Convert 360º clips in Final Cut Pro

You can mix monoscopic 360º and stereoscopic 360º clips in Final Cut Pro projects on Mac.

You can convert a monoscopic 360° clip for use in a stereoscopic 360° project. You can also convert a stereoscopic 360º clip for use in a monoscopic 360º project.

Convert a monoscopic clip to a stereoscopic clip

You can convert a monoscopic clip to an over/under stereoscopic clip. When you convert a monoscopic clip to a stereoscopic clip, it doesn’t create the perception of depth inherent in true stereoscopic clips. Instead, it projects the same image into both views.

1. Choose Final Cut Pro > Preferences> Editing, then choose Percentages from the Inspector Units pop-up menu.

2. In the browser, select the monoscopic clip you wish to convert, then choose Window > Show in Workspace > Inspector (or press Command–5) to open the Inspector.

3. Click the Info button in the Inspector, then choose Over/Under from the Stereoscopic Mode pop-up menu. After the change, the image appears with a 1:1 aspect ratio in the viewer.

4. With the clip selected in the browser, choose Clip > Open Clip to open it in the timeline. If a dialog appears asking if you want to edit the contents of the clip, click Continue.

5. In the inspector, click the Video Inspector button, hover the pointer of Transform, then click Show. Set the following Transform parameters:

   • Set Position Y to 25%.

   • Set Scale Y to 50%.

6. Option-click the clip in the timeline, then drag up to create a duplicate connected clip. If the clip contains an audio track, only copy the video portion of the clip.

7. With the connected clip selected, make sure the Transform checkbox is selected in the Video inspector. Then, hover the pointer of Transform, click Show, and set Position Y to –25%.

Convert a stereoscopic clip to a monoscopic clip

You can convert only over/under stereoscopic clips to monoscopic.

1. Choose Final Cut Pro > Preferences> Editing, then choose Percentages from the Inspector Units pop-up menu.

2. In the browser, select the stereoscopic 360° clip you wish to convert, then choose Window > Show in Workspace > Inspector (or press Command–5) to open the Inspector.

3. Click the Info button in the Inspector, then choose Monoscopic from the Stereoscopic Mode pop-up menu. After the change, the image appears with a 2:1 aspect ratio in the viewer.

4. With the clip still selected, choose Clip > Open Clip. This will open the clip’s contents in the timeline. You may see a dialog asking if you want to edit the contents of the clip. If so, click continue.

5. Click the video inspector icon. Then, in the Video inspector, hover the pointer over Transform and click Show. Set the following Transform parameters:

   • Set Position Y to -50%.

   • Set Scale Y to 200%.

6. In the Video inspector, hover the pointer over Crop, click Show, and set Bottom to 50.

Share your clip

After you've converted your clip, share it as an Apple ProRes Master File.

1. Select the clip in the browser, then choose Share > Master File.

2. On the Info tab, click the name to rename the file, change the description and the creator, and add or remove any tags.

3. Click Settings, and do the following:

   • From the "Video codec" pop-up menu, choose any Apple ProRes format.

   • From the "When done" pop-up menu, choose "Do Nothing.

4. Click Next, choose a location for the file, then click Save.

A notification appears when Final Cut Pro has successfully shared your file. You can now reimport the clip into Final Cut Pro and use it as a native clip in its new format.