When you upgrade from iMovie to Final Cut Pro,
you get a host of new tools and features.
All these new tools and features are very useful,
but some are more so than others.
The ability to add a mask to your video clip
is one of the most useful features
you don’t normally get in the free software.
Today we’re going to take a look
at using the mask tool in Final Cut Pro.
Hey guys, whats up.
My name is Serge,
and welcome back to my channel
for another Final Cut Pro tutorial.
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Now that thats done,
what exactly is a mask,
and what does it do?
Adding a mask to a video clip
adds an area of transparency
to part of the image.
When there’s no clip layered below the mask,
this area will show up as black.
When there is a clip or an image under the masked clip,
that clip will be visible
through the transparent part of the mask.
This can be used for layering clips,
highlighting parts of the video,
adding effects to only specific parts of the image and so on.
Lets take a look at the shape mask.
A shape mask allows you to quickly
create a mask in any shape
from an ellipse to a rectangle.
To apply a shape mask to your clip
open the effects browser
and scroll down to the masks category.
Select the Shape Mask,
and drag and drop it over your clip.
The area inside the mask remains the same,
and everything outside the mask becomes transparent.
Because there’s no clips under our timeline clip,
this area appears as black.
If we were to add a clip underneath,
that clip would show through
in the areas outside our mask.
Let press Command Z to undo that.
When you apply the shape mask,
it’s on screen controls appear in the viewer,
and the adjustment parameters
appear in the effects section of the inspector.
You can use either the on screen controls,
or the adjustment parameters in the inspector
to adjust the shape of your mask as needed.
Lets take a look at adjusting the mask
using the on screen controls.
To reposition your mask,
click and drag the white circle inside the mask.
Click and drag the green handle
connected to the white circle to rotate your mask.
The four green dots on the sides of the mask
are used to adjust the shapes width or height.
Clicking and dragging these
will adjust the shapes opposite sides.
You can also hold down the option key
while dragging to adjust one side only,
or, if you hold down the Shift key while dragging,
all four sides will be adjusted proportionately.
To adjust the curvature of the mask,
click and drag the white control handle
in the top left corner.
Dragging it to one extreme will give you a perfect rectangle,
while dragging it to the opposite extreme
will give you an oval, or a perfect circle.
To control the edge softness,
click and drag the outer circle.
Dragging the outer circle close to the inner circle
will give you a hard edge,
while dragging the outer circle away from the inner circle
will soften the edge,
and give you a more gradual transition.
All these controls are also available in the inspector,
along with a couple additional controls.
Selecting the Invert Mask checkbox
will reverse your mask,
making the inside transparent.
Also, clicking the covert to points button
will convert your mask shape to control points,
which we’ll talk about in one of my upcoming videos.
So, now that we know how to apply a mask,
and how to make all the adjustments,
lets see how we can use a shape mask
to highlight the subject in our clip.
First thing we need to do is duplicate our clip.
Hold down the option key
and drag up the clip to make a copy of it.
Next, apply the shape mask,
and resize it to fit the subject in the clip.
Select the bottom clip,
and in the color correction section of the inspector,
bring down the global saturation,
bring down the highlight exposure
and bump up the shadows,
just to flatten out the image a little.
Next, select the top clip again,
and bring up the global saturation a bit,
to make our subject pop.
Lets take a look at our image before,
and after.
This was just a simple example
of how to use a mask in Final Cut Pro.
Next week,
we’ll take a look at some of the more
complex masking controls,
by using the draw mask effect.
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And feel free to ask any questions
you may have in the comments below,
and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.
So, thanks for watching,
and I hope to see you back next week.