Painting Clips In Final Cut Pro: A Beginner's Guide

Final Cut Pro is a video editing software that offers a range of features and tools to enhance your video projects. One such feature is the ability to paint a clip, allowing you to adjust various aspects such as colour, gradient, sheen, opacity, and texture. This can be done by selecting the desired clip in the timeline and accessing the Paint controls. Additionally, Final Cut Pro offers other editing functionalities like cropping clips, matching colours between clips, and trimming or cutting clips to adjust their duration. These tools enable users to create professional and visually appealing videos with ease.

Using the Precision Editor to preview clips before painting

Final Cut Pro's Precision Editor is a valuable tool for previewing clips before painting, as it allows you to fine-tune the edit points between them. To open the Precision Editor, simply double-click on any edit point—the place where two clips meet in the timeline. The timeline will then divide into three sections.

The top section represents the outgoing clip, with bright areas indicating the portion visible in the timeline and greyed-out sections ("handles") showing extra video after the out point. The bottom section represents the incoming clip, with the same bright and greyed-out sections, but this time the handles are extra video before the in point. The middle layer, with grey boxes, allows you to trim both the in and out points of the clips simultaneously.

You can adjust the edit point by dragging the handle of the vertical line in the centre of the Precision Editor left or right. Moving the entire line results in a roll edit, while dragging the endpoint of the outgoing clip or the start point of the incoming clip performs a ripple edit. The Precision Editor also allows you to enter a timecode value to adjust the edit point numerically.

The Precision Editor is particularly useful when working with J- or L-cuts, which start or continue audio slightly past the video portion of an edit. You can see the area included in your J- or L-cut and slip the clip back and forth to refine your cutting techniques.

Adjusting the opacity of the paint

To adjust the opacity of the paint in Final Cut Pro, look for the Opacity slider in the Paint controls. Dragging the slider to the left will make the paint more transparent, while dragging it to the right will make it more opaque. The further you drag to the left, the more transparent the paint will become, allowing more of the underlying clip to be visible.

In addition to the Opacity slider, there is also an Edge Opacity slider available when your Paint Job is set to Custom. This slider allows you to control the transparency of the paint effect on surfaces that are more parallel to the camera. For example, with a high Edge Opacity value, the paint effect will be more transparent on surfaces facing the camera directly, while a low value will keep the opacity consistent regardless of the surface's orientation.

Another way to adjust the opacity and create a transparent effect is by using the Opacity fade handles in the Video Animation editor. This will allow you to have the composited clip dissolve on and off, creating a fading effect. Additionally, you can add keyframes to change the opacity value over time, giving you more dynamic control over the transparency.

By utilising these opacity adjustment tools in Final Cut Pro, you can create interesting visual effects and combine clip images seamlessly by controlling the transparency of the paint.

Applying a paint gradient

To apply a paint gradient in Final Cut Pro, you'll need to start by selecting a title or generator and opening the inspector. You can then click on the Gradient disclosure triangle to access the gradient editor.

In the gradient editor, you can adjust the colours and opacity of the gradient. To change the colour of a colour tag, double-click on it and use the Colours window to set a new shade. Alternatively, you can click on a colour tag and adjust the Red, Green, and Blue colour channel sliders. If you click the down arrow next to the colour well, you can also access a pop-up colour palette. Move your pointer over the colour palette and click in the top area to select a colour, or click in the bottom gradient to set a grayscale value.

You can also adjust the opacity of the gradient in the gradient editor. The lower the percentage of opacity, the greater the transparency. To add a new opacity tag, position the pointer in the top bar where you want to add the tag, then click.

Additionally, you can use the Gradient effect in Final Cut Pro, which can be found in the Effects section. You can drag and drop the effect onto titles or images and adjust four colours, the gradient colour locations, animations, outline, and gradient centre location.

Matching the colour of the paint to a clip

To match the colour of the paint to a clip in Final Cut Pro, you can use the Match Colour feature. First, select the clip you want to adjust in the Final Cut Pro timeline. Go to Modify > Match Colour or use the keyboard shortcut Option-Command-M.

Next, you will see the Enhancements pop-up menu below the viewer, where you should again choose Match Colour. The viewer will now display the frame under the timeline playhead on the right and the frame the pointer is over on the left. You can now skim through any clip in the timeline or browser to find a frame with the colour look you want to match. Once you have found the right colour, click to preview that look applied to the selected clip.

You can also import a still image with the desired colour look and match its colour, even if it is unrelated to your project.

If you are working with HDR footage, you can find the HDR Tools effect in the Effects Browser by going to Effects > Video > Color > HDR Tools. Apply this to your clip and adjust the settings until you are happy with the result. You can also try changing it to "HLG to Rec 709 SDR" from the "HDR Tools" drop-down menu after applying the effect.

Additionally, you can use the Color Correction effect in the Effects Browser and Inspector to adjust the Global, Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights settings to match your desired colour.

Cropping the clip before painting

Cropping a clip in Final Cut Pro is a straightforward process, but it's important to plan your crop before you start painting. Cropping allows you to adjust the position and composition of your clip, and you can also animate the effect to create a panning and zooming camera movement.

To begin, select the clip in the Final Cut Pro timeline. Position the playhead over the clip so that the clip's video is displayed in the viewer. You can now access the Crop controls. There are a few ways to do this: click the pop-up menu in the bottom-left corner of the viewer and select 'Crop', or press Shift-C. Alternatively, control-click in the viewer and choose 'Crop', or simply click the 'Crop' button at the bottom of the viewer.

Now you can begin to adjust the crop. You'll notice blue handles at each corner of the clip. To adjust the crop of a specific corner, drag that corner's handle. The crop window will adjust while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the image. You can also drag anywhere inside the crop window to adjust its position. If you want to adjust each edge of the image individually, you can use the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom parameters in the Crop section of the Video inspector.

It's important to note that while you can change the aspect ratio of the crop window, the final image will always match the original image's aspect ratio. Any additional content will be cropped out.

Frequently asked questions