This week's Ripple trio of tutorials (or should that be triple Ripple!) will show you a very handy assignable shortcut, how to replace a sign in Motion and the trick to getting silky smooth slow motion in FCPX.

Two Motion tutorials from SugarFx on how to track a lens flare on a motion path. Part two after the break.

The tracker in Motion is good, but there are times when it just can't cope with a complex move. In this new episode of Macbreak Studio, the third party planar tracking application Mocha comes to the rescue.

This is a long article, but the project itself is fairly simple. I hope you are able to stay with it and develop a project for which you can be proud and learn something new while putting it together. The font is already made and free. All you have to do is put the pieces together! While you put this together, I hope you will appreciate how all the parts fit together perfectly; there’s no need for dealing with anchor points or other issues with alignments. Using font “icons”, vectors, text, etc. is a great, and easy way to build 3D animated illustrations.

Digital Heaven are no strangers to writing software for Final Cut Pro. This is their first offering for FCPX, two free effects, a grid generator and a safe title area generator.

Noise industries must be one of the most prolific tutorial makers for plugins out there. These two new plugin tutorials are for stylising video.

Two new sets of plugins from MotionVFX. One click movie look colour grading with mLUT and many creative animation options with mCharacter 2.

The wait is over! There are updates to all the three main Apple video applications and an update to the Pro Video Formats as well. Yes, it looks like the timecode bug in the dashboard of FCPX has been fixed!

We thought Conduit was dead, how wrong we were. This $199 plugin from DV Garage is on its second version and now works inside FCP, Motion, After Effects and Photoshop. In this video Kevin Hansen shows Mark Spencer how to pull and then refine a key using the plugin. If you have ever had trouble with chromakeying or greenscreen then this might be just what you need. More info including links to a free 3D plugin after the break.

It's the old problem on a 5D shoot, you're budget doesn't stretch to lighting your night time exterior to match that Hollywood blockbuster, so what do you do? Go with your underlit shot, and trust that the darkness reflects the mood you want to evoke? Well, here's the low budget answer thanks to Robino Films. More after the break.

A few of us editors met up in London for a grande cafe latte and ended up talking motion graphics and how to add a bit polish to boring shots, products, text e.t.c. The general consensus was that you can't go wrong with lens flares, clients just love them!

So you've shot your footage on a Canon 5D using the CineStyle picture profile from Technicolor, now you want to edit in FCPX. Do you need a plugin?

Behaviors in Motion can be very powerful to make animations without keyframes. But did you know that you can control behaviors with behaviors? This week's episode explains all.

When we think of colour correction with the Apple Pro Apps, the colour board in Final Cut Pro is normally the first thing that springs to mind. Motion however has a lot of built in filters that go beyond the board's capabilities.

A new studio, a new set, a new table! What hasn't changed are the great tips from Mark Spencer and Steve Martin in this week's episode of MacBreak Studio.

When Mark and Steve recorded this MacBreak Studio, they probably didn't realise it would get eclipsed by the Mac Pro and other announcements from Apple yesterday. Some good Motion tips on behaviors in this episode.

"How to achieve a cartoon look" is always a popular question on the FCP forums. Simon Walker has put together a quick run through of the presets in ToonIt, a cartoon transformation plugin for your footage.

A busy few days for everybody! Apple's video Pro Apps all get an update and the fourth FCPX Creative Summit takes place. We have corralled the videos from the past week with multiple languages and multiple opinions on the update!

Keyframes in video are as old as analogue Digital Video Effects (DVEs) from the 1980's. ADO Anybody? So as we lost 'tracks' in Final Cut Pro X to a better method way of working, can we also lose the dreaded keyframe as well? Tony Gallardo explores...

Want moving textures in Final Cut Pro X? Plugin building expert Fox Mahoney shows us how to construct a moving water texture in Motion and publish it to FCPX. Great knowledge that will extend the capabilities of 3D text even further. Link to the free finished moving water texture generator plugin also included!

Those very informative people at NewMediaWebinars present a VFX Plug-in Essentials Webinar looking specifically at the plug-ins and filters offered within Noise Industries' FX Factory.

Not really a question that we've asked ourselves before, but we are glad that Lastfutre found out the answer. Using Final Cut Pro and Motion, he swapped the two dimensions in the production of this video.

It's back to basics again in this episode of MacBreak Studio. Mark and Steve take a look at using behaviors to animate an object instead of keyframes.

FCPX day two and we are starting to look into the new app a little closer and examine its possibilities and check out third party products. What plugins are available for FCPX? Will my old plugins work with FCPX?

Motion by default will have fixed resolution toggled on for objects that get imported into the Media Browser. But when should you turn this option off and when is it beneficial to leave it set to fixed?

Ever wondered which card is better out of these two beasts? Well we've found a guy who tested these monsters to the max.

You've seen the awesome BMX videos posted here that slow down footage to 1000 fps using the optical flow plugin Twixtor. So why not use Motion instead? Watch the tutorial then see the result after the break.

We have had reports in from a few sources that the top of the range iMac has had problems when running Final Cut Pro X and Motion. Surely the machine must have enough horsepower, what is going on?

You might have noticed that we have been building a list of free FCPX & Motion effects for download over on our forum. Let's take the thought further though...

***Winners announced***

Want some more transitions for FCPX? CGM have released a plugin pack of 27 editable transitions for Final Cut Pro X. We have four copies to give away!

***Winners Posted***

Yes you read the headline right. Not only have MotionVFX started to publish Motion 5 templates on their store, they are also offering 5 $200 gift certificates in an exclusive FCP.co giveaway competition. All you have to do is tweet!

***Winners announced***

Nope, this isn't the same competition we ran a few weeks ago, MotionVFX have launched a sequel to their mLooks effects pack, it's called mLooks2. You can win one of the 5 packs we have to give away.

***Winners Posted***

Idustrial Revolution have updated their popular Volumetrix light spill plugin to give full compatibility with Final Cut Pro X. They have also given us five copies of their popular $49 plugin to give away.

***Winners Posted****

Brand new today, a set of 60 grading effects for Final Cut Pro X and Motion5. We have five copies to giveaway

***Winners Announced***

On a rather slow news day and after a long walk around BVE yesterday, we thought it would be a great time for one of FCP.co's legendary giveaways. We have teamed up with MotionVFX to give away 5 copies of their mObject Pro Bundle, each worth $399.

****Updated with winners****

FxFactory Pro 3 from Noise Industries was officially announced by press release today. We have two copies of this revolutionary set of plugins for Final Cut Pro X and FCP7 to give away.

Motion as a graphics tool is very powerful when using behaviors, but there are times when objects need to be keyframed. This new episode of MacBreak Studio is all about keyframing.

A slightly different lineup this week, We have a new MacBreak Studio and Motion 5 minute episode, but this time they are accompanied by a Resolve tutorial.

In a very quiet week for FCPX news, it's good to see the MacBreak boys continuing to release tutorials. This time they wrangle text around an object.

This is a unique colour correction plugin from the people who bought you Motype and Nodes. Now you can colour correct in FCPX without taking your eyes off the viewer!