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FCP X and the Future of Editing
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[Oliver Peters] “The irony is he talks of cluttered timelines because of tracks. Yet I’ve spent far more time shifting my timeline around vertically in X than I have in other track-based NLEs.”
I’m like the Gordon Gecko of UIs: complexity is good.
To be more specific, the complexity of the UI should match the complexity of the task at hand. An application fails when its UI is needlessly complex or overly reductive.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
I was pretty negative at first. I was in the “well, what’s next, Avid or Premiere?” boat for the first 8 months as I kept giving each new version a shot. Usually on my old MacPro 1,1, which wasn’t a good situation. But eventually with a new iMac maxed out, and the multi cam feature I ran into a couple projects we shot on 5D that I was largely on my own (so free to look like an idiot with nobody watching except my wife – who is often the producer, though). It took some getting used to, but I finally saw where they were headed with this thing, as long as they keep pushing forward. I have Premiere and use After Effects quite a bit, but I haven’t really had a chance to dig in to Premiere. The more I played with Premiere, the more I realized it was just FCP 7 1/2. Better and more powerful at many things, but lacking at others.
I now enjoy X’s trackless magnetics, vertically. The horizontal rippling and such I don’t care for. I’m used to it, but it still annoys me. The tilde key saved my sanity. No more connecting stuff to other stuff just to slip a clip or to move a clip. I’ve been using NLEs since 1993 – VideoCube, Media100, Avid, EditDV, FCP 1-7, Premiere, and they all respected time and sync much more than X. This always-on ripple mode was always the downside of consumer editing devices like iMovie and Casablanca. Remember that thing?
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Agreed on the point of married audio clips. I keep them married.
When I talk about it throwing a whole project out of sync, I’m more talking about rippling a timeline. In many situations the VO and/or music track is going to be connected possibly to the first clip or very early in the timeline. As it often is with my projects, the secondaries and connected clips are in sync with the music, and also positioned to relate to the vo. In FCP legacy with all tracks UNLOCKED, or in Avid with all tracks sync-locked (how I worked at all times in both), deleting a clip didn’t ripple unless you told it to. In legacy, you could still throw clips out of sync that had edits before the ripple point, in much the same way that clips connected before the ripple point in X won’t get rippled and will be out of sync (Vo, music, or even secondaries that are connected before the edit point, all depending on the situation. Avid takes it one step further and if you have sync locks on, and try to ripple an in-out area, it will litterally slice through tracks you didn’t want to ripple to preserve sync.
Anyway, my point is that the default behavior in X is the potentially more hazardous behaviour. And without any sort of attic or restore feature to go back a few versions, you could really be stuck. Deleting a clip could even delete an entire secondary edit if you don’t pay attention. Slipping a clip can throw off an entire secondary edit if it’s connected and you don’t use the tilde key.
I prefer my edit system respecting my edit decisions a little more. Yes there are ways around it, and 10.0.6 made a lot of headway. Like I said, I’m used to it. But I wouldn’t expect the casual or new user to be.
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[Bret Williams] “Avid takes it one step further and if you have sync locks on, and try to ripple an in-out area, it will litterally slice through tracks you didn’t want to ripple to preserve sync. “
It’s ironic that you mention Avid because in Media Composer the default configuration is to have sync locks turned off.
I agree with you about preserving broll cut to music or VO. I wish the “override clip connections” command were a toggle rather than a hold down shortcut, which would solve that problem nicely.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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True, but even without, you have to be very specific about what tracks are affected, so without them it could be argued that it is quite a deliberate process, so whatever happens is up to the user. I kept them on to keep accidents from happening. Everything was very deliberate. Mark, lift, ripple, etc.
I think toggle ripple (horizontal magnetics) and toggle tilde would solve a lot of grief.
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Why are you shuffling vertically?
Also, FCP X takes up lots more screen real estate than 7. Mainly because of how much space it wastes especially with expanded tracks, plus the smallest track height is nearly double that of legacy.
I guess making compound clips helps, but I avoid them except for minor compositing where they are needed to achieve an effect. But that held for legacy as well.
And if you’re not compounding 12 layers is no different than 12 tracks.
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[Bret Williams] “Why are you shuffling vertically?
Also, FCP X takes up lots more screen real estate than 7.”If you mean me, then because of what you just said. I’m talking about scrolling up and down, not rearranging connected clips. They do that quite nicely on their own when I don’t want them to. 😉
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[David Lawrence] “Gee, I thought all that “clutter” on the timeline including empty space was information.”
David,
Everybodyknowsthatwhitespacecarriesnomeaningfulinformation 🙂
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] “I’m like the Gordon Gecko of UIs: complexity is good.
To be more specific, the complexity of the UI should match the complexity of the task at hand. An application fails when its UI is needlessly complex or overly reductive.
“Walter, I know that complexity is sometimes unavoidable. But that’s why humans have struggled mightily for all of history to tame it. (Or didn’t someone here think the 3 ring binder was a smart idea?)
And I’m not sure its too safe to argue that tools that make complex tasks easier to manage necessarily “dumb down” the complexity of either the tasks themselves or most users approach to dealing with them. I think, instead, that the best tools evolve to confront the new necessities and technologies of society. That’s why we moved from rocks to hammeers to compressor driven nail guns.
And to the usual subjects who seem to always stop by to toss a few extra stones at X – yawn.
The X approach isn’t the devil incarnate, it’s actually just a different set of drawers, folders and cubbyholes used to organize the same elements we’ve always had. Maybe you’re the type of person who is ONLY happy when everything is spread out on the table or hanging on individual pegs on the workshop pegboard. But others of us WANT to have toolboxes, cabinets, and most definitely pre-configured socket sets to keep our world organized when we sit down to use out do stuff.
I’m still astonished at the rigidity of the group who simply can’t be happy with a world where there are THREE major editors that all work nearly the same, traditional way – and have to push back at every opportunity to belittle the ONE software approach that gives a user the choice of a different organizational structure.
You all just can’t have been THAT hurt by the discontinuation of Legacy can you? So much that way more than a year later you’re still pissed? Wow.
Sorry it’s forcing you to live with such a sour outlook. That can’t be fun.
Personally, I’m actually having more fun editing than ever! Largely because X makes it simply more enjoyable. I’m working faster, I have the ability to try things with impunity since there’s no big render penalty any longer – and I’m able to comp, deploy and get feedback faster than at any time in my career.
The OP in the original article pretty much gave cogent reasons for his opinions. Whats the point of arguing that he shouldn’t like what he likes? That just seems silly.
The only thing WEIRD about that is that it makes those who hate the software so deeply have to confront the fact that the tool – as it stands right now – satisfies an ever widening swath of editors.
Sooner or later, some of you are going to have to drop all the angst and simply deal with that reality.
But I’m not holding my breath. ; )
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Walter Soyka] “Everybodyknowsthatwhitespacecarriesnomeaningfulinformation :)”
LOLthat’sright,Walter.Iforgot!_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
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