
some of its special features for digital
video editing and differences from Final Cut
Pro.
Final Cut
Express
Final Cut
Express is positioned as a robust and
feature-rich DV editing tool. Since it is
derived from Final Cut Pro, it includes
high-quality professional compositing,
titling and real-time effects capabilities.
You can open and edit multiple projects at
the same time, each containing multiple
sequences, and even nest sequences within
sequences to simplify editing large
projects.
Final Cut
Express also is integrated with the other
Macintosh digital media tools. You can
import video clips from QuickTime files and
iDVD, and images including layered Photoshop
files. You can export to DV, QuickTime, and
to iDVD and DVD Studio Pro with chapter
markers. Plus, it is compatible with Final
Cut Pro for sharing files or to upgrade
later.
The Final
Cut Express interface is built around four
main windows, similar to other editing
tools.
- Use the
Browser window to organize the source
material in your project, including video
and audio clips. As with other editors, you
can organize your assets in Bins (folders)
and then edit them in the other windows. The
Browser window also includes an Effects tab
to select from the available video and audio
transitions and filters. Final Cut Express
provides tabs throughout the interface to
reduce clutter, instead of using additional
windows or palettes.
- Use the
Viewer window as a source monitor to view
and edit individual clips, whether opened
from the Browser or the Timeline. The Viewer
window contains tabs to access the Video and
Audio components of a clip, and Filters and
Motion tabs to set the controls for filters
and effects. Use the Video tab to mark In
and Out points, and the Audio (or stereo
Channel) tabs to set the volume and stereo
pan.
- Use the
Timeline window to create your production by
laying out your clips into a linear
sequence. You can composite up to 99 video
and 99 audio tracks in the timeline.
- Use the
Canvas window as the record monitor to view
and edit the sequence as edited together on
the Timeline.
The Final
Cut Express interface also includes two
other small windows.
- Use the
Tool Palette to access selection, viewing,
and editing tools for editing items in the
Timeline.
- Use the
Audio Meters to monitor the output audio
levels when playing through clips.
Final Cut
Express provides built-in Window / Arrange
options to position the windows in standard
layouts, or you can resize and position the
windows as you prefer and then save the
layout. You can drag tab entries out from
within a window to create a separate window
to provide more convenient access to its
content.
This is
particularly useful because Final Cut
Express supports editing multiple projects
at the same time, and multiple sequences
within a project. The Browser window is like
a Project window in other editors, except
that you can have multiple projects open at
a time, each accessible as a separate tab in
the window. Similarly, each project can
contain multiple Sequences, each like the
timeline in other editors. The Browser
window lists all the sequences in a project,
and each open sequence also appears as a tab
in the Timeline. You can edit a portion of a
production as a separate sequence on its own
timeline, and then nest sequences by
including them as source clips within other
sequences.
The first
step in working with video is to capture the
input clips. Final Cut Express interfaces to
DV camcorders connected through the FireWire
/ IEEE 1394 interface. It has plug-and-play
support for most DV camcorders and decks,
including consumer MiniDV and professional
DVCAM (NTSC or PAL) devices.
Final Cut
Express is specifically designed to work
with DV devices and format. It does not
include the support in Final Cut Pro for
third-party capture cards. It can work with
DV devices that do not provide device
control to permit the computer to directly
control the camcorder.
Final Cut
Express provides a separate Capture window
to preview, annotate, and capture your input
clips. The Preview area displays the video
from your camcorder, and provides transport
controls for playing through the tape and
marking In and Out points. You then can use
the Clip Description area to log information
about your clips to help you organize and
manage them in your projects.
Then use
the Capture Now option to manually capture a
clip from the current tape position. Or mark
a segment on the tape and use Capture Clip
to capture an individual clip from the In
and Out points. The new clip will then be
listed in the Browser window. The Batch
capture and export features in Final Cut Pro
are not supported.
Since Final
Cut Express keeps a reference to the
original source media files on disk, it is
possible for files to not be available, for
example if they are renamed, deleted, or are
stored on an offline device. This is fine
with Final Cut Express, giving you the
flexibility to more files around to save
disk space, or move a project to a new
machine. You then can recapture a clip and
use the Reconnect Media command to
reestablish the reference to the file, or
use Capture Project to recapture all the
clips in a project.
With DV
material, Final Cut Express also can use the
start and stop time information recorded
with the clip to automatically divide the
clip into individual segments. Use Mark / DV
Start/Stop Detection to add markers to a
clip at each point the camera was started
and stopped. Then use Modify / Make Clip to
create separate subclips from each marked
segment so you can rename and edit them
individually.
Final Cut
Express provides an accelerated
drag-and-drop interface for editing together
your clips. You can drag clips from the
Browser and Viewer to lay them out in the
Timeline. However, while adding clips to the
end of the timeline and inserting new clips
between existing clips is relatively
straightforward with a drag and drop
interface, things get more complicated with
more complex insertion edits.
Final Cut
Express provides a drag-and-drop solution
for these insertion edits as well. To insert
a new clip at the current playback position
in the Timeline, as displayed in the Canvas
window, drag a clip from the Browser or the
Viewer to the Canvas window. Final Cut
Express displays an edit overlay with the
options for inserting the new clip over the
existing clip at the current playback
position. Just drop the clip over the
corresponding overlay to Insert or Overwrite
(optionally with transition), Replace, Fit
to fill, or Superimpose.
You then
can fine-tune the clips in the Timeline by
using the precision tools in the Tool
Palette. These include options to select
ranges and tracks, roll and ripple edit,
slip and slide edit, razor blade cut, crop
and distort, and pen keyframe positions.
