# Latest News

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# 2024

# May

# 9th May 2024

Color Finale v2.8.1 is out now with the following bug fix:

  • FIXED: Issue causing person mask crashes on older Intel-based Macs with multiple GPUs.

For those that haven't yet updated to v2.8, the big new feature is a Person Masking Tool:

We have introduced a new machine learning-based Person Masking functionality. This advanced tool automatically identifies and isolates human figures within your footage, enabling precise adjustments and effects to be applied directly to people within your scenes without manual roto-scoping. This feature enhances workflow efficiency and precision in post-production editing tasks.

You can learn more here.

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# 8th May 2024

Apple has announced Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 and Final Cut Pro for iPad 2!

There's also a new Final Cut Camera app coming to iPhone & iPad.

  • You can read the official press release here.
  • You can watch the Apple Event on YouTube here.
  • You can read Iain Anderson's thoughts on ProVideo Coalition here.
  • You can watch Matthew O'Brien's reaction on YouTube here.
  • You can watch Richard Taylor's Final Cut TV & Coffee Live Stream here.

The big ticket items for Mac are...

A new Enhance Light and Color effect for the Color Inspector, offering the ability to improve color, color balance, contrast, and brightness in one simple step, and is optimized for SDR, HDR, RAW, and Log-encoded media.

Whilst Final Cut Pro has had a Balance Color tool for a long time, and did a pretty good job at balancing things - it doesn't give you any controls (aside from a White Balance picker), so it's really just a one-click solution where it either works or it doesn't.

It also never really worked well with Log-encoded media.

For me personally, I'm NOT a colourist, I don't enjoy colour grading, and I generally do everything in the Color Board - so this new tool will be HUGELY helpful, and something I've been wanting for many years.

I do a lot of fast-turnaround corporate/advertising edits where there's no time to send to a professional colourist - so this will be a very handy tool to have in the toolbox!

It'll be very interesting to compare to Colourlab AI 3.

Smooth Slo-Mo adds Machine Learning speed effects, which will be very interesting to try out, and see how it compares with Topaz Video AI.

You can now Rename Effects in the Video & Color Inspector! This has something that the Final Cut Pro community have wanted for years - so it's awesome that it's finally coming!

You can also now drag & drop effects from the Inspector to clips on the timeline and the browser! Hopefully this means you'll also be able to drag them into Recall Toolbox or save them using CommandPost's Pasteboard Buffer!

The Timeline Index also got some love and attention, with added columns for Metadata Fields such as Reel, Scene, Camera Angle, etc.

This could be incredibly handy when combined with CommandPost's Timeline Index CSV Export feature!

It also looks like they've finally added a button to toggle the Scrolling Timeline on and off!

Personally, I think this is a really solid update, with some great professional features that I'll be using every day. I'm excited to give it a test run!

The big ticket items for iPad are...

Things are faster on M4:

With M4 on the new iPad Pro, final rendering is up to 2x faster, and editors can take advantage of support for up to 4x more streams of ProRes RAW than with M1.

Live Multicam on Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 allows users to direct and control up to four cameras, providing a director’s view of each live video feed in real time.

Final Cut Pro for iPad now officially supports External Storage - so you can save your Projects & Media on external drives.

There's no information on whether or not you can go from Mac to iPad yet though, so Transfer Toolbox may still be necessary.

There's lots more content:

Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 brings more options to customize projects. Users can dial in their edits with 12 new color-grading presets, choose from eight basic text titles, score with 20 new soundtracks, and add additional dynamic backgrounds to create effect overlays and title sequences.

Interestingly, despite 3rd Party Content being listed as "coming soon" when Final Cut Pro for iPad first launched, there was still no mention of 3rd Party Content coming in this release.

It'll also be interesting to see if any "quality of life" improvements are made in this new version - such as the ability to copy and paste things between Projects.

We're excited to check it out, when it ships later this year:

Pricing and Availability

  • Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 will be available later this spring as a free update for existing users, and available on the App Store for $4.99 (U.S.) per month or $49 (U.S.) per year, with a one-month free trial for new users.
  • Final Cut Camera will be available for free later this spring as a standalone app.
  • Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 will be available as a free update for existing users and for $299.99 (U.S.) for new users on the Mac App Store. All new users can download a free 90-day trial of Final Cut Pro.

