Top 27 Smashing Free & Paid Final Cut Pro Slideshow Templates

Final Cut Pro 11/02/2022 6 min read

Creating trendy Motion Graphics videos can be time-consuming, and may require skills beyond an editor’s abilities. If you want to create these cool video projects, you may think you’ll need to invest in learning Apple Motion or After Effects. Fortunately, that is not the case, as Final Cut Pro slideshow templates offer you all the styles with none of the frustration.

Part 1: Cool & Hip Slideshow Templates for Final Cut Pro

1. Free Beautiful Slideshow

The Beautiful Slideshow is a fun, glitchy film reel design, making it perfect for photography and videography showreels. With 10 text and media placeholders, this short video would also make a great opening title sequence.

Free Beautiful Slideshow Download 

2. Free Summer Slideshow

The Summer Slideshow is a vibrant and fun design, perfect for prominent bright messaging. The exciting paintbrush style transitions and handwritten text elements give this project a collage-type feel.

Free Summer Slideshow Download 

3. Modern Slideshow Promo

Incredibly sleek usage of dynamic typography and colorful transitions make this template perfect to use in all types of projects. Add a layer of modern professionalism to your videos and impress your viewers!

Download Modern Slideshow Promo Now

4. Brush Slideshow

Featuring a bright positive atmosphere and clean design the Brush Slideshow is designed with wedding videos, artsy product promos, and even nostalgic travel clips! Add a sophisticated touch to your projects with ease.

Download Brush Slideshow Now

5. Creative Upbeat Slideshow

If you are looking for a unique design with a modern look that features quick transitions and simple text effects, the Creative Upbeat Slideshow needs to be in your arsenal. Show off your portfolio and create great projects without wasting time!

Download Creative Upbeat Slideshow Now

6. Square Smooth – Slideshow

Creative usage of shape cutouts with smooth animations make up this amazing layered slideshow, that will elevate your photos and clips. Perfect for your next street photography, fashion, or promo event collections! Put your best foot forward and impress your clients.

Download Square Smooth – Slideshow Now

7. Paper Slideshow

Looking for something trendy and fresh to upload online for YouTube? The Paper Slideshow incorporates a perfect blend of bright colors of pink and yellow, as well as a cool glitch retro look which is perfect for a cool intro for your channel or presenting a new promo for social media!

Download Paper Slideshow Now

8. Photo Slideshow

The Photo Slideshow project is a simple yet beautiful template, with 12 media drop zones and text elements. The smooth ‘drop-in’ style transitions and subtle bokeh effects give this template a calming and nostalgic feel.

Download Photo Slideshow Now 

9. Wedding Slideshow

If you’re looking to create a simple yet modern wedding photo slideshow, then this is the template for you. The smooth image transitions add a touch of flair, while the simple text animations offer plenty of space for your messaging.

Download Wedding Slideshow Now 

10. Slideshow Smooth Split

The Smooth Split Slideshow is a beautiful and clean-looking template, suitable for a range of projects from business promotions to holiday snaps. The simple design and split wipe transitions make this a powerful and versatile project.

Download Slideshow Smooth Split Now 

11. Cinematic Inspired Slideshow

This creatively animated template is both inspiring and cinematic. The smooth transition animation and text elements are sure to catch your viewer’s attention. Perfect for business presentations, marketing campaigns, and event videos.

Download Cinematic Inspired Slideshow Now 

12. Elegant Plexus Slideshow

The Elegant Plexus slideshow offers a stylized graphic design, with, perfect for corporate videos and tech-related content. The triangular-shaped plexus design moved the viewer between the 15 media placeholders in a modern and unique way.

Download Elegant Plexus Slideshow Now 

13. Urban Slideshow

The Urban Slideshow is a super-fast, glitchy template that is sure to impress your viewers. The warping text animations and snappy transitions make this project perfect for music videos, event promotions, and showreels.

Download Urban Slideshow Now 

14. Love Story Slideshow

With 10 editable text and media placeholders, Love Story is the perfect slideshow for wedding highlights videos or intros. The heart-shaped frame offers a unique design element, with smooth text animations highlighting your messaging.

Download Love Story Slideshow Now 

15. Memory Slideshow

Memory slideshow is a beautiful photo wall style design with slow panning/zooming camera movements. This template is perfect for showing off the beauty in your images and would make an excellent showreel for photographers or designers.

Download Memory Slideshow Now 

16. Elegant Grid Photo Slideshow

This stunning project has a wide variety of uses and is super easy to brand. The simple grid design and subtle light leaks beautifully highlight your images while the text boxes offer space for bright, bold messaging.

Download Elegant Grid Photo Slideshow Now 

17. Gallery of Memory

Gallery of Memory is an eye-catching template, with multiple media placeholders per slide. The paper-like feel to the design, with beautiful light leak effects, gives this video project a nostalgic feel. Use this template for impressive presentations, photo slideshows, and showreels.

