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Preference Manager for Final Cut Studio - Trash Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro Preferences - Restore and backup

Updated to 1.0.6

This tool allows you to manage preference files for Final Cut Studio. Preference files store information about user preferences, window and toolbar placements, and launch settings. Sometimes these can become corrupted, causing problems. Preference Manager allows you to trash corrupted preferences and keep backups of working preference files in order to quickly restore your settings.

[From Preference Manager for Final Cut Studio - Trash Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro Preferences - Restore and backup]

Apple - Support - Downloads - Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Windows & Mac

Finally. A way to view Prores...on Macs (without FCP) and Windows.

Of course a Windows encoder would be nice too for workflow. And it'd be doubly nice if someone would come up with a way to pass alpha channels along with compressed HD.

The Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder software allows both Mac and Windows users to play Apple ProRes files through QuickTime. Apple ProRes is a visually lossless format that provides uncompressed HD quality at SD data rates.
It is an excellent choice for mastering and can easily be transcoded to distribution formats like H.264. With new support for playback on both Mac and Windows computers, Apple ProRes can also be used for review and approval of Final Cut Studio sequences.

[From Apple - Support - Downloads - Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Windows ]

[From Apple - Support - Downloads - Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Mac ]

Andy’s Plugins for Final Cut Pro

Cool Set of free plugins. It seems andy is playing (and might even take requests.)

Some great alternatives (Neutral Grad, better text tool) for FCP

[From Andy’s Plugins for Final Cut Pro]

It's TRUE Apple will sell the Pro Applications!

Yes - directly to you.

It makes me laugh, the same way that Final Cut Extreme!!!!!!!(exclamation points added) did.

Richard Townhill denies the selling of the Pro Applications

Any reason, when given no reason at all, (or listening to Cringely) that you'd believe such garbage?

Wait, I just heard that Apple is going to make it possible to edit on the iPhone.

Sigh.

Software update...Pro Apps Update 2008

Software update.

6.0.3 FCP

3.0.3 Compressor

Nothing yet for motion or Color. :(

Update:

http://www.apple.com/support/releasenotes/en/Final_Cut_Pro_6.0_rn/

There are the release notes.

Of note...

"You can place generator clips in FXScript filter clip wells. Some FXScript filters read only the first frame of the generator clip, whereas others read multiple frames from the clip. For example, the FXScript filters Bumpmap, Gradient Wipe, and Page Peel use only the first frame of a generator clip placed in their clip wells. If you have animated a text generator clip, making the text move, and you place the clip in an FXScript filter clip well, the text appears animated or not depending on which FXScript filter you’ve chosen. "

This has bitten me, as I try putting a caustics into a bump map...and the caustics don't do anything. (This creates the look of your footage underwater if you're in Motion.)

Scene Detector

Frank Capria mentioned the After Effects Scene Detector -

John brought to my attention the Final Cut Scene detector. (Thanks John!) Way too cool!

Why is this useful? If you've ever had to perform color correction on a finished item, this tool saves you from having to find each edit. You do a little round trip dance with the clip (send it out with some XML, bring the XML back....and have markers).

Now, you're ready to use the 3 way color corrector, Colorista, or even Apple's Color.

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Scene Detector is advanced utility for automatic detection of scene boundaries in a movie. Scene detection is performed using only frame image data, no timecode or audio metadata is used.

It opens Final Cut project file (exported in XML format), asks user what clip to detect scenes in, and exports project file (in XML format) with markers added at scene boundaries. User has to import the XML it outputs back into Final Cut. The clip file is not changed during this operation, so it can reside on read-only device.
Current version of the product is 1.1.

[From Scene Detector | Contacting us]

FCS Remover - Uninstall Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, Soundtrack Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, LiveType, Cinema Tools

Nuke it from orbit...it's the only way to be sure.

This app nukes everything.

This utility allows you to uninstall all Final Cut Studio components with the press of a button. Apple does not offer an uninstaller, making removing or downgrading to an earlier version very difficult. Simply deleting the Final Cut Studio application icons does not remove the suite, nor does it make it possible to reinstall it again. FCS Remover allows you to quickly and easily uninstall Final Cut Studio either permanently or in order to reinstall an earlier version over the top.

[From FCS Remover - Uninstall Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, Soundtrack Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, LiveType, Cinema Tools]

Cool ProRes notes

Ran across this interesting post on using Prores in Standard Def. Worth a quick gander.

2 weeks ago I finished my testing on the ProRes SD flavor of Apple's new codec. While many have tested the ProResHD variant, the SD variant hasn't been quite as scrutinized.

[From ProRes SD Results (Finally) | Post-Production

Final Cut Pro: Dropped Frames--Causes and Solutions

Possibly the best Apple doc on this problem.

[From Final Cut Pro: Dropped Frames--Causes and Solutions]

FCS technotes

Flash not being displayed in FCS

[From Final Cut Studio doesn't display or import Flash content after upgrading to QuickTime 7.3.1]

DON'T UPGRADE TO LEOPARD WITH FCP 4.5. 5.1.4, yes. 4.5? No

[From Final Cut Pro 4.5: Not supported on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard]