"Fit" option on images not working, forcing a "fill" instead

This specific size is automatically interpreted by FCP X as 720p anamorphic, so it is stretched. If the image is one pixel wider or narrower, it is not stretched.

There are a few possible workarounds, including

1) change the image size in a graphics program (add or remove a pixel in width, or add transparent "sides" to fill the 1080 width), or

2) use the distort parameters in FCP X to shrink the width after the fact

AFAICT there is no way to turn this off. I guess this is because FCP X is a video program, and this is a standard anamorphic video size, but I agree that a preference setting would make sense.

The first thing you should do is use feedback to make a feature request: Final Cut Pro->Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback...

Jozef K. wrote:

Thanks for the reply Luis, but how can I get it to stop interpreting it this way? I am absolutely not loading 500+ images into a different program to remove a pixel of width and I already addressed your other suggestion.

I don't know what you mean by the last phrase above. Maybe you did not fully understand my "other suggestion".

While not ideal, this provides a way to fix the problem. I agree that a preference setting or a toggle for anamorphic would be much better.

But since that does not seem possible in the current version, we have to resort to some workaround.

My idea is to create a "DeStretch" effect:

1) Fix one image this way: EDIT - It should be 160 and -160 in the picture instead of 180 and -180.

2) Click the "Save Effects Preset" button and create the "DeStretch" effect.

3) Apply it to as many images as you need by selecting them in the timeline and double-clicking the effect in the Efffects Browser.

All in all a pretty painless workaround, I would say.

Your Powerpoint people are doing something wrong, maybe, but I don't now much about PP except that I must rework 95% of every show I got from POP people. It's a given at our shop; engineers are terrible press designers and they are worse at understanding why their slides need to be recreated before they can go to video.

You could run a batch process easily enough in Photoshop, maybe even in Compressor, on a thousand images with just a few clicks.

I hope it's possible to turn off this feature that annoys you so much, that would certainly be easier and, as you say, make FCPX more professional for you.

Someone else may have a better solution for you in a few days.

If I'm understanding the issue correctly, here's a possible solution, something we used to do back in the olden days of Media 100, which had only two video tracks.

You might be able to bring all of your slides into a timeline, scale the whole project the way you need it, and export that timeline as a self-contained movie. Reimport your movie and just blade it up into the pieces you need.

A silly workaround, true, but we used to do this stuff all the time to get mourned the limitation of our ancient editing platform. Media 100 much later had a "send to After Effects" option via Automatic Duck that would return a placeholder from AE. It was a live subscribe and publish link.

David Bogie Chq-1 wrote:

Your Powerpoint people are doing something wrong, maybe, but I don't now much about PP except that I must rework 95% of every show I got from POP people. It's a given at our shop; engineers are terrible press designers and they are worse at understanding why their slides need to be recreated before they can go to video.

You could run a batch process easily enough in Photoshop, maybe even in Compressor, on a thousand images with just a few clicks.

With Pixelmator installed one can create a trivially simple Automator service that "fixes" the images - by actually padding them with transparent rectangles on the sides. Then it is only a matter of selecting the files in Finder, control-clicking and choosing the service.

(OS X already provides similar automator actions as Pixelmator's, but AFAICT they lack the transparent background option)

Jozef K. wrote:

I have just been pretty frustrated with Final Cut X several times in the last few months. I keep running into these either large or at least annoying problems that just have no solutions, and I don't understand how so much was lost from FC7 when oppositely some features like synchronizing my video to audio clips is an incredible improvement.

That's an issue we have all dealt with: FCPX is not FCP7 version 10, it's an entirely new application with a new design and n editing metaphor that leaves the old timeline trampled in the dust like a used cigarette butt. I struggled for several months with FCPX and now I can't imagine using the old platform--and Premiere gives me the creeps. My partner at my shop has been using FCPX far longer than I have so I'm always asking the kid for help.

I would not have thought I'd ever say this a few months ago but I believe you will enjoy using FCPX after you've disposed of your preconceptions. This is not easy to do.