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Has anyone else experienced the painstakingly slow reder times I have with FCPX…among other very irritating things?
While I writ this I am building a 30sec spot for a client. (I am in the process of learning CS5.5 Premier) I have 27 3.4 I7 iMac with 16g Ram.
I opened up the project and before I could even do anything it was rendering…something. I added the customer’s logo, 1000/1000 at 72dpi and re-sized it. In the time its taken me to write this, the render is at 6….yes that’s 6! I have noticed that when your project gets the least bit involved, render times increase tremendously!! Was not one of the benefits of FCPX, “Rendering is a thing of the past!” I have found FCPX the slowest of all NLE I have ever used!! And has anyone else noticed all the other crazy stuff that happens in FCPX?? Transitions get grabbed by other elements in the timeline and randomly attached as you drag the transition to its destination? And how about the main track the only one you can append, insert and overwrite edit using the shortcuts??
(The render in my project is now at 11!)
Or the fact that every element in the timeline has to attached to some other element, and deleting an unwanted element can sometimes delete other wanted elements or everything in the project?!?! Seriously???
And whats up with the black place holders that are sometimes left when you delete an element?? I saw where someone posted asking as to what those are and why??? (…its at 18, and keep in mind I type slow)
And has anyone tried to move a connected clip???….oh my god…the timeline starts jumping all over the place with elements moving around a repositioning themselves where ever they find a place!!!
Is this seriously how Apple wants this editor to work??
I tried to get a refund after working with it for several months but Apple said no….or should I say the APP Store!
I have found FCPX more a pain than its worth and hopefully by next week I’ll be ready for the switch. I would love to hear if anyone else has the same problems!!?? -
28 Replies
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Does it actually need to render to play? You can turn off background rendering in preferences and render out later, In my experience with the software it seems to play almost everything without rendering.
Black placeholders are gap clips, just like in Avid as for everything else, that’s the way the software works, it’s different, you need to learn exactly how it works to avoid some of the issues you have mentioned. There are lots of resources out there that will tell you how to work correctly with FCPX. I would highly recommend them if you continue working with the software.
Otherwise PPro is a great alternative
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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Seriously???…lots of resources!! I have several subscriptions and have engulfed myself in learning the program…”properly”!!
Funny how you did not comment on several other issues, like deleting elements in the timeline and how they are connected…not like Avid or Premiere. Or how about transitions getting grabbed and attached randomly??? Or how about the main “track” (even though its supposed to be trackless) being the only one you can use the shortcuts to edit????
And to suggest that taking a tutorial will make the editor render faster when Apple boasted big time as to how fast it renders…when it does not.
And when you do have background rendering, you really can’t do much else…playback is anything but smooth and adding transitions or working on other parts of the project will often times cause a crash.
Think about this, why would a trackless video editor be better than one with tracks?? While the track is self contained..unaffected by anything else, in FCPX everything can be affected by what you do somewhere else in the timeline?! The power of being able to activate only one portion of your project, and not have what you do there only affect that part is gone in FCPX!!! And how about moving compounded clips around???? The program goes haywire!!! This has absolutely nothing to do with my know-how about FCPX. I don’t know how much you edit, and how involved your projects are. But I can tell you that when I have 30 sec project with video, pictures, transitions, filters, text, music and voice-over and the project is 10+ stories high, This program gets winded quick and simply does not work, and my know how or lack there of has nothing to with the things I am talking about. I would love to know what you are editing!!! -
Long form documentary, 2 hour event films, short corporate films, music highlights videos, just started a feature film on it. Yes, it doesn’t work like Avid and Premiere and if you try to make it work like them you will get stuck very quickly.
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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[Craig Shamwell] “I have 27 3.4 I7 iMac with 16g Ram.”
With that system you should be screaming (not in agony). What storage are you using?
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!Check out my Mormon.org profile.
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Craig you’re about three months late with this. Virtually everything you’re asking/frustrating about has been discussed over and over here so you’ll understand why your post isn’t exciting a lot of interest.
If you want to get up to speed on how folks are working with X and/or commiserate with those that decided they didn’t or couldn’t work with it, grab some coffee and spend a few hours reading.
