Final Cut Express 4

Final Cut Express 4

Final Cut Express 4
Discover powerful video editing because DV, HDV, and AVCHD. Final Cut Express 4 delivers a single, open format Timeline where you can censor all three, mixing formats and make up rates using the same pro-level editing tools accessible in Final Cut Pro. Import video projects quickly enjoys iMovie '08. Take advantage of LiveType to make dynamic, agitated titles. Built-in audio controls let you mix up to 99 audio tracks--also add a narrative voiceover. Perfect your movie with professional transitions and effects, including optional third-party FxPlug plug-ins. The affordable moviemaking package.

Powerful video editing because DV, HDV, and AVCHD. Advance your moviemaking skills with Final Cut Express 4.

More Powerful Video Editing because DV, HDV, and AVCHD
Capture clips enjoys your camcorder over a single FireWire or USB cable, then use the new Open Format Timeline in Final Cut Express 4 to censor together DV, HDV, and AVCHD material, also if they have abundant make up rates. Fine-tune your options with professional ripple, roll, slip, and slide editing works, either in the Timeline or a loyal Trim window. And when it comes time to add effects, Dynamic RT lets you instantly preview effects, filters, transitions, and multistream composites in real time without rendering.

A Workflow That Grows with You
Final Cut Express is designed to provide a simple, straightforward workflow. Capturing video, editing clips, and adding transitions or effects are all a hit it off somewhere else in the intuitive, pull-and-drip interface. In addition, you can customize the interface by setting window configurations, adding shortcut buttons, and resizing track sizes and asset thumbnails to accommodate your preferences and streamline your workflow.

Expanded Creative Capabilities
Adding professional completing touches to your video is possible through alright control of more than 200 transitions, filters, and effects. Combined with compositing, titling, and keyframing, they provide you the ability to make visually rich, dynamic video projects. Get ready to increase your constructive options too, as Final Cut Express 4 supports third party FxPlug filters and effects, the same plug-in architecture used by Final Cut Studio. And audio is not forgotten, as Final Cut Express provides 99 audio tracks with powerful sound editing tools and more than a dozen audio filters.

With the bundled LiveType 2, you can add sophisticated, HD-quality, agitated text and motion graphics to videos quickly and competently. LiveType includes agitated LiveFonts, over 200 preconfigured text effects, and a variety of customizable templates, backgrounds, textures, and objects that might be added to any Final Cut Express project.

More Than One Way to Show Off
Make sure everybody gets to see your did project. Whether your previous product will be output to videotape or QuickTime because distribution over the internet, iPhone or iPod, you're sure to discover that Final Cut Express delivers the power, quality, and attributes that make it the ideal option because advanced moviemaking.

With Final Cut Express 4, you can Log and Transfer AVCHD video records quickly and competently to your Intel processor-based Mac over USB.

Selected New Features

Use Movies Captured enjoys AVCHD Camcorders
With Final Cut Express 4, you can Log and Transfer AVCHD video records quickly and competently to your Intel processor-based Mac over USB. The Log and Transfer window allows you to review and select specific clips you want to transfer, saving you time and hard struggle space. Once the clips are transferred to Apple's Intermediate Codec on your hard struggle, you can start make up-precise editing in real time, complete with multilayer video, text, or graphic compositing. Want to verify your handiwork? Preview it filled screen whenever you'd like using your primary or secondary show.

Mix Different Formats in a Timeline
Whether you have DV, HDV, or AVCHD satisfied, the new Open Format Timeline in Final Cut Express 4 lets you mix and match clips, also if they use abundant make up sizes and make up rates. Freely censor a blend of HDV, AVCHD, and DV, including NTSC and PAL, all in real time using the same industry-leading editing and trimming tools acknowledged in Final Cut Pro. Set your sequence to an HD resolution and DV clips will be scaled to accommodate mechanically; conversely, if your sequence is set to DV resolution, HD clips might be cropped or letterboxed because a perfect accommodate.

Expand Your Effects because Visually Rich Looking Movies
Final Cut Express comes with more than 200 transitions, filters, and effects including over 50 new FxPlug plug-ins. These include standard effects like dissolves, wipes, and blurs to more stylized FxPlug effects like Light Rays, Line Art and Insect Eye. When you need also more constructive options, increase your effects palette using optional third-party FxPlug effects, the same plug-in architecture used by Final Cut Studio. Many FxPlug effects use your graphics card because accelerated rendering--so the improved your graphics card, the quicker your FxPlug rendering.

Bring Your iMovie '08 projects into Final Cut Express 4
Moving enjoys iMovie '08 to Final Cut Express is simple: iMovie projects might be exported quickly to Final Cut Express--with all of their cuts and dissolve transitions intact. All you do is open the Final Cut XML article and start using the advanced works of Final Cut Express to beef up your iMovie '08 projects.

Powerful Editing with Final Cut Express
Final Cut Express puts professional-style editing controls in your hands, permitting you to pull clips quickly to a track or use the overlay controls in the Canvas. And as editing in Final Cut Express is nondestructive, you can test with changes without modifying your source footage. The editing palette contains tools to hack and modify clips in the Timeline: Cut clips into two pieces, change the duration of a curtail, change the duration of two clips simultaneously, move In and Out points, reselect a new range of frames within a curtail, and resize or expand an censor.

Managing windows is additionally flexible and simple, so you can tailor the workspace to suit your needs.

Trimming is used to alright-tune a sequence by adding or subtracting frames enjoys the In or Out point of a curtail.

Use color correction to make compare or special effects.

When working with large projects or sequences that contain repetitive effects, filters, and motion, it is often suitable to back up and paste the qualities enjoys one curtail to one more.

Make Professional Edits
Once you've captured some or all of the clips that will depart into your did movie, it's time to begin editing. You will discover a way to censor that is better off because you; Final Cut Express is highly flexible. When you have accumulated an edited sequence, you can trim your edits and modify your sequence in several ways also.

• Using visual controls in the interface
• Directly manipulating your clips using the mouse in the Timeline
• Using keyboard shortcuts

True nondestructive, nonlinear editing
Final Cut Express 4 provides true nonlinear editing capabilities because the DV, HDV, and AVCHD formats. All editing is nondestructive to the original footage on your hard struggle. Clips in Final Cut Express are merely pointers to the original source material, so any deletion or duplication of clips in the project, trimming changes, effects, or other alterations you make do not affect the source records themselves.

Editing tools at work
Professional-style editing means make up-precise control over trimming your clips, more flexibility in making edits in the Timeline, and unlimited editing originality. The editing tools in the palette include the after:

• Razor blade. Cuts a single curtail into two pieces. This might be useful because quickly rearranging pieces of your sequence, deleting a section of a curtail, applying an impact to a specific part of a curtail, or moving an article of a curtail to the same location on one more track.
• Ripple censor. Changes the duration of a curtail. It moves the location of either the Out point preceding or the In point after an censor point. The duration of the curtail to the left or the right of the censor point is shortened or lengthened to accommodate the new censor point without changing the location of the censor in the sequence.
• Roll censor. Changes both the selected curtail and an adjacent curtail. This type of censor adjusts the location of an censor point shared by two clips; the Out point of the primarily curtail and the In point of the second curtail are moved or rolled. This changes the location of the censor in the sequence also as the duration of each curtail. Roll edits are useful when you want to match the action of one curtail with the action of one more and need to discover the right intersecting frames.
• Slip censor. Moves the In and Out points of a curtail simultaneously while maintaining its duration and position in the edited sequence. Surrounding clips are not affected, just the range of frames in the curtail. This is useful because adjusting footage you've edited into your sequence without moving it in the Timeline.
• Slide censor. Moves an complete curtail along side the censor points to its left and right. The duration of the curtail being moved stays the same, but the clips to the left and right of it change duration.
• Resize censor. Extends or shortens a curtail by moving the In or Out point.
• Extend censor. Allows you to move an censor point between two clips quickly. This censor moves an censor point to the position of the playhead in the Timeline.

Refine Your Edits with Trimming
After you have made your initial edits and accumulated your footage in the Timeline, you can refine your sequence. Trimming is used to alright-tune a sequence by adding or subtracting frames enjoys the In or Out point of a curtail. These small adjustments to your initial edits help to make smoother edits.

