-
I need to vent
-
What’s different with psd files is that in fcp7 I had to send the clip back to the editor from the app, and it would relink unless I changed the number of layers. Fcx brings the files in flat, which I like. It gives me a thumbnail. I don’t have to send the file to the editor from the application. I don’t need to save alpha channels, just leave transparent holes. I can add or remove layers at will and when I tab back to fcx, the file relinks, the thumbnail updates and it works exactly the way I expect it to.
I rarely liked the way psd layers import into FCP. If I wanted to animate the layers separately, motion is much better at that.
Photoshop files in fcx: WINNING!
———
I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
I don’t know what’s going on with reconnecting, but obviously that’s not a normal experience. I would have to vote user error or odd workflow on that one.
Have fun with Premiere. I have had it since cs3 and have given it lengthy testing each version. For me and my workflow, it still doesn’t cut it. Too many missing functions that I use daily in FCP. And, it’s mighty 64bit processing is kinda useless without a new mercury cabable card. On my 2007 Mac pro I get all the real time full quality pro res I need in FCP 7. But Cs5 sometimes won’t even play one track at full quality. It’s titler is great though. And connecting with AE is too, but not enough to switch yet.
-
[stephen knifton] “three more days left on the adobe fifty percent off sale”
Adobe site says the promotion is valid until October 31, no?
-
[Mark Morache] ” I had to send the clip back to the editor from the app, and it would relink unless I changed the number of layers.”
Hmm… I normally work with PNGs in FCP and only use PSDs when I want layers, so our workflows are different. When I modify graphics, I never use the “edit in” functions and simply open the source PSD in Photoshop, make the mods and resave the PNG over the old one. FCP 7 relinks just fine and automatically.
[Mark Morache] “Fcx brings the files in flat”
But the whole advantage is that the layers can be beneficial, since they permit WYSIWYG recomposing when it’s placed over video. Not for animation – simply optimal composition of the elements. So, for me, importing flat files that were layered is a definite negative.
[Mark Morache] ” It gives me a thumbnail.”
FCP 7 – place in bin, set bin to icon view.
[Mark Morache] ” I don’t need to save alpha channels”
In Photoshop “save as” PNG. This will also rasterize all type and layer effects in a single step. No need to mess with alphas at all.
Not, challenging, merely pointing out that at least for my workflow, FCP X isn’t a big change and in fact a step backwards, when it comes to layers. But that’s me, so I’m glad it works for you. It is, however, a change for change’s sake. There should be a toggle on import to let you choose whether to flatten or preserve the layers in a compound clip.
Personally, I don’t think this is a behavior based on planned design. In this version it represents taking the “cheap” way out. I say that because they are simply using the core image engine in the OS to import the image flat. That’s the same engine that’s used when a layered PSD file is displayed in Preview or Coverflow. No interpretation of layers there either. It sounds like they simply took advantage of what already existed, rather than properly writing a module to deal with PSD files.
[Mark Morache] ” I can add or remove layers at will and when I tab back to fcx, the file relinks, the thumbnail updates and it works exactly the way I expect it to”
What’s interesting about this is that you are modifying the source file, which is already tracked in the Events database. Yet when you do the same thing with a video file, the clip goes offline. Very odd and inconsistent behavior.
Cheers,
OliverOliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Adobe is a poor choice.
Try Media 100 Suite from Boris FX. It’s the true choice for serious professionals and will run on your Apple systems.
Maxwell Federman
OwnerCapitol City Media
Austin, TX USAhttp://www.capitolcitymedia.com
-
Oliver… I’m pretty much self-taught in photoshop, so there are holes in my knowledge. I’ve never used png files, and I didn’t know they could carry alpha channels.
When I say that FCX brings the files in flat, I meant that it brings in the layered file, and treats it as a flat file. I’m getting WYSIWYG composing, and I can still edit the layered file, with all of my new work updating to the imported psd file in fcx as soon as I hit save.
In the past I hated the way that FCP7 brought in the psd layers, so I would make a layered master, and a flattened copy that I would import into FCP. Two copies of every file. If I updated the file, I’d update the layered file, then re-export to update the flattened file.
Now I have one file. It has layers, but FCX treats it like a flattened file, gives me full WYSIWYG, and if I go back and tweak the psd file, it upgrades the copy in FCX. I can add and remove layers in the original, and it doesn’t bother FCX one little bit.
I will certainly use the PNG files when I’m creating overlays in FC7 from now on, but I’m still making two files.
And I could never get a thumbnail in FC7 of a psd file. It always gave me the sequence icon.
The fact that I can modify my psd files and have them update in FCX is good and expected behavior. The fact that modifying original video files takes them offline with no way to relink them is unexpected and malicious, and I hope gets changed in the eventual update.
I recently edited a concert preview with several bands coming to a local festival. The band footage was all sorts of formats and resolutions, but I was able to drag everything, including youtube footage, directly into FCX, edit it all natively and output a prores file when I was done. I created overlays in photoshop that looked like bulletin boards, with pictures and graphics from the band, and a hole for the video to go it.
For once it worked exactly like I expected it to. There were no surprises or workarounds. The psd files were full HD, so even if the band footage was a little crunchy, the overall effect was high def.
This one goes up as a WIN in the FCX column.
———
I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
Why is Adobe a poor choice?
-
[Maxwell Federman] “It’s the true choice for serious professionals “
I like Boris and have nothing against Media100, but that is a pretty bold statement you are making there, don’t ya think?
-
Mark,
You always (since PhotoShop 5) can save as layered TIFF. That will keep all informations a PSD file has. When you want to do changes on a layer, an effect, a style or with text, everything works like with a PSD file.
In FCP classic the file shows up as flat. In FCPX as well.Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools -
I’ve been cutting with FCP X since it came out and initially I was in the same throw the baby out with the bath water camp.
A couple of months down the line, I’m loving the new way of editing despite having to learn a new way of editing. I also tried CS5.5 for one project recently but I found that I was missing FCPX’s media management tools, the fantastic way of displaying your footage so that it’s all there and skimmable giving you faster access to what you want, not to mention the very useful new publishing tool with Motion 5, which is just huge!!
My complaints (and I see that most if not all of your points came up during my own experience) were mostly to do with the fact that I was trying to superimpose my tried and tested ways of editing in FCP7 onto FCPX and I quickly learnt that that does not work.
Most if not all of your points are problems that can be worked around easily and that are to do with not fully understanding the new way of working in FCPX. And while I think of it, dragging from the centre circle in the transform mode will lock along an axis. All the answers to your points are ont Tinternet. Oh yes, another one is that you can create disc images for archiving projects so that FCPX doesn’t load it on startup. Etc, etc.
When it finally clicks and you find the solutions to those annoying little quirks I think this new FCP will put a smile on your face.
Many thanks,
Boris J.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up