Getting Started with Final Cut Pro: Beginners Tutorial

[@henrycraighenson]

I honestly can't believe this is free to the public. Thank you, endlessly.

[@datboyfromtexas]

Thank you for all the hard work and content you put in for us. Your production is always top tier. Just wanted to take time and remind you how much we appreciate you, man!

[@stalman]

Thank YOU for taking the time to watch it! It’s always great to hear the videos help out

[@MelconWagner]

Whoa, hold the phone! This tutorial is an absolute game-changer! Seriously, where have you been all my editing life? I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I've had my fair share of struggles with FCP. But your clear and precise instruction is helping me to become an editing ninja! I can't thank you enough for sharing your expertise and showing me the ropes. It's like you're reading my mind, knowing exactly what I need to up my editing game. You're a wizard, my friend, and I'm forever grateful for your mad skills! Looking forward to watching all of your FCP tips!

[@magnavox92]

Thank you for taking the time out to do this Beginner Tutorial, as I am starting to move forward as a content creator. I hope you continue to dive deeper into Final Cut Pro!

[@KeithTharp]

I've been using FCP for a decade, and have gotten used to some time consuming habits rather than finding the best/better way. I knew I'd learn something useful by watching this and as it turns out I learned 2 things. Previously to trim I always used cmd+B then deleted the section I didn't want, now I'll use opt+[ or ] Same with the clip anchors, I never knew you could easily change the anchor, so I would cut the clip (cmd+b) to regenerate a new anchor then extend it back to the desired length.

[@stalman]

Ripple trim is the number one thing I would want everyone to take away, it’s infinitely faster

[@simonfeilder]

THIS. Literally never used ripple trim once but i'm gonna try it. The way i remember the anchor shortcut is 'desperately hammer every combination of ALT CTRL CMD OPTN and click the clips until that little leg goddam moves' works every time 67% of the time 💪🏻

[@matthewTobrien]

Another great tip for dealing with clip connections is to use the grave key ( ` ) to "override connections". Next time you want to move a clip that has clips connected to it, press and hold the grave key (to the left of the 1 key on US keyboards) and move your clip and the connected clips will stay in place. 🤘🏻🙌🏻

[@KeithTharp]

@@matthewTobrien I learned this just yesterday by watching your video which I was inspired to watch after watching this one. Thank you!!

[@matthewTobrien]

@@KeithTharp Sweeeeeet. Another great shortcut for the arsenal. 🤘🏻 Thanks for watching!

[@Photogabi]

YAAAAY!! Nice to see the shout out for Stocksy, Tyler! And was psyched to see one of my shots at 9:18 !!!

[@jameswoodard1694]

This is a phenomenal overview of this program. I use this with my students. I greatly appreciate that he discusses the importance of setting up folders before the project and establishing whether or not you trust Apple to handle your media files (or create endless massive backups that clog your computer). Super helpful and concise!

[@DiscipleDojo]

As someone who is NOT a tech-savvy person and who is having to teach himself FCP after a quick initial lesson from an editor friend, I just want to let you know your content is wonderful. Your demeanor is not obnoxious or "youtuber"-ish and you don't clutter your videos with needless asides. Well done, all around. From one ginger to another. *fistbump*

[@RonitBatra]

Your content is better than most of the youtubers. Straight forward and professional

[@physicaltodigital]

I was searching for this exact video yesterday and wasn't finding the right video and then bam! You literally read my mind thank you Tyler!! Always great content.

[@erikthecontentcreator8974]

I've been editing in FCPX for years and apparently have been doing it all wrong for years! Thank you so much for making such an amazing and detailed video! I appreciate you showing us how you organize your clips and creating libraries for each project. This makes so much more sense!

[@gopherusagassizii2089]

That one graphic at 7:00 cleared up the relationships among Libraries, Events and Projects. I have been confused about those three for the longest time. Thank you for making it clear. Finally.

