# Latest News

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# 2024

# October

# 3rd October 2024

November is RAPIDLY approaching, and if you haven't already considered going to the FCP Creative Summit you DEFINITELY should.

I'll be there!

You can read why Iain Anderson thinks you should come here.

You can get 15% off here:

There's some great speakers in the mix, but probably most exciting:

Fitness+ How We Use Final Cut Pro
Speaker: Apple Fitness+ Team

Last year at the Summit Apple told us:

One interesting point to note is that even though the Scary Fast event wasn't cut in Final Cut Pro (yes, it was cut in Premiere) - everything for Apple Fitness+ is - over 4,700 videos, 15 hours every week, all cut in Final Cut Pro using ProRes. Apple is eating their own dog food, at a major scale. Also, all the WWDC talks this year were cut in Final Cut Pro.

They also hinted that they were doing some special/funky metadata stuff for Fitness+ but didn't go into any deep details - so HOPEFULLY we learn more this year.

There will be LOTS of new tech discussed at the event.

MotionVFX has just released a tonne of new products, which I'm sure everyone will be talking about.

Wes Plate from Automatic Duck will be presenting - so we can all safely assume he'll announce something amazing (I wonder if you can guess what it is!).

Of course, Michael Cioni from Strada will be doing a keynote talk, Bet on the Future, bet on Yourself. Michael is one of the best public speakers in our industry, so his talks are always amazing.

I'm also currently helping Arthur Moore of BadAss FX fame on a secret project, that will HOPEFULLY be out by the Summit too!

So come along - it'll be awesome.

Yesterday MotionVFX released DesignStudio, mExtension and mCaptions.

But before I rant, watch Jenn Jager's amazing video on YouTube reviewing DesignStudio:

We're MASSIVE fans of MotionVFX. NOT including their subscriptions I've spent over AUD$7,596.53 on MotionVFX products.

The MotionVFX team are next-level talented, and create absolutely beautiful products that no other company can compete with.

That said... for us at least, yesterday's launch really didn't go that well.

We couldn't even pay the very expensive USD$682.82 cost because "something went wrong":

We tried multiple credit cards from multiple banks.

With MotionVFX being based in Poland, and LateNite being based in Melbourne, Australia, getting through to live chat support took a while.

Eventually they tweaked the error message, but alas, it still wasn't working for us:

To be fair... we think this was most likely an issue on Paddle's end - the payment provider that MotionVFX uses, however, as someone who knows the backend of Paddle quite well, I found it pretty disappointing that MotionVFX support couldn't just manually upgrade my subscription - as I was already paying for CineStudio 2D + 3D, so they already had my credit card details.

MotionVFX's live chat support staff were super lovely and human, which is always nice. But there was no special treatment here - no offer of a discount, no offer to some how fast track things. I basically just had to keep trying until it worked.

This kinda sucks - as MotionVFX have such a big team - I would expect better support, where they just do whatever it takes to get me up and running.

Eventually, after about the 100 time of trying to submit, I got a SMS from my bank about unusual activity on my credit card, which I accepted, and then, thankfully, I tried buying the Ultimate Plan, and it worked, woohoo! I have no idea why I didn't get this SMS on the first attempt, or the next 99 attempts, but it must have been a bug somewhere in the Paddle flow.

In addition to the existing mInstaller, we now have mExtensionInstaller:

I'm not really sure why they didn't just put this in mInstaller - it kinda makes no sense, but anyway...

First up I tried mExtension.

It's a Workflow Extension that contains:

  • Addons
  • Backgrounds
  • Camera Movements
  • Compositing Elements
  • Effects
  • Infographics
  • Intros
  • Overlay Effects
  • Placeholders
  • Social Media
  • Transitions

Once you find something you like you can simply drag it to your timeline, and like magic, it just works.

There's a HEAP of stuff - and as you'd expect with MotionVFX, the design work is AMAZING.

My only complaint is that this Workflow Extension just seems to be a fancy webview - so it's loading off the Internet, and it's SLOW - at least in Australia.

There doesn't seem to be any local caching or persistence - it requires an active Internet connection and doesn't really alert you to if you're offline - it just kinda... stalls.

When you download an item, it just gets added to your regular Motion Templates folder, so in future you can just access directly from Final Cut Pro:

There is a daily limit on how many things you can download:

Overall, it seems like a really solid product, with lots of great templates - and having it directly in Final Cut Pro is amazing. I'm really surprised it took them this long to build a Workflow Extension to be honest!

Next up... we have mCaptions.

