Intro to built-in effects in Final Cut Pro for Mac

Final Cut Pro includes several video effects that are part of each timeline clip and directly accessible from the viewer—all you need to do is select the effects and start making adjustments. You can use built-in effects to:

• Create a composited image from several clips

• Reposition or reframe a clip by zooming in on it

• Crop a clip to remove unwanted items, such as microphones or lighting equipment, that accidentally appear in the video

• Create a Ken Burns effect to add life to your still images (and video clips as well)

You can use more than one of the built-in effects at the same time. For example, you can use Transform to reduce the image’s size and position, Trim to remove a portion of the video, and Distort to give the video a skewed look.

You can animate any of these effects so that they change as the clip plays. For example, you can have an image shrink and move offscreen. To configure an animation, you change settings at two or more points in the clip. When you play the clip, Final Cut Pro creates smooth animated transitions between the points.

You can save any combination of effects and their parameter settings as an effects preset, which appears in the Effects browser and functions like any clip effect. See Save video effects presets in Final Cut Pro for Mac and Save audio effects presets in Final Cut Pro for Mac.