… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #1041: New! See What You Are Missing

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Smart Conform allows you to see the portion of an image being trimmed – and adjust it.

Smart Conform is new with the 10.4.9 update, which is a quick way to reframe existing clips for the different aspect ratios of social media.

NOTE: Here’s a tutorial that covers this in detail.

However, there’s a very cool button that makes Smart Conform much easier to use. (See screen shot.)

After you trim a clip using Smart Conform, look in the top right corner of the Viewer. When you click the white button indicated by the red arrow, Final Cut displays a dimmed version of the entire image which allows you to see what will be cut from the frame.

Using the Transform > Position settings in the Video Inspector, you can adjust the X position to move the image horizontally. Or keyframe the X position if you need framing to change during playback.