Free Training / Editing

How to Copy an Effect to Multiple Clips in Final Cut Pro

EDITING By Dylan John Dickerson June 2021 5 min read
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Good day ladies and gents. Today we're learning how to apply an effect to multiple clips in Final Cut Pro. This lets you transfer pretty much any adjustment, color grades, effects, scale, crop, retiming, from one clip to the next.

Copy the attributes over

Say you've got a clip where you did a color correction, threw on a LUT, retimed it, scaled in a bit, and added an effect for good measure. To put all of that onto another clip, press Command C on the clip that has the adjustments, select the clip you want them on, and press Command Shift V.

A window pops up titled Paste Attributes. It shows what you're copying from and what it's going onto. Anything you adjusted on the first clip shows up with a checkmark, so you can pick and choose exactly what carries over. Want all of it? Just hit paste.

That keyframe timing section: If you keyframed something like a scale-in and want it to fit the shorter length of the new clip, leave it on Stretch to Fit and the animation squeezes in proportionally. Choose Maintain and the keyframes transfer exactly as they were, which can cut the animation off if the new clip is shorter. If you're not keyframing anything, don't even worry about this section.

Do it to a whole bunch of clips at once

Same deal for a bunch of clips on the timeline. Command C to copy the clip with your adjustments, select all the clips you want them on, and paste. That simple. I know this was a bit detailed for something fairly simple, but the more you learn these processes in depth, the more you'll love editing in this software.

LEVEL UP YOUR COLOR

Knowing how to copy a grade is one thing. Knowing how to build a great one is another.

The FCP Color Grading Masterclass is the most complete course on color grading in Final Cut Pro, featured on Apple's official resources page.

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Dylan John Dickerson

Dylan John Dickerson

FCP Certified Post-Production Pro. A decade of professional editing and color, teaching 90,000+ creators on YouTube.

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