best way for Avid editor to learn FCP

[Kevin Monahan]

Sit down for an hour or two with someone that knows both systems. Nothing, and I mean nothing beats 1 on 1 training.

I was able to transpose most duties within a few hours of messing around on my own. It’s like Avid, but without modes. There is also a book “Final Cut Pro for Avid Editors” that you might want to check out. The editor for my book worked on that one.

Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com

[Dean Sensui]

If you can sit with an FCP editor that would be the best way. Then you could ask questions regarding Avid workflow concepts and see how they’re handled within FCP.

If not, then jumping in and doing a small time-insensitive project would be another way, and making good use of the online documentation. The books are huge and cumbersome.

Going to an FCP workshop is yet another. If you’ve already tried using the software then you’ll go in with a little background in advance and in this case a little knowledge can be a good thing.

Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com

[Walter Biscardi]

An excellent book is Jerry Hofmann’s Final Cut Pro 4. It still pretty much applies to FCP 5.0. Excellent read and you can probably skim through pretty much the entire book in about a day or two just to find all the commands that you’re looking for.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X

[Francois]

I’ve been there 4 years ago . best way (if not only)… start working on something ! I’ve started in october 2001 editing six x 26 ‘ documentaries with Lisa Brenneis book wide open by my side, from scratch

Fcp rules

[Mark Raudonis]

Training… books… just jumping in. All good advice.

Don’t underestimate the learning curve. We’ve transitioned close to a hundred former AVID editors to FCP, and I can accurately say that you’ll be functioning in a few days, but not really comfortable for weeks. Like learning a foreign language, you’re not really fluent until you start “thinking” in the new language, or in this case, when one stops trying to turn FCP into an AVID. It’s not. Those that approach FCP with an open mind are ultimately more successful than those that just complain about how it’s not like their Avid.

Good luck, and welcome!

Mark

[Dan Riley]

Would you happen to be the Frank Muldoon that worked at
WXLT TV Sarasota in the 70s?
If so Hi. Remember Dan Riley?

As for FCP/AVID. I was a media composer guy and
transitioned over the last few years from AVID to
FCP online. Sitting with someone who uses FCP
is probably a good idea because like someone said
earlier, you can compare what you want to make the
software do on the AVID with how you would do it
on FCP. I find my editing to be much faster on FCP,
but imputing footage and media management to be
cumbersome with FCP. Those are the two areas
where it’s just not where it needs to be.
But for getting work done, I love FCP.

Dan
dan@rylow.com

[Blub06]

Cut cut cut.

I went from cutting broadcast long and short form work one day to cutting the same on FCP the next day. It took about one or two weeks to really feel like I could do almost anything on FCP I coudl do on the Aivd. Those were 5 day weeks 10 hour days.

Cut cut cut.

Chris

[Martin Baker]

Mark

This is very good advice about mindset and “not trying to turn it into an Avid”. I’ll be training two experienced Avid editors on FCP very shortly and I have a question about keyboard shortcuts – should I encourage them to embrace FCP’s native shortcuts or customise it to near Avid’s layout? Unfortunately the editors will be regularly switching between Avid and FCP in the future rather than going with FCP exclusively.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
________________________________________
Ten Final Cut Plug-ins for just $10 each

[Andy Mees]

Hey Martin

its kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other.
embracing FCP’s native commands will give them a mutual reference point with other FCP editors, allow them to work on any FCP station anywhere and possibly also help them to break away from any ingrained ideas of doing things the Avid way.
on the other hand, it’s so easy to customise and they would ceratinly be more comfortable and more productive much more quickly with an Avid like setup … things like using v and b instead of F9 and F10 are the obvious ones.

if they already use and know the Avid shortcuts, and will continue to work on Avid then my feeling is it does make sense for them to create a customised Avid style keyboard layout … i would teach them according to the official layout, but also teach them early on how to customise things.

cheers
Andy

[Les Kaye]

[Martin Baker] “should I encourage them to embrace FCP’s native shortcuts or customise it to near Avid’s layout?”

IMHO, they shouldn’t customize the keyboard until they learn FCP COMFORTABLY first. If they customize first, they’ll probably disable FCP features they probably won’t know exist, not to mention that more than a few mapped FCP functions either don’t exist in Avid, or aren’t mapable.

Good luck.