Final Cut Pro 11 ushers in new chapter for video editing on Mac
Apple’s Final Cut Pro 11 begins a new chapter for video editing on the Mac, along with Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1.
Apple this week unveiled Final Cut Pro 11 — supercharged with intelligent new features — along with powerful updates to Final Cut Pro for iPad, Final Cut Camera, and Logic Pro. Offering new tools like Magnetic Mask and the highly anticipated Transcribe to Captions, Final Cut Pro 11 for Mac1 also supports the import, edit, and delivery of spatial video projects directly to Apple Vision Pro.
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1 advances the touch-first editing experience with support for Enhance Light and Color; new Live Drawing inks; haptic feedback; even more built-in content, including color-grading presets and dynamic soundtracks; and other meaningful workflow improvements. Final Cut Camera 1.1, the intuitive pro recording app for iPhone, adds support for 4K120 fps recording on iPhone 16 Pro, the ability to apply a preview lookup table (LUT) while recording, and capture of Log-encoded HEVC video for smaller file sizes. And to supercharge songwriting, beat-making, producing, and mixing, Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 and Logic Pro for iPad 2.1 add support for a new Quantec Room Simulator plug-in.
The new versions of Final Cut Pro for Mac and iPad, Final Cut Camera, and Logic Pro for Mac and iPad are available today on the App Store.
“Our creative apps give artists, producers, directors, and editors around the world the tools they need to express themselves and realize their artistic vision,” said Brent Chiu-Watson, Apple’s senior director of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apps, in a statement. “With the power of Apple silicon and state-of-the-art machine learning capabilities, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are faster and more intelligent than ever. These latest updates give creative professionals more stylistic interpretations to explore — whether that’s with fine-tuned masking for color grading or amazing sound processing — and greater versatility and efficiency in their workflows.”
Final Cut Pro 11
Final Cut Pro 11 takes full advantage of Apple’s M-series chips, introducing the powerful and intuitive Magnetic Mask; Transcribe to Captions,5 a highly requested feature that provides fast and accurate closed captions; spatial video editing; and a range of timesaving tools and workflow optimizations.
AI-Powered Features
In Final Cut Pro 11, editors can access two all-new AI-powered tools: Magnetic Mask and Transcribe to Captions. With Magnetic Mask, editors can effortlessly isolate people and objects in a video clip without the need for a green screen or more time-consuming rotoscoping. This powerful and precise automatic analysis provides additional flexibility to customize backgrounds and environments. Editors can also combine Magnetic Mask with color correction and video effects, allowing them to precisely control and stylize each project. And with Transcribe to Captions, closed captions can be automatically generated in the timeline using an Apple-trained large language model that transcribes spoken audio.
Magnetic Mask and Transcribe to Captions join existing AI-powered features made possible by Apple’s Neural Engine, including:
• Smart Conform to easily make social media-friendly versions of projects in square or vertical formats.
• Enhance Light and Color to automatically improve the color, color balance, contrast, and brightness of video or still images.
• Smooth Slo-Mo to generate and blend together frames of video — including footage captured on iPhone 16 Pro in 4K120 fps — for the highest-quality movement.
• Voice Isolation to enhance speech and optimize sound levels while reducing background noise from audio captured in the field.
Spatial Video Editing for Apple Vision Pro
Spatial video allows users to capture life’s precious moments and relive them on Apple Vision Pro. Final Cut Pro 11 now supports spatial video editing, allowing editors to import their footage and add effects, make color corrections, and enhance their projects with titles. The depth position of titles and captured footage can also be adjusted during the editing process. Spatial video clips can be captured directly with Vision Pro, or on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, and Canon’s new RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL lens paired with Canon R7.
Users can choose from various viewing modes to preview the left- and right-eye angles on their Mac display. And with Mac Virtual Display, they can bring their edit into Apple Vision Pro, creating an enormous, private, and portable display that’s ideal for complex workflows. Later this year, users will be able to expand Mac Virtual Display to a new panoramic size, creating a massive 32:9 ultra-wide curved display that’s equivalent to having two 5K monitors side by side. Spatial videos can be exported directly to a user’s Photos library, viewed immediately on Vision Pro, or shared with others by uploading them to the native visionOS Vimeo app.
Timesaving Features, Blazing Speeds, and Pro Creative Tools
Final Cut Pro features advanced editing tools to help streamline creative workflows even further and save time:
• Magnetic Timeline, a trackless approach to editing footage, offers a fluid way to trim and edit a project. Editors can add and rearrange clips seamlessly, making adjustments while keeping video and audio perfectly in sync.
• With multicam editing, users can instantly sync multiple angles of a project and switch between shots during playback. And new keyboard shortcut options allow users to adjust the view of their timeline and reposition clips.