Trim Edit window
This window provides very precise control while trimming. It displays both sides of an censor--the outgoing curtail previous the censor point and the incoming curtail that seems after it--permitting you to adjust your censor with make up-level accuracy. You can additionally use this window to trim a array of edits in multiple tracks quickly (only one censor per track).

Dynamic and asymmetric trimming
Final Cut Express includes dynamic trimming in the better Trim Edit window. When dynamic trimming is on, keyboard controls permit you to trim on the take to the air. Move the playhead using the J, K, and L keys to discover new Out and In points because the selected censor point. If dynamic trimming is turned on in the General tab of the User Preferences window, the selected censor point moves to the new position of the playhead whenever you stop. In addition, Final Cut Express supports asymmetric trimming--an advanced technique that presents you a quickly way to trim multiple clips in opposite instructions.

Add Transitions and Effects
Final Cut Express presents you a suite of powerful tools because adding calm effects. And since you can use third-party FxPlug sift effects, your constructive options are unlimited also. Add a transition between clips. Use the Color Corrector to heal and match clips or to make a dramatic look. Control all effects and motion parameters with keyframes because professional looks and precise timing.

See it now with real-time effects
With the real-time engine in Final Cut Express, you obtain superb results quickly, without rendering. RT Extreme is an better multistream, real-time effects architecture that lets you view your projects without rendering as you test with effects, transitions, composition, and filters. Final Cut Express 4 includes Dynamic RT, which adjusts resolution and make up rate on the take to the air because maximum real-time performance, letting you set it and fail to remember it.

RT Extreme leverages the strengths of Mac OS X and the Intel or PowerPC processor to support a scalable number of video streams and real-time effects: The number of accessible video streams and real-time effects increases as processor speeds increase. Real-time video transitions and filters appear in bold in the Effects tab and in the Effects menu to indicate that they will play back in real time. The RT Extreme pop-up menu in the Timeline presents you several options because effects processing. You can select between various modes that deliver either maximum simultaneous streams and real-time effects or guaranteed playback without decreased frames.

• Safe. In Safe mode, Final Cut Express provides guaranteed playback of real-time effects. The number of streams and effects is based on the capabilities of your system.
• Unlimited. In Unlimited mode, Final Cut Express uses every bit of processing power accessible, permitting you to stack up multiple streams of video. When Unlimited is selected, you can use nearly all of the more than 200 effects, filters, and transitions in real time.
• Dynamic RT. In Unlimited RT mode, you can select the Dynamic setting because Playback Video Quality, Playback Frame Rate, or both. In Dynamic mode, resolution and make up rate are adjusted mechanically, on the take to the air, so you all the time obtain the optimal real-time performance at the maximum quality possible. For case in point, Final Cut Express will play back your project at Full Frame Rate unless it recognizes a section of the Timeline that requires a lower make up rate because real-time playback. It will adjust because that section, then mechanically return to Full Frame Rate once the section is completed. Dynamic RT lets you set it and fail to remember it, sure that you are all the time leveraging the maximum real-time performance of your CPU.

Smooth out your transitions
A transition is a visual outcome used to change enjoys one curtail in your edited sequence to the next. Transitions, particularly dissolves, normally provide the viewer an impact of a change in time or location. Final Cut Express comes with a variety of transitions enjoys which to select, including cross-dissolve, page peel, cube spin, and gradient wipe.

Use color to make improved images
The color correction filters in Final Cut Express provide precise control over the look of every curtail. You can adjust the color balance, hue, saturation, black levels, mids, and white levels on individual clips. Check flesh tones and other key issues because consistency and accuracy in color. Evaluate and manipulate the brightness and color levels of clips in preparation because output to tape. All the tools needed to analyze and color-correct clips are included.