Final Cut Express displays a Trim Edit
Window with the adjacent frames at the edit
point between two clips for these precision
edits.
In the
Timeline, you can use multi-point edits to
efficiently specify insertion points, and
set track options to specify individual or
multiple tracks to be changed by an edit.
Final Cut Express also provides sync
detection and correction to compensate for
audio and video tracks that slip out of
sync. It provides a wide variety of options
for adjusting, scrolling, and zooming the
Timeline display, but does not include the
range of customization provided by Final Cut
Pro.
Final Cut
Express includes a bundled library of over
200 transitions, filters and effects. These
are listed in bins under the Effects tab of
the Browser window. You can simply drag and
drop individual effects onto clips in the
timeline, and display and edit their
properties in the Viewer window. Final Cut
Express does not include the full support
for keyframing effects in Final Cut Pro.
Only keyframes for transparency and audio
volume can be edited directly in the
timeline.
Some
effects can be previewed in real time on G4
systems. These are displayed in bold in the
Browser, including Cross-Dissolve, Iris, and
Wipe video transitions and Crop, Scale, and
Opacity Motion effects. You still need to
render other video and audio effects in
order to preview them, and before exporting
your final production.
Final Cut
Express also includes the basic color
corrector filter from Final Cut Pro. You can
adjust levels, change hue and balance, or
use the Broadcast Safe filter to adjust the
color range for television display.
Final Cut
Express provides both a basic titling tool,
and Generators from Final Cut Pro that
provide built-in motion effects. With the
basic title tool, you can create a title
element in the Viewer window to overlay on
your production. You can position the text,
adjust the font, color, and layout, and, of
course, apply video filters and effects.
For more
dynamic titles, use the scrolling text
generators to create titles that crawl,
scroll, or appear in the lower third of the
screen. Final Cut Express also includes 2D
and 3D tools with the bundled Boris
Calligraphy.
Final Cut
Express provides rich support for composting
multiple layers of video and graphics, with
motion animation.
Use the
video tracks to layer video clips and
graphics files, including multilayered Adobe
Photoshop files. Then animate with motion
effects to scale, rotate, crop, distort, and
blend overlay images. For higher-quality
results, Final Cut Express includes ease
in/ease out motion paths, Bezier curves,
time effects for slow motion, and frame
blending.
Final Cut
Express provides up to 99 total audio
tracks, with up to 8 tracks of audio
playback in real time. Enhance the audio
with 15 audio filters and effects to add
cross fades, reverb, EQ, and echo. Improve
the quality with the three-band and
parameter equalizer, compressor/limiter, hum
remover, and noise gate.
Final Cut
Express provides precise editing control
with subframe audio editing to 1/100th of a
frame, and stereo audio level meters and pan
control. It also includes a VoiceOver tool
to record narration directly into an audio
track on the timeline while the video is
playing.
When you
create your production with composted video
and audio tracks and various effects, Final
Cut Express needs to render the complex
areas of the timeline in order to combine
all the edits and create a new cached
version that can be played smoothly. As you
edit, and then before you export, you can
render all or portions of your production in
order to see it play back in the final form.
Final Cut
Express provides two file export options.
Use Export Final Cut Express to export back
to DV format, or Export QuickTime to export
to any available QuickTime format,
especially for making highly compressed
files for Web downloading and streaming,
including MPEG-4.
For DVD
authoring, you can export your productions
in DV format directly to iDVD or DVD Studio
Pro. Or, if you have installed DVD Studio
Pro, you can then export using the QuickTime
MPEG-2 exporter in DVD-ready format. Final
Cut Express also can export chapter makers
that be imported by DVD Studio Pro to be
automatically used for navigation. They also
are available in the QuickTime Player.
To export
to video, you can record to your connected
video equipment by playing directly from the
timeline, after rendering your sequences. Or
use Print To Video for more control,
including adding color bars and a tone, a
countdown, or a black trailer, as well as
looping the footage to record multiple
copies. You can record an entire sequence or
clip, or select only a marked section of a
timeline.
Final Cut
Express runs under OS X and on Macintosh
computers with a 300-MHz or faster PowerPC
G3 or G4 processor and built-in FireWire. A
faster G4 is required for real-time effects.
With Final
Cut Express, Apple has preserved the look
and workflow of Final Cut Pro while focusing
on DV-based editing. Those who are familiar
with Final Cut Pro will bump against the
"missing" features, especially for
customization, keying, and batch processing.
But Final Cut Express is an exciting and
powerful tool that clearly fills an
important niche at the $299 price point, and
still offers the option to upgrade later to
the Pro version.
Apple also
has extended further into professional
editing with Cinema Tools for Final Cut Pro
(also $999), allowing editors can work
offline and online at 24 frames per second,
with all major formats like OfflineRT, DV,
SD and HD, and finish on film. These tools
are particularly interesting to use on a
PowerBook, providing high-end editing on a
portable platform.
While not
appropriate for full-time professional
editors, Final Cut Express provides the same
powerful interface adapted for DV editing
projects, with extensive creative control
for editing, compositing, and effects. In
particular, Final Cut Express offers
important workflow advantages, with the
ability to open multiple projects and
organize your work work across several
sequence timelines, along with advanced
features such as color correction.
Get
Final Cut Express
from Amazon
Apple -
Final Cut Express
www.apple.com/finalcutexpress
Apple -
Final Cut Pro
www.apple.com/finalcutpro
Check out
Michael Rubin's book - Making
Movies with Final Cut Express
Copyright 2002, Douglas
Dixon .
All Rights Reserved
Manifest Technology(R)www.manifest-tech.com .
Manifest Technology is a registered
trademark of Douglas Dixon
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