-
FCP X Summit: new features/news
-
“Off the Tracks” was fantastic. A work in progress to be sure, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and watching it in a room filled with professional FCP X users, members of the Pro Apps team, and the film’s creator Bradley Olsen, was an amazing experience.
I’m not sure how it will be received outside the FCP X community since so many people have decided to hate FCP X whether they’ve actually used it or not, no matter how much it has developed over the years. Flying home from the FCP X Creative Summit I read a post online, “People still use FCP X? Lol.” All you can do is roll your eyes. To be in the company of so many editors from all over the world, all using FCP X successfully, from public access shows to weddings to corporate videos to broadcast television to feature films, and read yet another sarcastic, ill-informed comment like that, is just absurd. I have been in threads that have shown dozens and dozens of professional projects created in FCP X and someone still posts, “FCP X is not professional.” Talk about a reality tunnel.
The film was a blast. But like all things related to FCP X I anticipate a wave of negativity with little to no merit.
Gabriel Spaulding
Creator & Director of ACE Enterprizes
Videographer | Video Editor | Motion DesignerHow Can We Help You Tell Your Story?
http://www.aceenterprizes.com -
Rather than requiring every user to pay for features they will never use FCP X has a vibrant 3rd party community that helps users meet the needs of their particular niche. For the most part this works very well. In the case of the new color tools in FCP X 10.4 it appears that Apple decided it best to provide those tools to all users. This is a good thing. I have no insight into Apple’s decision making process, no idea how they determine what should be built-in and what is best left to 3rd party developers, but new functionality is never a bad thing (provided it is well-implemented).
“If I was an X user I would be pretty disappointed.”
You are not an X user. FCP X users are by and large NOT disappointed by the little we know about the 10.4 update.
“Why are they not pushing the requested audio features to roles?”
All in good time. We’ve only had Roles (in their current form) for about a year, and they were a significant workflow improvement. Apple has a patent on a Roles-based mixer. While some companies like to bolt on new features regardless of how well they are implemented, doing things the same way they’ve always been done, with FCP X Apple takes a different approach. Is it always better? No. Is it frequently better? Yes —depending on who you are and how you like to work.
Gabriel Spaulding
Creator & Director of ACE Enterprizes
Videographer | Video Editor | Motion DesignerHow Can We Help You Tell Your Story?
http://www.aceenterprizes.com -
[Gabriel Spaulding]”All in good time. We’ve only had Roles (in their current form) for about a year, and they were a significant workflow improvement.”
In that time Blackmagic purchased Fairlight and put it inside Resolve (not yet finished but pretty amazing). My point is all about how long that “all in good time” seems to me. Yes I am not an X user, hence why I ask if the pace of development as evidenced by the announced updates is satisfying to users. I’m particularly interested in the audio developments as X has always presented as a tool to edit and finish. The improvements to the grade tools seems evidence of that but comparing the pace of development to other companies I again ask if Apple are meeting expectations and desires.
-
[Michael Gissing] “but there is a translate issue with fcpxml to Resolve that compounds clips that aren’t.”
Hate to be that guy, but I do think it’s a Resolve issue.
There have been issues in the past, and simply by modifying the XML in text, you could fix the problem (this was on XML Export from Resolve in to FCPX).
If a guy like me can figure out how to validate the XML, I’m sure the smart folks at DaVinci/Blackmagic can do it.
If you export and then import an XML in to FCPX, you don’t get all the compound clips.
If you read the resulting XMLs from Resolve, you can see that compounds are written in to the XML. So it’s definitely on the Resolve side as those same compounds are not in the FCP XML.
Maybe someone should write a Resolve XML cleaner. But….third party be damned….. 🙂
-
[Jeremy Garchow] “Maybe someone should write a Resolve XML cleaner. But….third party be damned….. :)”
I should point out that I am not against such software. After all I have iZotope, Boris Continuum, Voxengo and Red Giant plug ins, plus AATranslator to clean up AAFs, OMFs etc”. My argument has always hinged around core and non core functionality which is always just a matter of opinion and where you sit in the workflow chain.
You are probably correct that it is on the BM side. How easy is it on the X side to strip out all effects prior to exporting an xml?
-
[Gabriel Spaulding] ” is just absurd. “
I agree that it’s absurd, but post-purchase rationalization is everywhere. I mean, I don’t think I can go more than a few days w/o seeing an X supporter bashing another NLE on Twitter or FB. Or a PPro supporter bashing another NLE on Twitter or FB. Or an Avid MC supporter bashing another NLE on Twitter or FB. Oh, the bane of being NLE agnostic, I get to experience the best, and worst, of each NLE (and their communities). ????
-
“I again ask if Apple are meeting expectations and desires.”
Rather than piling code on top of old code Apple took a risk, wiped the slate clean, and built FCP X from the ground up, delivering a new video editing paradigm that covers both organization and editing. The amount of development it has seen in the past six years is damn impressive. For some the risk was well worth it. For others it was not, and no matter how powerful FCP X becomes they will never be swayed. So be it. Based on the numbers of FCP X users Apple is reporting I’d say that all in all people are satisfied.
There is a big difference between simply bolting on a feature and re-thinking a feature and implementing it in a novel way. Inventing new ways of doing things takes more time.
Those who think keywords and smart collections are just like bins clearly have not grasped the power of keywords and smart collections. Those who think the magnetic timeline is nothing more than a permanent ripple edit mode are completely oblivious to the core of what the magnetic timeline functionally is. One has every right to prefer tracks, or to prefer bins. There is nothing wrong with having a personal preference.
Every NLE comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. I have my own list of things I’d love to see in FCP X. When I was a Premiere user, though, I wasn’t looking for new features, I wished that the existing features were implemented differently. I hated using Premiere. I could get my work done, but it was a frustrating, clunky experience for me. That doesn’t make Premiere a bad NLE, it was just bad for me. FCP X works extremely well for me. I actually LOVE using it. FCP X meets my expectations and desires, and those of at least 2 million others.
Gabriel Spaulding
Creator & Director of ACE Enterprizes
Videographer | Video Editor | Motion DesignerHow Can We Help You Tell Your Story?
http://www.aceenterprizes.com -
[Michael Gissing] “You are probably correct that it is on the BM side. How easy is it on the X side to strip out all effects prior to exporting an xml?”
Easy. There’s a “Remove Effects” command these days.
Also, an extremely handy utility is here which will remove the effects and write it back to the xml, which means you don’t need FCPX to see what effects remain in the XML and remove them: https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/X-FXHandler/
-
Thanks Gabriel but I wasn’t asking about the past six years but whether this latest release is progressing things for users. Plus our resident X champion, Bill, has been banging on like this for years so it really doesn’t need the rehash history lesson.
I’ve been on this forum the whole six plus years since it began so again I ask the simple question of whether 10.4 is a good release for X users or disappointing.
-
[Jeremy Garchow] “Easy. There’s a “Remove Effects” command these days.”
Thanks. Exactly the info I need. The Spherico tool looks good but I am not resending back to X or Pr these days mostly but if a client wants it and will bother to use the tool then that’s great info I can pass on.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up