You can use the two-way color corrector to adjust the bend of hue and overall balance of an image. This sift might be combined with Image Control filters also as Matte and Key filters. The assortment of filters makes Final Cut Express highly powerful and flexible because corrective completing work. The Color Corrector has numeric controls also as visual user interfaces. All parameters might be changed over time through the use of keyframes. Both interfaces have Limit Effect controls, permitting you to isolate color correction operations to specific areas of an image based on chrominance, luminance, saturation, or any blend. There are a twosome of reasons to use the color correction filters included with Final Cut Express:

• Ensuring that a project's key issues look the way they should. The color correction tools let you make whatever adjustments are necessary to make sure that the colors and the flesh tones of people in the previous edited piece look the way they completed in reality.
• Balancing all the shots in a scene to match. With vigilant color correction, all of the clips in a scene might be balanced to match one one more so that they look as if they happened at the same time and in the same place, with the same lighting.
• Correcting errors in color balance and contact. The color correction filters provide an huge degree of control over the color balance and contact of clips, permitting you to perfect your adjustments.
• Achieving a "look." With color correction, you have control over whether your video has rich, saturated colors or a more muted look. Such subtle modifications can alter the perception of the scene being played, changing its mood.
• Creating compare or special effects. Using color correction, you can subtly accentuate differences. You can additionally make more huge effects, such as manipulating the colors of an contact to accomplish a day-because-night look. You can also keyframe color changes over time; because case in point, bit by bit changing a curtail enjoys sepia-toned to filled color.

FxPlug filters and effects
Final Cut Express comes with more than 200 transitions, filters, and effects, including over 50 new FxPlug plug-ins that use GPU-accelerated rendering. Bundled filters and effects range enjoys standard items like dissolves, wipes, and blurs to more stylized FxPlug effects like Light Rays, Line Art, and Insect Eye. When you need also more constructive options, Final Cut Express lets you increase your effects palette with optional third-party FxPlug support, the same plug-in architecture used by Final Cut Studio.

Copy, paste, and remove qualities
When working with large projects or sequences that contain repetitive effects, filters, and motion, it is often suitable to back up and paste the qualities enjoys one curtail to one more (or others). Similarly, you can remove qualities enjoys a curtail or clips. You can paste keyframes as is or scale them to accommodate the duration of the curtail on which they are being pasted. The after qualities might be mimicked, pasted, or removed enjoys any curtail.

Compositing and Titles
Final Cut Express provides powerful tools to manipulate, animate, or combine images. You can accomplish impressive results by layering video clips or graphics records, such as multilayered Adobe Photoshop records, to make rich visual images and animations. You can additionally make outstanding titles with filters, effects, and compositing.

By combining two or more video tracks, additionally called compositing, you can make enthusiasm with sophisticated special effects and visually rich imagery.

Final Cut Express supports a virtually unlimited number of video, text, and graphics layers.

All parameters of an object--such as size, rotation, bend distortion, and any applied effects--are additionally controllable using keyframes.

LiveType 2 is a filled-featured, professional-quality titling application that allows you to make dynamic, agitated titles quickly and competently.

Use Multiple Video Layers
Using multiple video layers is one of the simplest and fastest ways to add a professional look to your projects. By combining two or more video tracks, additionally called compositing, you can make enthusiasm with sophisticated special effects and visually rich imagery. Using the virtually unlimited number of video tracks, make dynamic, composited video--like picture-in-picture, split-screen, and video collages. A sequence might be nested as a curtail in one more sequence, and any changes in a nested sequence ripple through all sequences that contain it. Edited sequences are absolutely changeable and might be nested because reuse once more and once more in multiple Timelines.

Seeing your effects and compositions in real time instead of waiting because them to render lets you test more and spend less time editing. The RT Extreme engine intelligently scales to the capabilities of your hardware, providing dramatically more real-time effects, transitions, and video layers--also when you are using HD footage or editing on a laptop pc. Dynamic RT adjusts make up rate and resolution on the take to the air, so you all the time obtain the maximum real-time performance.

Professional compositing results
Final Cut Express supports a virtually unlimited number of video, text, and graphics layers. You can import Adobe Photoshop records quickly into Final Cut Express either as a flattened image or with all layers maintained on separate tracks. You can then combine your Photoshop graphics with video, apply animation and effects to the layers, and add additional titles and agitated issues enjoys LiveType.

Complete control of all effects, including motion
All video layers in Final Cut Express can have motion qualities added to them because dynamic compositing. Bezier and numeric controls enable you to change the position of layers, make motion paths with or without a tangent, and adjust the acceleration of objects along a path, ensuring smooth, highly sophisticated results. To make motion because an object or video layer, you make a keyframe by clicking the Add Keyframe button, move to a new point on the Timeline, and then pull the object to a new location. A path is mechanically tempted. Changing the spacing of the points along the path adjusts the acceleration of the item. Adjustments are made right on the path itself, providing direct advice on how the animation will work. All parameters of an object--such as size, rotation, bend distortion, and any applied effects--are additionally controllable using keyframes.

