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Final Cut Pro 6 Video Tutorial – Editing Basics 01

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Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro 6 Video Tutorial – Editing Basics 01: System Setup

Over the next several days, we are going to release several or up to a dozen video tutorials for Apple’s Final Cut Pro 6. This series is intended for those who have just started using Final Cut Pro 6 without prior experience in digital video editing and need some guidance. We, MacHouse, edit more than 200 videos each year, using Apple Final Cut Pro. So we can help you.

This Final Cut Pro 6 video tutorial series is for offline editing. That is, we assume that all video clips are stored on a hard disk drive. So we don’t import videos from video cameras.

The first video of this Final Cut Pro 6 video tutorial series discusses how to set up the application. More precisely, we will work on User Preferences, System Settings and Audio/Video Settings. We do not cover every single system setting. The following is a list of settings that we explain in this video tutorial.

Keywords: Levels of Undo, Autosave Vault, Auto Render, Still/Freeze Duration, NTSC Default Timecode, Drop, Non-Drop, Timeline Options, Starting timecode, Default Number of Tracks, Scratch Disks, Video Render, Audio Render, Minimum Allowable Free Space On Scratch Disks, Memory & Cache, Memory Usage, Application Still Cache, Playback Control, RT, Safe, Unlimited, Frame Rate, Dynamic, Full, Quarter, Pulldown Pattern, Beep When Playing Unredered Audio, Sequence Preset, Frame Size, Pixel Aspect Ratio, Editing Timebase, QuickTime Video Settings, Compressor, Audio Settings, Duplicate, Capture Preset, QuickTime Audio Settings, Device Continue reading →

Fluid Mask 3 for Mac Quick Overview (Comparing Fluid Mask 3, Mask Pro 4 and PS CS3 Color Range)

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Vertus Fluid Mask 3 Photoshop plug-in compare mask pro 4

Removing background is never easy whether you use Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, Graphic Converter or whatever. Whatever you have and no matter how you do it, you will lose some important pixels in the course of removing background colors.

In the following 3 Quick Overview videos, we compare the masking functions of Fluid Mask 3, Mask Pro 4 and Photoshop’s Color Range. Note that these Quick Overview videos are not necessarily video tutorials. They merely show basic workflows of respective applications mostly without audio commentary.

In the first video, we use Vertus’ Fluid Mask 3. Fluid Mask 3 comes as a Photoshop plug-in and also as a standalone application. We use its Photoshop plug-in to isolate important pixels from unnecessary ones. The second video involves onOne Software’s Mask Pro 4.1. It’s also a Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) plug-in. In fact, we reviewed this product yesterday. Finally, the third video doesn’t involve any of the plug-ins mentioned above, and we use Photoshop’s Color Range along with Quick Mask to remove unwanted pixels. In all these videos, we attempt to remove navy blue sky from the image. The original graphic image used in these videos comes from Photo PD Continue reading →

Mask Pro 4 for Mac Quick Overview (2)

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Mask Pro 4 Mac video tutorial onOne Software Photoshop plug-in

Removing background is never easy whether you use Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, Graphic Converter or whatever. Whatever you have and no matter how you do it, you will lose some important pixels in the course of removing background colors.

The second set of Quick Overview videos compare masking results between Photoshop’s Extract and Mask Pro 4’s Magic Pen. In the first video, we use Adobe Photoshop CS3’s Extract to isolate balloons from the background. In the second video, we use Mask Pro 4’s Magic Pen to do the same job. Continue reading →

Mac Software Review: Mask Pro 4.1 (Mac & Win)

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Mask Pro 4 Mac video tutorial onOne Software Photoshop plug-in
Mac software review

Masking is never an easy task. It’s a technique to remove unnecessary pixels, keeping a group of objects intact. There are several ways to isolate objects from unnecessary background pixels in using Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop’s Color Range lets you remove unnecessary pixels in terms of colors. If you have large objects to isolate from background, you can then use Photoshop’s Extract.

If you have Photoshop and feel that it’s not good enough for you in masking objects from background, then consider trying out onOne Software’s Mask Pro 4.1. It’s a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 or Photoshop Elements 4. I can tell you that Mask Pro 4.1’s Magic Brush is quite amazing.

There are mainly two ways in which you can mask important pixels from background. One is use of Magic Brush. And the other method involves Magic Pen. Looking at Screenshot 01, if I want to remove sky, I can do it better using Magic Brush as opposed to Magic Pen. That’s because trees’ leaves are so implicate, surrounded by different color pixels. Looking at Screenshot 02, if I want to isolate two balloons from the blue background, using Magic Pen will be better because the border between balloons and sky are distinct. Continue reading →