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FCP-X – Application or Platform?
I get that X is fundamentally just a computer program just like any other.
But given the reality of the FCP “start from scratch” approach – I found myself wondering if what we’re seeing in terms of the development pace is less a reflection of some kind of “catch up” race – and more a reflection that the new programs core design encourages that?
Metaphor alert (turn away if you hate these!)
Fixed walls have advantages, but so do cubicles. And if you want to grow fast, cubicles are a lot more flexible than walls. I’ve long argued here that the primary model of X was always to re-engineer a new, more modern CORE. To essentially, re-imagine the power, HVAC, data lines, and the internal structure – then to build the rest in modules that would attach to and enhance that core.Yes, in these updates, enhancements have been applied to the main program. But the BIG changes have more often been in re-imagined modules like Multi-cam – and now the new Multi-channel audio suite.
Doesn’t this reality indicate that Apple is treating FCP-X less as an “application” and more as a “platform.”
Motion and Compressor showed us that from the start Apple saw that “platform attachments” don’t even have to reside inside the core program – they can essentially be external constructs. So we have both internal and external modules surrounding a core. This seems similar to the old “suite” software idea, but I think it’s pretty different.
Essentially with a “platform” intent – I can imagine possibilities for all sorts of what are currently “pie in the sky” ideas – enabled because the software was re-envisioned from day one as “core and modules” rather than a suite of discrete programs with reporting links between them.
It makes me dream. What else could this model encourage? I’d personally LOVE to see an enhanced “database access” module some day into and out of the Event Browser.
Perhaps another class of user would love a “remote webcasting” module or a “WiFi camera array monitoring” module. What else could be possible? The mind boggles.
As an admitted fan of the program, am I just running on the adrenalin of another rapid, really useful update?
I hereby call upon the skeptics and grumblers to do your duty. Show me the folly of my imagination!
I probably need the cold splash of disagreement and perhaps even a healthy dash of derision to soothe my fever’d brow!; )
Food for the debate, anyway, if merely a side dish.
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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29 Replies
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[Bill Davis] “Essentially with a “platform” intent – I can imagine possibilities for all sorts of what are currently “pie in the sky” ideas – enabled because the software was re-envisioned from day one as “core and modules” rather than a suite of discrete programs with reporting links between them… I hereby call upon the skeptics and grumblers to do your duty. Show me the folly of my imagination! I probably need the cold splash of disagreement and perhaps even a healthy dash of derision to soothe my fever’d brow!”
I am sorry to disappoint you, Bill, but I actually agree with you. FCPX could be an amazing platform instead of just an interesting application. In fact, I think opening access to the Event Browser will be critical for capturing high-end marketshare.
I guess the cold water is that Apple has a mixed history of openness. I am somewhat less than cautiously optimistic on this, but it is nice to dream.
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 -
Colour room – The Colour board serves as optimised quick run through – if you want more, launch colour room for fullscreen single viewer colour correction – de-prioritised timeline sits below smoke style, you still get those lovely, supremely responsive power windows, now with tracking, curves, slide over before after splitscreen – say a bunch of aperture style colour correction elements, huds etc.
the coding for the colour correction and effects in FCPX is killer, fast as hell, that has to be the real hard work.
Its impossible to see Apple doing much substantial with the colour board as it stands in a single brick user interface without tabs – there’s only so much room. Although as garchow points out – the fact that red gets a floating hud for its metadata and stuff is interesting.
but bottom line – a colour room.
in the – bo knows football sense of things – Apple just have to know how to put that together pretttty well.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “but bottom line – a colour room.”
A shiver is running up my spine, Aindreas.
You’re starting to exhibit both clarity and sense …
It’s a bit like the – “realigning worlds” scenes from Inception. Disorienting to say the least.
But pleasant, none the less.
Maybe we can both drain and wash a few of the gasoline filled bottles we keep handy on our shelves…?
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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arf – shiver up the leg even? love that chris matthews line.
dunno – my bottles are filled with poitín. makes gasoline look like milk. 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poitín
the crazy thing is Apple could probably quite happily do an awful lot of this stuff, I’m past throwing that “they don’t have the pro-apps people” line, that’s really obviously not true. they’re caning it out.
the thing that drives me mad is that Apple could very likely make the editing software of my dreams. But – how dare they – Apple aren’t making it for me.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “But – how dare they – Apple aren’t making it for me.”
