At least one NLE is making great use of the new Touch Bar

[Richard Herd]

[Bill Davis] “Apple is taking their time to THINK ABOUT how to best program for it “

However, IMO, I do not believe Apple is necessarily thinking about it as much as they are waiting for actual user feedback–which is a very good thing, so here’s mine: why do we need a keyboard? It’s really just an “app” type of thing. Screen/monitor here, and a flexible input device doo-dad there — or maybe better than that, where we “program” how much screen real estate is monitor and how much is input device — like the messaging app interface.

However, as always, I believe price point is a real concern. Those little screens as input device are expensive. So as a comparison, put your iPhone 7 on top of the keyboard — who needs a keyboard (except when posting here of course)? — imagine that as the input device.

[Charlie Austin]

[Bill Davis] “It couldn’t be that Apple is taking their time conceptualizing how their own new track bar system might work within the entire X magnetic timeline concept can they? “

I thought we were talking about Resolve?

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~\”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.\”~
~I still need to play Track Tetris sometimes. An old game that you can never win~
~\”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented\”~

[Herb Sevush]

Bill, first of all let me thank you for posting Booker T. — nothing like a little Green Onions for breakfast before I start my day. And I learned something — he was till in high school when he wrote it, and must have been under 20 when he was touring and backing all those great bands. Fantastic.

As to the rest … the Touch Bar is nice, I’m sure it will be useful to some people, but it’s hardly earth shattering. If you really like “touch” interfaces you should try Microsoft – not only a touch “bar” but you can touch the entire screen. But I forgot, you are restricted in your choices because … well, because you are.

I happen to have short stubby fingers, one of them damaged in an old accident, and have no interest in “touch” technology of any kind, but I realize that a generation brought up on “touch” texting will adapt differently.

On the other hand (see what i did there), editing is not organ playing — it does not go faster if you use two hands independently. Two brains would be a help, but that’s called having an AE, and your not allowed to touch them.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Richard Herd]

[Herb Sevush] “If you really like “touch” interfaces you should try Microsoft – not only a touch “bar” but you can touch the entire screen. “

I’ve been using the Surface Book with Creative Cloud for about 10 months now, and in effect it’s still a mouse because tapping the screen is what a mouse does, only now it’s your finger, and all the little dropdown twirlys in After Effects for example are very tiny and they are hard to “tap.” It’s still much mo’ bettuh to use the short cut keyboard commands.

The touchbar appears to be a different concept altogether because it’s (at least in theory) contextual. For me, the question is, will we be able to customize the contextual-ness (aka mapping shortcuts).

[Walter Soyka]

[Richard Herd] “I’ve been using the Surface Book with Creative Cloud for about 10 months now, and in effect it’s still a mouse because tapping the screen is what a mouse does, only now it’s your finger”

Although Adobe has made their applications more touch-friendly, they’re still clearly not designed for touch.

Contrast that with Microsoft Office 365 — especially OneNote — which treats mouse, pen and touch separately for a surprisingly good UX on a computer with a touch screen.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Richard Herd]

Adobe did well with “tablet mode” also especially in Illustrator (haven’t tried AE but that’s because I need lots of monitor real estate [but maybe I don’t…hmm]) when I’m actually using the pen. They far outpace “palm muting” compared to Wacom.

I’ll have to check out OneNote for real. THanks!

[Michael Gissing]

Resolve is trying to innovate and they are often quicker than Apple to leverage Apple hardware. Obviously they would like you to buy their turnkey Linux system with dedicated controllers. But if you insist on driving their software on a laptop then why not give you a hand to make it less painful.

I can see that the touchbar is just an extension of the touchscreen with slightly better ergonomics. Having used dedicated controllers most of my career for DAWs and now use Tangent devices for Resolve, I know the touchbar is not my cup of tea.

However I won’t bad mouth either Blackmagic or Apple for adding functionality that is ergonomically better than a touch screen. The Microsoft surface seems like an attempt to improve touchscreen ergonomics but with typical overhead lighting in studios it won’t suit me. Also I really hate the smudge marks of touch screens. Even on my 8″ NVIDIA shield tablet I use a stylus.

[Bret Williams]

I actually found the touch bar very useful in making our Xmas card photo in Afinnuty Photo. I was using the eraser tool. While using the eraser, without taking my bright hand off the track pad I was able to change the eraser softness, opacity, size etc. Even WHILE erasing.

THAT is the best example Ive found of its usefulness. As a simultaneous additional tool. Really great implementation.

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https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists

[Bret Williams]

The guy at the Apple demo in FCP.co demonstrates the touch bar and can be quoted as saying FCPX has DEEP touch bar integration. So it appears that Apoke thinks they have put quite a lot of time and effort into thinking about it. They just have a different vision possibly.

Also in the video I noted that they use events as I have used them. One event called media, one event called projects. But an additional event for selects which is interesting.

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https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Richard Herd] “so here’s mine: why do we need a keyboard? “

I think as long as you are looking at a monitor and using something else to control the interaction on the said monitor, the tactile feedback is crucial.

Unless they can figure out some way to have tactile feedback in a programmable Touch Bar type of setting (or 7 rows of Touch Bars) I think a keyboard will still win. Otherwise, you are looking down at the controls a lot instead of looking at the monitor.

Although, the things that Apple (and other companies, of course) are doing in haptics, in that they are emulating a surface or button or sound, through haptics, holds a lot of potential, and the technology is here and now.