This easy workaround allows you to turn your image sequences into playable video clips within FCPX.
FCPX editors working with image sequences will often opt to convert their still images to a video clip in a third party application such as Adobe After Effects. After all, After Effects (like most other compositing or motion graphics software) was designed to function with an image-sequence-based workflow. But not every FCPX editor owns After Effects — and even those that do may not want to unnecessarily leave their editing software if they don’t absolutely need to.
For those of you who like to shoot timelapses, work with VFX files, or shoot on a camera that records to an image sequence format, this easy workaround will save you valuable time in the editing room.
The process itself is very simple, and is centered around these steps:
- In your FCPX preferences/settings, change the default still frame duration to 1 frame.
- Import all of your still image files into FCPX.
- Create a new project and drag all of your still images into the timeline.
- ‘Select All’ so that every image in the timeline is selected.
- Right click and select ‘Make Compound Clip’.
- Use your new compound clip as a video file in any regular project.
Before: a bunch of images
After: a video! Amazing!
This is only one of the many ways that compound clips make FCPX an extremely versatile tool. By simply lining up all of your still images on a timeline and ensuring their duration is set to one frame each, you can effectively bypass the unnecessary step of having to convert your sequence to a video clip by using After Effects.
Hopefully in the future, Apple will support basic image sequences natively… but for now, this workaround is an easy option that works every time.