Supporting Software Applications for Final Cut Pro

This chapter follows on from the last, where software for collaboration was discussed. This chapter talks about applications and utilities that are not directly involved in the editing of clips in Final Cut Pro but, instead, provide better-prepared clips for Final Cut Pro to use.

You will see applications that provide facilities for backing up files, archiving, and transcribing text. You will also learn about applications that help prepare media for Final Cut Pro, including image-editing applications as well as transcription, organization, and conversion applications.

The chapter is split into two sections – applications from Apple and those from other developers.

The main topics we’ll be covering in this chapter are as follows:

• Motion 5
• Compressor
• QuickTime
• Preview
• Keynote
• Photos and iTunes
• Final Cut Library Manager
• CommandPost
• VLC
• Handbrake
• Audacity
• Pixelmator...

Apple applications that support Final Cut Pro

This section will show you applications that are developed by Apple that have features that are useful to Final Cut Pro editors.

Motion 5

Motion 5 is a motion graphics application that creates 2D, 3D, and 360° titles and transitions in real-time. As an indication of the integration of Motion 5 and Final Cut Pro, all effects that are part of Final Cut Pro, both default and third-party, have been created with Motion 5.

The Motion 5 application is so fully integrated into Final Cut Pro that all of the third-party plug-ins that you use with Final Cut Pro are contained in a folder on your system hard disk, called Motion Templates. The folder exists when you use third-party plug-ins, even if you don’t own the Motion 5 application.

I strongly urge you to purchase Motion 5. As you will see in this section, it allows you to personalize plug-ins and provides the opportunity to create your own digital animations, which can...

Non-Apple applications that support Final Cut Pro

In this part of the chapter, I will focus on listing the important features of the various applications, rather than explaining how they work. We’ll start with an application specifically developed for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Library Manager, and then list the other applications, depending on how useful I consider them to be.

Final Cut Library Manager

The purpose of this application is to conveniently organize the contents of all the Final Cut Pro libraries, whether they are on currently attached devices or not. The main objective of Final Cut Library Manager is to reduce the size of the libraries to a minimum, without losing any media that is needed by a Final Cut Pro library. Optimized and proxy media can be removed by Final Cut Library Manager, providing the original media exists. If no original media is available, then Final Cut Library Manager will not remove the optimized media. Final Cut Library Manager always ensures...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned about the applications that integrate with and assist Final Cut Pro. The first section discussed Apple applications that directly integrate via macOS, and the second section discussed applications from non-Apple developers.

In the first section, you learned how to access Final Cut Pro plug-ins to modify them in Motion 5, with detailed instructions about its use. You were also shown details of how to add a myriad of export presets to Final Cut Pro by linking Compressor to the Share menu. You were shown how to modify the presets in Compressor and how they can be saved as custom presets, made available in Final Cut Pro.

Also, in the first section, you learned about the Apple applications that are part of every Mac and how the QuickTime, Preview, and Keynote applications can create content that is useful in Final Cut Pro. You also saw how to access Photos and iTunes music directly within the Final Cut Pro interface.

The second section told...