How do I create a "soft edges" effect, used in wedding videos worldwide? Also, the "soft focus" effect.

Soft focus: Effects - Video Filters - Gaussian Blur. Lots of other options there. For transitions, Too Much Too Soon's free Wind Blur Cross transition is pretty popular.

Soft edges: Effects - Video Filters - Matte - Mask Shape, Mask Feather for maximum control. For a quickie, there's, well, Soft Edges under Matte. Soft Edges doesn't work if you're using Crop, keying or Composite effects on the clip.

These are really easy to find within Final Cut itself, Ed. You might want to just look in the Effects tab of the Browser and do some looking and exploring first.


www.derekmok.com

The "Vignette" filter will work perfectly. It's in FCP6 but if you have an earlier version it's also a filter in Motion.

blur just blurs. matte shpae'll just cut a hole.

these filters on there own wont really help.
it's the way that they're combined.


double a clip up on itself.
add Gaussian blur to the top clip.
adjust the blur,
& reduce the opacity of the top clip.

this is your basic "soft focus".

adjust the comp modes of the top clip for variations of the effect.

of course there are 3rd party plug ins that do this.
TMTS makes a diffusion filter.
i've used and liked Joe's Diffusion in Joe's FX.


the soft edges similarly needs combinations.

double the clip up,
put a mask shape on the top clip,
that'll cut a hole in the top clip
make the lower clip invisible (Control B) to check this - you might have to INVERT the mask shape.
add a mask feather to soften the hole.
then add some radial blur, or better yet some of the new glow effects.
that'll smear out the edges of the top clip.
turn hte lower one back on.
that;s a rough guide, but i hope you get the picture.

again there are probably plug-ins that do similar things.
check out some of the plugins here:
[www.noiseindustries.com]

[www.digitalzoo.com.au]



nick