Apple Final Cut Pro X (10.0.9) - Manual (Page 354)

Chapter 12 Keying and compositing 354
Use Compositing settings
The Compositing settings provide a wide variety of options for combining two images. You can
make a simple adjustment to evenly combine two images, or you can choose from settings that
use the video content to determine how to combine the images.
Use the Opacity adjustment
1 Position the playhead in the Timeline where you want to add a clip above the primary storyline.
2 Select the clip to add in the Event Browser, and choose Edit > Connect to Primary Storyline (or
press Q).
3 To see the composited clips, position the playhead within the clip that was just added.
By default, the new clip completely obscures the clip on the primary storyline.
4 To make the new clip partially transparent, select it in the Timeline and adjust the Opacity
control in the Compositing section of the Video inspector.
The closer you set Opacity to 0 percent, the more transparent the clip above the primary
storyline becomes. Additionally, you can use the Opacity fade handles in the Video Animation
Editor to have the composited clip dissolve on and off, or add keyframes to have the opacity
value change at specified points.
Choose a blend mode
1 Position the playhead in the Timeline to where you want to add a clip above the
primary storyline.
2 Select the clip to add in the Event Browser, and choose Edit > Connect to Primary Storyline (or
press Q).
3 To see the composited clips, position the playhead within the clip that was just added.
By default, the new clip completely obscures the clip on the primary storyline.
4 Choose an option from the Blend Mode pop-up menu in the Compositing section of the
Video inspector.
There are many blend mode settings to choose from—the correct one to use depends on the
video content and the sort of look you are aiming for. Additionally, you can adjust the Opacity
control to make the blend mode setting more subtle.