iCreate - UK (2021-07)

Final Cut

Pro

Developer

Apple Inc

Difficulty

Time

needed

CGI water effects add atmosphere and symmetry to a landscape

Just add water – liquify your

landscape images

How to enhance a scene with a range of water-related effects so you can be

an instant pro with your post-production edits

W

ater can change the mood of a

scene. A ripple-free lake creates a

natural mirror that adds symmetry

and tranquillity to a landscape. Sheets of driving

rain can add drama to genres, such as thrillers

and crime shows. Adding water as a post-

production visual effectgives you more control

over your footage. You don’t need to rely on a

wind-free day to create a mirror-like surface. You

can even add water to landscapes that don’t

feature a lake. Final Cut Pro has a wide selection

of water-related effects so you can shoot ‘dry for

wet’ and then turn on the taps to create a digital

deluge. Let it rain!

15

Make a splash

Add digital water effects

Shooting tips
We captured this lesson’s supplied
source footage in bonnyScotland
using an iPhone 1 2 Pro Max. Thanks
to the iPhone’ssensor-shiftoptical
image stabilisation, we were able to
pan handheld and achieve a gimbal-
smooth camera move (without the
need to stabilise the footage in Final
Cut Pro). We also used the ultra-wide
lens to include more of the landscape
in our clip.

Knowledge base

Download

available

Compound clip

After using a mask to mix

two layered clips together,

we can flatten the clips

into one layer. This

enables us to apply a new

Rain effect to both layers

at once.

Effects

We plundered the Effects panel’s

‘Stylize’ category for two of its water-

related effects. ‘Rain’ adds a digital

downpour. ‘Raindrops’ flips a layer to

create a reflection, and adds animated

splashes tothe scene.

Mask

We used a Graduated Mask

effect to blend the top half

of the upper layer with the

bottom half of the vertically

flipped lower layer. This

created a lake-like reflection.

Video Inspector

All the Effects that we apply

to a clip can be modified

in the Video Inspector. For

example, here we can increase

the amount of digital rain and

adjust Density for more impact.