Tutorials & Support

Quit Final Cut Pro completely and reopen it. Effects load at launch, so a restart after installing fixes this almost every time. Look under the ✨ FCP Academy category in the Effects browser.

Detect Skin works off the skin tones in your shot, so objects with very similar colors can get picked up. Open the Advanced Selection section to tighten what's included, and remember the adjustments follow the mask: white is what's affected, black is what's not. Generally, you want skin to show up as white in the mask. Please watch the Tricky Shots video above for tips on fixing stubborn masks.

Yes, that works. One thing to know though: Detect Skin analyzes what's under the clip, so an adjustment clip only makes sense when the shots underneath it match. If the lighting, color casts, or skin tones change from shot to shot, one detection can't fit them all, and re-running Detect Skin changes the mask for everything under that clip. For sections like that, cut the adjustment clip up so each piece sits over similar shots, or just apply PoreFect to those clips individually.

One hard rule: if you shoot log, PoreFect goes after your Rec 709 conversion LUT. Detect Skin reads the skin tones in the image, and log footage isn't showing real skin tones yet. Beyond that, it's flexible. For most color grades, applying PoreFect after the grade works great. If you're building a very stylized look that pushes skin tones hard, apply PoreFect before the grade so the detection gets to work on more natural looking skin.

Two groups. The Tone Anchors tell PoreFect what skin looks like in your shot. The Mask Refinement sliders clean up the edges. In plain English:

Highlight Tone is the skin color on the bright side of the face. Detect Skin picks it for you, or click the eyedropper and pick it yourself.
Shadow Tone is the skin color on the dark side of the face, so the whole face gets picked up, not just the lit half.
Tonal Black Point is the darkness cutoff. Anything darker than this gets left alone.
Tonal White Point is the brightness point where smoothing hits full strength.
Tonal Curve is how quickly smoothing fades in between those two points: a hard switch or a gentle blend.

Focus Priority keeps blurry background faces out of the selection so only your in-focus subject gets smoothed.
Mask Range is how picky the selection is. Wider fills in gaps, narrower keeps hair and backgrounds out.
Mask Blur softens the edge of the selection so you never see where the smoothing stops.

Most shots only ever need the two tone pickers. The Tricky Shots video above shows them in action.

Turn off Full Quality Playback while you edit. That keeps the timeline responsive, and you flip it back on before export so the final render uses full quality. Also, in the top right of the viewer, click View, go to Quality, and switch it to Better Performance. That helps timeline playback across the board.

Your download link is in the purchase email from Payhip. Search your inbox for "PoreFect" or "Payhip". That email is also your proof of purchase, so keep it around.

Yes. PoreFect is a one-time purchase and it's yours. Grab your download from the Payhip email and run the installer on the new machine.

PoreFect works in Final Cut Pro (Creator Studio or the lifetime version) and Apple Motion, on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs. It runs 100% on your Mac. No cloud, no uploads.

PoreFect is a digital download, so like my other digital products, sales are final once it's delivered. That said, if something is broken, you can't get it installed, or the download won't work, email me and I'll make sure you get what you paid for. The full policy is at fcpacademy.com/refund-policy.