Download Gallery of Memory Now 

18. Corporate Timeline Slideshow

The Corporate Timeline Slideshow project is perfect for business promotions, presentations, and case studies. The graphic flourishes and bright rainbow light leak transitions are eye-catching, while the bold text elements highlight your message.

Download Corporate Timeline Slideshow Now 

19. Happy Slideshow

The Happy Slideshow project is incredibly versatile and can be entirely customized to your needs. The text animations are simple, allowing plenty of space for your messaging, but you could also remove the text entirely and let the stunning split wipe transitions and light leaks speak for themselves.

Download Happy Slideshow Now 

20. New Urban Slideshow

The New Urban Slideshow is perfect for business promotions, product demos, and portfolio presentations. The beautiful colored bar transitions slide smoothly between your videos or photos and are sure to impress your clients.

Download New Urban Slideshow Now 

21. Event Promo Meetup

This neat template is both modern and functional in its design. Each slide is designed slightly differently to allow the perfect layout for your messaging. Whether you’re announcing keynote speakers or showing shots of past events, the Event Promo Meetup project has everything you need.

Download Event Promo Meetup Now 

22. Corporate Presentation

If you need a Corporate Presentation video, then this is the template for you. The trendy design and smooth 3D camera movements make this an eye-catching and impressive video template.

Download Corporate Presentation Now 

23. Simple Slideshow

The Simple slideshow is a great all-around template, with a vast range of possibilities. The design is clean and straightforward, allowing you to add other effects such as light leaks, animated flourishes, or glitches to make this your own. 

Download Simple Slideshow Now 

24. History Slideshow

This template project is perfect for documentaries, title sequences, and business timelines. The simple vignetted images and surrounded by handwritten style text elements give the video a vintage feel. 

Download History Slideshow Now 

25. Ink Slideshow

The Ink Slideshow is an artistically designed video project, perfect for artists, photographers, and designer showreels. The Ink Blot transitions are smooth and dynamic, and the simple text animations allow for short, clear messaging.

Download Ink Slideshow Now 

26. Good Old Days

Good Old Days features 3D floating photographs, blur transitions, and cool animated flourishes. This stylish video contains a massive 65 media placeholders, making it a great option for photographers and artist showreels.

Download Good Old Days Now 

27. Emotional Memory Slideshow

This cinematic photo slideshow would make a remarkable opening title sequence or trailer. The random shaped transition elements and bright light leaks give this video the feeling of blinking through your memories.

Download Emotional Memory Slideshow Now 

Part 2: How to Customize Slideshow Templates & Build Your Own

Apple’s editing solutions divide editing and animation workflows between 2 programs: Final Cut Pro and Motion. The 2 programs not only offer a way to create live-action videos and animation, but they also work together to allow you to use Motion animated elements from within FCPX. Final Cut Pro slideshow templates are an animated Motion project that you can install in FCPX and customize with your own media, titles, and brand elements.

Once you have downloaded your chosen template, it is time to customize it. The first thing you need to do is install the template, so it works from within FCPX.

  1. Navigate to your downloaded file and unzip it. Within the unzipped folder, you will find a second folder titled the name of your template; this is your project folder.
  2. Open a second Finder window to navigate to the following folder; Applications > Final Cut Pro > Contents > Plugins > MediaProviders > MotionEffect.fxp > Contents > Resources > Templates
  3. Choose the correct Templates folder; for Slideshow Templates, you could use the Titles or Generators folder.
  4. Drag the project folder to the appropriate templates folder.
  5. Launch Final Cut Pro and the template will now appear in your Generators/Titles panel.
  6. Drag it to the Timeline, and customize the project using the Effects Control Panel.

Part 3: Top Tips for Building Your Own Slideshows

You can build your simple photo slideshows in Final Cut Pro from scratch. Here are a few of our top tips for creating your own.

  1. Start by getting your images on the Timeline in the right order and at the right length. It is easier to add effects and transitions once you know the content is correct.
  2. If you are using photos that are not the right size or shape for your video project, turn that photo into a Compound Clip. Resize the image from within the Compound Clip and reposition if necessary. In the main Timeline, your image will now be the same size as your canvas.
  3. Use Final Cut Pro transitions between your images, to add some trendy movement.
  4. Consider adding a color effect or tint to your images to create consistency across the whole video.
  5. Use Cropping and Resizing to create cool Split Screen designs. (Check out this article for details on split screens in Final Cut Pro.)
  6. Add music to your project that fits with the pace of your video; this will help tell your story and keep your viewers interested. 

Final Cut Pro Slideshow Templates are a great way of expanding your editing capabilities and providing your clients and viewers with exciting and unique content. Additionally, templates like the ones we’ve discussed here can save you a lot of time editing your projects. Most importantly, templates allow you to try new and creative things, so get stuck in and have fun.