Hey guys, what’s up.
My name is Serge, and in this video,
we’re taking a look at how to use the FCPX Distortion plugin
from Pixel Film Studios.
This plugin allows you to easily add
various distortion overlays to your media within Final Cut Pro,
featuring a variety of distortion titles and effects
you simply drag and drop and get instant results.
Let’s jump into Final Cut Pro
and take a look at how to use FCPX Distortion.
After installing this plugin,
you’ll find all the included presets in both the titles and generator browser,
as well as in the effects browser.
First, lets take a look at the Titles and Generators browser.
Here you get 18 overlay effects,
3 grid warp effects and two pulse effects.
Everything you see here comes as an adjustment layer,
so to apply it to your project, you just place it over your clip,
and everything under it is effected.
They overlay effects you get with this plugin are fairly straightforward.
Skim over any of the presets to preview what the effect looks like,
and once you find the one you like, add it above your clip.
Fine tune the preset in the video inspector,
and since this a is fairly resource heavy plugin,
render out your clip.
In just a couple easy steps,
we have this cool distortion effect.
Let’s take a look at another example,
and this time, use one of the pulse presets
to add a little bit of life to this next clip.
Select the preset you want to use,
and add it above your timeline.
Move your playhead to the start of the clip,
select it and head up to the video inspector.
First thing we want to do is track the speaker in this clip,
and have the effect move with it.
Make sure track mode is selected,
and click the Track Editor button to open it up in a separate window.
Move the tracking square one the part you want to track,
and adjust the shape and size.
Click the Track Forward button to track your clip.
When your track is finished,
click the Export Date button,
and close the tracker window.
Next, let’s add a mask to this preset
to set the origin point for this effect.
Switch to Mask Edit Mode,
scroll down to mask controls,
and click the Clear Mask Data button to delete the default mask.
Add control points in the viewer window to make your own mask.
Click the first control point to close the mask.
We’re now ready to adjust out distortion effects.
Go back up to the top of the inspector window,
and switch to Offset Transform Mode.
In Shape controls, for our example,
let’s pick a circle shape,
and bring up the blur amount.
Next, you can either use the on screen controls,
or the Offset Transform Controls in the inspector,
to adjust the position, scale and direction of this effect.
Move your playhead a few frames into the clip,
until you see white circles coming off the inside of the mask,
and use the Offset Transform Controls
to adjust the size and direction of this effect.
For more precise adjustments,
hold down the Option key while dragging
to adjust in smaller increments.
Use the Distortion controls to adjust the Refraction,
Softness and the Strength of this effect.
Under this, we have the Emission Controls.
I’ll bring down the Birth Rate to about 4,
drop the Life of this effect to dissolve it faster,
and bring down the Speed.
To see what this looks like,
switch to display mode,
and give your clip a few seconds to render out.
Before we move onto the next effect,
I want to take a minute to talk about the sponsor of this video,
Pixel Film Studios.
Besides making a ton of plugins for Final Cut Pro,
Pixel Film Studios is also a great resource for training.
Their youtube channel features a playlist
of over 200 free Final Cut Pro tutorials,
and includes everything from importing your media,
to your final export, and everything in between.
This comprehensive playlist is featured
on the official Final Cut Pro web page,
and is completely free.
I’ll have it linked in the video description below,
check it out.
Now, back to Final Cut Pro.
For our next demo,
let’s tale a look at the stretch effect.
Grab this effect from your effects browser,
and drag and pro pit over your clip.
Up in the inspector, select the Stretch Direction,
and use the on screen controls to place this effect in your frame.
Adjust the amount of stretch with the Amount slider.
You can also keyframe all these controls,
so for clips like mine,
I can keyframe and manually track the motion in my clip.
I’ll let my clip render out,
and here’s my finished effect.
The FCPX Distortion plugin comes with over 40 included distortion presets,
and it is M1 compatible.
If this is something you might be interested in,
during checkout, use the coupon code SERGEPIXEL
for 30 percent off your purchase,
limited to the first 500 users.
Thanks for watching,
and I’ll see you back here next week.