digitalfilms

a blog by Oliver Peters

The Final Cut Ecosystem

blg_fcp_resources

I work with many different editing systems, but for the past few years the majority of time has been with Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Although I enjoy working with Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro and others, in that time I’ve seen plenty of useful utilities and plug-ins grow up around Final Cut Pro and the Final Cut Studio applications. Like Pro Tools, After Effects and Photoshop, FCP lends itself to expandability in a way that enables you to trick out your edit bay far beyond a stock system.

 

This page is intended to provide links to many of these resources in one, easy-to-find compilation. It is by no means a complete list. Some of these tools are free, some are shareware – many are low cost. Of course, a few are expensive and only apply to facility and enterprise customers, but I’ve tried to cover a lot of bases. I routinely use or have tested many of the items on the list. There are many that I haven’t, so don’t interpret this list as any sort of endorsement on my part. It’s simply a place to start your search in making your NLE more powerful and productive.

 

This compilation is primarily FCP-centric and Mac-centric, but don’t assume that’s a given for every product here. Many of these developers also offer tools that are designed for other NLE environments. If you’re on Windows or Linux and/or don’t use FCP, just look around and see if there’s something for you.

 

I will try to keep this list current and accurate, so feel free to drop me a line if there is something particularly cool that I should add or if links change, are broken or become inactive. Thank you.

 

Plug-in Filters and Application Content for Final Cut Studio

 

Apple downloads for FCP

Apple downloads for video (general)

 

1 z 1 FCP Tools
Alex Gollner
Andy Mees
Boris FX
CGM / Eiperle CGM
CHV Electronics
Coloruser forum grades for Apple Color
CoreMelt
Digital Film Tools
Digital Heaven
Digital Zoo / Simon Kirby’s Lunchtime Pro – FCP filters and resources
DV Garage / DV Matte Pro
GenArts / Sapphire Filters
Imagineer Systems / Mocha
Joe Maller / Joe’s Filters
Luca’s Plugins
LiveType Expansion Packs
Lyric Media
Marcus Herrick
Nattress
Neat video noise reduction
Noise Industries / Fx Factory / Factory Tools
Noise Industries partners
- DVShade
- idustrial revolution
- Yanobox
- Boinx
- SUGARfx
- Futurismo

nVeil

Peter Wiggins
Phyx Bundle for Shake
Pistolera Post / Patrick Sheffield
Pure and Applied / Stib’s Filters
Red Giant Software / Magic Bullet / Trapcode / Knoll / Primatte
River Rock Studios
Sheffield Softworks / Patrick Sheffield
Synthetic Aperture
The Foundry / Keylight / Furnace
Tiffen Dfx
Tom Henderson’s Mattes
Too Much Too Soon Filters
Ultimatte

 

Applications / XML Tools / Workflow Tools

 

Apple Final Cut Server
Automatic Duck
Belle Nuit
DiGiCONFORM
Digital Heaven / Loader / AutoMotion and much more
Digital Rebellion / Preference Manger
DV Film
Edit Mule / Auto Scratch / Auto Collapse
EditGroove Software / UserMatic
FCP Rescue / Anders Holck
Glue Tools
GridIron Software / Flow
MXF4mac
Peake / Final Cut Assistant
PluralEyes Automatic Synchronization
Sebsky Tools
Smart Sound / Sonicfire Pro Scoring for FCP
Spherico
Synthetic Aperture
Square Box Systems / CatDV
The Assistant Editor – Assisted Editing / First Cuts / Finisher / Sync-N-Link
Video Toolshed
xm|Edit / Traffic
XMiL Workflow Tools

 

Encoding Applications and Utilities

 

Adobe Encore (for Blu-ray)

HandBrake

JES Deinterlacer
Innobits / BitVice / Video Purifier

Mac The Ripper

MPEG Streamclip
Sorenson Squeeze
Telestream / Episode / Flip4Mac
Video Monkey encoder (a follow-up to VisualHub)

 

Audio Applications

 

Adobe Soundbooth
Avid Digidesign Pro Tools
BIAS Sound Creative / Peak / SoundSoap / Deck
Smart Sound / Sonicfire Pro Scoring and Music

 

Productivity Solutions and Alternatives to Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop

 

Adobe’s Kuler color themes site
Apple iLife
Apple iWork
Corel Painter
Graphic Converter
NeoOffice
OmniGraffle and much more
Pixelmator

 

For RED Users

 

1 Beyond
Cineform
Clipfinder
Crimson
Imagine Products
MetaCheater
R3D Data Manager
RED’s tools
Rubber Monkey Software

 

For P2 Users

 

1 Beyond
Imagine Products
MXF4mac
Panasonic

 

For XDCAM, XDCAM-HD, XDCAM-EX Users

 

1 Beyond
Imagine Products
Sony

 

Hardware – Capture Cards, Converters and Control Surfaces

 

AJA Video
Blackmagic Design
Euphonix / Artist Series
JL Cooper Electronics
Mackie
Matrox Video
Tascam Teac Professional
Tangent Devices

Telestream / Pipeline

 

Shared Storage Solutions

 

1 Beyond / EzHDSAN
Active Storage
Apple Xsan
Avid Unity
EditShare
Facilis Technology / TerraBlock
Maxx Entertainment Digital / Final Share

 

Training / Tutorials / General Information Sites

 

Adobe-related

Adobe TV

Adobe videos
After Effects resources
After Effects tutorials
Photoshop tutorials

Photoshop tutorial 2

 

Apple-related

Apple Aperture Users Network

Apple Final Cut Studio Resources

Apple ProApps Online Help Library
Apple FCP discussion forum
Avid2FCP
Color User forum
Final Cut Pro Killer Secrets
FinalCutters
Los Angeles FCP User Group (LAFCPUG)
Larry Jordan
Ken Stone
Mac Create Apple software tutorials
Macworld forums
Xsanity

 

Avid-related

Avid tutorials

Avid community forums
FCP2Avid

24p resources

 

RED-related

Red User community

 

Software Training – Various

Classroom On Demand

Creative Cow training

Lynda
Ripple Training
Total Training

 

©2009 Oliver Peters