Discuss this news item

# 7th May 2024

Marker Toolbox v1.3.2 is out now with Frame.io V4 support!

For those Final Cut Pro users using the awesome Frame.io V4 beta, you have most likely noticed that the Frame.io Final Cut Pro Workflow Extension currently doesn't work properly with the beta, and if you try and export a FIOJSON file from the website, it doesn't always work correctly when imported into Final Cut Pro.

For example, if you import a FIOJSON from the website and import it into Final Cut Pro via the Frame.io v2.6.1 Mac App, sometimes Titles will be missing, and there's other inconsistencies between what you see within the Frame.io website, and what gets imported into Final Cut Pro.

Emery Wells writes on ProVideo Coalition:

As a beta, some of the existing Frame.io features may not be initially available, but you can be certain that those features—along with NLE integrations and companion apps—are an element of our forward- looking roadmap.

In the meantime however, Marker Toolbox fills that gap for Final Cut Pro users - as you can export a FIOJSON from the website and import it into Marker Toolbox.

You can learn more about Marker Toolbox here.

Arctic v24.1.2 is out now with the following fixes:

  • Opening settings now remembers the last panel selected
  • Improved handling of offline usage
  • Improved activating directly from the license email

You can learn more and download Arctic here.

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# 6th May 2024

Pictures This... v1.0.6 is out now with the following changes:

  • Improved generation speed by using a new batch scheduler

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Builder NLE v4.2.4 is out now with the following bug fixes:

  • Critical bug fix for cases where mixed DTD version numbers can create FCPXML that cannot be imported into Final Cut Pro
  • Bug fix to support uppercased XML file extensions

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Markers Extractor v0.3.6 is out now with the following changes:

New Features:

  • Added Clip Keywords manifest field
  • Added Reel, Scene, Take, Clip In, Clip Out manifest fields
  • Added --use-chapter-marker-thumbnails CLI flag to enable chapter marker thumbnail pins

Bug Fixes:

  • Added better filename sanitation which can avoid failure to generate image files
  • Fixed issue where log file may not be created on disk if its target parent path does not exist

You can download here.

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# 4th May 2024

Apple has released a fun new commercial - cut by Tom Lindsay at Trim Editing in Final Cut Pro.

Enjoy!

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# April

# 24th April 2024

BRAW Toolbox v1.3.8 is out now with the following changes:

🔨 Improvements:

  • Added support for Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF.
  • Updated from Blackmagic RAW SDK v3.6.1 to v4.0.

🐞 Bug Fix:

  • When clicking "Prepare BRAW Files", you'll now get an error message if the Audio Folder is currently in the Trash. Thanks for reporting Mark Terry!

You can learn more and download here.

Marker Toolbox v1.3.8 is out now with the following fix:

🐞 Bug Fix:

  • Fixed support for the latest Vimeo CSV format. Thanks for reporting Dave & YevantZ!

You can learn more and download here.

NAB Show 2024 (National Association of Broadcasters) has officially been and gone.

Starting on Sunday 14th April, it took place at it's usual home in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and over the four days it had over 61,000 attendees.

Interestingly, it's been reported that 54% of the registered attendees were first-time visitors.

Whilst there was no Final Cut Pro update, nor any news about Final Cut Pro directly from Apple, there was some interesting news for the Final Cut Pro community.

The highlights being:

The Atomos Ninja Phone also looks quite interesting.

As always, the Blackmagic Design NAB 2024 Update video is worth watching. Blackmagic had a HUGE amount of product announcements as usual.

Steve & Mark from Ripple Training recorded a summary video.

Larry Jordan has a large collection of videos from the show floor that's worth watching.

ProVideo Coalition have also released 27 videos on YouTube.

Richard Taylor, as usual, was live streaming from the event.

Discuss this news item

# 10th April 2024

Frame.‍io Version 4 is now in beta!

Every aspect of Frame.‍io has been redesigned with new features that give you all the power, flexibility, and control you need to manage your team's creative work.

You can watch the Keynote video here.

You can learn more and join the beta here.

You can read more about the new version over at fxguide.

