More than a decade after the launch of Final Cut Pro After removing the number from its name for the past few years, the app is now being updated to Final Cut Pro 11. The update includes new AI masking tools, the ability to generate captions directly in your timeline, spatial video editing features, and a set of workflow improvements. The new version is free for existing users and a one-time purchase of $299 for new users. Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Camera for iPad are also getting some updates today.
I've been testing these new features over the past week, and many of them are great improvements. I've been particularly impressed by the speed and accuracy of a new feature coming to desktop: Magnetic Mask. With one click, you can easily isolate a subject, such as a person, from the background and apply different color adjustments to that part of the footage.
I tested the magnetic mask in a variety of scenarios, such as static talking head video and fast-moving snowboarding footage. In each scenario, Final Cut Pro did a great job of separating the subjects. But don't expect a pixel-perfect mask every time. I still had to jump in and make some small adjustments to help. You can either manually adjust your mask with a brush or add or remove tracking points and let Final Cut Pro analyze the footage.
I was impressed by the speed of the entire process. Granted, these were fairly short clips (about 45 seconds each), but each mask took less than a minute on my four-year-old 10-core M1 Pro MacBook Pro — much less the difficult and tedious process of manually rotoscoping. Much less time in comparison to After Effects.
I noticed that once I started screen recording my process the analysis became significantly slower. This feature will also work on Intel-based Macs.
I'm an avid user of Adobe's Premiere Pro, but features like this always tempt me to give Final Cut Pro another chance. However, I can't hold back for long: Adobe previously announced a similar feature for Premiere this yearDaVinci Resolve also already has a similar feature called Magic Mask.
The next new feature is the ability to automatically generate captions in your timeline. Final Cut Pro does this using an Apple-trained language mode, and the entire process happens locally on the device without sending information to the cloud. The process is fast but not always accurate and common words are often misspelled. This messes up proper nouns like “the verge” and even more common nouns like “the machine”, where instead it just writes “machin”. These are just a few of many examples. If you're hoping to add your own captions to your TikTok, there's no way to stylize your captions. For this, you will have to look into some third-party plug-ins.
1,4
It's a nice update, but I wish Apple went a step further and added text-based editing, which lets you edit videos using only text instead of the timeline. Text-based editing in Premiere has helped me a lot when working on longer documentaries or sit-down interviews, and I wish it were possible in Final Cut Pro 11.
Other changes include the ability to edit spatial video for Vision Pro and some new keyboard shortcuts. My favorite option to move clips between layers is + Arrow Up / Arrow Down. These are the little things!
Final Cut Pro for iPad is also getting some new updates. The AI-enabled “Enhance Light and Color” tool that was initially released in Final Cut Pro 10.8 for Mac is making its way to the iPad app. This is the fastest way to quickly improve the colors, contrast, and overall tone of your footage.
In the few tests I did, the tool did a really good job of getting me started on the coloring process. This cleans up the overall exposure nicely and adds very subtle stylistic color choices. For much less subtle color grades, Apple is expanding the number of presets available in the app. In addition to those presets, Apple is also adding new modular variations and new songs to its soundtrack library.
If you're using the Apple Pencil Pro to edit, you'll finally be able to unlock all the new brushes that were released with the M4 iPad Pro and take advantage of features like tilt detection and haptic feedback . Haptic feedback works especially well on the iPad, and I'm enjoying it more than I thought. It really makes the editing process feel more tactile. In fact, I wish there was some secret reaction to more gestures.
Finally, there are some small but important workflow improvements. You can now resize the height of your clips in your timeline using the pinch gesture, you can edit in a 120fps timeline, and the picture-in-picture mode is dynamic. Apple also mentioned there are new keyboard shortcuts, but I only found one: Render Entire Timeline.
I'm glad to see more frequent updates to the iPad version of Final Cut Pro, but there are still features that this app desperately needs to make it worth the $4.99 per month subscription plan. At the top of my wish list are things like custom LUTs, better file management, and some other AI-powered features that have already come to the desktop version. since me initial reviewI've started using DaVinci Resolve mostly on the iPad, which impresses me with how similar it is to its desktop counterpart.
The trifecta of updates ends with the Final Cut camera, which can now film HEVC files into Apple Log – no need to stick with storage-hungry ProRes files anymore. HEVC log capture will work as a standalone capture or as part of a live multicam session. The Final Cut camera will also include LUT preview during recording, meaning you can monitor your exposure and color while filming in Apple Log.
And to make sure your framing is correct and aligned, Apple is adding a new level indicator to the app. The new Leveler also includes tilt and roll indicators and crosshairs for your top-down and bottom-up shots.
The introduction of new AI features and workflow improvements are important steps for content creators, but they don't address some of the community's requests to fully compete with companies like DaVinci and Adobe. I would still like to see text-based editing, more robust color options, and custom captions. It will be interesting to see if these new updates convert any new users. The magnetic mask alone might be reason enough to make the switch.