Here's the official tutorial featuring the amazing George Edmondson:

Confusingly... mCaptions doesn't create Captions - it creates Titles.

Ironically... whilst we're very confident that we'll see automatic captions support in Final Cut Pro 11 at the Final Cut Pro Creative Summit, we're less confident about automatic titles.

My GUESS is that Apple and MotionVFX have probably already discussed this, and my GUESS it that mCaptions won't compete with Apple's native captions support.

HOWEVER, once we have native caption support in Final Cut Pro, we could use that metadata to generate our own titles, so that's only matter a time before a third party developer solves this once FCP11 is out in the wild - it could even potentially be a CommandPost Toolbox.

But for now... we have mCaptions.

Like Ulti.Media Transcriber and Builder NLE it's using OpenAI's Whisper under the hood.

In this case mCaptions is using Whisper.cpp's Large V3 model.

Our first test was with some Strada test clips (that have been provided to Strada beta testers), in Mandarin, and it failed miserably.

Next we tried some other Strada test clips, but they had multiple audio channels, and mCaptions wouldn't even import them:

It would be great if mCaptions was smart enough to read the enabled channels from the FCPXML and only use the enabled channels for transcription. Maybe in a future update.

It also can't import SOME video files, which is a shame. There's no error message though, so it's hard to know what works and what does without just trying.

So basically, currently it seems mCaptions is basically limited to mono or stereo AIFFs or WAVs.

Next up we tried a 02:27:46:40 long audio clip (a podcast ripped from YouTube).

Sadly, it doesn't seem to push CPUs and GPUs as much as you'd hope (compared to WhisperKit in MacWhisper for example):

It writes verbose error logs in /private/tmp/logError.txt and /private/tmp/log.txt so you can see what it's kinda doing under-the-hood.

After 10 minutes I was only up to 11%, so I basically gave up transcoding this 2.5 hour clip. For reference, MacWhisper can do the same clip in under 5 minutes.

Next up we tried a 4 minute H264 - a pitch video that we did internally, which is mostly dialogue (all English) but with some subtle music underneath.

That seemed to work MUCH better, and was pretty fast to process:

Overall though, I'm not sure that mCaptions is any better than Ulti.Media Transcriber, and definitely has far less options and control - although having it as a Workflow Extension in Final Cut Pro does save a lot of mouse clicks!

Having said that... it does have a very unique feature not found in other tools (so far)... word-by-word animation is amazing, and something I've already used on an actual job. When it works (i.e. clean English), it works amazingly well.

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on MotionVFX's latest offerings!

Thanks team!

Discuss this news item

# 1st October 2024

Builder NLE v2.4.9 it out now with the following bug fix:

  • Critical bug fix for adding new multicam clips to an existing event

Discuss this news item

# September

# 29th September 2024

MotionVFX is working on something new, and something really cool, most likely called mExtension.

We can only ASSUME that it's a new Workflow Extension based off their videos...

It looks like it has:

  • Addons
  • Backgrounds
  • Camera Movements
  • Compositing Elements
  • Effects
  • Infographics
  • Intros
  • Overlay Effects
  • Placeholders
  • Social Media
  • Transitions

To be honest, we're surprised it's taken them this long to build a Workflow Extension, as normally MotionVFX are first to market when it comes to Final Cut Pro tech.

Their first hint was:

A new era of creativity is on the horizon... ✨

Their second hint was:

Something big is coming... 👀

Their third hint was:

Final Cut Pro is about to get bigger! 💣

And their latest hint is:

Open endless opportunities in Final Cut Pro ♾️ #videoediting

You can see some screenshots of the above videos here:

It's yet to be seen if this will be subscription or if it just has access to your existing MotionVFX purchases.

We're excited.

Discuss this news item

# 28th September 2024

The draft program for the 2024 Final Cut Pro Creative Summit is now live!

You can view it here.

There's some great speakers in the mix, but probably most exciting:

Fitness+ How We Use Final Cut Pro
Speaker: Apple Fitness+ Team

We can't wait! Hopefully see you there!

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 18th September 2024

If you're a developer who works with Final Cut Pro Workflow Extensions, you may have noticed that things break when you upgrade to macOS Sequoia 15.0 and Xcode 16.0. Doh!

Thankfully the fix is fairly simple once you know the trick...

If you're seeing this:

Simply change this:

To this:

This is because in Xcode 16.0, a clang fix was made that now requires a space after the entry linker option -e to disambiguate this option from other options that start with the letter e.