[@matthewTobrien]

Excellent overview, Tyler! I especially love the emphasis on working *_with_* the Magnetic Timeline instead of against it - that it's what makes FCP really exceptional in comparison to the other NLEs. One pro tip! Changing the clip connection is a great way to move clips while leaving connecting clips alone - an even faster method is to press and hold the grave key ( ` ) - which is to the left of the number 1 key on US keyboards - and that enables the "override connections" function so you can move a clip that has other clips connected to it without those connected clips moving too. When you're done with the move the previously connected clips connect to whatever new clip takes the old clip's place. A HUGE timesaver and especially helpful to folks who are editing a lot of images to music and/or using sound effects. Love your FCP vids!

[@swimtwobirdz]

God, clip connections are so stupid. It’s Tonka Toy editing. Only apple could come up with an insane solution to problem no one had.

[@JasonParkerMagic]

Nice tip for the transition: Fade to Color. To adjust the midpoint so it uses the entire transition to fade to black. Thanks!

[@joshyang886]

I love the amount of time you dedicate to the magnetic timeline feature. It’s such an unique and important feature of FCP. It certainly isn’t the most intuitive thing to learn, but once people get the touch of it, it makes me scratch my head to edit with DaVinci and Premier… I highly appreciate the weight and explanations you put into this starter video for FCP.

[@wesrobmat]

Thanks, Tyler. I am a long-time animator using AE that has started filming and editing. This was a huge help!

[@BostonTerrierDad623]

You are an answered prayer! am self learning (w/ aid from amazing folks like you) on many things like FCP and i am mostly retired, 50yo. i am ❤ all the into!

[@JSS75]

I have looked at Davinci Resolve and Premiere and felt comically overwhelmed and opened final cut pro on ipad for the first time and just FIGURED it out which is why I think i'll pursue this as my editor even though I have a great and very powerful Windows computer and a mac laptop. Excited to learn more, thanks so much for this video!

[@SeanMarsalis]

Man. You've got some of the best tutorials on KZbin. If I did them it would essentially be me saying "then you click this thingy right here... wait no this one..." for 20 mins.

[@juanantoniomusic]

Thank you for all the hard work and content you put in for us. Your production is always top tier. Just wanted to take time and remind you how much we appreciate you, man! Also just how much PR thinks they're giving us the time but they aren't, PR just sucks...

[@uptown3636]

This is a treasure trove! Amazing tutorial. I'll be using it over the summer to prepare for my post-production course this fall. This video probably helped my GPA!

[@harishchandrasinghbhayal3421]

Thank You so much! Having migrated from Sony Vegas, this video is a life saver! That too it’s free, just feels too good to be true! God Bless.

[@stefpix]

great overview. The issue about leaving files in place is that you can not delete the bad footage/clips you may get from an action camera. Then you would have to go through all the footage with a different program and you may delete something accidentally you need.

[@stalman]

Do you mean rejecting specific parts of a clip or rejecting whole clips? Maybe I’m unclear about how final cut handles rejects but this isn’t usually a problem for me

[@stefpix]

@@stalman I mean rejecting whole clips. I use 2 GoPros for spearfishing. I may come back with 60 clips and I only need 20 or less, as in many nothing happens. If I allow FCPX to just reference them if I delete them, they will only disappear from the Library, but will still stay in the original folders and not be moved to the trash. So you end up keeping stuff you do not have any need. That is my main reason to allow FCPX to manage the files. But it makes it easier also to copy events to a separate drive. Deleting portions of an original clip is not possible. Actually, if you mark a portion of a clip as rejected but another one a favorite, if you then delete all rejected clips it will delete the whole clip (this is the downside of managed mode). It is not perfect. Having managed files by FCPX I can not have separate folders for separate cameras. I wish FCPX had similar features as Adobe Lightroom to show different cameras etc. Anyway, I am totally happy with FCPX, I like how it allows you to see which portions of a clip have been used on the timeline. Resolve and Premiere doesn't allow that. But deleted junk footage is a priority for me.

