How Many real time layers in FCPX?

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Darren Kelly] “In FCP7, any use of a drop shadow would grind things to a halt.”

I think I’m right in saying there’s no drop shadow in FCPX yet.

As for the rest of your question, FCPX definitely gives you more “real-time” capability, though ultimately you do have to render everything, whether in the background or not. How many layers will obviously depend on a number of factors so a meaningful answer is probably not possible.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[David A fenton]

Drop Shadow not supported directly in FCPX yet…

David A Fenton
https://youtube.com/dfmediainc

[Olof Ekbergh]

You need fast drives to get the greatest real time performance.

A Thunderbolt RAID would help a lot.

For drop shadows you could build a generator in Motion with drop shadow and publish it and all the settings to FCPX, then use that in multiple iterations to build your PIC timeline when you need drop shadow.

Or it may be easier t build the whole composite in Motion, that is what it is for.

Sorry I don’t have your setup so I cant give a performance estimate, just try it out. Motion is pretty fast for previewing complex comps.

Olof Ekbergh

[Simon Ubsdell]

[olof ekbergh] “Motion is pretty fast for previewing complex comps.”

Absolutely agree. Elaborate compositing in FCP is not time well spent, now any more than previously. Motion is for compositing, FCP is for editing and always has been. The real-time capabilities of Motion have meant that it has always been the fastest mograph solution around despite not having all the power of AE.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Darren Kelly]

Thanks everyone for addressing my question. I’m surprised – although not really – that Apple didn’t support this basic technique in FCPX. If I complained to 1 FCP engineer, I complained to them all over the past 10 years.

Especially after Premiere 5.0 supporting tons of layers with FX on them. I was watching a demo on YouTube today.

I know motion would do this, but I am a real After Effects fan, and did most of my complicated compositing in it.

I hate to join the haters on FCPX, but I guess I will move along.

Really disappointing. Very disappointed.

Thanks again

[Nick Toth]

2512_dropshadow.zip

This is a drop shadow for FCP X from Motion 5

NT

[Phillip Hollweg]

I feel your pain, Darren.

I have also struggled with this in FCP7. I place motion files into sequences along with editable motion templates (for text callouts, section titles etc), backgrounds, stock footage, etc. This is compositing from a technical point of view — and the real-time performance suffers accordingly, but primarily it’s editing when you take into account that the voice track, the music, the sound effects and my basic video cuts are all in FCP.

I would prefer not to export my motion files to .mov while editing. I like to adjust the timing and design of the animations as I edit them together with all the other elements.

Exporting chunks of audio out of FCP so that all my compositing can happen in Motion is just another kind of performance penalty 🙂 I don’t like to edit in Motion!

With FCP7 my biggest wish-list item is more real-time preview performance, and the computer that would deliver that. I moved all my media to an internal level 0 RAID, my render files to an attached level 5 RAID, and I’m still looking a blurry, jerky previews. From what I have read about FCPX so far, this is not likely to change for 720p30 projects?

Will gobs of RAM and the best video card make a huge difference? My system (dual 2.8 GHz) runs on 8GB and a Radeon 4870.

Regards, Phillip Hollweg