In this article, we look at the best places to find free plugins for Final Cut Pro and give your edit a little boost!
Apple’s Final Cut Pro X comes pre-bundled with many cool features. From useful editing elements and transitions to generators and filters.
There are times, however, when you need something more creative or specific to a project. If creating transitions and graphics is beyond your skills, you’re in luck as this is where free FCPX plugins can help.
There’s an entire community of companies and individual experts producing plugins for Final Cut Pro, which offer a myriad of solutions for almost every editing instance.
In the meantime, we’ve put together a list of favorite free plugins for Final Cut Pro because everybody likes a freebie!
1. Color Finale
When looking for free FCPX plugins, it would be difficult not to mention Color Finale 2.0. Color Finale is a new color grading software specifically designed by colorists.
Firstly, there it has a fine-tuned color toolset with a streamlined UI for faster color grading workflow compared to Final Cut Pro standard color tools.
The interface is intuitive and sleek, allowing you to color grade quickly and efficiently. Yet it also has advanced image processing and color grading functions making it the perfect tool for amateurs and professionals alike.
The free version of the plugin includes Curves, Color Wheels, and an awesome LUT Utility for quickly applying a built-in Lookup Table to your Log encoded footage.
2. Sign Pop
50 animated icons, from an AA battery to a rocket ship. Each icon is highly customizable, including controls over individual colors, a choice of four in/out animations, and finer control over wiggle and bounce. Whether you’re making infographic videos or just want to add an animated flourish at the end of your vlog, this plugin is a must have.
3. Template Pop
Range of animated titles, from simple lower thirds to a complete typography style template. Each one is as customizable as any Final Cut Pro title generator, with the addition of color and transparency control over background animations.
Template Pop is a great addition to the built-in Final Cut Pro titles, giving you a wider range of control and numerous options. There is something for everything, from creative projects to DVD menus.
4. Panel Pop
26 customizable Final Cut Pro transitions that break your video into panels and animates to reveal the incoming clip. It’s a great free plugin for Final Cut Pro which integrates well and really saves you time.
5. Alex4D
Alex4D has a heap of free plugins for Final Cut Pro, with helpful guides to get the most out of them. There are some great tools, such as Feature Overlays, ideal for a creative filmmaker’s review process, and make overlaying production details and watermarks incredibly simple.
Most notable of the selection are Switch Channel, a fun transitional effect that simulates an analog TV switching channels, and Trim, a cropping tool that gives you the ability to feather edges, something missing from the standard crop function.
6. 3D Title Animations
Offers exactly what the name suggests. There are five different styles of title: Fade; Rotate; Scale; Spacing and Tumble. That might not seem like a lot, but each one has up to nine variations of animation, with finer control over the font, color, style, background, and animation speeds.
This plugin is simple and very easy to use, but the range of customizable elements means it will be a long time before you get bored of this one.
7. Editor Essentials
12 different tools within the plugin, but most notable are the White Balance, RGBA Levels, and Luma Levels tools. This powerful plugin can completely replace the standard Final Cut Pro color board and can make fixing those odd shots that much simpler.
Although this might not be a replacement for color grading software DaVinci Resolve, it can dramatically help with pre-grading or color balancing shots.
8. Coverflux
Template plugin for a stylish photo slideshow. While the slideshow only works with still pictures, it has a range of customizable options and includes titles alongside each image. A more experienced editor can get the most from this free FCPX plugin by building layers of slideshows to create stunning photo walls.
9. Automatic Duck Media Copy
Probably the most helpful of the free plugin for Final Cut Pro available. While this doesn’t help you with your editing, when it comes to getting organized, this plugin is your new best friend. Archiving old projects can take massive amounts of space, but it is tricky to know what you need to keep.
10. Data Pop
Another free sample pack from Stupid Raisins is only available through FxFactory. This plugin offers a range of animated charts, graphs, and timelines. Each template has customizable colors, styles, and of course, data points.
While this isn’t a replacement for building infographic elements in After Effects, it does allow even the least experienced FCP X user to create impressive data centric videos. Combined with Sign Pop, these two free FCPX plugins can create some impressive infographic animations.
11. Better 3D
Gives you better 3D positioning options than the native FCP tools and works on text elements as well as footage, images, and graphics. The plugin gives the editor greater control over the X, Y, Z axis, scale, and rotation, allowing for finer keyframe animation.
12. Region Tool
Allows you to add effects to specific parts of a clip. This incredibly useful free FCPX plugin will save time and money when blurring-out logos and faces from shots. Region Tool is a must have for any documentary filmmaker.
So there you have it, a wide-ranging collection of totally free plugins for Final Cut Pro to play around with. Happy editing!
If you’re looking to speed up your editing even further then check out our article on post-production workflow.
