THE ANGLESELECT QUICK START

From your camera
to your first cut.

AngleSelect sets up three or four views from a single 360° recording. You then edit those views as a multicam clip in Final Cut Pro.

What you need

• An Apple-silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later, and Final Cut Pro. Import testing has used Final Cut Pro 12.3.
• A stitched, full 360° MP4 or MOV in 2:1 equirectangular format — the wide, flattened panorama, with a width exactly twice its height.
• Final Cut Pro with FCPXML 1.14 support, included with the tested version. AngleSelect finds the installed app automatically. Video inspection and export are built in—no Python, FFmpeg, Homebrew, or Terminal setup is needed.

1. Prepare your recording

Open your camera’s footage in its desktop software and export a 360° video at the original frame rate and your preferred source resolution. Do not export a normal, already-reframed flat video. Raw camera formats, including .insv and GoPro .360, need to be stitched first.

Check that the directions stay consistent throughout the clip. For an airplane-mounted camera, look at a cabin feature while the airplane turns: it should stay in the same part of the panorama. Stabilization and lock settings differ by camera software. In a GoPro Player raw-playback test, horizon leveling with World Lock off kept the views attached to the airplane. An exported MP4 using those settings has not yet been verified, so check the exported file too.

AngleSelect does not correct orientation drift that has already been baked into an export. Play through a short sample before exporting a long flight.

2. Open and frame in AngleSelect

1. Click Choose 360° video… and open your stitched MP4 or MOV.
2. Choose 3 angles or 4 angles. Four is the default.
3. Choose Landscape 16:9 or Portrait 9:16, then HD or 4K. 4K is the default project size.
4. Give each view a distinct name. The initial views are starting points; adjust them to match your camera position.
5. Use Pan, Tilt, Horizon / roll, and View width to compose each angle. Play or scrub the clip to check the framing at different moments.

Landscape and portrait retain separate framing during the session. View width is a framing control, not a literal degree measurement; the readout below it estimates horizontal and vertical coverage. Confirm tight framing and color in Final Cut.

Project dimensions do not add detail to the source. A view extracted from a 360° recording uses only part of that recording’s image.

3. Name and save your setup

1. Leave Use video filename checked to use the source name. Uncheck it to type your own project name.
2. Keep Append angles, format, and resolution checked to add details such as “4 angles - Landscape 16x9 - 4K.” Uncheck it for your name alone.
3. Click Save & Open in Final Cut…. Choose a location and save the XML file. Final Cut Pro then opens it for import.

For manual import, use Save XML…, then choose File → Import → XML… in Final Cut Pro. Both AngleSelect buttons save a file to disk.

4. Cut between your angles

1. Complete the XML import in Final Cut Pro and open the prepared project whose name ends in — Edit.
2. Show the angle viewer using View → Show in Viewer → Angles (or Shift–Command–7).
3. Select video-only switching in the angle viewer. When source audio exists, the imported project already supplies it as a continuous connected audio clip.
4. Start playback. Press 1, 2, 3, or 4 to cut to that angle. A three-angle setup uses keys 1–3. If you use a custom Final Cut command set, check its multicam shortcuts.
5. Refine the cuts, add your titles and sound, then export your finished video from Final Cut.

Moving AngleSelect’s framing sliders does not record camera animation or cuts. Export captures fixed views for the entire source recording, regardless of the preview position or mute setting.

If playback is choppy

Large 360° files can be demanding during multicam playback. In Final Cut, select the source clip in the browser, choose File → Transcode Media…, and create ProRes Proxy media at 50% as a starting point. In the viewer’s View menu, choose Proxy Preferred for playback. If needed, try a smaller proxy size.

Before exporting the finished video, switch back to Optimized/Original. Choosing HD in AngleSelect changes the project dimensions; it does not create proxy media.

For more detail, see Apple’s guides to cutting and switching angles and creating optimized and proxy media.

What to expect in this version

• Import creates a new prepared project. It does not add an edit to an existing timeline automatically.
• Names and framing are kept for the current AngleSelect session. Editable setup documents and restoring your settings after quitting are not implemented.
• Re-exporting from AngleSelect creates a new setup and does not preserve cuts you have already made in Final Cut. For another aspect ratio of an edited project, use Final Cut’s Duplicate Project As command and review the framing.
• Final Cut Pro is the current export target. Other editors and Windows are future possibilities.

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