Apple has updated Final Cut Pro X to version 10.4.9, with many performance upgrades, proxy workflow enhancements, and tailored templates with machine learning cropping for social media. Final Cut Pro X is a professional app built for creating, editing, and producing the highest-quality video.
The announcement reads,
“New social media tools automate video cropping in square, vertical, and other custom sizes for popular social media platforms, and new workflow improvements enhance the versatility and performance of Final Cut Pro — making the Mac stronger than ever for all video editors and motion graphics artists.”
New Features in updated Final Cut Pro X
Final Cut Pro combines high-performance digital editing and native support for practically any video format with easy-to-use features that translate to good user experience for customers. Here is the list of everything new in the professional video editing app.
Proxy workflows improvements
With more people working remotely, Final Cut Pro X has received improvements to proxy workflows that make libraries more portable and streamline remote work with large, high-resolution files, according to Apple. Users can also now create proxies in either ProRes Proxy or H.264 in dimensions as small as 12.5 percent of the original.
Users can also consolidate proxy media, images, and audio to an external or network-connected drive. A Final Cut Pro Library can now be relinked to proxies already created for added flexibility.
Editors can now link to proxy media generated by third-party applications via XML. If proxy media is not available for some clips, users can adapt workflows to display either the original file or an optimized version.
Social media enhancements
Final Cut Pro 10.4.9 also makes a few changes specifically centered around social media content. clips in a project can be automatically analyzed for dominant motion and intelligently cropped with Smart Conform to convert them into formats and proportions suitable for most social media platforms. Apple says that these new features are perfect for the content shared to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat:
“Using machine learning, clips in a project can now be automatically analyzed for dominant motion and intelligently cropped with Smart Conform to convert them into square, vertical, or any other sized video — perfect for popular platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Transform Overscan reveals media outside the crop boundary when adjusting scale, rotation, and position, which allows storytellers to easily reposition the crop. Video editors can also add a Custom Overlay to guide them when placing text and graphics within a non-landscape frame.”
Editorial workflow optimization
Apple has also introduced a series of editorial workflow improvements to the editing application. ProRes RAW camera settings, such as ISO, color temperature, and exposure offset are exposed in the inspector for the first time, and editors can now apply audio crossfades on adjacent clips in one step.
There are also performance improvements with new Metal-enabled plug-ins for RED RAW and Canon Cinema RAW Light. Apple says that transcoding 8K RED RAW video to ProRes 422 is up to two times faster on Mac Pro, and up to three times faster on MacBook Pro. There is also support for playing and editing 8K Canon Cinema RAW Light for the first time.
When working with 360-degree video, editors can quickly stabilize stereoscopic 3D video and view footage in the 360-degree Viewer with separate streams for each eye. Users can also start working immediately with remote content while it is downloading in the background from web-based asset management applications, such as the Frame of workflow extension.
Final Cut Pro X’s Availability
Final Cut Pro 10.4.9 is available today as a free update for existing users, and for $299.99 for new users on the Mac App Store. Education customers can purchase the Pro Apps Bundle for Education for $199.99. Final Cut Pro’s companion apps Motion and Compressor are also being updated today free updates for existing users, and for $49.99 each for new users on the Mac App Store.
All users can download a free trial of Final Cut Pro X. Customers can learn more about pricing and availability here.
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