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A glimpse of the future?
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It’s really not very new….
Discussion of the Ampex Ace touch screen editor from the 80’s
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/12062those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeate it…
Sucked to do a 14hr day on it then, arms killed, back hurt, fingers felt like they were stubs…
Gimme a 9×12 wacom please…
But new? gimme me a break… it’s really not “new”
d
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In my opinion, touching the screen doesn’t really make sense because if you have a big screen, you have to move all over the place to do the work.
That said, I do like the idea of touch editing. Personally, what I would like to see, is a 12-14 inch touchscreen monitor (like a large-ish iPad) with dual hand touchscreen gestures. The monitor would be programable so you could create a custom set of buttons along the top for your most used shortcuts (they could even be macro-type shortcuts for combining several steps into one button).
But you would use this in concert with a keyboard because let’s face it, aside from flawless dictation, there aren’t many better ways to input characters into a computer.
A touchscreen could be at an ergonomic incline and you wouldn’t have to wave your hands around all day to edit. I would edit the hell out of that kind of system.
On a related note, I was in Mac Mall a couple of weeks back and they had this great Wacom tablet monitor there, 30 inches or so. But it was absolutely difficult to work with unless it was practically laying on it’s back. If you are going to go through with a touchscreen NLE, at LEAST make sure it can be laid mostly horizontal.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[Bill Davis] “Sometimes folks around here get so amazingly stuck on what they’re used to that it baffles me.”
True — and it’s exactly as dangerous as assuming that newer is always better.
We should evaluate new and old concepts critically.
[Bill Davis] “I think most of you guys are WAY over thinking the potential distractions and muscle use issues these things will generate. You’re brain and your body will adapt. Period.”
Gorilla arm [link] is real. Ergonomics matter. This has to be done correctly to avoid fatigue.
[Bill Davis] “Again, it’s just another choice. And choice are nearly always a better thing than no choice.”
Hear, hear.
From your keyboard to Apple’s product development teams.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Alex Hawkins] “Mmmm yes interesting, I get your point Bill. But seriously, you don’t think that the less the hands have to move the better?
I guess off the bat I just don’t see any advantage of it for an everyday user. Mucking about on your iPad, sure, could be fun but doing it 8 to 5 Monday to Friday, I don’t think it would be my first choice.
I’m curious, what do you see as the benefits of it?
“Well, there’s actually a whole class of people – exercise physiologists – that would probably argue that the “the less the hands have to move the better” is simply bad thinking.
There was a movement a while back where executives were putting in “standing desks” to combat the problems of becoming too sedentary.
We all know that overweight and lack of activity trends have taking a huge toll on worldwide health.
That doesn’t mean that everybody needs to do their computing while on a treadmill(!) – but it also tells us that working towards a system where movement is reduced to twitching a fingertip – comes with it’s own problems.
The point is that alternatives are usually a good thing.
Then you or I get to sit and twitch a finger. And the music video editor gets to dance while they toss stuff around on the giant touch-screen.
That works for everyone.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Michael Gissing] “I don’t understand you Bill. You too have options. Please stop lecturing people on whether they overthink or don’t know how to adapt. “
You want to spin it as “lecturing” then fine. I consider it “offering an alternative point of view.” Nobody’s forcing you to agree – and you’re totally free to reject my thinking if you like. I thought the point of forums like this was open discussion? Is the problem that I’m not being “polite” enough in expressing my opinions? If so, then sorry. Tha’ts not my intent. For a lot of years I was a contributing editor for a national video magazine and paid to write declaratively and express a point of view. Probably too much of that has stuck with me. Sorry it bugs you.
[Michael Gissing] “Personally I have been into software and hardware innovation and testing for over 25 years. So I am not a luddite that won’t adapt. Rather I am someone who has tried these so called new technologies and found good reason like ergonomics to judge them as inferior. As I pointed out better ergonomic controllers would be vastly superior to touch screens. That point was proven in the DAW world 15 years ago.”
Then the market will point that out and they’ll fail. But the contention will NEVER be proven if the market never gets the alternative to test out.
And don’t forget that society is doing a bit of migration these days from the “office” model where a company pays lots of overhead for space, offices and facilities what are standardized for the “average” worker.
The trend towards individual empowerment, home offices, smaller scale entrepreneurial endeavor and individual expertise rising in utility compared to group dynamics might mean that somebody has their first opportunity to do things the way that THEY want, rather than how to corporation tells them to do them.
If so, what’s so wrong with letting them try out editing on a large format touch screen?
Personally, I’ve been through large corporate “efficient assortment’ exercises to determine what choices consumers are presented with in stores. I ‘m kinda laughing now that the internet has made it perfectly possible for people to circumvent that entire process and access every possible “niche” product on-line.
Why shouldn’t workspace options take a similar path?
You still get YOUR DAW the way you like it.
And so can I.
What exactly is wrong with that?
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Questionable…errr… option ergonomics aside, going with a totally touch interface like that can be very slow compared to using keyboard short cuts in conjunction with a mouse/touchpad/trackball/wacom tablet/tangent panels/etc.,. For basic things (like rough clip assembly) it could work fine but the deeper you drill down you’ll have to memorize abstract gestures for commands which tosses the ‘intuitive’ touch interface out the window.
Performing a three finger half circle counter clockwise, or whatever, to match frame a clip back to its bin isn’t anymore intuitive than hitting shift-f but hitting shift-f is a lot faster.
With all this being said, how many people have used Avid’s iPad app? I haven’t but I’m curious about it.
-Andrew
2.9 GHz 8-core (4,1), FCP 7.0.3, 10.6.6
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (7.9.5) -
Im sorry guys, but this is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen! It may look cool, like it’s right out of CSI or something, but it’s certainly not very practical from an editors point of view anyway!
Ron Priest
Videographer
Louisville, KY -
I don’t understand why so many people think the touch interface is so bad. Who ever said that if a touchscreen is used, that you get “locked in” and can ONLY use that? Am I missing something?
I figure if you want to touch and drag a clip to the timeline, you can. If you want to hit a keyboard shortcut, do it. If you want to use your pen tablet, use it. I definitely wouldn’t want to be stuck with only touchscreen editing, but surely would enjoy having it available!
I can’t possibly see ANY negative that would come from having yet another option at my finger tips. Come on guys, have some frickin fun with it!
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[David Eaks] “I can’t possibly see ANY negative that would come from having yet another option at my finger tips.”
I see what you did there.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[David Eaks] “I can’t possibly see ANY negative that would come from having yet another option at my finger tips.”
Price? Lighting for a horizontal or sloping screen?
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