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Weekend Warrior Editor, making the move to Avid. Some basic set up advice needed…
Hey all,
For the past year or so I have been doing a few personal projects with DSLR’s and editing on FCPX, however, more recently I have started to think that I may want to turn my passion into a possible career. Realizing, of course, that it is probably on the verge of impossible. Perhaps starting by logging footage at a production company and working my way up, gotta start somewhere… With that in mind, I have been told numerous time that the best thing I can do right now is to master editing, and NOT on FCPX, but rather Avid MC. So with that in mind, it’s about time that I make the switch to Avid. I’ve been scouring the net for tutorials (Cow’s own free tutorials, as well as Ripple and Lynda). About ready to purchase the student version of Avid MC6.5.
I’m running a late 2011 iMac and shoot with a Canon 60d, 5d3 and GoPro cameras. Mostly travel films, or automotive racing events. Nothing ever exceeds 15 minutes in length. With that in mind, and also that I am very new to all this, here in lies my first actual question of the thread; How necessary is an external RAID HD? I would like to be able to store all my media on an external HD, and then import from the HD into the timeline (This may not even be the process in Avid, as I have yet to use it), basically keeping all footage off of the internal storage. For DSLR footage, is a RAID hd needed for this? I have a few WD 1tb usb2.0 HD’s that I keep movies and the like on, will these be fast enough to use for footage? With a students budget, I would rather use the $500+ that a RAID would cost me on plugins or more camera equipment if the RAID isn’t totally needed.
Moving on
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4 Replies
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Seems as if the rest of the post was cut off for some reason. Last thing that I can think of at the moment has to do with motion graphics. With PPro, it’s linked to AE, on FCP it’s linked to Motion. Does AMC link to any motion graphics generators? Again, this is something that I would know myself if I had used the software already, but how are the titles within AMC? Animated title presets? How necessary is a supplemental program for something basic like titles? I’ve messed around with a lot of software as i’ve been getting the hand with editing, and have ended up settling with using AE for time lapses, and just recently used motion 5 to create an animated logo. How are these programs implemented into AMC?
Thanks much.
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Avid comes with Avid FX, which is really a rebranded version of Boris RED. You launch the Avid FX interface within Avid,
Go to BorisFX website to see everything it does.
Avid has 2 other titlers. Title Tool, which is pretty basic, and Avid Marquee…
Marquee can do quite a bit more as far as animation is concerned. Good quality but very slow rendering. -
You need an external drive and usb 2 won’t cut it.
Get an 800 firewire raid or thunderbolt raid if it works on your Mac.
If you have the coin, I’d consider one where you can swap out drives. That way you can continue to grow your library. I think you need to decide if you are all in or just playing around.
Now if you do land a job as an assistant editor – logging in footage and the like – you might just be using your home computer to continue to learn if you don’t have time at work. Even so you want to employ best practices. So learn to store media on a fast enough external raid.
If you are serious about this get the:
https://www.amazon.com/Media-Composer-Editing-Essentials-Learning/dp/1133727980
https://www.amazon.com/Media-Composer-Editing-Essentials-Learning/dp/1133727980
parts 1 and 2 and then continue to learn from there.
Don’t give up on FCP X – the jury is still out.
Adobe PP is gaining traction
After effects is industry standard
Resolve is good to know.
The more you know the better your chances.
If you are talking about broadcast TV and Hollywood feature films then yes MC is a must.
For smaller shops, its everything from the above to FCP 7.
There is no one size fits all at the moment.
FCP 8 might have put the nail in the coffin.
That ship has sailed.
MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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That’s great info Craig, exactly what I was looking for. As far as the drives go, it seems a single Thunderbolt connected drive might have the speed to support what I want to do, for about half the cost of a RAID (LaCie 3tb Thunderbolt vs. G-Tech 4tb RAID Thunderbolt). What are you thoughts on using that set up until I can save the funds for a RAID, and then using the LaCie daisy chained as a back up in the future? Sure, I could go right to a RAID right now, but it would be smart to have a backup with the RAID, and that definitely wouldn’t happen now if a RAID were purchased first.
Thanks for the links on the books, I have been watching Ripple Training’s MC6.5 tutorials. The books are probably a great resource in addition.
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