To fix the error, you simply need to separate out the -e from _ProExtensionMain in the Other Linker Flags build setting.

As of today, the Workflow Extensions SDK hasn't been updated, but hopefully we'll see this fixed in the Xcode template soon.

Thanks to Phil in the CocoaHeads community for helping me work this out!

It's nearly your last chance to get 30% off the amazing Apple Motion Masterclass by Dylan Bates (aka The Final Cut Bro)!

Simply use the promo code MotionTime30. Offer end 20th September.

It's time to stop ignoring Apple Motion and make it a part of your daily editing life.

This course will take you from knowing absolutely nothing about Motion, to knowing how to create advanced templates, graphics and VFX with over 7.5 hours of high quality videos. Plus there's even more on the way!

This course is 100% satisfaction guaranteed! Not happy with it? Let me know and I will offer a full refund.

You can buy now here.

Discuss this news item

# 17th September 2024

macOS Sequoia 15.0 is out now!

So far there's very little to no reports of any issues with Final Cut Pro, so we think it's safe to upgrade - but of course, make backups and tread with care!

You can keep track of our latest recommendations on our Upgrade Guide.

BretFX has released Speech Bubble 2 on the Mac App Store and on the BretFX website.

You can learn more here.

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

Creator's Best Friend v1.3.1 is out now with a new app icon!

It also now has a "Keep on Top" checkbox to control floating of the app window.

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

Frame.io v2.7.1 is out now!

It includes the following improvements:

  • Support for uploading media to V4 accounts
  • Watch Folders now work with V4 accounts
  • Full support for Final Cut Pro 10.8
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements

We're big Frame.io users here, and we're also on the V4 beta, so HUGE thank you to the Frame.io team for all their Final Cut Pro improvements!!

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 8th September 2024

X2Pro5 v5.0.42 is out now with the following fixes:

  • Preventing crash during WAV parsing
  • Maintaining access rights for locations
  • Correct pass-through of track names and timecodes for certain source file types

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 7th September 2024

The amazing Dylan Bates (aka The Final Cut Bro) has released an Apple Motion Masterclass.

Use the promo code MotionTime30 to get 30% off.

It's time to stop ignoring Apple Motion and make it a part of your daily editing life.

This course will take you from knowing absolutely nothing about Motion, to knowing how to create advanced templates, graphics and VFX with over 7.5 hours of high quality videos. Plus there's even more on the way!

This course is 100% satisfaction guaranteed! Not happy with it? Let me know and I will offer a full refund.

You can buy now here.

evrExpanse v4.6.0 is out now!

Use the promo code EVRE460INTRO to get 30% off until 22nd September.

This release includes:

  • UPDATE: New Process Selection Interface: Users now select between the main processes: Metadata Export, Transcode, and Offload directly from the main process window, streamlining the workflow and reducing confusion.
  • UPDATE: Transcoding Mode Moved: The Transcoding Mode selection has been moved to the Transcode Settings, providing a cleaner and more intuitive user experience when setting transcoding preferences.
  • UPDATE: Renaming of Passthrough Mode: The "Passthrough" transcoding mode has been renamed to "Rewrap" for better clarity.
  • UPDATE: Minor UI/UX Enhancements: Various small improvements have been made to alert messages and pop-up windows for a more polished and user-friendly experience.
  • NEW: Demo License Activation: Starting with this release, the Demo license must be activated to use evrExpanse.

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# August

# 30th August 2024

The official FCP Creative Summit 2024 promotional video is out now, created by Iain Anderson.

Spot the crazy person (yes, it's me)!

You can watch on Vimeo here:

SendToX v1.2.5 is out now with the following bug fixes:

  • Bug fix to ignore timecode in AIFF files from Final Cut Pro 7
  • Bug fix for titles created in Premiere Pro
  • Bug fix for an error raised by markers without a name element

The FCP7 bug was one of our reports - HUGE thank you to Philip & Gregory for all their on-going help and support!

You can download from the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 28th August 2024

PostSync and PostWatch are currently 30% off!

Offer ends 30th September.

You can use the promo code: EndOfSummer24

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 26th August 2024

MotionVFX has updated some of their plugins:

  • mFilmLook 2.1.5: Support for high resolutions - up to 16k
  • mTracker 3D 2.1.1: Support for high resolutions - up to 16k

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 24th August 2024

evrExpanse v4.5.0 is out now!

The developers are offering a 30% discount on all new licenses.

Use the offer code EVRE450INTRO at checkout. Offer ends 8th September 2024.

