Introduction

When Apple released Final Cut Pro X, they let a few apps fall by the wayside, namely DVD Studio Pro, Color, and Soundtrack Pro. Once part of the entire Final Cut Studio suite, these apps were cut from the lineup to the chagrin of many long-time users, despite many (but not all) of their features being integrated into FCPX itself. Two applications that luckily survived the chopping block were Motion and Compressor.

Motion is high-end motion graphics software from Apple that gives users advanced compositing tools as well as the ability to create fantastic animated type and manipulate objects in a 3D space. Priced at $49.99 on the Mac App Store, this is one of the greatest priced software deals of all time, and that's not an exaggeration.

Compressor is compression (duh) software from Apple, allowing users to convert batches of videos into a wide variety of formats with a large palette of tinkering options to make sure you attain the exact level of quality and file size you want.

These two applications function perfectly fine on their own and are not required along with FCPX, but if you really want to harness the full capabilities of FCPX, these are fantastic extras to consider acquiring. This chapter will show just a tiny sample of what Motion and Compressor are capable of in conjunction with FCPX.