Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 1143)

356 Part II Project Interchange
Audio items linked to video items you’ve layered in the Timeline are also stacked, one
on top of another. You can have up to 99 tracks of audio in addition to the 99 tracks of
video in a sequence in the Timeline, for a total of up to 198 tracks in a single sequence.
Layered audio is mixed together by Final Cut Pro according to the volume settings that
you’ve adjusted. For more information about editing audio, see “
Setting Proper Audio
Levels ” on page 58.
For information about mixing audio, see Chapter 5, “ Overview of the Audio Mixer ,” on
page 67, and Chapter 7, “ Mixing Audio in the Timeline and Viewer ,” on page 109.
What Can You Do With Compositing?
As an editor, you’ll find Final Cut Pro compositing support useful for doing things such
as creating montages and abstract images, and also for creating layers to be exported
for higher end animation in Motion or compositing, effects, and rendering in Shake.
This chapter discusses compositing techniques and provides information on working
with imported graphics and movie clips that have layers or alpha channels.
Some of the most common effects operations you’ll use to create broadcast design
sequences include compositing graphics and video clips together. Final Cut Pro allows
you to superimpose up to 99 layers of video together and gives you other options for
creating visual effects:
 You can adjust the relative levels of opacity, or transparency, of each clip to control
how clips combine. For example, you can put a semi-transparent image of a flag
flying in the wind over the video image of a national monument.
 You can also import QuickTime files with preset alpha channels, which Final Cut Pro
uses to automatically define their levels of transparency. Final Cut Pro can then use
this alpha channel information to combine these clips with background imagery in a
sequence, such as placing a title graphic over a video clip to create an interesting
title sequence.