6 useful features of Final Cut Pro 11 that will excite creators – including iPad users

You don’t have to be a professional video editor to understand how practical, effective, and impactful the latest update to Final Cut Pro is. Apple today is rolling out a highly anticipated refresh to its in-house editing program, Final Cut Pro 11, along with updates to cross-platform variants: Final Cut Pro for iPad and Final Cut Camera.

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The big focus of Final Cut Pro 11 is definitely AI and how Macs, supported by Apple’s language model in Sequoia MacOScan help automate and streamline your workflow, whether it’s identifying moving objects for cropping and editing or transcribing and annotating.

“Our creative apps power artists, producers, directors and editors across the world,” said Brent ChiuWatson, Senior Director of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple Apps. worldwide the tools they need to express themselves and realize their artistic visions.” Below, I’ve highlighted the best new features available in the new free update.

1. Magnetic mask

Traditionally, you would rely on green screen or rotoscoping to accurately match the subject in your video, which requires not only the necessary resources but also a lot of time. The new Magnetic Mask feature leverages M-series chips (specifically the Neural Engine) to intelligently track and select moving objects in footage, such as cars, people, and pets. With a smart object selected, you can layer it onto custom backgrounds, adjust color, and/or apply video effects.

2. Copy the notes

Thanks to a large language model trained by Apple, the new feature takes speech audio from your footage, transcribes it, and automatically applies it as closed captions throughout the video. However, it is currently limited to English only and more languages ​​will be added soon.

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While there has been an increase in AI-powered transcription serviceThis is one of the more natural apps since content creators often rely on third-party services like Scribe and Rev. When I worked as a video editor in the past, sending and receiving transcripts for videos always felt like an extra step in the creation process, ultimately resulting in a significant amount of time lost during production. A proprietary tool built right into the editing software — if it works as reliably as Apple demonstrates — would be very beneficial.

3. Now you can edit spatial videos

When Apple first launched Vision Pro, space videos arguably its best feature. The emotional and immersive nature of videos with a 3D look is one of the more memorable aspects of the $3,500 headset, and it’s something Apple has continued to build on with immersive videos and movies. On Final Cut Pro 11, users will be able to edit their own spatial videos, as long as they were shot on a Vision Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro or Canon RF-S7.8mm F4 STM Lens DUAL combined with Canon R7.

Editing capabilities include adding effects and color correction to footage as well as the ability to add vibrant titles with adjustable depth placement. Users can also preview different views of the left and right eyes on the Mac or Vision Pro screen (via Mac Virtual Display).

4. Show and hide clips for a cleaner timeline

If you often find yourself with too much video, text and audio to focus on, there’s now an option to show and hide clips. While this isn’t as flashy a change as spatial video editing, this feature will significantly reduce timelines, allowing you to focus on only certain parts of your content while hiding the ones that are most important. can play in the background.

5. Small (but useful) improvements to iPad

On Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1, Apple is introducing a new Lighting and Color Enhancement feature that adaptively adjusts aspects like color balance, contrast, and brightness in clips, no matter where they were filmed. in SDR, HDR, RAW or LOG.

Also: How to get a cinematic look for your videos in Final Cut Pro

the Apple Pencil Pro And Magic Keyboard will also register haptic feedback as you trim video, drag media around the timeline, and resize clips via snap. Other changes include the ability to expand or shrink the timeline height with a vertical pinch, switching the viewer to Picture-in-Picture mode, and new ink types (such as watercolor, crayon, and fountain pen) for Live Drawing.

6. Record more efficiently with Final Cut Camera

Even though it’s only been half a year since Apple released a version of Final Cut that works with the iPhone, the app’s latest update lets you record log-encoded HEVC video in a standalone session or Live Multicam. This type of footage gives you more control over dynamic range and color in post-production while taking up less file size than traditional Diary video.

You can also now preview built-in Apple LUTs, saving you from having to guess how aspects like gamma, luminance, and color will affect your footage after recording. Finally, Final Cut Camera 1.1 introduces an equalization tool to help editors better frame and compose their shots.