1. Viewer 2. Canvas 3. Browser 4. TimelineVideo Editing, Compositing and Special Effects Package Priced at U.S. $999

Links To Apple’s Final Cut Pro Pages

Final Cut Pro Home

Apple has finally released its much-talked about video editing and compositing Mac software. While the software may not compete with Avid and other high end systems, the mid level products such as Adobe Premiere and EditDV may have some serious competition.

One reason is that Final Cut Pro, in addition to its powerful editing features, also includes Adobe After Effects-like compositing features. FCP can use After Effects filters. Its built-in compositing features separates Final Cut Pro from its competition. While dedicated compositing programs like Adobe After Effects and Puffin’s Commotion offer high end power, FCP’s built-in compositing features are appropriate for work such as flying logos and layered collages. Unlike other programs which require that you launch After Effects to do compositing, FCP can do a ripple dissolve in one step. This means you can work within one program. For relatively simple animated graphics and motion control shots Final Cut may be all you need.

Managing disk space is one of the most important tasks facing a professional editor. Editors need the ability to remove one project from their computer, work on other projects and then return to the first project with minimal loss of work momentum. FCP like Avid and Media 100 can log tapes, batch digitize, batch log and redigitize footage from projects whose footage has been removed from the hard disk. The batch capturing functions are remarkably similar to those of Digital Origin’s EditDV. Since I’m quite familiar with EditDV I was surprised to find that many of the other functions and features of FCP were so similar.

In addition Final Cut Pro can divide a project into completely self-contained editing sequences each with its own timeline. These sequences can be nested within each other.

Final Cut Pro supports DV and Firewire which makes it ideal for the G4s Firewire ports. But Final Cut Pro is not limited to DV. You can also just use it for QuickTime editing, unenhanced. Analog digitizers are also supported through the Quick Time format. You can batch export to change DV to MPEG2 which is ideal for DVD production. Final Cut can import Photoshop documents, maintaining the layers, for effects.