Final Cut Pro X Tips & Tricks for Video & DSLR Shooters (HD 1080p)

It used to be simple to edit to the beat of music or edit to any sequence that you wanted to in Final Cut Pro. However, in Final Cut Pro X we have to find a way to make it work. After editing some footage where I was replacing clips that had a predetermined length in the timeline I thought that it would probably work for editing to music. The process is simple. Drop a black layer down in the timeline and drop your audio track under that. Stretch the black layer out to the full width of the project or the audio track. Hit the spacebar to play. While the music is playing hit Command and the B key to create breaks with the blade tool. You can do this in real time. I like to time it to the beat to make it interesting but you could do this however you wish. Then all you have to do is drag your images or clips over the black clip you want to replace and then choose replace from beginning. You have to do this for each clip, which is the time consuming part, but it does give you a lot of customization albeit forced customization. If you are dropping in video tracks and it seems to have placed the track incorrectly you can use the slip tool to slip the portion of the clip that was brought in to an earlier or later portion of the clip. To be honest I find this a much easier task in Adobe Premier Pro, but we are using Final Cut Pro X. Hope this helps you edit your videos and slideshows to the beat of music. Make sure to share this video with your friends.

I thought it would be fun to show some of you who are geeky enough to care the editing process behind the video I put together of my son and I drifting around our house in his Little Tikes Car. I have received a few emails from people asking how I got all of those camera shots so I thought I would also explain that. The following video shows the complete project in Final Cut Pro X and I explain each portion of the project including how I set up the camera for each shot. In future videos I will make behind the scenes part of the process so I can explain how everything was achieved and show it as it is happening. I know that I am not producing feature quality video here but it's fun to show how people can make short videos like this using cameras and Final Cut Pro X.

This is what Liam, my 14 month old son and I do on a regular evening. Circle tracking the house is our favorite past time. This video is best at Full Screen with the Volume Up! Shot with 1 GoPro camera mounted in various places. The lighting in the house was less than desirable being that it was 8pm when we started recording. I just turned on the lights that were available to us. This was kind of a last minute idea. Edited in Final Cut Pro X. Racing sounds borrowed from Ken Block’s Gymkhana video on Youtube. Background music by Killswitch Engage.

Shortly after posting my tutorial on Creating a Photo Slideshow in Final Cut Pro X I was asked several times about mixing photo and video together on the same timeline. Of course Final Cut Pro X can do this so I thought I would put together a followup video describing the process of editing photos and videos together on the timeline. In this video I describe how to edit photos and videos together in one project to create a hybrid slideshow. Video can add a really interesting dynamic to a photo slideshow. Since most of the cameras released today shoot both photo and video, it is easy to grab a couple of video shots to spice up your photo montage.