Many of us are turning out a lot of work with X. For instance, I’ve got several 30 second spots and a short film in different stages of production in X, no issues either with rendering, crashing or anything else. Just put two other spots on air and it went wonderfully.
There are a of of great things about this program and some real issues that need to be resolved – but right now, in real time, it’s a very useful, fast, powerful editing program that’s a lot of fun to use once you understand how to use it.
I spent a good deal of time learning the new paradigm before I ever committed my company and clients work to it, and as I’ve written in a few threads, I’m glad I did as the work is looking great, and coming together faster than it would in FCP 7.
Much of the current work involves heavy design and compositing and we find X to handle that very well.
You seem very frustrated (lots of ??? and !!!) in your posts.
No need to be. I recommend you take a little time, download some of the many tutorials available, for a few bucks you can get Edgar Rothermich’s nicely presented visual tutes at https://www.dingdingmusic.com/DingDing/Manuals.htmlIt might be a good place for you to start with the “How it Works” and the “The Details” to understand the concepts better before going back to it.
If you can’t deal with it or don’t like how it works then Premiere Pro is a good alternative to the FCP legacy approach.
Good luck.
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the graphically enhanced manuals Jim mentioned are class – I have them on my iPad, and I do rather adore them – they make FCPX sound like it makes more sense than my black heart actually believes it does…
well worth a buy though – they’re pristine.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
He did do a great job with them didn’t he Aindreas (Blackheart)
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First..don’t care how much interest my post generates. Could care less. I always write with emotion…sorry! I have been editing for almost 10 years and “know” what I am doing. The question was simple…”Has anyone else experienced what I have?” Not too hard to understand is it? Ok!
I am new to CC and looked back into archives and did not see all the posts you spoke of…sorry! Doing a short film is nothing compared to a 30 or 60 second spot with 60+ elements involved. The work in a short film is the shooting and prep. If story-boarded well, the edits are mostly straight cuts with some coloring, opening and end credits…easy stuff!! You obviously are vested in FCPX and/or Apple and like the other post, suggest that I somehow have not done my homework. I went as far as going to my local Apple Store and doing a test there. Same things happened when things got complicated. And had you read my reply, you would know that I have taken many tutorials. When things work…it is fast…but when its not, you lose all the time you gained before.
I still in fact use FCP7, more than FCPX in fact. Did you tell all the other people who you said have already posted about all the things I am talking about that they too need to take some tutorials so they can know what they are doing? Is this the standard response from editors who love Apple more than anything??… Take tutorials?
I find it hard to believe as you suggest, that FCPX works just fine for you and not everyone else.
The bottom line is FCPX does not work as advertised…not even close. And while it has some real cool stuff in theory, a trackless timeline, as I have used this editor for 3 months now, makes no sense and handicaps the editor instead of freeing him/her. Sure for fairly simple projects its ok…but so is iMovie, which by the way has no rendering at all!! One case in point…I have some Plug-Ins by Idustrial (ParticleMetrix). I dragged a Transition on a “custom” text element and changed the destination and what happened???…. the text after all was rendered, jumped to the middle (from the top where it was)during the transition and also changed size…got really big, and then went back to where it started. It was ugly to say the least. No tutorial had a fix for it.
As I said before, my knowledge or lack there of has nothing to do with something I have never seen NLE do! -
Yes just as I assumed. Your projects in the timeline are not that complicated. Shooting and Preparation are the toughest part of your process. Do you have any projects where in the time-span of 30sec you have 60+ elements involved? Its in the stacking that boggs FCPX down.
Thanks! -
I could not agree more…there are many great tutorials about FCPX…a lot for free too!!! But it still does not make it work without the unpredictability involved. Output is pristine, while choices are limited. Marking clips and media management is also very intuitive, except for the lack of being able to create your own folders, as many a tutorial has noted. But there are still many anomalies that are beyond the comprehension of not calling this what it really is and that’s a BETA program. I gave this program a fair chance, 3 months in fact. I had it 2 days after it came out. Even waited to see if the first update would make a performance difference, but it did not.
In my opinion…like it or not…its the single worst major program I have ever used.
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