[@stalman]

Gotcha, yeah that makes sense for what you’re doing. What I really want to see in FCP is batch exporting of every clip in the timeline with handles. I have lots of projects where I don’t need to keep all the originals but I do need to maintain flexibility in case of future edits. Better yet? Transcode all the favourited and timeline clips with handles OR transcode everything except rejects. Basically an archive feature

[@stefpix]

@@stalman I think LumaFusion for iPad has such a feature. I really like LumaFusion, but stopped using it because the iPad file system is so limited that all the speed is lost in the slow and cumbersome way to import footage. The feature is great. Too often with a GoPro, especially in the ocean is too easy to not press the shutter to stop filming. I may end with a 5-minute clip where only 20 seconds are what I intended to shoot. I could export a portion of the clip, then reimport it and delete the original. But If I had used any of it already in a project it would be shown as missing. To trim the "fat" from long clips in a single step would be a great feature (if the new shorter clip is not larger in size than the original due to different compression). Yes FCPX could delete the rejected or unused portions of a clip and reencode. But so far if you leave the files in their folders it does not delete even the full clips from the storage. You may have 3 takes of the same shot, you want to keep only one or 2, with "leave the files at the original location", those unwanted takes will stay on your drive, but never show in Final Cut's library after you delete them. It would be nice if in that case FCPX would put a red finder color label on the original fully l rejected files. SO you can delete them yourself in the finder pretty quickly.

[@MFW09]

Thank you sir, you make me happy when learning ❤ FCP is awesome too

[@tylerpartin3676]

Just downloaded Final Cut today on my new Mac Book Pro recently bought a go pro to start some vlogging and vids while fishing, golfing, etc…. Stoked to dive into the video editing side of things

[@MitchWebb94]

I've just moved from Lumafusion to FCP because of getting a MacBook Pro from an iPad Pro, and I was baffled when you said that other softwares don't have a magnetic timeline! I thought that was a standard thing after having it on Lumafusion too. Great video - thanks for uploading

[@mastermindproductions4719]

Hi, DPX export are Colours washed out can u please any one give me some solutions for this? In Adobe media encoder and premier Pro working correctly with DPX out put. But in fcpx and compressor making a colours washed out DPX anyone know for resolution for this ?

[@nm_11]

Thank you Tyler for this amazing beginner tutorial. You made this easy to understand.

[@LittleByLittleWeGo]

Thanks Tyler, this is helpful for someone like me who is fumbling through learning how to video and edit content and not doing the greatest job of it but learning as I go.

[@cvr_l0s]

Really appreciate you taking the time to make this video. Trying to get my bearings around this tool.

[@outsidethebox704]

I was wondering why did you not select which rendering codec should you have used?

[@la5150hi-lophoto]

Thanks!

[@connorfinlayson]

What screen recording software do you use?

[@HenPapirman]

I used to love FCP back in 2007-2011 when I studied it, man how it changed ... So complicated now.. more the Pr.

[@maks_st]

Thank you for this tutorial! It is super helpful! Especially on cache and library management. Wish I'd knew it way earlier.

[@harveymphotography1032]

Thanks Tyler, I’m a year in to FCP and still find new things all the time, especially with your videos. 🙌🏻🇬🇧

[@lagenebved130]

This is a terrific overview Tyler. Love the bit on media management. As someone working in FCP 7 and super intimidated of the Magnetic Timeline I love how you approached this and would love to see a video which focuses on just that. It would help me make the transition (finally)!!

[@stalman]

Wow you’ve been holding out a while! It takes some learning but it’s very worth it

[@vleiratfilms2020]

Yes yes yes.. having been stiffed by our local South African Apple “reseller” who don’t know their product, you have saved my sanity. Thanks .. will watch again and again till I get back to the sheer joy I had using iMovie before Apple changed that so it didn’t work for me. And .. now I know why in FCP X I don’t like Apple controlling my files! Can’t wait to get back to editing without expletives.

