We've just got back from the Apple Presentation that's part of the FCPX Creative Summit and we have some great news about 10.4 to share. New colour tools including wheels & curves and 360 tools built in.
A lot to digest, but the presentation was pretty awesome in Apple's Town Hall in Cupertino. We also got to see the new iMac Pro playing back 8K media on the timeline unrendered. Impressive
We now know the new FCPX is 10.4 and although it has now been shown to us attendees, no word on an exact release date yet, but it is coming later this year.
New Features
- 360 tools built in including 360 and 360 3D titles built in motion.
- Clone tool for rig concealment at bottom of 360 frame.
- Horizon straightening tool in 360
- Custom 360 transitions built with the new version of motion
- Support for onscreen 360 and headset display at the same time
- Support for HDR
- New Colour Wheels with RGB and Hue/Saturation Curves
- Manual white balance using a colour picker (yay!)
- New preference for what colour correction control is shown first on clip
- Ssupport for additional camera LUTs
- Custom LUTs can be loaded per clip in Inspector
- Custom LUTs can be added as an effect
- Role based forward/back clip selection (i.e. it can ignore titles)
- Extra Programmable functions for colour correction to be mapped onto keyboard
- Existing Projects with colour board colour correction not affected - just extra controls added
- 10.4 on iMac Pro can play 4K native RED footage with colour correction & title overlay unrendered on the timeline
- 10.4 on iMac Pro can play optimised (ProRes 4444) in 8K with colour correction and effects in an unrendered timeline
- HEVC Support
- Can import an iOS iMovie project into FCPX 10.4
Not Added
- Dupe detection
- More Audio controls
Ok, enough of the bullet points, let's have at look at the pictures!
The new colour wheels in FCPX 10.4
A close-up of the wheels, the controls in the middle are like joysticks
The new colour curves. Clicking on a point on the canvas puts a corresponding mark on the curve as shown at the top
Extra colour controls on the curves.
Hue/Saturation - the bottom one can be selected to any colour.
Loading custom LUTs. This can be done on the clip in the inspector info panel or there is also a custom LUT loader effect. Support for new RED LUTs announced.
Custom LUT effect. Can be stored as a new effect with all the other multiple colour corrections bundled up.
More custom LUT loading - can load folders full of LUTs at once.
Yes it is 10.4 - no word on release date yet.
Auto white colour picker at last!!! It seems to work well.
iMac Pro playing 8K Optimised RED files unrenderd on the timeline
Peter Wiggins is a broadcast freelance editor based in the UK although his work takes him around the world. An early adopter of FCP setting up pioneering broadcasts workflows, his weapon of choice is now Final Cut Pro X.
You can follow him on Twitter as @peterwiggins or as he runs the majority of this site, you can contact him here.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
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