The purpose of a matte, or a mask, is to hide something in one clip so you can see something else in another clip.

From chroma-keys, to garbage mattes, to traveling mattes, to a variety of different masks, this session gives you a lot of different ways to hide the ugly to let the beautiful shine through!

In this tutorial, we demo eleven different ways to use masks, with a lot of other effects goodies thrown in. Each of these is presented in step-by-step order, so you can use your media to create these effects on your own system. Best of all, every one of these, except one, work on Final Cut Pro 5, 6, or 7. (The exception is the chroma-key example, which is FCP 7 only.)

Audience Level
This session assumes you have a basic familiarity with the Final Cut Pro interface, and know how to apply an effect. Everything else you need to know, you'll learn in this tutorial

Content Outline
 • Define Mask and Matte
 • Define the three different types of keys in Final Cut Pro
 • Illustrate basic filter effect techniques
 • Explain when NOT to use some of these filters
 • Explain the difference between a bold and non-bold filter name
 • Provide step-by-step instructions on how to create a wide variety of masks and filter effects
 • DEMO: Create a Luma key
 • DEMO: Create an Alpha key
 • DEMO: Create a Chroma key
 • DEMO: Illustrate how to display the alpha channel in a clip
 • DEMO: Show a better way to size and position text
 • DEMO: Show how to use Matte Choker and Matte Magic
 • DEMO: Create a Traveling Matte
 • DEMO: Show how, and why, to create a nest
 • DEMO: Show how to extract an alpha channel from a clip
 • DEMO: Show how to create a garbage matte
 • DEMO: Show how and when to use Image Mask
 • DEMO: Show how to combine Mask Shape with Matte Feather to hide logos or faces
 • DEMO: Show how to create a vignette quickly using Soft Edges
 • DEMO: Show how to convert 4:3 footage into Widescreen, while still able to reposition the image in the frame