Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1210)

Working with Layered Photoshop Files
You can create multilayer graphics in Adobe Photoshop for use in a composited
Final Cut Pro sequence. This allows you to create a complex arrangement of separate
graphic elements and import them as a group, with their position and layer ordering
intact. Once you import layered Photoshop files, they appear as a sequence, with each
individual layer stacked. At this point, it’s easy to manipulate each layer individually to
create sophisticated composites.
You can import multilayer Photoshop files created in any version of Photoshop, but only
Photoshop 3.0 features (such as opacity, composite modes, layer order, and layer name)
are preserved during import.
Updating Photoshop Files in Adobe Photoshop
Once a layered Photoshop file is imported, you can automatically open it in Photoshop
to make further changes by:
• Choosing View > Clip in Editor
• Control-clicking the file in the Browser or Timeline and then choosing Open in Editor
from the shortcut menu
You can make changes to any of the layers and save the file. When you return to
Final Cut Pro, those changes are updated in the corresponding multilayer sequence in
your project.
Tip: While compositing, you may need to make changes to different types of clips that
you’re using. You can select separate editing applications for three types of files: still-image,
video, and audio. For more information, see
“Choosing Settings and Preferences.”
Working with Layered Photoshop Sequences
When you import a layered Photoshop file into Final Cut Pro, all the layers of the source
Photoshop file are composited together with a sequence frame size identical to the
imported Photoshop file’s frame size.
An imported Photoshop
file becomes a sequence
in the Browser.
1210 Chapter 71 Compositing and Layering