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Why is FCPX so fragile?
I do basically feel like I am editing with a stack of playing cards in a typhoon.
So today I had started on en edit and had a filter affecting the look on my clips. I then updated FX FActory to 10.3 (or whatever) to trial a new set of filters. Re-opened FCPX, which then rebooted itself only to make all my clips red with the ! yellow triangle. After a bit of faffing around and trying to hold my frustration in, I discovered the filter I had applied was the cause. God knows why. But I now have to delete the filter off every clip it is on and reapply it to every clip it is on.
Every time I boot X up I have a sinking feeling inside about what sort of spanner it has decided to throw into the works today.
Is increasing stress levels and blood pressure due to ambivalent coding part of Apple’s philosophy of thinking different? And before they add another single feature to this software, then need to spend a whole heap of time fixing the bugger so it just works.
/rant
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25 Replies
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Hmmm, it wasn’t just the looks filter which was a part of FX Factory, but also another filter from a separate company that had nothing to do with FX Factory.
I do enjoy wasting time redoing stuff. Makes the whole editing process so much faster than 7.
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Ok, the second filter wasn’t FCPXs fault, that was mine. I renamed a folder in my filters folder so I will hold my hand up to that. Though the complete lak of organisational tools in the filters section is insane. it was in 7 although at least there I could create a favourites tab with loads of folders in them. In X it goes where they bloody tell you it goes. Shame all the organisational elements of X aren’t in the filters area, where it would be really rather useful.
I am, sadly, willing to concede the first filter may also be a similar self imposed issue as I think the upgrade of FX Factory deleted my renamed folder so I could organise the filters sensibly, though it didn’t alter others.
So, though I am wrong in my rant in some ways, I shall save face and alter the direction of my rant towards the frustratingly lacking organisational tools in the filters section (not least of all being able to delete the Picture, Music and Themes buttons as they have no practical use to me and just take up real estate and processing capacity) which forces me to hack my filters folder just to find anything I want to use without having to commit names of every filter I like to memory.
/amended rant
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Right, for those that may care, it appears that FX Factory upgrade deleted the Easy Looks filters from my computer, which was a tad mean of it. I had to redownload the filters from DV Shade and reinstall at which point they were fully active including registration, so I point my finger at FX Factory this time and yell “you sir, you smell of elderberries… ”
Why can’t things just be made to work? And when they don’t, can’t we bill these companies for our time we spend dealing with their errors? I’m self employed. 30 minutes wasted on fixing things other people broke is 30 minutes of billable time 🙂
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Oh, and yes, having conversations with myself is perfectly normal round my way.
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[Julian Bowman] “Oh, and yes, having conversations with myself is perfectly normal round my way.”
I would agree that the lack of organisational tools in the Filter section is something that needs addressing. I’ve discovered that it is possible to re-name the folders in the Effects section of Motion Templates so that they appear in the order of the ones I use most frequently. What I would really like is for there to be 2 Effects Sections within the FCPX interface one for video and one for audio. And it would be great if intelligent assistance were to develop a programme similar to Event Manager to organise the Effects display.
I also don’t quite understand why FX Factory have such a cumbersome way of introducing new FX or updating existing ones. Each change in their portfolio of Effects requires a new download of their software. But I’m sure there will be a good reason for this.
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There are work-arounds to create your own Favorites filter folders within X, but they do add a bit of extra work.
That said, I think it’s a huge plus the way you can preview a filter without have to apply and render. That is a huge time saver.
I just installed FX Factory (after holding for a long time) because I wanted to purchase Ripple Callouts (which is great, BTW). I really don’t like the way FX Factory pre-installs a jillion demo effects, which I never purchase and just clutter my effects browser. I wonder if I can just delete them? Never tried.
What I do like is the third-part plug ins that FX Factory brings into their fold. A lot of good stuff there. And I’ve never had much of an issue with installing plugs (in the past) us FX Factory.
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It sounds like you don’t realize that you use the FX Factory app to mange which fx are on/included and which are not cluttering up the effects browser. But surely that’s not the case. They make it pretty obvious. I love how that works. Kind of like Event X for effects. But alas, without the organizational tools that everyone mentions.
I’ve become accustomed to just typing the first letter or two of the effect name in the search field at the bottom of the effects browser. You could do that in 7 as well. Just had to press cmd+F.
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Well, by gum, thank you sir! I looked and found “Disable Trail Effects” and I am much happier. I now feel that much better about FX Factory.
Now, about the audio export to Logic and Pro Tools….
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[Michael Hadley] ” I really don’t like the way FX Factory pre-installs a jillion demo effects, which I never purchase and just clutter my effects browser. I wonder if I can just delete them?”
You can delete them I believe, but it’s not terribly intuitive. I won’t install FX Factory for just that reason though. Not on X, not on 7. It’s a shame, because I would buy a few plugins they represent, but all the ezra stuff that gets installed isn’t worth it. I can’t afford the chance that some random demo plugin will bring down my NLE, nor do I wan’t all the clutter, even though i can”manage” it. I get it, it’s really a rights management app, which is fine.
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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
Actually, thanks to Ben’s prompt, I learned how simple it is to remove all the trail versions FX Factory loads into your browser. Just open up the FX app, >Actions>Disable Trial Products.
Relaunch X, and you only see those plug ins you’ve purchased in your effects browser (or none if you haven’t purchased any).
That said, I think the FX folks would do themselves a favor by not loading a jillion effects as the default but giving the user the option in the first place.
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