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Avid Media Composer 7 out – anyone excited?
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[Andrew Kimery] “W/regards to the Smart Tools, to me they still feel very clunky compared to performing similar actions in FCP’s timeline.”
My solution to Smart Tool is to enable all of the tool functions. Have it normally off and map ST to a hot key, so you can turn it on when you need it. Also set your settings so that it disables when you click the TC ruler. This way, one click enables any of the functions and when you go to scrub the timeline, it automatically is disengaged. Then the operation feels more or less like clicking a tool key in FCP7.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
You should email marianna, Shell sort you out pronto.
I waas waiting on 5 licenses that didnt show up till late yesterday afternoon.
Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – The Esquire Network – NBC/Uni
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[Oliver Peters] “My solution to Smart Tool is to enable all of the tool functions. Have it normally off and map ST to a hot key, so you can turn it on when you need it. Also set your settings so that it disables when you click the TC ruler. This way, one click enables any of the functions and when you go to scrub the timeline, it automatically is disengaged. Then the operation feels more or less like clicking a tool key in FCP7.”
This is pretty much how I work too. I never understood why people make such a fuss about modes. What is the operational difference between modes and tools anyway? In FCP7 there’s a gazillion single-purpose tools that you constantly need to switch between. Very annoying. With Avid’s Smart Tool, switching between modes is pretty much transparent, and you get the benefit of a proper trim mode.
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[Chris Harlan] ” The mode to mode thing used to bug me, too; but when I got a little more simpatico with the software, it disappeared as an issue. You begin to understand that it is there so that you can operate more efficiently in the mode you happen to be in. It also has become so easy to cross between them, mouse-wise, that I don’t think about it much.”
Perhaps because I’ve used Media Composer from the beginning, I’ve never for the life of me understood what people are talking about when they mention these mythical “modes” that supposedly don’t exist in other packages. I’ve asked, and nobody can explain it to me either.
MC is my tool of choice, and to the OP, yes, I’m very excited by MC7. Background render and waveform cache alone made it a must-buy for me. But lately I’ve been doing a lot of feature work in FCP 7, and while I’ve grown accustomed to it (this is my 4th feature edit for a company whose workflow revolves around it), and actually like it for some things, I still have to go into a “mode” to edit effects in it too. What am I missing here, folks? Whether I have to click a tab (FCP) or press a key (MD) to open the effect editor, to me doesn’t make a difference. Both still effect editing modes.
Confounded.
Chris
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You might, and I want to stress MIGHT have luck by AMA-ing all the clips into another bin. Select all the clips in the bin, then leave that bin open. Open your sequence bin. Select the sequence and try to relink AMA clips with the “Relink to Selected clips in open bins” option. This might relink your files for you.
Good luck. As has been mentioned, relinking AMA is a dicey proposition at best.
Chris
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Or just install as a trial until the licensing gets sorted out. That’s what I did.
I finally got my email from them and it updated just fine.
Chris
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Hey Chris!
I think where most people who come from FCP get caught up on modes is while trimming. In FCP, many folk tend to trim on the timeline via mouse, almost never opening up FCP’s trim window. Used this way, FCP does not distinguish between modes, ala trim and source/record. With this approach, people tend to blob things onto the timeline and then sculpt with trimming, and the context-sensative cursor is probably the best around. It becomes a seamless work area.
In a similar vein, I’ve seen a lot of people come from Avid to work on FCP, who add a lot of needless steps, like generating black/slug everywhere, or complain about FCP’s substantially inferior trimming powers when they actually don’t understand some of the more effective ways to trim. I do believe, btw, that MC offers much better trimming capabilities, just not “substantially” better. And that’s the thing about FCP Legacy; it mimicked so many different NLEs that you could work with in the style you were accustomed to, without understanding that it represented a single approach. It was part Avid, Montage, D/Vision, Speed Razor, and could be operated from any of those disparate angles.
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I suppose so, but so rarely do I simply want to trim one side of a cut away from the seam, so I’ve locked R and RR into my mind to get me into a useful trim mode anyway.
I did program trim to tail and trim to head onto my FCP keyboard which is pretty much analogous to Avid’s Top/Tail commands. That’s pretty great.
I also programmed extend edit onto my FCP keyboard to emulate one of my favorite Avid shortcuts.
Coming from Avid I’m a keyboard guy; I prefer to press a key than wear my wrist out mousing around and pressing tools clear off to the side of my timeline. I guess what I’m saying is, I feel like I have to touch a key in either to get it into a mode I actually would USE, so I still don’t see much difference.
And that’s not in defense of either, as they seem pretty much identical once I have my keyboard shortcuts programmed. I can even make FCP trim pretty much like Avid. Although, as you mentioned, Avid does have a few particularly nice tricks up its sleeves (try option-clicking the trim tool after completing a complicated asyncronous trim sometime…)
Chris
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[Chris Conlee] “Good luck. As has been mentioned, relinking AMA is a dicey proposition at best.”
I’ll give it a shot, thanks!
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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~
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