MASSIVE Congratulations to Emery & the Frame.io team for the massive re-write! We can't wait to test it out!

timeinpixels is currently offering 20% off OmniScope.

You can use the discount code: NAB2024.

You can learn more here.

FilmConvert is having a birthday sale!

You can read more about their last 12 years on their blog here.

You can get 33% off FilmConvert Nitrate and CineMatch plugins.

Sale lasts until 22nd of April and excludes add-on’s and upgrades.

You can learn more here.

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# 8th April 2024

DAWBridge v1.0.5 is out now with minor user interface improvements.

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

MotionVFX has pushed out a range of updates to their products.

Notably, they've removed the BorisFX Mocha planar tracking engine from their products, and have replaced it with their own proprietary tracking engine.

  • mCallouts Simple 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mMessage 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mCallouts Simple 2 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mPointer 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mFlare 2 3.1.1: Fixed a rare crash when refreshing the inspector interface
  • mFilmLook 2.1.2: Support for diacritics in preset names, fixed a rare crash that might prevent the plugin from launching
  • mMockup 1.2: Fixed display of 3D models on macOS Sonoma, various improvements and minor fixes
  • mMessage 2 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mHUD 2 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mHUD 3 3.0: Replaced Mocha with a proprietary tracking engine, various improvements and bug fixes
  • mTracker Surface 1.1: Improved planar tracking speed and accuracy

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 5th April 2024

Arctic Whiteness' Final Cut Library Manager now has a new home at Hedge!

After a decade of hard work and lots of updates (amazingly, they were up to version v3.98!) Vincent Zorzi & Timothy Arms have decided to step away from their epic creation, and hand over development to Hedge to keep the application alive for the Final Cut Pro community.

Hedge have renamed the application to Arctic, and it has an awesome new icon.

You can read more about this in great detail on the Hedge blog.

If you already own Final Cut Library Manager, the application will continue to work indefinitely, but it will no longer be updated or supported.

Final Cut Library Manager customers will have already received a discounted upgrade for Arctic in their email inbox. Please contact Hedge if you didn't get it.

Arctic and Final Cut Library Manager are completely seperate applications - each with their own unique licensing and updating systems - which means you can still run them side-by-side, or run Final Cut Pro Library Manager on your old machine, and Arctic on your new machine, etc.

You can learn more, and download a free 10-day trial on the Hedge website.

Iain Anderson has released a new set of Motion Templates for Final Cut Pro called Emojisplosion on FxFactory.

Emojisplosion is the easiest way to add hundreds of emoji-based particles to your videos. You can make them sit behind a title, enhance a background or make a magic wand sparkle.

Emojisplosion gives you all the flexibility you need, without the complexity of a full particle system. It's perfect for educational, social media and sports videos, and ready for portrait or landscape videos. Most of the particles here are packaged as titles, but emoji-based transitions are included too.

It's currently on sale for USD$39 for a limited time (before increasing to USD$59). There is also a free trial.

You can learn more on FxFactory here.

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# March

# 27th March 2024

Sidus TC Sync is now available as a public beta!

Sidus TC Sync works with all footage and files. It doesn’t matter if you’re camera supports external timecode or if you’ve had to record it as an audio track. Sidus TC Sync’s automation feature detects and decodes the timecode signal.

  • Supports SMPTE saved to the file’s metadata
  • Supports Audio LTC records on a camera’s audio track
  • Supports High Frame TC
  • Supports Audio LTC recorded in WAV file or PolyWave file

Sidus TC Sync can export an XML for:

  • Premiere Pro CC
  • DaVinci Resolve 17 & Newer
  • Final Cut Pro 7
  • Final Cut Pro X 10.4.x
  • Final Cut Pro X 10.3.x
  • Final Cut Pro X 10.2.x

You can download the beta and learn more here.