This update has the following changes:

  • NEW: Enhanced License Activation Check: Added a validation step to ensure the license key field is not left empty during the activation process.
  • NEW: New Buttons on Process Completion: Two new buttons have been added to the final pop-up window after process completion:
  • For Export and Transcode processes: A button to open the Event Log and review all recorded events.
  • For Offload processes: Two buttons are available�one to open the Event Log and another to access the Transfer Report, enabling users to review key information and all recorded events.
  • The interaction with the final pop-up window has been updated to remain active after each button is clicked, allowing multiple selections (e.g., opening the destination folder, accessing the Event Log) before pressing the Cancel button to close the window.
  • NEW: Zero-Byte File Warning: The Zero-Byte File Warning has been expanded to include the Export Metadata and Transcode processes, in addition to the existing warning in the Offload process. This crucial feature helps identify potentially corrupted media files during the workflow. A new button in the zero-byte warning window now allows users to open and review the list of zero-byte files detected in each process .
  • UPDATE: Updated Process Stop Functionality: Enhanced the stop function for export, transcoding, and offloading tasks to ensure all remaining tasks are completed before safely shutting down the process.
  • UPDATE: Progress Bar Update for MHL Files: Updated the progress bar to accurately reflect the creation of ASC MHL and MHL v1 files.
  • FIXED: Resolved an issue where the check control did not properly handle cases where the source folder does not exist.
  • FIXED: Resolved an issue where the exporting metadata process was not properly terminated when stopped.
  • FIXED: Resolved an issue that prevented the correct storage of the last selected hash for ASC MHL files in the preferences panel, ensuring user settings are preserved across sessions.

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 23rd August 2024

Apple has released two new videos about Final Cut Pro for Mac and Final Cut Pro for iPad on their official YouTube Channel.

Unconfirmed, but I'm fairly confident these were the videos that Apple opened with when we visited Apple Park last year for the Final Cut Pro Creative Summit.

You can watch here:

Either way, it's great to see the wider Apple finally promoting Final Cut Pro to the world!

PostSync v1.11 is out now with the following changes:

NEW FEATURE:

  • Sync: Added the new application Marker Data. (by The Acharya)

IMPROVED:

  • Basic compatibility updates for After Effects 2025 and above.
  • Small interface icon changes.

FIXED:

  • Sync: Premiere Pro timeline settings now sync properly.
  • Sync: No longer counts hidden files, which might make it appear that some files were changed even though none were.

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 22nd August 2024

Arctic v24.2.3 is out now with the following changes:

  • Improved migration flow from FCLM to Arctic
  • Fix for some background crashes lingering in FCLM's codebase

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 19th August 2024

Sync-N-Link X v1.2 is out now with the following changes:

  • Critical bug fix to read and process "Final Cut Pro Document" binary files exported from Final Cut Pro
  • Bug fix to add missing tcFormat attribute
  • Bug fix to support non-rational

You can download from the Mac App Store here.

mTracker Surface v1.1.4 is out now with the following bug fix:

  • Fixed a rare crash that occurred when a point from an open shape was deleted

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 15th August 2024

Mike Matzdorff is removing his incredible book titled Final Cut Pro X: Pro Workflow: Proven Techniques from the First Studio Film to Use FCP X from Apple Books and Amazon.

We strongly recommend you purchase it RIGHT NOW.

Mike explains:

There are a couple reasons for taking it down...
I think there are better resources available, which may have built on what I did (see Iain Anderson's Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing) - there are still some good techniques in there, but the ideas are nearly ten years old.
I think one of my hopes, at the time, was that FCP(X) would be something I could use in my main (paying) editing work, and due to the manufacturer's development choices, it wasn't something I could sell productions on.
Which is ok. It's great software, supported by a great community and Apple folks. The book is a bargain, even now.

You can purchase from Amazon here and Apple Books here for a short time only!

Thanks Mike for EVERYTHING you've done for the Final Cut Pro community! Legend.

SendToX v1.2.4 is out now with the following bug fixes:

  • Critical bug fix for failing to relink files to audio-only media in some cases
  • Bug fix to ignore.vob files
  • Bug fix for when file/timecode has no frame element

You can download from the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 14th August 2024

Final Cut Pro v10.8.1 and iMovie v10.4.2 is out now with the following bug files:

  • Fixes an issue that prevented audio playback when stepping through timeline clips with the left and right arrow keys.
  • Fixes an issue that could cause some MTS files to play back without audio.
  • Fixes an issue that could cause Final Cut Pro to stop responding when three-finger gestures were used on a trackpad.

