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Are NLEs like bicycles?
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[tony west] “That makes me try to skip ahead, and often mess up : )”
As they say in snowboarding, if you aren’t falling your aren’t trying.
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Great video! But the short answer is no.
Learning FCPX (and I have) is much moire like going from a Mouse to Wacom tablet (I’ve done that before too). Unlike the bicycle, people who learn a Wacom have no trouble going between a mouse and Wacom. Similarly, I have no problems going back to FCP legacy or Premiere – although i don’t find i ever need or want to.
Some said the question is “Is a backwards bicycle better?”. I don’t think that’s the question at all. That’s like asking if a Wacom is better than a Mouse. You gotta be more specific – better at what?
The bicycle example is much more analogous to apple’s “Natural Scrolling” feature. If i use a computer without that now I can barely drive it!
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[Andrew Kimery] “Are we not all familiar with Betteridge’s law of headlines?”
No! (Ha.)
Of course NLEs are not like bicycles. They’re like cars. Or hammers.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Charlie Austin] “Sure, there’s the occasional KB shortcut mixup, but it’s really no big deal.”
Exactly. Doing work in Premiere recently was familiar and easy as was the “learning curve”. If ya know 7 or MC, then you pretty much know Premiere and vice-versa. For me, Media Composer is the most unfamiliar now, which is very odd to say as I spent years cutting on those systems. That said, IF a Media Composer job comes my way for any reason (and I haven’t seen freelance MC jobs out my way in over two years), I am sure I can easily get back into the swing.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “That said, IF a Media Composer job comes my way for any reason (and I haven’t seen freelance MC jobs out my way in over two years), I am sure I can easily get back into the swing.”
I spent years working on Avid, and I struggle badly to get into the swing of it on the rare occasions I have to!
Premiere to FCPX is a breeze
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[Andrew Kimery] “Seeing this video made me think of Bill (and others, but mostly Bill) talking about how moving to X can be a struggle for experienced editors but at some point it just clicks and it’s smooth sailing from then on. Until, of course, you have to go back to another NLE and you struggle to reconnect those neural pathways again. “
Thought intriguing thread. One thing Bill was right about, is that people who have never used an NLE, pick up X pretty easily. People who have used other NLE’s tend to need more time. The theory is that us experienced NLE users somehow just don’t get it. I never bought into that, but I have been amazed that anytime we bring up a shortcoming of X, we’re the problem… we just don’t get it. Actually, we do. We have experience from other NLE’s so we know what else is possible. People who only ever used FCP and then FCP X have a more limited view of what could be possible IMO. That’s not a judgement, just an observation.
[Andrew Kimery] “One thing I wonder, and he doesn’t address it in the video, is if he alternated riding a normal bike and a backwards bike on a regular basis would he always go through a ‘re-learning’ stage or could riding both bikes become second nature?”
Good question. I just spent 10 days driving in Scotland on the other side of the road. Can I do it… yes. Am I as good at it as I am driving on the right side of the road… I’d say no. However, if you’ve watched British Top Gear, these three guys move back and forth seamlessly, since they do it on at least a monthly basis. In the case of an NLE, it may be more complicated, since there’s an entire philosophy or mindset involved, but if you only moved back and forth between two, I’d think in time that you could get comfortable…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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[Walter Soyka] “No! (Ha.)”
lol. Nice.
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[Mitch Ives] ” I just spent 10 days driving in Scotland on the other side of the road. Can I do it… yes. Am I as good at it as I am driving on the right side of the road… I’d say no.”
Two things really messed me up during my short (very short) driving stint in England years ago. One was operating a manual transmission with my left hand and the other was roundabouts. I’d always start heading the wrong way on roundabouts until a blood curdling scream from my passenger reminded me I was doing it wrong.
[Mitch Ives] “The theory is that us experienced NLE users somehow just don’t get it.”
Yeah, I don’t agree about not being able to get it either, but experienced users do have expectations as to how it will work based on previous experience and sometimes that can get in the way. This is true of learning any new NLE though. And it’s similar to the bike riding example. If you’ve spent 20yrs riding a bike and suddenly someone gives you a bike that behaves very differently you have a lot more to overcome than someone that has no cycling experience at all.
And some people might just have a knack for learning certain things while others may not. For example, I can’t learn a foreign language to save my life. I took years of classes through middle school, high school and college and I struggled every step of the way. I know other people that speak 2 or 3 languages and didn’t really struggle while learning them.
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[David Lawrence] “speaking as someone who’s never considered “clip collisions” a problem, for me, the magnetic timeline is still a backwards steering bike. 😉
“I think you hit on something here David that I see sometimes, that we don’t really discuss on the forum and I think it causes folks to talk past each other on some points..
That line implies that others may have had a “problem” with clip collisions. Unlike you. (In a way it’s a little like what you accuse Bill of doing but in the reverse, to stay with the thread : )
BTW I enjoy reading your post David, I hope this is not taken as a swipe.
I don’t think people saw it as a “problem”. That was just the way people cut. We ALL cut that way. Now there is a different option.
It’s like when someone sends me an email with an address. Before, I would cut and paste that info into a map search.
Now when I touch that address in the iPhone it just goes right to the spot on the map. I prefer that. I find it more efficient. It has nothing to do with me thinking cut and paste is a “problem”. I have been cutting and pasting for a long time.
I want that map to just open though.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “Charlie Austin] “Seriously, I’ll cut different spots in a couple NLE’s and CMD-TAB from one to another. Sure, there’s the occasional KB shortcut mixup, but it’s really no big deal.”
I’m not sure how that could be true.”
Well, it is.
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~
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