Apple at yesterday’s Final Cut Pro X Creative Summit demonstrated several new features coming to Final Cut Pro X, its non-linear video editing software.
Experts Alex Gollner, Peter Wiggins and Richard Taylor were in attendance, tweeting out various details on some of the new capabilities in Final Cut Pro X version 10.4, coming down the pike later this year. Apple gave them a tour of the upcoming new features at its Cupertino headquarters, including an 8K timeline running on an upcoming iMac Pro.
First and foremost, the update will enable support for High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as H.265, which Apple introduced with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra. With H.265, users can create 4K and 8K videos at half the size of the H.264 codec, without degrading image quality.
Open an #4K HEVC timeline shot on an iPhone 8 and edited in iOS will open in next version of Final Cut Pro X. Today at Apple #fcpx pic.twitter.com/LLXBoVxelN
— Alex Gollner ⧜ (@Alex4D) October 28, 2017
This means that people who shoot 4K H.265 videos with their iPhone 7 or later will be able to open footage in Final Cut Pro X timelines. Moreover, Final Cut Pro users will be able to directly import timelines from iMovie for iOS, create virtual reality content (including clip orientation) and encode HDR videos.
#vr video in the next version of Final Cut Pro X #fcpx at Apple today pic.twitter.com/mTeXee1CXm
— Alex Gollner ⧜ (@Alex4D) October 27, 2017
The app will include compatibility for two different head-mounted display feeds. The new virtual reality tools will also be supported in Motion 5, Apple’s motion graphics software.
Last but not least, the forthcoming update brings support for the HDR Rec. 2020 color space, which defines 4K (3,840-by-2,160 pixels) and 8K (7,680-by-4,320) resolutions, as well as new color controls such as color wheels and a white balance picker.
For the full roundup of everything announced at the event, visit Wiggins’ FCP.co website.