When there are certain boring but necessary parts in your video, you need to speed them up. Similarly, you may need to reduce the duration of the entire video. Speeding up the video is your only option when you do not want to cut any part. You must have also observed that certain videos look funny when you speed them up. To speed up videos, you will need a video editor that does not degrade the video quality.
Final Cut Pro is a popular choice to speed up video without distorting the pitch. Many think that the video quality can degrade when they change the speed of the video clip. This concern can be taken care of when you alter the video speed with Final Cut Pro. Instead of changing the speed of the entire video, you can change the speed of specific parts. We will illustrate how to speed up the video using Final Cut Pro and suggest a better choice than FCP.
In this article
Part I. Speed Up Video using Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro by Apple is one of Mac users' most popular video editors. Many video creators purchase MacBooks for editing their videos in Final Cut Pro. The video editor is suitable for beginners as well as professionals. FCP, as a video editor, is super fast in rendering and processing video while exporting. Here are the steps for the Final Cut Pro speed-up clip.
Step1 Open FCP. Navigate to File>New> and tap Project to start a new project.
Step2 Go to File>Import> Media and fetch your video clip. After that, drag/drop the video clip into the timeline.
Step3 Choose the video clip from the timeline. Click on the Speedometer(Retime) icon at the top of the timeline.
Step4 Tap the Speedometer icon, to get the drop-drop menu. For the Final Cut Pro speed-up video, go to Fast and select the speed. You get to choose from 2X to 20X.
If you want to customize the speed-up rate, you can click on the Custom option. Enter any desired percentage speed.
Step5 Now, play the video.
Part II. Tips for Speeding Up Video in Final Cut Pro
You have to keep a few points in mind when you speed up videos in Final Cut Pro. This ensures that the video does not get distorted while speeding up a section. Here are some tips to follow to speed up the video in FCP.
Adjust The Pitch of Sped-Up Clips -
By default, Final Cut Pro preserves the pitch of the audio even when you change the speed of the video. However, you may want to change the pitch per the video's speed. This is because you might want to make the audio sound funny. You need to turn off the Preserve Pitch option from Retime menu. Once you do that, the pitch of the sped-up clip adjusts itself as per the change in speed.
Speeding Up Video by Adjusting Frame Rate -
You can shoot at a low frame rate for the scene you want to speed up. The frame rate should be lower than the overall video project's frame rate.
You can add the scene to your video project on the timeline. Then you need to choose Automatic Speed from Retime menu. This will increase the frame rate from the scene to the video project frame rate. Once the frame rate increases, the video will speed up automatically.
Smoothen Out the Sped-Up Video -
Sometimes, the overall video may look old when you speed up a particular portion. That is why there are two options available on Final Cut Pro. The first option is frame blending which is more suitable for the slow-motion clip.
The second option is the optical flow that smoothens out the sped-up clip. It adds in-between frames by analyzing the directional movement of pixels. You can find the option from Video Quality present in the Retime menu.
Part III. The Right Final Cut Pro Alternative for Changing Speed - Filmora
Final Cut Pro has a steep learning curve. Unless you have some experience in video editing, you will find the user interface slightly complicated. Besides, Final Cut Pro is only available for Mac users since it is an Apple product.
Many people look for a Final Cut Pro alternative to change the speed of the video. Wondershare Filmora is the best choice over Final Cut Pro to change the speed of video Final Cut Pro.
Wondershare Filmora is a professional video editor that is available for Windows and Mac users. The video editor is suitable for beginners as well as experienced video creators. The popularity of Filmora is due to its super intuitive user interface. You get almost all the features of FCP in Filmora.
In comparison, there are more video effects, elements, and stock media files available to enhance your videos. You get the latest effects from time to time so that you can have the trending elements in the video, you can also save the edited video in different video file formats as per your requirements, and even record video through a webcam and capture the screen using Filmora.
Several AI effects, stickers, and elements are available to enhance your videos. Most users find it easier to edit videos on Filmora over Final Cut Pro.
How to Change Video Speed in Filmora?
Changing video speed in Filmora is super easy. You can speed up your video as per your requirements in a number of ways. That is why Filmora happens to be a better option than Final Cut Pro. We will illustrate all the different methods to change video speed in Filmora.
You can watch this video to understand how to change video speed in Filmora.
Method 1. The Simplest Way - Click "2x-100x" Speed Options
Just like Final Cut Pro, you can choose from preset speed options to change video speed. This is undoubtedly the easiest way to change video speed instantly. While Final Cut Pro offers 2X to 20X speed options, Filmora has 2X to 100X speed presets. Here are the steps to speed up video by choosing a preset speed option.
Step1 Download, install and simply Launch Filmora. Tap Create New Project option.
Step2 Go to File> Import Media> Import Media Files and choose the video file. The selected video will be imported into the Project Media folder. Alternatively, you can also use the drag/drop function.
Step3 Drag and drop the video file onto the timeline. Select the video clip from the timeline and click on the Speed (timer icon) option at the top of the timeline. If you want to speed up a portion of the video, you need to split the video clip.
Step4 From the menu, go to Fast and select any speed option as per your requirements. Thereafter, play the video to see the changes.
Step5 Press Export to save the video file in your desired file format.
Method 2. Use Uniform Speed to Change Speed
If you want to customize the video speed uniformly, there is a dedicated option called Uniform Speed in Filmora. This means you do not want to choose from the preset speed options. You may want to set the speed of the video to 3X, but it is not available in the preset options.
That is where Uniform Speed comes in handy, and you can set any speed from 0.01X to 100X. Here are the steps to follow.
Step1 Once you have dropped the video file onto the timeline, click on the Speed(timer) icon.
Step2 Click on the Uniform Speed option. This will open the Uniform Speed tab above the timeline.
Step3 Adjust the speed slider to set the desired speed as per your requirements. The duration will change as per the speed you set, and you can set the duration below the speed slider. Just like Final Cut Pro, you can turn on Ripple and Audio Pitch as per your preference.
Step4 Once you are satisfied with the speed, click on the Ok button. Thereafter, tap Export to save the edited video file.
Method 3. Use Speed Ramping to Change Speed
There is a unique way to change your video speed called speed ramping. You can speed up some parts and slow down the other parts, like crests and troughs in a graph.
The speed ramping feature comes with several graphical presets. You can choose from the presets and customize the speed as per your requirements. Check the steps to use speed ramping to change your video speed.
Step1 Drag and drop the video file onto the timeline. Click on the Speed(timer) icon at the top of the timeline.
Step2 Click on Speed Ramping option. This will open Speed Ramping above the timeline.
Step3 Select from the available preset as per your requirements. Otherwise, you can select Customize option and edit the nodes as needed.
Step4 Once satisfied with the result, click on the Ok button. Finally, tap Export
Conclusion
There are some videos where you may have to speed up certain parts. In detail, we have illustrated how to speed up the video in Final Cut Pro. However, if you do not have Final Cut Pro or are unsatisfied with FCP, Wondershare Filmora is a great choice. Most importantly, the steps for all the different methods are very simple for everyone to follow.
