Learning FCPX – Free Tutorials Round Up

December 12, 2014
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Learning FCPX – Free Tutorials Round Up

If you are determined to learn FCPX (Final Cut Pro Ten) then you’ve come to the right place. In this gigantic round up of FCPX tutorials there are hours and hours of free training to sink your teeth into. If you’re coming from an FCP7 background read this.

To get us started Alex Golner (@alex4d) has helpfully put together an exhaustive playlist of Macbreak Studio’s free FCPX training from Steve Martin and Mark Spencer – the brains behind RippleTraining.com. FCPX 10.0 first came out in June 2011 and since then has seen fairly frequent development, with a few major changes along the way. Thankfully Alex has curated his playlist in such a way that these changes are accounted for.

The way Final Cut projects and footage is organised changed fundamentally in December 2013, so I’ve set the order of the videos on the play list so that the first video introduces basic editing and the second video shows the way Final Cut used to work. After those videos from 2011, I’ve listed four videos that show the new way that Final Cut works. The playlist is then chronological. You’ll see the old user interface and old way of organising footage and timelines.

This playlist is part of Alex’s Final Cut Pro Xmas Advent Calendar, so check in with Alex’s site to see what other goodies he’s recently shared! It also would be remiss not to mention that all year round Alex generously gives away a whole host of excellent free FCPX plugins, like this ‘feature film overlays’ plugin below.

Free FCPX Plugins - Feature Film Overlay

What’s New in FCPX 10.1.4

Before we dive into the rest of the best of the web when it comes to FCPX training it’s worth mentioning what the latest release of FCPX brings with it. As Apple never announces their releases those who care most deeply about the program weighed in on the release, which largely allows for MXF import and export. For UK based editors this is extra helpful for delivering the MXF OP1a format (with AS-11 metadata) required by UK broadcasters.

For others a surprise release of FCPX is a bit like say “I’ve got a present for you….” and then it turning out to be a pair of socks or something. They were a little disappointed once they had pulled off the wrapping. But to those Sam Mestman has some wise words

The biggest thing I learned from working with those guys [FCPX dev team] is that I didn’t even know what I didn’t know… and that things take time… and that the software was in good hands. The bottom line is this… if there’s something you really want to see implemented in FCPX, use the feedback form in the app and let Apple know. I know for a fact that they read those. If you think yesterday’s release was FCPX in its final form… you’re crazy. We’re going to have a special upcoming insider’s blog on how to give better feedback to Apple soon.

Alex Golner points to some handy, and free, AS-11 presets and a workflow white paper from 10dot1 in his post on the release. Alex also discusses the Pro Video Formats 2.o that was released at the same time.

Metadata guru Philip Hodgetts also weighed in on the new release as did FCPX trainer Larry Jordan.

Our industry is evolving at an incredible pace. All of us have our own wish list for Final Cut. Mine includes better collaboration support for small groups, improved audio mixing, better integration between FCP, Motion, and Logic, and improved speed and performance for Compressor. I’m sure your list is equally long and demanding.

None of these requests will surprise Apple. They are continuing to add staff to the Final Cut team and continue to aggressively improve the product. This was “only” a dot.dot.x release – principally bug fixes and performance improvements – with continued support for new codecs, cameras and workflows. It wasn’t intended as a major release.

If you’ve lost track of what was added in 10.1.3 (bug fixes) and 10.1.2 (new features) then check out this post.

Final Cut Pro Virtual User Group – Episodes 1-4

It’s hard to top the enjoyable expert geekery of the Final Cut Pro Virtual User Group, a roundtable of FCPX experts who share tips and answer viewer questions live-on air. At a running time of two hours a pop, they’re not for the faint of heart (or the busy) but the time invested will be well worth it if you’re serious about mastering all that FCPX has to offer.

The shows regular guests include Sam Mestman, Mark Spencer, Steve Martin and Mike Matzdorff and is hosted by Alex Lindsay.

Free Tutorials For Learning FCPX

In this 40 minute tutorial the tag team of Chris Fenwick of FCPX Grill and Digital Cinema Cafe fame, and Dave Dugdale from Learning DSLR Video.com cut a project from scratch in FCPX. It’s a great opportunity to see an editor (Chris) navigate a project from start to finish using the feature set of FCPX.

Because the guys from Ripple Training just don’t need to get any sleep, you can enjoy 20 (and counting) videos of FCPX tips and tricks in under 5 minutes. In this playlist they cover things like time-lapse workflow, magnetic music editing, faking a parallax effect and loads of other interesting things. It’s more about demonstrating cool tricks than specific software features, which is great because these are the things that you can’t learn anywhere else.

Final Cut Pro X Training from Larry Jordan

Not to be out done on a pure productivity level, Larry Jordan has a HUGE amount of excellent free tutorials on his site larryjordan.biz and on his Youtube channel. In this 25 minute presentation from a recent LACPUG event Larry demonstrates how to effectively use the scopes in FCPX to perform colour correction accurately.

As Larry has so many great ‘how-to’ tutorials on offer I’ve simply curated a collection of the best in a quick list. One of the best isn’t really about FCPX at all but simply about making your text look great on video…

Metadata in FCPX – Keywords in FCPX | Finding Out What Codec You’re Editing | Transfer FCPX Project to Premiere Pro CC | Transfer Premiere Pro CC Project to FCPX |

Audio in FCPX – Smooth Audio Levels | Setting Keyframes since 10.1.2 | Send Audio to Audition | Change the Audio Pan in FCPX |

Multicam in FCPX  – Colour Correct Multicam Clips | Sync Multicam Clips | Add Effects to Multcam Clips

Titles/Graphics/Effects in FCPX – How to update a graphics file | Spell check and replace text | Spell Check in the Timeline Index |  Opacity and blend modes in FCPX | High Quality Slow Motion |

Understanding FCPX Quirks – Yellow Dots in FCPX | When to Optimise Media FCPX | Setting Preferences in FCPX | Finding Clips Faster in FCPX | Moving Things in FCPX | Trim Connected Clips | Exporting Part of a Project | Enable a Video Monitor | Larry’s Top 25 FCPX Shortcuts | Working with the Library List | Moving Libaries, Events, Projects | Restore a Library from a Backup |

FCPX Tips and Tricks

Dustin Hoye demonstrates how to “reveal multiple clips to the Event level that are currently only located at the project/timeline level in FCPX 10.1.3.” In the next video from FCPX 10.1.2 Dustin show you how to consolidate a project. Larry Jordan has another useful tutorial on converting managed media to external media.

In this interesting video Light Iron Digital CEO Michael Cioni demonstrates more of his talents and ingenuity with this short tutorial of how to record and create music right inside FCPX.

In this 10 minute showcase of keyboard-only editing Sam Mestman of fcpworks.com demonstrates how you can edit without a mouse in FCPX. Speaking of which you can download a free keyboard shortcut cheat sheet (pdf) from editor Matteo Curcio.

Twitter Tips for FCPX

FCPX Menu Cheat SheetScott Simmons has created this free and helpful FCPX menu cheat sheet, that no only shows you where thing are are but also the default shortcuts. A great way to learn. Updated as of August 2014. Click the image above to jump to a high res download.

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