• Optimizations for Apple silicon allow editors to play back more streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video at full quality, add playback effects, and share their work with others at blazing speeds.
• Editors can create a lightweight copy of their library with enhanced proxy tools, decreasing file sizes to make transfer times even shorter.
• Using Compressor, editors can create custom export settings to deliver their work in a wide range of file formats, and import previous stereoscopic footage to reformat and pair with spatial video footage for an integrated editing experience.
• Using Motion, users can create stunning 2D and 3D titles, generators, and advanced visual effects that are accessible within Final Cut Pro.
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1 brings beloved features to the touch-first editing experience. Powered by Apple silicon, Enhance Light and Color is an intelligent way to improve color, color balance, contrast, and brightness in video or still images in one simple step, and is optimized for SDR, HDR, RAW, and Log-encoded media. With haptic feedback for Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, users will feel a light pulse as they trim clips, move media, navigate the timeline, and resize viewer clips to snapping points.
Other meaningful workflow improvements include a new vertical pinch gesture that can expand or minimize clip height in the timeline; the ability to dynamically adjust the size and position of the viewer in Picture in Picture mode; and timeline support for recordings at 90 fps, 100 fps, and 120 fps on iPhone 16 Pro.
New inks for the Live Drawing feature on iPad let users add even more animations to videos with expressive new watercolor, crayon, fountain pen, and monoline pen options. And the content library expands with new modular transitions, color-grading presets, and dynamic soundtracks, along with the ability to easily highlight and overlay visuals with Picture in Picture and Callout effects.
Final Cut Camera
Final Cut Camera 1.1 brings intuitive pro controls for aspiring and professional directors. The update offers users the ability to capture Log-encoded HEVC video in standalone or Live Multicam sessions, so users can take advantage of the amazing dynamic range of Log while benefitting from reduced file sizes and even more recording time. Final Cut Camera also allows users to enable a LUT preview while recording in Log, showcasing the vibrancy of the original scene in SDR or HDR with the Apple Log LUT. With iPhone 16 Pro, users can record beautiful and crisp 4K120 fps footage for even smoother cinematic slow motion, import it into Final Cut Pro for iPad, and begin their edit.
A new advanced level helps users precisely compose shots with roll and tilt indicators, and for top-down shots, Final Cut Camera introduces a crosshairs indicator.
Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 and Logic Pro for iPad 2.1
Logic Pro for Mac and iPad supercharge songwriting, beat-making, producing, and mixing, and are an excellent companion for Final Cut Pro editors. Today, that experience gets even better with the new Quantec Room Simulator plug-in, which allows users to tap into the legendary sound of the most acoustically accurate reverb ever created, built using the original schematics, algorithms, and code from Quantec founder and inventor Wolfgang Buchleitner. Users can select the vintage Quantec QRS to add natural acoustic space to music while preserving sonic character, or the modern Quantec Yardstick for improved clarity and detail. The Quantec QRS technology is a great tool for video editors who want to add natural-sounding spaces to dialog, foley, and music.
“The Quantec Room Simulator has been a key element to my sound for many years, appearing on records like Passion and Us. I also used it to build harmonic drones to start my live set, which then evolved into songs like ‘Across the River,’” said musician Peter Gabriel. “It’s wonderful that Apple is bringing the Quantec QRS back to life as a plug-in for Logic users around the world.”
With Reorder Mixer Channels, users can rearrange channel strips by dragging them, and can even select multiple channel strips to reorder them collectively. To make it easier to find and add any plug-in directly using a keyboard command, Logic Pro for Mac users can now search by category, company name, or even part of a plug-in name. Logic Pro for iPad also introduces Sample Folders, giving users access to their personal collection of samples directly from the built-in Sound Browser right from iPad, external storage, and iCloud Drive.
Pricing and Availability
• Final Cut Pro 11 is available today as a free update for existing users and for $299.99 (U.S.) for new users on the Mac App Store. New users can download a free 90-day trial of Final Cut Pro.
• Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1 is available today as a free update for existing users, and available on the App Store for $4.99 (U.S.) per month or $49 (U.S.) per year, with a one-month free trial for new users.
• Final Cut Camera 1.1 is available today as a free standalone app on the App Store.
• Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 is available today as a free update for existing users and for $199.99 (U.S.) for new users on the Mac App Store. Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 requires macOS 14.4 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/logic-pro.
• Logic Pro for iPad 2.1 is available today as a free update for existing users, and available on the App Store for $4.99 (U.S.) per month or $49 (U.S.) per year, with a one-month free trial for new users. Logic Pro for iPad 2.1 requires iPadOS 18.1 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/logic-pro-for-ipad.
MacDailyNews Take: Smart editors use Final Cut Pro.
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