Speak with Titles
Titling provides a completing touch, and Final Cut Express has all the tools necessary to make lovely titles, using the set up-in tools or the bundled LiveType application. Keyframe and animate titles like any other object. Make text crawl, scroll, or appear in the lower third of the screen. You can also make agitated type on effects or spin text in 3D space using the Boris 3D title generator.

LiveType
LiveType 2 is a filled-featured, professional-quality titling application that allows you to make dynamic, agitated titles quickly and competently. With LiveFonts--fonts with their own agitated habits--plus filled support because all system fonts and a way to make new effects, LiveType is simple sufficient because the primarily-time user and powerful sufficient because the professional.

LiveType comes with integrated LiveFonts, also as competently adapted project templates, customizable keyframed effects, and a library of agitated satisfied. It additionally includes alpha channel support, dynamic individual self image control, and make up-precise registration with Final Cut Express projects. Professionally designed templates obtain your project off to a quickly start (you can make and save your own templates also).

LiveType templates combine the various issues accessible in the application, including LiveFonts, system fonts, and agitated textures and objects, into ready-touse, customizable projects because your video.

LiveFonts
Developed specifically because video and designed by professional animators, LiveFonts let you type out sophisticated agitated font styles as competently as you'd type out a system font. And as they're created with an alpha channel, LiveFonts key right over video.

Royalty-free satisfied
LiveType comes with advertise-quality agitated textures and objects that you can use in your projects, permitting also nonanimators to produce professional-level satisfied right out of the box. The textures might be used filled screen, matted inside text or objects, or scaled drink because use in lower thirds.

Customizable effects
Effects in LiveType are like digital arising blocks--modular habits that include movement, transformation, and timing parameters. The more than 200 prebuilt effects that accompany LiveType provide you the power to add fades, zooms, rotations, and motion that ripple through your letters, and you can make your own styles by adjusting these effects in the LiveType interface. You can additionally use LiveType to make effects dynamically on the take to the air and also save them because use in destiny projects. Its unique approaching to keyframe animation makes arising effects quick and simple.

Timing is all
With LiveType, animation is lighter than still previous. Each keyframe in an impact contains all the parameters because that moment in time, removing the time-consuming hassle of long keyframe stacks. And since LiveType treats every self image of the word as a separate layer, powerful timing attributes such as sequencing provide you the constructive liberty to move single characters in a text block with individual timing issues, so you're not limited to blocks of text that take to the air around the screen as one image. The wireframe preview lets you see your work in real time.

Flexible and well suited
You can import clips enjoys Final Cut Express complete with markers, so it's simple to synchronize your titles to important video and audio transitions in your video projects. LiveType additionally imports and exports all QuickTime-supported line formats, including Adobe Photoshop, JPEG, TIFF, and PICT.

A wide range of options
Final Cut Express supports direct Timeline line placement of LiveType projects, because a smooth and simple workflow. LiveType can make a QuickTime movie that you can import into your Final Cut Express bin like any other line, and creates records with or without an alpha channel, making them accessible to your Final Cut Express projects.

In addition, LiveType allows you to set up your own project size and resolution, so you can work in a culture setting of your selecting. It additionally supports all of your system fonts, including PostScript and TrueType fonts, making it possible to make an also wider spectrum of titling effects.

Audio
With Final Cut Express, you can censor, beef up, and adjust a video's audio tracks. Final Cut Express can mix up to 99 tracks and play back up to eight audio tracks in real time. You can add multiple tracks of music, sound effects, or voiceover quickly and competently.

Capture audio quickly to the Timeline enjoys a set up-in or external microphone with the Voice Over tool.

Real-Time Audio Filters
Audio filters might be adjusted in real time as the track is playing, so you can hear your work in progress. This helps you test more and work out more constructive control over your projects. Final Cut Express includes a twosome of filters because adjusting your audio clips to be as strong, obvious, and noise-free as possible. Filters can additionally be used to blend the clips in your audio mix to prevent the sound quality or tone of a particular curtail enjoys standing out.

• Soft normalize sift. This nondestructive sift scans the audio because the peak (loudest) sample level, then applies a benefit sift that brings the peak to the level you request. This is ideal because achieving consistency in your audio soundtracks.
• Equalization filters. Use equalization filters to correct unnatural-sounding audio recordings by adjusting specific frequencies. For case in point, if your audio was recorded in a room that accentuates treble or bass, you can reduce those frequencies.
• Compressor/limiter and expansion filters. These filters permit you to adjust an audio curtail's dynamic range after it has been captured. The compressor/limiter sift lets you adjust the dynamic range of an audio curtail so that the loudest part of the curtail is compressed to within a specified range of the softest part of the curtail. The expansion sift raises parts of a curtail that are too low.
• Hum remover. The hum remover lets you obtain rid of "cycle hum" (a low buzzing) that may have been introduced into your audio recording by power lines crossing your cables or by a shorted reason wire.
• Vocal DeEsser. This sift is actually a specialized equalizer that reduces the "ess" sounds produced by a speaker with pronounced s's or a microphone that accentuates high frequencies.
• Vocal DePopper. The Vocal DePopper lets you attenuate the harsh "p" sounds that result enjoys puffs of breath bursting into the microphone.
• Echo and reverb filters. These "effects" filters help you match foreground audio clips to the surroundings in which they appear.
• Noise entrance. The noise entrance removes all sound less than a specified volume threshold.

Precise Controls
There's no fumbling when trying to censor audio with Final Cut Express. Subframe audio editing drink to 1/100 of a make up presents precise control over audio edits. Dynamic audio level meters provide instant visual information on the range of an audio track as it plays, and audio pan controls make it simple to work with stereo tracks throughout playback. In the Timeline, solo and mute controls permit you to isolate individual audio tracks. And no re-rendering is required when muted tracks are reactivated, so you save a unbelievable amount of time also.

Voice Over Tool
Capture audio quickly to the Timeline enjoys a set up-in or external microphone with the Voice Over tool. Create quick scratch tracks or voiceover work while editing a project. The Voice Over tool provides a countdown clue, and records previous start and after stop to provide the recorded sound with handles.

Finding Your Audience
You've used Final Cut Express to put the completing touches on your movie. You're completed with editing, compositing, and color corrections. You've added effects, transitions, and titles, and you've created professional audio tracks. Now you have several options because sharing your did project.

Print to Video
The Print to Video command sends your project out to videotape. This is useful when you want to record back to DV, make backup copies of your video project or connect your machine to your home or other theater system because direct playback.

Create a DVD
Create named chapter markers in your video project. Use these markers to split your video into navigable chapters in iDVD. Final Cut Express includes a workflow article that outlines the simple one-step process of bringing your movie into iDVD.

Export Video because the Web
Export projects using a wide range of QuickTime-supported codecs, including MPEG-4, because distribution via electronic message or the internet.

Whatever your chosen method of distribution, Final Cut Express has the attributes and power you need to advance your DV, HDV, and AVCHD moviemaking.

Customer Review: This is Final Cut Express 4, not Final Cut HD4

Another reviewer refers to Final Cut HD4 (a version of Final Cut Pro), not Final Cut Express 4, which is the product advertised on this page. Final Cut Express 4 is an outstanding editing software because DV, HDV, and AVCHD formats--particularly, the new AVCHD format, provided you have a new Mac with an Intel processor. Highly recommended!

Customer Review: BEWARE! Few New Features, Buggy, Doesn't Fully Support AVCHD

1. Forget about having FCHD4 import your AVCHD records enjoys the SD card reader (as iMovie 08 achieves). This t*rd really makes you connect your camcorder to the pc with a FireWire cable and capture the records old school style. Who orchestrated that? Isn't that the whole point of using AVCHD and SD cards because video.



2. Typical of most recent Apple software where 1.0 translates to "paid beta", I have to remove the FCHD4 preferences line whenever I launch the application or it won't launch. Amazing.



3. Worst of all, the two attributes above ("real" AVCHD support and new-version-stability) are how I persuaded my self to upgrade to the meager pack of new attributes in FCHD4. Given the $100 price and the disappointment to deliver on Apple's part, this is competently my worst software purchase this year.



Beware!