Resize Final Cut Pro Viewer - everything you need to know
This quick and easy tutorial is a request from a student to explain the options for resizing
the Viewer in Final Cut Pro.
The one Viewer will show both what is visible when you're editing as well as what will be seen in the exported video. These views can be different and confusing as to know which is which.
To know the difference is important.
This Tutorial will clear up that confusion for good.
It'll also show you some hidden tips along the way.
I'll also explain what that little red square is, that sometimes appears in the viewer.
For this exercise I’m using a 1920x1080, 30 frames per second project, and that's a rectangle shape.
If you take nothing more away from this video.
That is to realize the most important thing is to be sure you know what's being exported. That's everything within the rectangle in the Viewer will be seen in the exported video.
For clarity, I'm going to call that the "Export rectangle" so you know what I'm talking about.
So to be absolutely sure - it's the area within the blue dots.
In the normal "Fit" view you see just the "Export rectangle" without any outside area being shown.
To show that outer area you can change the size of what you see in the viewer.
Think of that outside area as the canvas on an artist's easel. The painting's on the canvas and the outer area is where the artist attaches notes etc.
In Final Cut that outer area is black. So for clarity here I'm going to call that the "Palette"
Here's the view with the Palette showing.
And it's hard to see between the two blacks which is which.
But you'll see in a minute a much clearer view.
Next, this is how it looks with the clip in the timeline with the blue dots showing.
So how do you show the Palette? Select the % in the top right of the viewer. It'll most likely be ticked as Fit. Which means that the outer area will not be visible as the whole
"Export rectangle" fits exactly in the viewer.
I guess you maybe asking by now Why would you want to see the palette anyway?
The answer to that is: if you want to zoom into part of the image and see just a part, then you need to be able to change that size.
If you want to increase the size of the image to be exported you need to use the blue corner dots to resize.
When in the Fit view it's hard to see those corner dots, because they're right at the edge of the Viewer.
Also in Fit view you don't see outside the "Export rectangle".
So right-click in the Viewer and select Transform.
When you reduce the size of the Viewer those dots are much more obvious and easy to select.
Also note that if the Layer button is selected you can see what is outside
the "Export rectangle" as well as what's inside it.
Now let's see what the different dots do.
To resize an image always use a corner dot. When you drag out you zoom into an image, when you drag in you show the clip in the layer below.
The whole image is resized from the center point.
A really good tip to be able to resize just one side of the export rectangle - hold the Option key while you drag one of the corner dots. The opposite corner stays in place.
At any time you can reposition the image by dragging inside the dots.
And be careful with the center dot is that rotates the image.
The edge dots reshape the image, and all of these actions can also be done in the inspector,
as well as using the curly arrow to reset the im