Live Drawing: Final Cut Pro feature on iPad makes your videos more personal

Adding your own handwriting or artwork to your videos instantly makes them more personal and authentic. With Final Cut Pro on iPad, it's easier than ever.

Live Drawing on Final Cut Pro for iPad

Apple introduced Live Drawing with the Final Cut Pro app for iPad in 2023. I started testing it while recreating videos and it was quite useful.

With this feature, you can use your Apple Pencil to draw directly on your clips after importing them into your video editing app. These parts appear on the footage as if they were being drawn in real time. It adds a fun effect and, if used wisely, can even make your videos look more immersive.

How to use Live Drawing

Now, how do you use Live Drawing? You'll need an iPad with an M-series chip (or a 7th-gen iPad mini) and a Final Cut Pro subscription. It costs $5/month or $49/year—there's a 1-month free trial if you want to see if it's right for you.

Once you're set up, open Final Cut Pro, create a new project, and look for the pencil icon near the top of the screen. You don't need footage on the timeline, but it's a good idea to have some footage there if you want your Live Drawing to act as an overlay.

In the Live Drawing menu, you can choose from 7 drawing tools: Pen, Highlighter, Pencil, Monoline, Fountain Pen, Watercolor, or Crayon Tool. Choose the tool you want and draw.

After recording Live Drawing, you can customize Opacity , Blend Mode , and Draw On timing via the Inspect menu . Opacity and Blend Mode can help you adjust the drawing to match the background footage, while Draw On lets you adjust how the drawing appears on screen.

Live Drawing has made editing more creative and fun. I'm glad it exists. It's a feature that uses the iPad to its full potential and proves that the Apple Pencil is more than just for note-taking.

Samuel Daniel

Update 15 January 2025