Development

[Nikolas Bäurle]

Bret, i did write …”other than some UI elemets”, but your right, its probably most of the UI. I’ve never used imovie other than on my ipad, i didn’t know it had better real time processing power than Legacy. Well, i never really cared to check. FCP7 feels crappier every day, but I still have to use it Arrghhh!!!

“Always look on the bright side of life” – Monty Python

[Bret Williams]

When X was demoed, many went to look at iMovie on their computer. When you rearranged things, it was very similar looking and it was all about connected clips and events. And built in was all the cool stuff they were hyping about X! The automatically adjusting waveforms. The magnetic timeline. The precision editor. The RT audio and video filters. It was all there in iMovie! The more you looked at it, whether built on the same code or not, X, back then, it was obviously iMovie with more cool stuff and missing a lot of stuff that seemed to be pretty integral to a Pro App. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that X had all the features of iMovie, but was missing many (added later) of legacy. If they really had built it from the ground up, seems like they would have started with a lot of stuff that was originally omitted. I think they either started with full iMovie compatibility in mind or with the iMovie code base. There’s not much other explanation. But in a way it was a good thing. Everything they’ve added back has been in a better way like scopes and multicam. Even the drop shadow is better. I’ll bet iMovie didn’t have a drop shadow effect.

[Richert Goyette]

I understand that there was substantial debate about the direction of Final Cut Pro in 2009 and early 2010 and once Steve Jobs made the decision to go where the puck was going to be (FCPX), a number of disaffected video engineers were laid off in Austin and LA. So, that may help with the framing of the time. And, I agree, they must have used some of the architecture from iMovie ’08 so as not to reinvent the wheel.

[Charlie Austin]

FWIW, In some interviews I’ve read, they say when they wrote X they took some concepts from the old iMovie, but the code and workflow etc was completely different. AV Foundation (X) vs Quicktime (iMovie)

However, after playing with iMovie for a couple hours, it seems like the opposite is true now, and the new iMovie is kind of based on FCP X. Open it it up and mess with it a bit and you’ll see what I mean. It looks similar, but it’s a *lot* different than the previous version. Also, the “Trailer” templates are actually really cool. If I could get XML out I’d just use those at work. LOL (I’m only half kidding….)

So… FCPX isn’t “iMovie Pro” at all, but maybe iMovie is now FCPX Lite. 🙂

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Ronny Courtens]

Was FCPX based on iMovie? No. Is the new iMovie based on FCPX? Absolutely yes.
The new iMovie X is getting much closer now to FCPX than ever before. I now call it FCPXpress (-:

If you play around with it you even discover some things that some of us have been asking for FCPX (this little list is from TPayton + some by me):

– Rethought UI – Flatter, square corners, less depth on timeline.
– No more separate „Projects” folders. Project files reside in the Events folders.
– Individual import progress indicators in the Event for clips that are being imported.
– “Used Media” range markers on clips in Event.
– Greatly improved performance (scrolling filmstrips)
– Titles based on Motion templates (some are the same as in X)
– Blazing fast Motion Template performance (iMovie X is monumentally faster at editing titles than current FCPX)
– Notifications after completed exports
– Video fade-in fade-out handles
– Length indicators for handles
– An extra audio track (yes, a track) that is not connected to the Storyline

It runs on the same Framework as FCPX, you can share templates between them, it has the same (but simplified) retiming and stabilization features, etc…

I have found it quite performant, playing three layers (PIP) of non-optimized 1080p30 MPEG4 with effects and titles on top in realtime and without any hiccups… on the most basic Mini with 2 GB RAM.

Here’s an iMovieX timeline:

– Ronny

[Aindreas Gallagher]

Chris Kenny back in the house by god.

sure will we not start talking about first cut and that fateful presentation by ubillos to steve jobs all over again? 🙂

because somehow I don’t feel we fully covered that. ahem.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Steve Connor]

[Ronny Courtens] “I have found it quite performant, playing three layers (PIP) of non-optimized 1080p30 MPEG4 with effects and titles on top in realtime and without any hiccups… on the most basic Mini with 2 GB RAM.
“

It will also import and play 4K XAVC footage!

Steve Connor

There’s nothing we can’t argue about on the FCPX COW Forum

[Aindreas Gallagher]

I’m late at work – me me – I want a go at this. so maybe as early as 2006-2007?

https://isachin.com/2011/06/30/why-apple-built-final-cut-pro-x/

way, way back I used to post that link as something inflammatory – I’m not now – but it would make you think that apple were starting the initial intellectual shift surprisingly early – folklore (and god knows how many old posts) have it that the entire paradigm was accidentally first presented as a seed to steve jobs by randy ubillos (the FCP Jony Ives) as what he called ‘first cut’ – in late 2006.
it was sort of something like adobe prelude is now – as a wildly ahead of its time enhanced logger with editing assembly, database tagging stuff – this was before imovie 08. That’s basically the understood inception point.

after the demo Jobs apparently turned around and told him to flatout make it the basis for broad scale video editing going forward. So ubillos did. It was first executed in imovie 08 –
thats where the “its imovie” stuff comes from. Basically Ubillos walked in with a thing and jobs made a taste call that it was a basis for something much broader.

If you look back two years you will find absolutely no one on this forum going completely bonkers on the topic.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Charlie Austin]

[Ronny Courtens] “- An extra audio track (yes, a track) that is not connected to the Storyline”

Actually, it’s not a track really, it’s more like a hidden secondary, always in position mode, permanently connected to the first frame of the timeline. (if you drag a clip out of that region it becomes a connected clip, just as it would in an X secondary) …I guess it is kind of a track huh? lol Who knows if that’ll show up in X for the next release, or ever, but it’s a cool idea… So, if it were to appear, obviously with more control, then at some point you could cut in the X timeline with any combination of:

Magnetism
Fixed “tracks”
Ripple Mode (MC Style)
“Free” mode (FCP 7/Pr)
Maybe a Role based “Z-Order” sorting (no hints of this, but I know a lot of folks want it)
Connections or disabled connections

Anything else? Seems to me like the best of, uh… everything.

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Ronny Courtens]

Correct, Charlie. When you insert a clip at the start of the timeline the cops on the “track” are pushed backwards. So no, no real independent track.

– Ronny