You can download now on the Mac App Store.

Registration for the Final Cut Pro Creative Summit is now open.

Use the coupon code FMCALUMNI for 15% off at checkout.

The cost is USD$599, which includes:

  • NEW (2) FMC AI Training Bootcamps, live and online, of their choice, valued at $299 each
  • 🍏 Apple Campus Visit (If registered before Nov. 10)
  • 🎓 FREE FCP exam voucher + prep recording
  • 📚 2 days of intensive training in Final Cut Pro with renowned experts
  • 🤝 Networking Opportunities

You can register here.

Marker Toolbox v1.4.1 (19) is out now with the following bug fix:

  • Fixed a bug/regression introduced in the v1.4.0 update where we accidentally broke "Process Comments Locally". Apologies! HUGE thanks to KenHell, Maksim Tarasenko, Gary Roll and Hamin Yoon for reporting!

You can learn more here.

Creators Best Friend v1.3 is out now with the following changes:

  • New feature: support for DaVinci Resolve (version 18.5 or later) timelines containing Timeline Markers
  • Critical bug fix to read and process "Final Cut Pro Document" binary files exported from Final Cut Pro

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

Builder NLE v4.2.8 is out now with the following bug fix:

  • Bug fix for "matchback" to reveal a clip inside a closed Event in the clips list.

You can download on the Mac App Store here.

Discuss this news item

# 6th August 2024

Color Finale v2.9.2 is out now.

It fixed a bug that prevented access to the Color Finale Presets Store.

You can learn more here.

Discuss this news item

# 2nd August 2024

Marker Toolbox v1.4.0 (18) is out now!

It's a big update, with lots of improvements:

  • Added support for Adobe Premiere CSVs. Thanks Michael Angelo!
  • Wipster CSV support has been improved. We now display replies properly.
  • Frame.io FIOJSON support has been improved. The markers on 29.97fps projects should now more accurately match the Frame.io website. Thanks Shih-Cheng Yang!
  • All of the timecode processing logic and maths has been completely redesigned and rewritten, so that we can better support all frame rates, and ensure everything is frame accurate. We now use TimecodeKit for timecode handling. HUGE thanks to Steffan Andrews for his incredible work!
  • The default ChatGPT prompt has been updated to work in frames, rather than seconds for better accuracy. If you have a custom prompt, you should press the "Reset Prompt" button in the bottom settings to update the prompt to the new format.
  • The latest OpenAI ChatGPT models are now supported.

You can learn more here.

PostWatch 4 is out now!

PostWatch now connects directly to the Notifications database so it no longer needs to read the Notification Center through the UI. This has major impacts on PostWatch:

  • Special Notification Center settings are no longer required.
  • Applications no longer need to have Notification Center alerts enabled.
  • Intel and Apple Silicon Macs work equally the same.
  • The PostWatch Screensaver is no longer needed.
  • You can use the macOS System Screensavers, Display Sleep and Screen Lock freely.
  • The Optimizer has been re-worked with some sections now optional.

It also includes the following changes:

  • Lite (free) and Pro (paid) editions. Many advanced features are now part of the Pro Edition. Pro is a one-time paid non-subscription model.
  • Improved: Supports interacting with macOS in any language.
  • Improved: Greatly expanded language support for post-production applications, including: Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Dutch and more.
  • New: Guided setup walks users through the Pushover signup and Key/Token configuration with PostWatch.
  • Improved: Modernized the Settings window as well as many of the modal alerts.
  • New: Application Activity Watcher. Observe an applications’ background processes and send an alert when complete. (Pro) Good for applications that aren’t already integrated into PostWatch. (Premiere Pro, Topaz Video AI, etc.)
  • New: Toggling between Light and Dark modes.
  • New: Manual language selection for menu and interface.
  • New: Disable watching of specific applications.
  • Updated: Support for ff·Works 4.
  • Improved: Reworked code for EditReady. Alerts now contain the number of files completed as well as alerts for failed conversions.
  • Improved: Reworked code for Media Encoder. Fixes issues with the reliability of alerts.
  • New: Clicking the menu’s Watcher Status shows a list of currently watched applications. Also clicking Recent Problems gives a detailed list of issues.
  • …and many other fixes and stability improvements.

You can learn more here.

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# 1st August 2024

Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month!

The trailer for Don’t Turn Out the Lights is out now, a feature film cut in Final Cut Pro, edited by Michael Yanovich.

Learn more here.

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