Final Cut Pro 6 includes a video filter called Outer Glow. You may already know this filter, as it is also available in Motion 2. In Final Cut Studio 2, the Outer Glow filter is available in both applications, but in some cases, its behavior is slightly different in Final Cut Pro since it's in Motion.

The Outer Glow filter adds a glow to the outer boundary of an object with an alpha channel. For example, if you add Outer Glow to text in Motion or Final Cut Pro, the text will have the glow applied to its edges, giving the impression of a glowing character outline.

Problem

If you add the Outer Glow filter to a video clip (or still image), there may be a difference in effect between what you can see in Final Cut Pro and what you see in Motion:

  • In Motion, the glow will be applied to the ends of the clip, significantly extending the size of the object from the glow's radius to each end.
  • In Final Cut Pro, the edges of a clip describe its total visible area. If you apply the Outer Glow filter to a clip that has no alpha channel, there will be no visible change because Final Cut Pro does not show anything beyond the edges of a clip.

Solution

You can achieve the same effect in Final Cut Pro as you can in Motion with embedding. The following steps describe one way to apply the Outer Glow filter to the edges of a clip in Final Cut Pro:

  1. Add a clip to the Timeline.
  2. Double-click this clip in the Timeline.
  3. Use the wireframe handles in the Canvas (or the Scale parameter in the Viewer) to scale the clip down to the desired size.
  4. Select Sequence > Nest item(s).
  5. Select OK in the Nest item(s) window that appears.
  6. Click on the new nested sequence in the Timeline to select it.
  7. Select Effects > Video Filters > Glow > Outer Glow.

You should now see the effect applied to the edges of the embedded clip.