Builder NLE v4.2.3 is out now with the following bug fixes:

  • Bug fix for drag-and-drop of clips from Final Cut Pro to Builder NLE
  • Bug fix for text block highlighting in the Clip Logging view after merging text blocks

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Pictures This... v1.0.5 is out now with the following changes:

  • New feature: Total progress is now shown in the Dock icon
  • Revamp of the app's Help menu

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Alteon.io for Final Cut Pro v4.2 is out now with the following changes:

  • Select one or multiple clips or ranges and drag directly to an event in FCP
  • Download an entire Project to FCP
  • Addresses issues that could cause the workflow extension to crash
  • Improved error handling while navigating files and media

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 18th March 2024

Iain Anderson has written a new case study here at FCP Cafe, talking about how Knut Hake & Sam Pluemacher use Final Cut Pro and CommandPost on Netflix Feature Films!

You can read it here.

iZotope is currently warning against it's users upgrading to macOS Sonoma 14.4.

They write:

Apple has recently released the macOS 14.4 Sonoma update, which has resulted in compatibility issues for plug-ins protected by PACE / iLok with Audio Units host DAWs, such as Logic Pro, on Apple silicon Macs. Users have reported encountering problems with these plug-ins following the installation of the update, including DAW crashes.

If you are using Audio Units on an Apple silicon computer, it is advisable to postpone the macOS update until further information becomes available. We will keep you informed as soon as a resolution is found.

You can learn more here.

RED Apple Workflow Installer v22.0.0 was updated earlier in the month with the following changes:

  • Extended Highlight clips always decode in IPP2
  • Improved IPP2 out of gamut color mapping
  • Improved IPP2 high ISO black level consistency
  • Fixed: Monochrome decodes
  • Fixed: early firmware KOMODO footage being green
  • Fixed: Metal Texture + Legacy decodes

You can learn more and download here.

Sync-N-Link X v1.1.9 is out now with the following fix:

  • Bug fix for missing colorSpace attribute when using the "Alternate frame size" option for Synchronised or Multicam clips.

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Creator's Best Friend v1.2.4 is out now with the following changes:

  • New feature: Help button to access the online help
  • Bug fix for markers on transitions in some cases
  • Bug fix for calculating marker positions in cases where the clip's frame rate differs from the timeline's frame rate

You can download via the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 12th March 2024

Intelligent Assistance (aka Philip Hodgetts and Dr Gregory Clarke) have released their latest app, Embiggen on the Mac App Store!

Until 31st March it's USD$29.99 (before it increases to USD$34.99).

The official App Store description explains:

Embiggen automatically uprezes still images from Final Cut Pro Events or Projects and returns them back to your Event or Project.

The new higher resolution images will have the same scale, position and rotation animations as the originals and appear the same size in Final Cut Pro.

Using AI to make higher resolution images, Embiggen creates in-between detail you can zoom right into.

Simply drag your Event or Project from Final Cut Pro to Embiggen's floating interface and click Go!

Original and Embiggened images will returned to Final Cut Pro in Auditions.

Works with Apple silicon Macs running Final Cut Pro 10.5 or later.

Supports a wide range of images including: TIFF, PNG, JPEG, flattened PSD, GIF, BMP.

It does not support layered PSD files.

For images with alpha channels the alpha channel is removed.

You can read the official support documentation here.

They're already released v1.0.2 which adds an additional AI model, to ensure an optimal choice in upscaled image, taking advantage of different optimisations in each model.

It's a standalone application, not a Final Cut Pro Workflow Extension, however it has a handy Keep on Top toggle, to keep it above the Final Cut Pro interface.

You could use CommandPost to trigger the opening of the application via a shortcut key or control surface panel.

After you drag a Event or Project to Embiggen, it will prompt you for confirmation:

...and then ask you where you want to save the high resolution images:

It will then process the images:

...and you will be prompted as to which library you want to import the generated FCPXML file into.

I would love to personally see a few of these steps removed - however it's tricky to do in a sandboxed App Store environment, because when drag an Project from the Browser, the FCPXML that gets dragged has no metadata about the Library it came from (time for another Final Cut Pro feature request!).

If you dragged in a Project, you'll get a new Event back with a new project, which contains a Audition for every image that was Embiggen'd - so you can easily compare the new version to the original.

Screenshot from Intelligent Assistance
Screenshot from Intelligent Assistance

Under the hood it uses Core ML to do it's magic - so it's all on device.

Overall, it's a simple app that does one thing really well - it's certainly a very handy tool to have in your toolkit!

You can find the official website here.

You can purchase on the Mac App Store here.

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