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    Home / Blog / Effects

    Keeping it interesting WITH FCPX with Tech TV

    February 17, 2014 by Guest Blogger

    The corporate video sector doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being wildly exciting. It’s often associated with dreary talking heads, tedious soundtracks and uninspiring camera work.

    At Tech TV we’re all about staying far away from that image. We’re an award-winning video production company based in the UK. We specialise in corporate videos that look great as well as being short, shareable, and straight to the point. We often work to tight deadlines and have multiple projects on the go at once, so speed is really important.

    About a year ago, the company decided to make the switch to FCP X. We were already using FCP 7 but after the FCP X launch, we became interested in moving to the new software – despite the bad press it got on launch. It was initially a gradual process, starting with smaller projects with no defined deadline, but it soon became clear that there was no going back.

    I joined Tech TV in January, just after the big switch. Having worked mostly with Avid during university, I expected my first assisting job to involve a lot of syncing, logging and waiting for footage to transcode, so I was pretty surprised to find out most of that wasn’t necessary with FCP X.

    techtv2
    Our workflow really couldn’t be easier. We mostly shoot with the large sensor Panasonic AF-100 (AF-101 here in the UK) with prime lenses. We back up the cards on location to rugged hard drives then bring these back to the edit. It’s really easy to import the AVCHD rushes straight into FCP X through the import window. We can start cutting while the footage continues to import, quickly skimming through the event browser to pull down interviews and find our favorite shots.

    “The great thing about FCP X is that it lets us start editing really quickly” says our Head of Production Matt Smith, “Some of the best ideas come in the edit, video is visual and FCP X is great at is visualizing how the shots are going to work together.”

    I think the biggest test of speed was using FCP X for very tight deadlines like event wraps. We’ve now done a few events where we’ve managed to film, edit, colour correct, and add effects and graphics in a day. It looks great, and has been turned around in barely any time.

    We do all our grading in FCP X using the in-built colour controls and make use of a few plugins for quick skin tone or white balance fixing.

    “I use the colour correction tool all the time” our Editor and Producer Tash Jones says. “I use the colour mask to select and improve any colours that don’t look right, and I often use the shape mask to create simple vignette or a subtle sunset look.”

    techtv1
    Something that has really changed the way we work is the amount of plugins now available for FCP X. We use them in pretty much every production; they allow us to make a creative edit quicker than ever.

    We often take GoPros out on our shoots, and so we’ve found that the CrumblePop Fisheye Fixer plugin is fantastic – with a click of a button the image straightens out so it gives us some more flexibility with our shots.

    “We’ve put the GoPro underwater and even on a centrifuge used for flight training” says Tash, “so it was whizzing round at some ridiculous G force, and the Fisheye Fixer plugin managed to sort the footage out, so we were impressed with that.”

    We also make use of effects like glitch transitions, lens flares, light leaks and whip pans to give edits more pace and polish.

    “The thing about corporate video is that often you haven’t always got amazing pictures to work with,” says Matt. “You often need something to help them come alive a bit.”

    He adds: “Whereas indie filmmakers might have a nice landscape or studio set to work with, a lot of our ‘bread and butter’ filming is in a boardroom or office. That’s where Final Cut X and the plugins really come in, you’ve got a growing catalogue of stuff to use, so it’s really helped us create a more polished result.”

    The software isn’t without it’s flaws, and we have had some problems with bugs along the way. There’s a particularly annoying one at the moment that tries to make all your key frame moves ease in and out, which it seems can only be fixed by toggling various options on and off repeatedly. Little glitches like that have been really frustrating, but with each update these things have been fixed and overall we’ve found that it crashes a lot less than other NLEs.

    We honestly haven’t looked back to FCP 7 in a long time. In fact having worked at the company for just under a year, I can only recall two times we opened 7 and they were both to revisit old projects, which we then ended up 7toXing anyway.

    techtv3
    It’s not going to win everyone over, but to be honest FCP X is perfect for the kind of work we do and our clients are happy because they get the professional look in half the time without the big production company price tag.

    “I like to think of us as a very modern production company” says Matt, “we’re making a lot of stuff for mobile and social media. FCP X just seems to tie into that whole way of thinking.”

    Roxanne Ibbetson is a Production Assistant at Tech TV, an award winning video production company based in London and Surrey in the UK.

