Final Cut Pro is a very powerful video editing program, one of the best on the market today. Editors from every walk of life use Final Cut to create home movies, wedding videos, and even Hollywood blockbusters. It’s one of the go-to video editors for basically everybody who wants to make their videos look great.
The Final Cut community is huge, too. Thousands of users are busy developing incredible plugins and making them available to users around the world. There’s always a plugin out there to help you do what you want to do in this program.
Final Cut plugins can revolutionize your editing workflow and make your projects easier and faster to handle. Take advantage of the wealth of plugins that are out there to make your work easier and more visually appealing. Here are some of our favorite free and paid Final Cut Pro plugins:
Photo by Matthew Sichkaruk on Unsplash
1. XEffects Matrix (Free)
If you’re a fan of the Matrix film series, you know all about this effect. XEffects Matrix is a free Final Cut Pro plugin that creates Matrix-style cascading text for your videos. Just type your text and you’re on your way to creating Matrix-style videos. Change the text color, density of characters, speed, direction, and more to get the exact effect you want for your video.
2. mVeritgo (Free)
These days, swooping shots and interesting effects are essential to get your video noticed. mVertigo provides you with a handful of cool effects to add to your videos. Add dolly effects, depth effects, warp effects, and more with one easy-to-use plugin, for free! These settings can make your video look incredible and professional with the click of just a few buttons.
3. Track X (Paid)
It doesn’t have to be hard to track an object within your video. Track X can quickly and easily help you track an effect on an object as it moves across the screen. Add text, light effects, or other items to your video that move with an object anywhere it goes. No more stress over the exact placement of an effect and ensuring it moves correctly–just let the plugin do all of the work for you!
4. Alex4D 360 (Paid and Free)
Alex4D makes some incredible plugins for Final Cut Pro. Their 360 plugin is a set of many different plugins, including 3 free ones that anyone can use. This plugin package makes it easy to edit and manipulate 360 videos in every way you could imagine. Adjust highlights, enlarge footage, stylize video, blur areas of the screen, and more with this powerful set of plugins.
5. DBV Denoise (Free)
Death By Vlog creates some great paid and free Final Cut Pro plugins, and their Denoise plugin is one of their best freebies. It can be annoying to clean up a ‘noisy’ video that was shot in low light or with a bad camera. Fortunately, Denoise can help clean up the footage and sharpen things up. This can be invaluable when you have ‘noisy’ footage that can’t be reshot and needs to be fixed in post.
6. mVertical (Free)
We’ve all seen vertical videos with a blurred video or image on either side. Well, Final Cut Pro has a convenient plugin to create just that effect. mVertical allows you to use any video or image, including your project video, as the sidebar imagery for a vertical video. The plugin also provides a ton of setting options, including level or blur, special effects, and more, all for free.
7. XEffects Video Conference (Free)
We’re all very familiar with the video conference world now, but did you know that you can create videos that make your project look like a video conference? XEffects Video Conference allows you to create a 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 grid of videos, just like a regular conference call. Add any type of video to your project to make a very cool effect.
8. DBV Censor (Free)
Who said censorship has to be boring? Final Cut Pro offers a basic censorship video blur, but it doesn’t allow for much customization of the censored area. DBV Censor offers you a wide array of settings to make your censored imagery more interesting. Add special effects that make your censored videos look unique and maybe more entertaining.
9. Loudness Meter (Free and Paid)
Nobody wants to lose their hearing due to a blaring piece of video, but they also don’t want to crank up the volume to hear what’s going on. Loudness Meter makes it easy to control varying audio levels. This free plugin offers a wealth of convenient tools to ensure your volume adjusts perfectly just as you want it. Get more audio manipulation features by purchasing the paid version of this plugin.
10. mFilmLook (Paid)
We all want to create Hollywood-level, high-quality videos, but it can be tough to do without a little help from some great plugins. mFilmLook is a unique paid plugin that offers a lot of help. This plugin package offers 60+ presets that can make your movie look as professional as possible. With these adjustable settings, you can change the look of your projects forever.
11. Bonus: DataPop (Free)
Not every video project is meant to be seen as a movie or TV show. Sometimes, you’ll find yourself making videos that need to be informative, and you’ll need a way to display data in a visually interesting way. That’s where DataPop comes in. This free plugin makes it easy to display pie charts, ring charts, and bar charts in visually appealing ways. Add your data and manipulate your charts to make them interesting and easy to understand for the viewer.
Photo by James McKinven on Unsplash
Final Cut Pro is a powerful editing system all on its own, but plugins can really make your workflow much easier and more professional. With the right combination of paid and free plugins, you can unleash all of your creative chops and blow away your viewers.
Take your video editing abilities to a whole new level with any of these Final Cut Pro plugins. With a bit of practice, your projects could look Hollywood-perfect in no time.
