Illustrator turns 25 today. Thoughts on it, Luddites and FCP X

[Craig Seeman]

[Steve Connor] “Could I ask why you are still using FCPX after your horror story of an experience with it?”

Just a guess from the peanut gallery but maybe the same reason I continued to use FCP legacy despite some real horror stories due to serious (catastrophic) bugs in the program and related.

[Herb Sevush]

[Craig Seeman] “CMX and the CMX6000 maybe.”

or the Montage, of the Edit Droid, or D2 or … the list goes on and on. And many of these DeLoreans and Tucker Torpedos of the past contributed good ideas and technology that was adopted by the rest of the industry. So who knows, the demise of X might lead to the eventual adaptation of one click Vimeo buttons.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Craig Seeman]

[Herb Sevush] “So who knows, the demise of X might lead to the eventual adaptation of one click Vimeo buttons.”

I don’t think Apple is going to pull the plug on X for at least several years (never say never as per FCP legacy) but it’s certainly possible others may cannibalize some of its innovation such as its keyword and smart collections. Personally I’m using it despite the warts because, for me, the innovation outweighs the issues currently.

[Shawn Miller]

“[T. Payton]…and an App that accomplish about 90% of what Illustrator can do can (today’s Illustrator that is) can be purchased on the iPad for a mere $4.99.”

Which app is this? It would be great to have a vector drawing application that powerful on a tablet… assuming I can get useful files in and out of it. It would even be worth buying and iPad.

Thanks,

Shawn

[Jim Giberti]

[Steve Connor] “Could I ask why you are still using FCPX after your horror story of an experience with it?
“

I think Craig probably said it right regarding the innovations and toughing through the early FCP days.

I was motivated to figure out what needs to be done to operate it at it’s optimum through those messes.
I’m intrigued by it’s potential.
It does do many things elegantly and flexibly.
It’s half amateur and half pro and I’m hoping the pro half wins.
Add track capability and audio mixing and it could be our future.
I really need to see if it’s X or possibly PP6 going forward…it’s not going to be 7 or avid for us in the long run.

Finally Steve, I decided (I’ve got some time with this promo piece) to virtually start from scratch with X implementing every organizational and management technique possible to see how it would perform with this project.
I’m willing to work with it’s short comings if it’s going to mature quickly. If not, we’re going to have to go elsewhere and I want to know that I gave it a real shot.

[Steve Connor]

[Jim Giberti] “Finally Steve, I decided (I’ve got some time with this promo piece) to virtually start from scratch with X implementing every organizational and management technique possible to see how it would perform with this project.
I’m willing to work with it’s short comings if it’s going to mature quickly. If not, we’re going to have to go elsewhere and I want to know that I gave it a real shot.
“

I’m impressed by your tenacity, many people would have not given FCPX another chance. I’m hoping for a 10.04 release shortly to fix some of the issues that .03 seems to have caused, at the moment it seems like Apple are moving quite fast with development, I hope it continues.

Steve Connor
“FCPX Professional”
Adrenalin Television

[Jim Giberti]

[Steve Connor] “I’m impressed by your tenacity, many people would have not given FCPX another chance. I’m hoping for a 10.04 release shortly to fix some of the issues that .03 seems to have caused, at the moment it seems like Apple are moving quite fast with development, I hope it continues.
“

As I said in another thread, If nothing else, I am persistent.

I’ll definitely give a heads up regarding this new project.
Aside from some pickup scenes that have to be shot next week, I’ve got everything organized and squeaky clean for the edit.

[Craig Shields]

Illustrator was the first program that I learned while I was co-oping at NASA. The contractors didn’t want to teach me anything. The manager wouldn’t give me any work, so I went into the conference room everyday, watched the tape and mastered the Pen tool. Photoshop was the second. When I did go back to school, I was a guru.

[Brent Cook]

I’m sorry but why did you create this video? No one has time to sit there watching you slowly type out your thoughts, all the while making mistakes and correcting as you go. No comment on the accuracy of the information, since I gave up before you completed a single thought. If you aren’t going to speak your thoughts and demonstrate them, you have no reason to make a video. You could have typed everything into a post on this board and saved every reader 5.5 minutes.

[T. Payton]

Glad to see the discussion. So my comparing some of us editors to Luddiets is a straw-man? Now that you brought it up I see your point. I did jump quickly to that conclusion without supporting it.

BTW, I didn’t mean to imply that FCP X is Illustrator (not at all!), just that it reminded me that we are in the middle of a revolution. When computer graphics were new (25 years ago) it was only utilized by a few graphic professionals (I being one of them). Today computer graphics are as common in our society and utilized by many more people than just graphic professionals. And the tools have been so refined and simplified that practically anyone can use it without having to go through extensive training. The has benefited both the consumer and the professional. Video is now in the process of undergoing a similar revolution. Once the tools were only in the hands of the professionals, now video is “in the hands of the people” so to speak, including my 9 year old cousin.

Regarding the Luddites… The craftsmen were very bothered by the fact that the new textiles being spit out by machines were of inferior quality that those made by the craftsman. They were right to criticize it. But in their attempt to stop the new machines, it consumed their lives and some were even put to death in punishment of their crimes.

Although that is much more extreme than what I have done, it is a good warning to not let my distaste of these things consume me. Instead I should be attentive to my own work, and doing a good job in my craft, and not throw the new technology under the bus because it is “simpler” or that non-professionals are using it.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque