More than a decade after the launch of Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s video editing software is taking a step forward. The app is now being updated to Final Cut Pro 11, after dropping the number in its name for the past few years. The update includes new AI masking tools, the ability to generate captions directly in your timeline, spatial video editing features, and a set of workflow improvements. The new version is free for existing users and a $299 one-time purchase for new users. Final Cut Pro for iPad and Final Cut Camera are also getting some updates today, too.
I’ve spent the last week testing out these new features, and many of them are great improvements. I’ve been particularly impressed by the speed and accuracy of one new feature coming to the desktop: Magnetic Mask. With one click, you can easily isolate a subject, like a person, from the background and apply different color adjustments to that part of the footage.
I tested Magnetic Mask in various scenarios, like static talking head videos and fast-moving snowboarding footage. In each scenario, Final Cut Pro did a very good job of isolating the subjects. But don’t expect a pixel-perfect mask each time. I still had to jump in and do a few smaller adjustments to help it out. You can either manually fine-tune your mask with a brush or add or remove tracking points and let Final Cut Pro analyze the footage.
I was impressed by the speed of the whole process. Granted, these were fairly short clips (about 45 seconds each), but each mask took less than a minute on my four-year-old 10-core M1 Pro MacBook Pro — a lot less time than the tedious and exhausting process of manually rotoscoping in After Effects.