[@mindfulmovement4u]

Wow! I am SO impressed with this tutorial! You are precise with your words, efficient with your instruction and cover exactly what I need to know to get started. I really appreciate you adding the bit about where to store files, so that I don't have duplicates taking up space on my computer. This drove me insane with iMovie. Thanks again. I will definitely be watching more of your videos and am now subscribed to your channel.

[@ByteReview]

Thank you for this tutorial. I'm a Premiere Pro editor through and through and nothing in Final Cut seems to make any sense to me but this made things a little clearer. I want to switch for the performance increase etc but I'm working so much slower on it I'm still losing time, just in different areas, haha

[@JanessaLynnae]

Love your channel thanks for all of your hard work Tyler!

[@HogiWirjono]

Thank you for this Tyler, agreed i always keep coming back to FCP made the switch to resolve a while back but since covid i have been appreciating FCP again as the workflow is just so much better for fast quick turnaround edits for social content. Learned some great tips on this video thank you.

[@seangtrrz]

Thanks for the video Tyler! I’ve been a FCP user for years and still learned some nifty shortcuts.

[@NickPeitsch]

Amazing video! I'm a beginner starting out from a different software and this was super helpful.

[@arnulfmayer6519]

Thank you. This might be the overall best tutorial video I have ever seen!

[@evadne14]

First time user for Final Cut pro and you explain it so well, it's very easy to follow and you make it look easy XD Thanks for the cache deleting tip! That's definitely a laptop saver!

[@ladyoftheworld]

Hi, if I get stocksy, will it cut to 1 second all my footage? I have so much footage that I was thinking off doing this manually with FCP but if the program does it for me then perfect.Otherwise, how can I do this in FCP sp that I don't need to buy another software.Thank you

[@PNWTone]

Thank you so much! I’ve used iMovie for years and finally have FCP and this is the best video so far

[@mariahezra]

Wow that was such an awesome video! I struggle with learning shortcuts + this has been the first video that was of a good learning gradient for me. Love the way you explain things!

[@TiffanyINC]

I've been wringing every last drop of editing juice out of iMovie for years but am finally taking the FCP plunge. Thanks so much for this video, I am headed over to your Libraries vid next!

[@Treborray]

first video in on your playlist lets go!

[@hansmeyer1270]

I can't even begin to say how helpful this video is, thanks so much!

[@ZacharyBuhler]

Thanks for helping all of us newbies!! 😂

[@NicKennelty]

Serious question. What do you use for file sharing for customers? Obviously they upload to you somewhere. What is your favorite way to exchange files from beginning to completion?

[@stalman]

I use Dropbox. We’ve tried Frame.io off and on, but it really does more than we need

[@naizondj]

LOVE YOUR CONTENT BRO!!!!!

[@kylemckenna]

Making the switch from Premiere to FCP and this series has for sure helped!

[@themaritimekitchen]

Thank you so much Tyler for creating this amazingly informative content! This is tremendously helpful as I am just about to start using Final Cut Pro. You have gained a new fan!

[@allemoney]

I just got an iMac to finally take advantage of having FCP (from when I worked for Apple some years back). Thank you for this!

[@StuartJrBarrett]

Please tell me how you do the “crop in/crop out” effect. I love it and I’d love to know how to do it.

[@paulthiebaut]

Can someone explain to me what's the point of using stock footage, like using other people's random clips ? Thanks for the video btw, great teaching ability !

[@ferdysgdumel]

HI Tyler, thank you ever so much for your clean-cut explanations.Can you tell me if I have to upload missing clips into the FCPX Finder from my SD card after having edited my complete video - before grading and exporting to YT?

[@mallorydurrick]

Great video. Out of curiosity, what are you using to record the screen? I like how it zooms in on certain sections and also shows the shortcuts. Is it OBS?