    Filed Under: FCP X, Featured, Interviews Tagged With: apple, Color Grading, CrumplePop., Editing, Effects, FCP X, Final Cut Pro X, Interview, Panasonic AF100, Pluggins, Production, Tech Tv, Television, Using CrumplePop

    We Bet Everything on FCP X – Here’s What Happened

    June 20, 2013 by Gabe

    FCPFutureUPDATE: Lively discussion going on in the comments. Click on the title of this blog post above to read/participate.

    Two years ago, I announced on this blog that we were betting our business on FCP X. Here’s what happened.

    But first, a quick bit of history.

    The Days of Dinosaurs – 2010

    In 2010, there were are a small handful of tiny companies making Master Templates for FCP 6/7. There was Sam at FinalCutProTemplates.com (now SquidFX), MotionVFX, Mark Spencer, and idustrial Revolution. CrumplePop’s innovation was to use the Master Templates architecture to make things that were more like general-purpose plugins. The problem was that Master Templates in FCP were often buggy and unpredictable. But they worked well enough to build a small business around, and soon it was so successful that Jed, the co-founder of CrumplePop, could stop eating pizza out of the dumpster (the one in back of Little Caesar’s on E. Lake St. in Minneapolis). It was starting to go well. Then FCP X shipped.

    FCP X Ships – 2011

    The day FCP X was released, we could barely believe what we were seeing. While everyone else was engaging in an embarrassing internet tantrum and calling it clever things like “iMovie Pro”, we were looking closely at the new Effects architecture. What we discovered there was eerie.

    It looked like Apple had carefully studied how we made products in FCP 6/7, and then created a ridiculously powerful tool set just for us. Even some of the terminology was the same as ours – for instance, calling the new tools “Effects” instead of “plugins” or “templates”. Within days, it was obvious that FCP X was a serious platform, an incredible gift to developers, and the future. We immediately started developing for FCP X exclusively. When CrumplePop announced this, people thought we were nuts and in some cases reacted with genuine indignation. As it turned out, we weren’t nuts.

    The Plugin Explosion – 2012

    In the two years since FCP X was introduced, there has been what FCP.co refers to as “The Plugin Explosion.” With a running start, and thanks to FCP X’s remarkable Effects architecture, we were able to ship a full suite of useful plugins for FCP X within a year of it shipping. To our amazement, sales of FCP X plugins were strong right away.

    The strength of the new platform was almost immediately obvious. While internet forums were busy bemoaning the fate of Apple’s supposedly once-great NLE, we were seeing a very different story in our sales stats. People were adopting FCP X – and quickly. Plugins for FCP X became our best-selling products almost overnight.

    Then a fascinating thing happened: A new crop of FCP X plugin developers emerged. Empowered by the excellent development tools Apple had made available in Motion 5, and inspired to a greater or lesser extent by CrumplePop, a bunch of new players jumped in. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we were very flattered. Suddenly we were the old-timers.

    Today, just two short years after FCP X shipped, there is an entire plugin ecosystem around FCP X. This is to the enormous benefit of editors, and we are proud to have played a role in it. To my knowledge, it is unique among NLE platforms. It’s our hope that Apple continues to develop the Motion-based effects architecture in FCP X, to make more creative, more powerful plugins possible.

    Final Cut Amateur

    At the June 2013 WWDC keynote, Apple announced a new Mac Pro, and specifically called out support for video editors and FCP X. With that announcement, we can now officially conclude the “Is FCP X pro?” discussion. Are there features we’d like to see added to FCP X? For sure. But we now have good reason to believe they will happen.

    So Who Uses FCP X?

    Two years ago, I predicted that within a year, FCP X would be the platform used by most professional video editors. Is that true? It’s impossible to say, because “professional video editor” is a concept that is being redefined as I write this.

    We talk to a lot of FCP X users. They are a diverse group of editors who are difficult to make generalizations about. If I log into our order system and look at our most recent customers, here’s what I see (this is a real list – whoever bought one of our plugins and had a web site I could check out is listed here):

    – A Danish production company specializing in journalistic pieces

    – A major American newspaper and media group

    – A small American marketing firm

    – A small American producer of branding content

    – An American indie filmmaker

    – A graphic designer

    – A boutique Dutch mobile and creative agency

    – An award-winning freelance editor based in New York

    – An Italian record label

    – A small music marketing firm based in Nashville

    – A UK-based guitar retailer

    – A California-based maker of longboard skateboards

    – A mobile app developer

    – An American wedding videographer

    – An Australian singer-songwriter

    – A Canadian company specializing in social media advertising

    About 50% of our users are U.S.-based.

