Final Cut Pro is all about the video, but sometimes you need to work with stills as well. You can create a still image from any frame of video in Final Cut. You can use this technique to create a variety of effects, enhance transitions and many other possibilities. Let’s check it out.
How To Make A Freeze Frame
- Position your playhead at the frame you would like to turn into a still. You can do this in the Viewer, the Canvas, or the Timeline.
- Go to Modify > Make Freeze Frame OR use the keyboard shortcut Shift + N.
- Your freeze frame will show up in the viewer window with a default duration of 10 seconds. You can change this default under the Final Cut Pro > User Preferences > Editing menu.
- Now you can click and drag the still into your timeline and it will behave the same way as any other image you import.
- You can also click and drag the image into the browser and it will create a new image clip that behaves like a regular imported image.
Uses for Freeze Frames
- Freeze framing action. If you create a still frame and then put it into the timeline at the exact frame it was created, it will look like the action freezes. You can then make the clip start again at the following frame so the video will play, pause on a frame for however long, and then continue to play. You see this a lot in action movies where they will stop the action for a voice over or something before it continues on.
- Visual Effects. I’m not going to get into great detail, but you can use the freeze frame to create a variety of effects. For example, I could make a freeze frame of a shot that has a desk in it, then use the mask tool to “cut” out the desk and place that on top of another shot. Basically taking the desk from one shot and adding it to another.
- Exporting to Photoshop. You can send your still images to Adobe Photoshop
to create even more complex and interesting effects. First you have to specify Photoshop as your external editor under the System Settings. Then you can just right (or control) click the still file from the browser and click Open In Editor.
If you have any more tips or tricks for Freeze Frames, let us know in the comments!
Loading ...