[@stalman]

Thanks! This is using ScreenFlow, by far the best screen recording app out there

[@mallorydurrick]

@@stalman Thank you. And thanks again for the video. I use premiere pro mostly but have a Mac and need to learn final cut. Great video Tyler.

[@EdwinRucci]

Agree with you about the magnetic timeline %100. Is the best feature

[@premiumturkish]

I always wondered what FCP looked like. Thank you so much for the video!

[@rehanhanar]

Very Useful thank you so much Tyler... Can you tell me the screen recorder that you use which shows all key strokes while screen recording ?

[@JustcallmeTags]

Love how you implemented the sponsor, so seamless. Great video too!

[@stalman]

Thanks! And I really do love what the do

[@BadHikers]

Hey, Love your content. I just got a new M1 Max and all of my adjustment layers are gone ( Ive know this is normal) but Ive tried re downloading your linked adjustment layer and adding it to the Motion Templates folder and nothing works. Also the Motion Templates folder is empty? lol help.

[@jimcastanzo8736]

This was great. I've just started to explore video and was using iMovie for editing. It was okay but I wanted to do more. I use Adobe CC for my photo editing, layout and illustration. So, I figured I'd use Premiere since it's included in my subscription. I watched a few tutorial videos and thought, "Ugh!", I have a lot to learn. Then I thought I'd check out your video introducing Final Cut. Wow! The interface is similar to iMovie. I understood everything you described. It's going to be Final Cut for me. THANKS again.

[@PAUL-uk1le]

Can you suggest the system specs I should shoot for for final cut pro beginner? Thanks

[@NateGigovic]

Great video, Even as a pro videographer i always find something new in these videos that i never even knew about that makes life so much easier. So Thank you for making this videos

[@theodoreivanov6257]

Finally FCP's weird vocabulary properly demystified. If you still answer on this channel, can you help with the following: no matter what I try - optimized files, proxies - neither clips from the browser nor the timeline will show in the Viewer. Looking for a workaround, I happened to click on the down arrow to the right of the Library / Project name right under the Viewer and selected Reveal Project in Browser. The timeline suddenly appears in the Viewer for half a second, then vanishes and the Viewer goes back to its dark background. Thanks.

[@OAVT27]

Wonderful work. So I have followed your steps, but then created two events each containing couple of videos (checked FCP not to copy the imported video into my Mac library). Now i want to add a video from one even and FCP now asking me that it will make a copy of the clips and media into Mac library! How can I avoid that please?

[@J_bui]

Great video and excellent content Tyler! You're a workflow wizard! Thanks for making the playlist. I will definitely keep sharing your content.

[@naeemusafzai]

Great to watch but the problm s when after downloading, how it may be extracting bcs the file is dcm

[@kbstrong9775]

The latest update for fcpx took away audio when the play head is paused while arrowing over a frame - I hear nothing. I don’t know if this was considered a flaw to hear the sound as you arrowed over, but I used this to edit music to the beat. Now it’s gone and it’s more difficult to edit to the beat. Is there any way to reverse that part of the update or get that aspect back somehow?

[@ZachValentini]

Thank you so much Tyler for explaining this so simple, it's greatly appectied, It helps me understand the editting part of becoming a Travel Vlogger on YT, As someone who's never editted before or owns an Apple Product, will be purchasing a Macbook Pro 16" Max for my R5 to start YT next year!! Cheers from Ireland

[@tavshedfjols]

Macbook Pro doesnt exist

[@JesusPursuit]

Great! Can you help me with Luts...when I apply a Lut on my (desk top Mac mini) its fine but then when I go to edit on my MacBook I have to reapply it (says missing content). I am editing off a Samsung SSD t7, which is where I have my luts stored. Not sure why its not "saving" it. Thanks. Hope that makes sense.

[@andyjack1974]

Great video. Bought final cut and am using all your tips. One thing I’m toying with is, when a jobs done. How do you archive? Move via finder or another way?