    The Future: Access to Tools

    The Whole Earth Catalog had a simple motto: “Access to Tools.” For us, this is the future– bringing increasingly powerful tools to the people on the above list. To this end, we’ve put together partnerships with Red Giant and Dale Grahn, and we have some big, exciting stuff in the works. In the spirit of FCP X, we plan to put previously inaccessible tools in as many hands as possible.

    Take a longer look at the above list, and you start to get a sense that the world of video editing is expanding and changing incredibly fast, and that FCP X is playing a big part in that. For those of us who work in this industry, it’s utter mayhem. Which is a big part of what makes it fun.

    Gabe Cheifetz, co-founder, CrumplePop
    gabe [at] crumplepop.com

    Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: apple, Development, Effects, FCP 6/7, FCPX, Final Cut Pro, Motion 5, Pluggins, Tools, WWDC

    Introducing Red Giant Retrograde

    October 22, 2012 by Patrick

    For the past few months, we’ve been working with the incredible team at Red Giant to help create new tools and effects for Final Cut Pro X. Today we’re excited to announce Red Giant Retrograde.

    Retrograde features 12 different 8mm and 16mm film looks. Created from real analog source material, Retrograde emulates the color, grain and dammage from 60s and 70s era films and home movies. Retrograde allows you to completely customize your look, from the amount of individual film artifacts to the style of grain. Simply drag and drop Retrograde on to your clip to see the results.

    We hope you enjoy Red Giant Retrograde.

    You can download a free trial version of Red Giant Retrograde here.

    Filed Under: Releases & Deals Tagged With: Artifacts, Effects, Film Grain, Grain, Looks, Red Giant, Retro, Retrograde

    Introducing ToneGrade

    December 13, 2011 by Patrick



    We just released our latest product: ToneGrade™ for FCP X.

    ToneGrade™ makes it easy to apply HDR tone mapping to your footage. Inside Final Cut Pro X simply drag and drop ToneGrade™ on to your footage to create a subtle, “hyper-real” color grade that can be visually striking. ToneGrade™ can easily recover detail and includes tools for fast color correction. To see learn more about ToneGrade™ and see it in use check our tutorials it’s product product page.

    ToneGrade™ is available this week for $39 (save more than $30!) After the week goes by, ToneGrade™ returns to it’s $75 price. To take advantage of the deal enter this code: TOGR-0039-INTR-1212

    Filed Under: Using Crumplepop Tagged With: Effects, HDR, High Dynamic Range, New Product, ToneGrade, Using CrumplePop

    ShrinkRay X Free For One Week!!!

    November 16, 2011 by Patrick



    For the next week download our latest Product, ShrinkRay X for free!

    ShrinkRay X is a fully-featured tilt-shift effect for Final Cut Pro X. With ShrinkRay X, you can make big scenes appear strikingly tiny, whether it is buildings, people, or landscapes. ShrinkRay X is available as a free download from our web site for one week, starting today, after which the price will move to $75.00.

    With ShrinkRay X, you can add mesmerizing tilt-shift effects to any project by simply dragging and dropping inside FCP X. ShrinkRay X was built from the ground-up for Final Cut Pro X, and includes simple on screen controls and a full suite of focal area adjustment tools. Cityscapes, wide shots of crowds, forests, or rivers suddenly appear as mini, toy-like versions of themselves, providing a remarkable new perspective on the physical environment.

    CrumplePop ShrinkRay X includes a raft of brand-new features, including:

      – A powerful mask view to more quickly and easily see which areas within your frame are blurred and in focus.
      – Three Focus/Blur Patch tools that help quickly clean up the frame and create photorealistic focus areas.
      – Precise control over blur magntitude, orientation, and falloff.
      – Instantly play back a preview after you have applied the effect, thanks to FCP X.



    ShrinkRay X is a fast, fun and easy way to to simulate tilt shift and selective focus inside Final Cut Pro X. To learn more check out our CrumplePop ShrinkRay X page.

    Click Here to get ShrinkRay X for free.

    Filed Under: FCP, Using Crumplepop Tagged With: CrumplePop., Deal, Effects, Free, ShrinkRay X, Tilt-shift

    Introducing CrumplePop Noir Moderne

    July 7, 2011 by Patrick

    Noir Moderne from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

    Take a look at our latest product: Noir Moderne.

    Noir Moderne features 19 stylish, dark effects, 3 transitions and 1 royalty free font for FCP 6, 7 and the recent FCP X. Simply dragging and dropping Noir Moderne onto your footage creates irregular pulses, strobes, optically captured vignettes and venetian patterns that deliver a look all it’s own.

