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Filed under: Editing •Motion Graphics •

Composite Modes in Final Cut Pro

Tweaks and Enhancements

There are certainly ways to enhance the initial results you will obtain using Composite Modes. When you have an initial composite that looks promising, try these variations:

• Reduce the Opacity of the accent clip. 100% Opacity often yields too strong of an effect; back it off to get a more subtle result.
• Apply Effects > Video Filters > Image Control > Gamma to the accent clip and alter where its middle gray values are. Many modes - especially Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light - lean heavily on where this middle gray point sits; changing it changes the balance of highlights and shadows. You can also use Image Control > Brightness and Contrast to move the black, white, and gray points around.
• Apply Effects > Video Filters > Image Control > HSV Adjust to the accent clip and rotate its hue to colorize the result. As you have seen in the previous pages, the color of the accent clip has a big impact on the final composite, controlling whether the result yields a subtle addition or stark contrast.
• Apply one of the Video Filters > Blur effects to the accent clip. This is particularly useful if the accent clip is a copy of the original clip, resulting in a “filmic glow” effect that is quite popular. (If you are a Lynda.com subscriber, we created some video training on employing this technique; if you’re not a subscriber, click here first to get a free 7-day pass.)

Although this article focused on using Composite Modes in Final Cut Pro, you will find similar modes appear in other programs. For example, in Motion they are called Blend Modes. You can access them by right-clicking on the accent layer, or by using the Blend Mode popup in the Heads-Up Display (HUD). Motion offers even more modes than Final Cut:

However, the point of this article was to show Final Cut editors how they can quickly achieve motion-graphics-like effects without having to leave FCP! I hope this was helpful; feel free to share your own tips in the Comments below.

Creating Your Own Accent Clips

Full disclosure: I created the Liquid Abstracts and Nature Abstracts stock footage collections which were employed for the first two of the example “accent” clips throughout this article. I’d be thrilled if you bought them - after all, I created them for this very use, among others - but if you’re handy with a camera and a motion graphics application, you can create your own. I created the clips in these collections by putting a camera severely out of focus while shooting natural phenomenon, and then slowing down, blurring, and colorizing the result. You can download a free article on the subject from Artbeats.com.

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