Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 973)

186 Part II Project Interchange
 Create and manipulate transparency effects: Use filters like the Chroma Keyer or
Garbage Matte to create and manipulate the alpha channel information of clips in your
project. Keying filters create alpha channels based on blue, green, white, or black areas
in the image. Other filters, such as the Widescreen or Soft Edges filter, allow you to
further manipulate the areas of transparency in a keyed clip, expanding, contracting,
and feathering the area of transparency to fine-tune the effect. Filters like the Mask
Shape or Composite Arithmetic filter generate a new alpha channel based on simple
geometric shapes or copy an alpha channel from one clip to another. For more
information, see Chapter 19, “
Keying, Mattes, and Masks ,” on page 385.
Final Cut Pro includes a wide selection of video filters, grouped into several categories. For
detailed information, see “
Video Filters Available in Final Cut Pro ” on page 203.
Third-party filters are available if you want a particular effect that isn’t built in. You can
create your own filters with the built-in FXScript effects language or modify existing
filters. For more information, go to http://developer.apple.com/documentation/
AppleApplications.
Keyframing Filter Parameters
Like most parameters in Final Cut Pro, filter parameters can be keyframed to change
their effect on a clip over time. Keyframing filters works the same way as keyframing
motion settings. For more information, see Chapter 13, “
Adjusting Parameters
for Keyframed Effects ,” on page 249.
Applying a Filter to a Clip
You can apply filters to clips in a sequence or to clips in the Browser, but it’s very
important to understand the distinction between these two methods.
 If you apply filters to a sequence clip, they are applied only to that clip. The master clip
in the Browser remains untouched.
 If you apply filters to a master clip in the Browser, instances of that clip already in other
sequences are untouched, but if you edit the master clip into a sequence, the new
filter accompanies the clip into the sequence.
In most cases, you apply filters to individual clips in sequences, not to master clips in
the Browser. There may be occasions where you want every instance of a master clip
edited into a sequence to have the same filter applied, such as color correction. In this
case, apply the color correction filter to the master clip in the Browser. However, filters
applied to clips are still independent of each other. If you modify the filter parameters
for a master clip, the same filter parameters in affiliate clips are not modified.
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Tip: To maintain consistent filter settings across multiple clips, you can copy and paste
filter settings using the Paste Attributes command.