    Noir Moderne was created with FCP X in mind and utilizes many of the new features in Apple’s latest non-linear editing software. For those using FCP 6 and 7, Noir Moderne is available as a set of 1920×1080 clips offered in both ProRes and h264. These clips work much like our recent product: CrumplePop Lumineux. Simply drag a clip over your footage and select composite mode. Check out each of the different looks over at our Preview Page.

    Here is some screen caps before and after using CrumplePop Noir Moderne:



    CrumplePop Noir Moderne is available here for $75.

    Filed Under: Using Crumplepop Tagged With: CrumplePop Noir Moderne, CrumplePop., Effects, FCP X, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, New Product

    Introducing Magic Bullet + CrumplePop’s MagicPop Bundle

    June 15, 2011 by Patrick

    MagicPop Bundle Promo from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

    Check out our latest release: The MagicPop Bundle.

    We’ve joined together with Red Giant Software to offer an exceptional deal on FCP effects that work incredibly well together. The MagicPop bundle features Magic Bullet Denoiser, Magic Bullet Quick Looks, CrumplePop Lumineux and CrumplePop LowerThirds.

    Until the end of the month you can get this package for $199, saving $137.

    To see more info on each of the products, check out our MagicPop Bundle page.

    Check out these stills to see what footage looked like before and after using the MagicPop Bundle.
     

     

     

    The MagicPop Bundle is available here for $199.
     

    Filed Under: Using Crumplepop Tagged With: CrumplePop., Denoiser, Effects, LowerThirds, Lumineux, Magic Bullet, Products, QuickLooks, Red Giant Software

    Last Day to Pick Up CrumplePop Formal for $20 Off.

    May 24, 2011 by Patrick

    Just a reminder that today is the last day to buy Formal for $49. Tomorrow the price returns to $75. Feel free to use this as an opportunity to save more than 20 bucks.
    Use this code when checking out: FRML-0026-INTR-0517

    Filed Under: Using Crumplepop Tagged With: CrumplePop., Effects, Formal, Sale, Wedding

    Introducing: Formal

    May 18, 2011 by Patrick

    CrumplePop Formal from CrumplePop on Vimeo.


    We just released our latest product: CrumplePop Formal.

    CrumplePop Formal offers 72 different styles of titling templates that feature 54 textures, 9 lightleaks, 27 backgrounds, 55 in style wedding colors, 55 paper textures and 9 royalty free fonts for Final Cut Pro 6 and 7. Formal allows you to quickly and easily create your very own wedding and event style titles by simply dragging and dropping right in Final Cut. CrumplePop Formal is ready to work with many different sources and is offered in more than 50 different Codecs.

    Also included in CrumplePop Formal is more than 12 gigs of high quality animated backgrounds and lightleaks to use either with the title tools or as stand alone backgrounds.

    See examples of the animated backgrounds, lightleaks, and transitions included here. Take a look at our tutorial section to see some of the features and looks included in Formal.

    Check out the screen shots below to see the the effects in use.
    Formal Promo 1

    Formal Promo 2


    CrumplePop Formal is available here for $75. $49 for Formal for 1 week. Use this code when checking out: FRML-0026-INTR-0517

    Filed Under: Using Crumplepop Tagged With: CrumplePop Formal, CrumplePop., Effects, Event Templates, Final Cut Pro 6, Final Cut Pro 7, Formal, New Product, Templates, Wedding Videos

    Introducing Lumineux

    April 26, 2011 by Patrick


    We have released our newest product CrumplePop Lumineux.

    Lumineux features easy to use light leaks for Final Cut Pro 6, 7 and the upcoming Final Cut Pro X. CrumplePop Lumineux works quickly and easily to add light leaks to any FCP project by simply dragging and dropping right inside of Final Cut Pro. You simply choose a clip, drag it to your time line, click overlay, render and you’re done – you’ve created your very own Holga-style light leak.

    You can choose from among 7GB of 57 different light leaks and transitions or mix and match to create your own. Each light leak is extremely high-quality, offered in both ProResLT and h.264. They are completely customizable also, allowing you change the colors and add additional effects.

    Check out screen shots of two different effects:
    Screen Shot 1
    Screen Shot 2

    CrumplePop Lumineux can be purchased from here for $69 (USD).

    Filed Under: Using Crumplepop Tagged With: CrumplePop Lumineux, CrumplePop., Effects, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Light Leaks, Lumineux, New Product

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