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Tip #585: Hide Jump Cuts with Flow

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #585: Hide Jump Cuts with Flow

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

For best results, don’t change the duration of the transition.

The Flow transition is located in the Dissolves category.

Topic $TipTopic

The best way to hide a jump cut is using B-roll or a cutaway. However, when you don’t have those options, the Flow transition in Final Cut can bail you out of a tricky situation. Here’s how.

The Flow transition is relatively new in Final Cut. What it does is use Optical Flow technology to create new frames that blend the Out of the out-going clip into the In of the in-coming clip.

In doing so, it converts a jarring jump cut into a fast, smooth, 6-frame dissolve.

To apply, drag Flow from Transitions > Dissolves onto the edit point containing the jump cut.

EXTRA CREDIT

According to the Final Cut Pro X Help:

  • Use the Flow transition with the default duration only. Any other duration will generate unexpected results.
  • The Flow transition duration is always set at 6 frames regardless of the duration set in the Editing pane of Final Cut Pro preferences.
  • The Flow transition is disabled (treated as a standard dissolve) when you apply it to a generator or still image.

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6 replies
  1. Ron Braxley
    Ron Braxley says:

    Thanks for this tip–I was not aware of the flow transition. I’m cutting together a piece of homemade socially distant footage for a project and found flow to be useful to trim out a couple of stumbles. It worked surprisingly well, creating near-seamless footage with no appearance of a jump cut. (Of course, jump cuts seem to be all the rage these days, to my dismay.)

    Reply
  2. Carsten
    Carsten says:

    An alternative to the flow transition is a plugin called mMorphCut from motionvfx. In my experience it often gave me better and smoother results then the integrated flow transition of FCPX.

    Reply
  3. Mike Southon
    Mike Southon says:

    hi- whatever Apple say I do play with duration to achieve best results with flow. I always detach sound from the clip too as that allows one to slip back or forward a frame or more to achieve a smoother better match between the two sections – I also export the joined halves at whatever codec etc the project is eg. pro res 422hq then re import and sit it on top of the original footage a.to check the flow and b.to save on render times when exporting the completed project – mike southon bsc

    Reply
    • Larry Jordan
      Larry Jordan says:

      Mike:

      Just as a note, if you export the same size and codec as your project, FCP X will use existing render files. It only re-renders that which is different.

      Larry

      Reply
      • Mike Southon
        Mike Southon says:

        hi again
        thnx Larry you are right( as always) however the 100 minute project i am finishing now is going to an external post house for grading so there’s security in providing a finished ungraded qt morph ( of which there are quite a lot) rather than asking them to remake it- time v money etc …….
        mike

        Reply

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