It totally get this. The world would make all of us a lot happier if it would simply acknowledge that each of us are at the direct center of it.
Peace.
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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Can you articulate the way in which a “platform” is different from a “software ecosystem” or a software “studio.” What makes your vision different than Adobe’s dynamic link between a studio of programs or Legacy’s studio + plug-in architecture. I’m not throwing cold water here, I’m trying to understand the difference.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Bill Davis] “each of us are at the direct center of it.”
we don’t all get to be pope or royalty wha?
and actually – while I’m at it – key framing on a hud. this is less platform – more nit picking, but if they have in fact opened pandoras box with the Red hud, the expanded keyframing interface needs to come off the clips – I think it’s really problematic the way it pops up hanging off and tied to the clip as a four story geometrics instance.
for instance – so the keyframing has no independent timeline as it had – I cannot zoom in and out of keyframes separate from the timeline because they have no timeline of their own, – the keyframe interface and the keyframe visiblity is tied to the clips in and out point – if you zoom out on the main timeline, you are zooming out of the keyframing interface, thats maybe not too terrible really – but because the interface is set by clip in out width essentially, you also have no ability to see and adjust a keyframe that ends up outside of the clip out point – you can select forward in the inspector – but you cannot drag and reposition a keyframe back into the clip if you have trimmed back to the extent that the keyframe sits beyond the clip out point. That kind of thing comes up very often, and the only way I can see to reset that keyframe is to physically drag the clip out point to reveal it again.
there’s a whole bunch of stuff like that I find in keyframing, the fact that it is modal with a done button, that speaks to a bit of a problem with geometrics and keyframe animation in the single window non tab environment – that decision by apple has sent some things to very strange places – geometrics as per clip slaves dependent on the width of the clip and the zoom factor on the timeline is one of them
I don’t actually know where apple put a keyframe timeline adjustment panel, but a streamlined narrow box hud slave to inspector scale / rotation / selections – basically just a slim keyframe time ruler hud with keyframe notches that presents the keyframes for the property selected in the inspector or something? either way geometrics has problems in FCPX. And I use that stuff *a ton* for push pull on shots, and the keyframes very, very often end up outside the cut points.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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following on from the keyframing burble there –
possibly even this sneaky little suspect? which I have crudely mocked up -all please ignore shot of a bloke’s kitchen table and lappie, it was a camera track test…
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3421180/keyframe%20lozenge.jpg
it could simply be a neat GUI slide down keyframe strip below the centre bar – this is how 3DS MAX got around the problem of a minimal keyframe timeline, I found it worked really well, although they stuck theirs on the screen base. the important thing is that something like that would restore to some degree the score sheet flexibility for keyframing. Myself I find that sometimes the easiest, and most organic way to adjust a keyframe strength is to move it further away and let the numbers fall off that way. If you need to you can re-assert a new keyframe at the original position and delete the one you sent for off to the right.
Basically keyframes outside the outpoint are important I think.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Herb Sevush] “Can you articulate the way in which a “platform” is different from a “software ecosystem” or a software “studio.” What makes your vision different than Adobe’s dynamic link between a studio of programs or Legacy’s studio + plug-in architecture. I’m not throwing cold water here, I’m trying to understand the difference.”
In my view, a platform provides basic functionality and interesting data to an application.
Imagine if plugins extended functionality, not just added visual effects.
I also associate some openness with the word platform, though upon further thought, wouldn’t include it in the definition. It’s that openness that I think would be critical for making this useful.
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 -
actually I’m mad for this now – screen shot two says he.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3421180/keyframe%20lozenge%202.jpg
and so, he said, here I have selected the previous clip (which actually wasn’t in the previous screen shot but one gets the idea) – and the keyframe strip now refers to its key framed parameters? It’s simply a notched ruler strip, directly equivalent to the timeline ruler strip itself, that exposes the keyframe parameters for the selected clip below on the timeline? the keyframes themselves will zoom in and out dependant on timeline zoom, but the blue strip itself holds steady just like the main timeline ruler.
with the little blue keyframe strip (TM) up, you would get a far better idea of the keyframing inter-relationships in sequential clips, because with it active, just clicking the clips will get instantly get you the keyframes directly above? thats how it was in 3DS MAX to my memory – it was a single object parameter dependent super thin strip timeline, but i recall it was massively handy.
there – don’t anyone say I’m never constructive. which I rarely am.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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