Using keyframes in Final Cut

Final Cut enables us to alter many aspects of a movie frame, including –opacity –scale (magnification) –position –rotation –distortion By treating certain frames as keyframes, we can tween between the value of some property (say opacity) in one frame and the value of the same property in another frame Thus, we can make the values of these properties change gradually as the movie is played

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip A 10-second clip in the timeline panel

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Toggle the Clip Overlays (alt-W) setting to on

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Notice there is now a thin black line along the top of the clip

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Compare the top of the clip before and after toggling clip overlays The new line denotes the opacity of the frames in the clip The fact that it is at the top means that all the frames in the clip have 100% opacity

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip We can move the opacity line First, choose the pen tool (keyboard: p)

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Then click on the left end of the black line -- see that a small black mark appears

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip See the black mark where we clicked at the left end of the line

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Dragging on this black mark we can pull the line down, reducing the opacity of all the frames in the clip

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Below, we have dragged the line around halfway down, reducing the opacity of all the frames in the clip to 51%

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Below, we have dragged the line to the bottom, reducing the opacity of all the frames in the clip to 0% As a result, the image in the canvas panel is blank

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip The pen tool is still selected Move the mouse inside the clip and you will see a small black vertical line moving along the time calibration of the timeline panel

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Below, the small black vertical line is around 4 second on the time calibration of the timeline panel Now, making sure you hold the mouse on the black line directly underneath this small vertical line, click the mouse and...

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip... and a second black mark appears on the opacity line Now, you can increase the opacity of the frame at 4 seconds, by dragging this black mark upwards...

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip... as you drag this second black mark upwards, notice that the opacity line starts to slope between the two black marks You are actually tweening the opacity of all the frames between 0 seconds and 4 seconds

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Drag this second black mark upwards, until it reaches 100% opacity Now, all the frames between 0 seconds and 4 seconds have opacities ranging between 0% and 100% The frames where we placed the black marks are keyframes and we have tweened opacity between these two keyframes

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip The playhead is at 0.5 seconds below, which means that the frame at the playhead should have around 12% opacity We can see the effect of this by looking at the canvas panel

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip The playhead is around 1 second below, which means that the frame at the playhead should have around 25% opacity We can see the effect of this by looking at the canvas panel

Changing the opacity of frames in a clip Let's export this sequence as a movie, so that we can see the effect we have created

Seeing the effect of what we have done Although the sequence was exported as a.mov file, the movie has been recoded to a.flv file to make it more practical for use on the web See it here Later, we will use keyframes to tween other aspects, such as scale (magnification), position, rotatio, distortion But, next, we will look at layers Meanwhile, however, tackle Exercise 6: