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MillimeterNavigating Apple Final Cut Pro's Speed Options, Part 2
Apr 6, 2010 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Figure 1. My two-clip variable-speed test clip.
Last time around, we covered the Speed tool and Change Speed dialog in Apple Final Cut Pro. These work perfectly for simple adjustments, such as shifting from 100 percent speed to 200 percent, then back down to 100 percent. However, if you want to vary the speed of a clip over time, you'll have to use a different toolset.
Here's an example of what I mean. A few years ago, to test an NLE's ability to implement variable-speed changes, I prepared a test clip that combines two sequences into a variable-speed slow-motion test. Figure 1 shows the keyframes in the clip where I want the various speed adjustments to start.
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The clip starts with Alex Pyles (America's Got Talent semifinalist) performing a tae kwon do kata, followed by a short clip of me (golf, got no talent) hitting a nine iron on a 126-yard par 3 at the Shark River Golf Club in New Jersey. As you can see in the text on the frames in Figure 1, the clip starts at 100 percent, then drops to 50 percent with a 1-second transition, then speeds back up to 100 percent with no transition for the start of the second clip. Just before I start my downswing, I transition to 25 percent speed over 1 second, then transition back from 25 percent to 100 percent at the end.
In a real production, your targets will probably be more flexible and less specific. Still, before getting started, you should have a pretty good idea which speeds you want to apply to which segments, and the transition points where you want the speed changes to start.
Once you have these targets, there are at least two ways to get this done. The simple way would be to split the clip at each speed transition point and apply the speed change to the separate clip. For example, to transition from 100 to 50 percent speed (at the second frame in Figure 1), you could split the clip on the transition frame and apply the speed effect to the second clip with a 30-frame transition, a technique that you learned in the
This approach has the advantage of using the Ripple Sequence control to ripple the edit through the timeline. You don't have that option with the other alternative, which is inserting clip keyframes on the timeline and adjusting the speed of the individual segments. On the other hand, as you'll see, this latter approach is more flexible when it comes to customizing the positioning of your speed changes.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.