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Back to FCPX From PP (Rant)
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For a free editor, Resolve is pretty decent and getting better every release. But I’ve come to realize it’s actually (in a way) a combination of all the bad parts of Premiere and X. From X it has the non-customizable interface. The horrible keyframing engine (right down to no easing of position Keyframes) timelines without tabs, and a single bin window. From premiere it has- tracks and patching, hover scrub instead of skimming, bins instead of keyword collections, and playback resolution lowering instead of the “better performance” toggle of X. Let’s not forget a slew of confusing settings and preference panels akin to premiere AND legacy.
And they forgot to take direct link or motion integration from either, OR affordable plugins. Those are big issues for me.
I’m being a little tongue in cheek, but every time I give it a shot I keep thinking how hey, it’s like X, but with tracks instead like premiere. But it’s not. When you get to it the best stuff about X is the performance. Render, playback, export, proxies and things like a timeline that gets out of the way to avoid clip collisions and destructive editing. The keywording is one of greatest strengths too as is the motion/plugin/template integration. NONE of that in Resolve.
In premiere, the stuff I wish X had was the interface customization, the send to AE direct link, having multiple bins open, having tabbed timelines and pancaking, the fantastic keyframe controls, and even the ability to full-frame any window. Resolve has none X of that.
It’s like they took the worst parts of X, and combined them with a Premiere that’s missing what’s cool about Premiere.
But at least it’s color correction is decent. 🙂
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I’ve stopped being interested in about what others think of X.
And I don’t think my producer gives a damn, either, as Friday he was literally dancing with joy after the big cheese watched the edit and gave a thumbs-up, no revisions to that morning’s work. The edit was completed in about… 60% ?…. sort of hard to actually say half, of the time it would’ve taken me on other NLEs. Keywording, mag timeline, connected clips all major contributors in that time savings.
Back to the issue, though, I’m going to agree with both Lillian AND Andrew, et al. Over the years, IMHO, PPro has always been more “flaky” than the others. Reading the forums, there seems to be a never-ending stream of issues. Many are user-created for whatever reason, but the overall vibe seems to be a house made of bamboo, not steel. (yeah, sucky analogy, but only 1 cup of coffee so far today) If you get your house in proper shape, and don’t poke at the foundations, PPro will be pretty solid (linking, ahem), only sometimes requiring things like cut n’ paste of project info. FCPX, on the other hand, just works. (yeah, after initial fiasco) Going back to the little scenario above, I’m working on some final tweaks to that edit, maybe moving a bit too fast, as my commands are starting to buffer, then execute, and X goes POOF. System needs a hard reboot. General gasps from producer & others, while I calmly go for a stick of gum. No concern, because I’ve never had a project get corrupt in X. About a minute later, full reboot, back editing (man, I SO love SSDs). Now, had that project been an effects heavy one, I very well might have been considerably slower than linking PPro/AE. Still shaking my head that Motion is left adrift from X.
We’re just still not a point where we can deal in absolutes in which NLE is, in all cases, better. Hammer vs screwdriver. Right tool n’ all that.
More coffee now.
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[Bob Woodhead] ” Now, had that project been an effects heavy one, I very well might have been considerably slower than linking PPro/AE. Still shaking my head that Motion is left adrift from X. “
I find it interesting that AE is considerably more solid than Premiere. Using Automatic Duck, FCPX plus AE make a good combo.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Using Automatic Duck, FCPX plus AE make a good combo.”
Yeah, I really should give that a spin. I still do the manual go-around.
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[Bob Woodhead] “Back to the issue, though, I’m going to agree with both Lillian AND Andrew, et al. Over the years, IMHO, PPro has always been more “flaky” than the others.”
Just to clarify my experiences, over the past 2-3yrs that I’ve been using PPro I personally haven’t noticed it being any more temperamental or quirky in general than FCP Legend or Avid (don’t use X so I can’t talk about it first hand). There have been times where corruption, for lack of a better term, has forced me to copy/paste entire FCP projects from one project to another or to copy/paste all the contents from one Avid bin into another in an attempt fix problems so my suggestion about importing one PPro project into anther is actually borne from doing similar things in the past in other NLEs.
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Yeah I’m not buying the FCP X never has problems summary. One thing all these apps have in common is that they are run on computers and media drives. If any file or the original media gets corrupted then FCP X or any other app will not be able to read it. X some times gets back on track with a reboot. some times by dumping preferences. some times by relinking. But some times all is lost and hopefully you backed up.
One thing I have noticed is that FC will when faced with certain problems will crash the entire OS. That is something OS X was suppose to not allow. I have seen this when one media clip was corrupted when trying to import.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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Oliver,
AE/duck is a better round trip to FCP X than Motion? Or just you prefer AE?
Can you buy AE stand alone?
Or just monthly as part of a package.
If only by subscription, what happens if you stop paying?
I suppose once clips are sent back to FC, you don’t need AE for those projects?What exactly is the problem with Motion/FCPX RT?
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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[Craig Alan] “AE/duck is a better round trip to FCP X than Motion? Or just you prefer AE?”
First of all, there is no full, two-way roundtrip with Motion nor with After Effects. Automatic Duck Ximport enables direct import of an FCPXML file for a sequence into AE. XtoCC also enables similar possibilities by converting an FCPXML into XML, which can then be imported into AE. It’s an extra step, but there are pros and cons with each method. In both cases, it’s a one-way into AE. From AE you would generate a rendered, flattened file. At this point, there is no way to get a sequence of clips from a timeline into Motion in the same way as with AE.
As far as AE versus Motion, they are both great tools. I know no one personally (not counting my friends online that are Motion experts) who actually uses Motion professionally. Nor Nuke or Fusion for that matter. I do interact with plenty of folks who use AE, so in my freelance gigs, at a minimum a functional knowledge of AE is pretty important.
[Craig Alan] “Can you buy AE stand alone?”
The only standalone option would be to buy the CS6 package. Otherwise it’s subscription for a current version.
[Craig Alan] “If only by subscription, what happens if you stop paying?
I suppose once clips are sent back to FC, you don’t need AE for those projects?”Assuming you don’t need to re-edit, you would have final, rendered movies. If you do need to re-edit, you just renew the subscription for a month.
[Craig Alan] “What exactly is the problem with Motion/FCPX RT?”
It no longer exists. Ask Apple why.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] ” I know no one personally (not counting my friends online that are Motion experts) who actually uses Motion professionally.”
I am actually going to learn Motion this spring and incorporate it into my post workflow. Love what AE can do, but the interface is awful (to me). I don’t consider myself an AE artist, just someone who can do some basic things when needed. Hoping Motion can fit that bill with better FCPX integration and a better interface…we shall see. Premiere is still flaky on my MacPro and I will not use it unless forced to.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Craig Alan] “Yeah I’m not buying the FCP X never has problems summary.”
Lol… didn’t say it never has problems, just that every time it’s gone POOF on me, I’ve never lost a single edit. Never had to ditz around with prefs or files. Just relaunch, and there’s the last thing I was working on. And yeah, that story from last week, the OS locked up. But 1 minute reboot & I’m back to where I was, nothing lost or corrupt.
I’m quite ready to bash parts of X I don’t care for… eg, how long it takes the filters window to list. ugh. stupid thumbnails is my guess. Inability to custom window interface.
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