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Slow Motion Question – FCP
Got a question for you guys! I just upgraded to HD video, purchased a Canon T3i. So, I’m new to the slow motion world. I’m looking to learn a little bit about slow motion. I understand that slow motion needs to be shot in 60fps, but how to you change the frame rate of a single clip in FCP to make slow motion?
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-urnYeaEu_sSo when the sequence settings are set to the original clips settings, such as 60fps, how would I edit just a single section of the clip to do slow mo. Like in the video, regular speed to slow to regular.
Thanks guys!!
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5 Replies
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You could achieve that effect by using variable speed key framing. Double click your clip and look in the view under Motion. At the bottom is your speed curve where you can add key frames.
Cody Walters
JW Studio LLC
Houston Video Production
Houston Wedding VideographerFinal Cut Studio 3
Adobe CS5 Master Suite
Panasonic HVX-200
Canon 7D -
To get that slow I recommend you bring your clip into Motion and use Optical Flow. FCP will most likely not look perfectly smooth. If you use AE then check out the Twixtor plug-in. But you will be amazed at how amazing Optical Flow is.
Stephen Smith
Utah Video ProductionsCheck out my Motion Training DVD
Check out my Motion Tutorials
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In order for your 60fps footage to be played back in slow motion, and then continue to edit it, you need to do a few things.
Firstly, you need to open up cinema tools and batch conform all of your source 60fps footage into 23.98fps footage. Then you’d have to transcode all of it into apple prores or whatever codec you’re looking to edit in, and then put that into FCP. You need to make sure the frame rate in the sequence settings in Final Cut match the clip, which should be 23.98 if you’ve done everything correctly. This is the best way I know to cut slow motion footage.
You can always try cutting 60fps footage in Final Cut (as long as the codec suits it) and just slow down the footage using the speed tool or command+j, but using the method I’ve described will allow you to cut without having to render.
Also, you don’t have to put the clips in FCP in order to see if you’ve got slow motion footage. After you batch conform all of your 60fps footage, you should just be able to play those back in finder, or quicktime in slow motion. All cinema tools is doing is stretching out the time it takes back to play the 60 frames into 23.98 frames.
Hope this helps.
Nate Tam
Freelance Film Editor
natetamiam.com -
Yes, I agree if you’re looking for SLOWER than 60fps. If you’ve shot 60fps, all you need to do is conform in cinema tools to 23.98, or ramp down in final cut. Once doing that, you can judge if you want it slower or not, and based off that judgement, use the method that Stephen suggests.
Motion has a quick and easy way to achieve this twixtor effect, however if you can use AE, then twixtor is the way to go. There’s much more fine tuning involved that may give you a better result.
Nate Tam
Freelance Film Editor
natetamiam.com -
If you are using Motion’s Optical flow then don’t use cinema tools. It looks much smoother if you just bring it into Motion and slow it down. But then again, you can always do a test and see what you like the best.
Stephen Smith
Utah Video ProductionsCheck out my Motion Training DVD
Check out my Motion Tutorials
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