Magic Bullet Effects for FCP HD

[spinner]

Spinner, sorry for hijacking your thread.

Doug

.....as I was saying....

I think that maybe I've been getting ahead of myself. I don't know yet what the effects already built into FCP can fully accomplish. And as I've said, I don't really want to do special effects in the way most people think of "special effects". I am really just looking to enhance my work with a low margin of cheesy effects, not turn it into "The Matrix"......though some of those effects are really cool...

I guess I have some reading to do....

-- spinner

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

Spinner,
There are lots of things you can do to enhance the look of your video, that do not involve any special filters. Try layering a copy of a clip, over itself, setting the composite mode to "screen", adding a gaussian blur to it and adjusting it's opacity to around 25%. You may want to play with the blur settings and opacity, but that will give you a soft light effect that can dampen some of the harshness in a contrasty clip ... for example.
I think you could spend years editing and not run out of things to learn; from how to achieve certain looks, to workflow improvements that make your life easier.

Doug