[@SalsaBailaProductions]

Quick question if i render a final project in 1080p and my footage is 4k but i crop a lot… in this case is it best to have project settings at 1080p resolution? Or keep everything in 4k and then render in 1080p

[@stalman]

That’s actually not a test that I’ve run, but I typically edit in the highest resolution I ever expect the video to be seen. If you will never output a 4K version, just edit in 1080p. It should speed up caching and rendering. But neither should really effect quality

[@SalsaBailaProductions]

@@stalman thank you for taking the time to answer;)

[@saketagarwal5426]

Bro how is your cursor so smooth?, is there a app or something?

[@learningideas]

How does your folder management work for footage imported from cameras/sd cards?

[@alassafcam]

Thank you for your really hard work You make it simple for us Thanks again

[@troywalt4834]

What a great video, thank you Tyler, top tier production and tips for this getting started video.

[@matimmortal333]

Hey Tyler. How would I set up an edit for say, 31 one minute videos for social media? Mostly all one take shots for each video. Do I need 31 different libraries or can I do it all in one? Thanks!

[@thepeterparkershow]

I just bought a an iMac and along with it Final Cut. I always used to edit things on iMovie and this seems very similar to that except more technical. Thanks for all the tips, it was actually very helpful. I’m new to the channel and you just got a sub from me.

[@mickhudsononutube]

I wish I saw this 10 years ago. Excellent!

[@chriscrossley9319]

Hey tyler great videos mate, I'm just getting into video editing through final cut pro, complete NoOb! What size Macbook would you recommend to be using to make adavantage i was thinkingn 16in but wondered if it would be heavy to travel around with.

[@echoheadband]

Such useful info! Thanks!

[@racheldunsworth9804]

great tutorial! I just started using Final Cut Pro today. This really helped me to get started.

[@randtfilms]

The thing about jumping into videography these days is you’re constantly in fear of doing it ‘the wrong way’ as combinations of options are infinite. So this sort of calm, factual approach is refreshing. BUT where’s the vid on single vs multiple Libraries pls? 🤓

[@stalman]

Make a new library for new footage. If you’ll make multiple videos from that footage, have a few projects in that library. New unrelated footage? New timeline

[@randtfilms]

@@stalman awesome thanks. Yeah you said ‘link below’ in the video but there was no link. But it ended up being in the next vid in the playlist. And then every vid you ever do haha

[@madisonhite510]

Which jobs should we look for if editing in FCP?

[@sheepy.beibei6986]

Thanks for ur great sharing, it helps a lot. However, I have a little problem there. After I inserted some words on one of slide photos, then I reviewed the whole video, but those words didn’t show up, and only showed “title”. I tried several times but still showed the same thing. Can u help? Thank you so much 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@matiakd]

I’ve just started on FCPX and I absolutely couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that it’s actually more fun to edit in. Most things work as you expect and the UI is clean and intuitive. Love this video I’ll rewatch many times when I need help. Thanks so much Tyler! 😁

[@herokme0]

Could someone explain how not using connection between clips and/or music would break clips or edits? I come from premiere so I'm not sure how the connections are useful

[@gurugamer8632]

For macOS is fcpx better then Davinci resolve studio 18?

[@jakekeele]

Just the video I was looking for. Thank you Tyler!

[@NickHanchet]

I'd love a video like this about photo editing in Lightroom! Great tutorial, clean and simple.

[@NelsonsReview1]

How do you zoom in and out of the time line so quickly?

[@stalman]

I assign zoom shortcuts to + and -

[@wingfoil_mallorca]

Really great beginner video. Appreciate you taking the time to make these videos for us that are learning...

[@CraytonTv]

Awesome video bro keep up the good work, this was a great video and very helpful, quick question would you say FCPX for Big Sur is better the MacOS Mojave still undecided if I should update or just wait on MacOS Monterey. Thanks & great video God Bless