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Long time editor’s frustration with FCPX
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[Kevin Ryan] “But the lack of control over the layout is absolutely dumbfounding”
Generally the answers to your questions are “no”. However, there are a number of ways to come up with different screen layouts.
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/fcp-x-screen-layouts/
I run with two monitors and have now mapped the various configurations across the function keys, including those, which are already mapped to modifier keys. The layout switching is fast and let’s me work in task-oriented workspaces (sort of).
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Why are you apologizing? Are these people scoffing at it or is it just you? The transitions in X are pretty good and if you don’t like it you can tweak it in Motion.
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Its mind blowing how a experience user can’t get around understand how FCPX works but someone new that never touched NLE has no issues.
Maybe it has something to with stubbornness?
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[Thomas Frank] “ts mind blowing how a experience user can’t get around understand how FCPX works but someone new that never touched NLE has no issues.
Maybe it has something to with stubbornness?”
Nope. It has nothing to do with understanding and everything to do with style, need and preference. 😉
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David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
https://lnkd.in/Cfz92F
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl
vimeo.com/dlawrence/albums -
[Thomas Frank] “Maybe it has something to with stubbornness?”
Growing up in the US I learned to drive on the righthand side of the road with the stick for the manual transmission in my right hand and four-way stops at intersections. When I visited England and drove a rental car I was now driving on the left hand side of the road with the stick in my left hand and roundabouts were common at intersections.
My struggles were most certainly not rooted in stubbornness because I had a strong desire not to injure, kill or maim myself or those around me. 😉
EDIT: grammar (sure there are more mistakes I missed).
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[Thomas Frank] “Maybe it has something to with stubbornness?”
On the contrary. I think it’s only stubbornness that assumes that somebody’s choice of non-X might be something other than a mental defect or personality flaw. LOL
Or that choosing non-X is somehow a statement of disrespect for X.
Or stubbornness in not acknowledging that many people use X and non-X together, productively, maybe even happily, making any personality-based dichotomies irrelevant.
Certainly in practice, it’s simply not true that young and bold = X, and old and timid = non-X. Oliver has noted before that his high-school students generally gravitate toward Premiere. The student body of the USC School of Cinematic Arts is using Media Composer without their heads exploding.
As far as “intuitive,” let’s be clear. The most recent intuitive interface that any of us has encountered is our mother’s breast. Everything after that is learned.
I believe that anecdotal evidence is real enough, but there’s simply not enough anecdotal evidence to conclusively establish that X is somehow “easier” to learn.
Which suggests that we might perhaps open the discussion over whether adopting X is not bold at all, but simply the “easy” way out. LOL
Everything swings both ways, my friend.
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[Tim Wilson] “I think it’s only stubbornness that assumes that somebody’s choice of non-X might be something other than a mental defect or personality flaw.”
But then he never spoke of choice, but rather just mere understanding. Whether someone chooses to use X after in fact actually understanding the mere basics of X and actually using it is a whole other topic.
[Tim Wilson] “Oliver has noted before that his high-school students generally gravitate toward Premiere. The student body of the USC School of Cinematic Arts is using Media Composer without their heads exploding.”
That of course being anecdotal. As well as my having written of my last four years of teaching X (after five+ years of teaching PPro and 7) several times also, showing the opposite i.e. what I believe Frank’s real point was. My students of all ages need only days to learn to use X proficiently (especially if they are completely new to editing/NLEs), as opposed to WEEKS with others (all three A’s are taught and available). And when assigned open projects, 8 out of 10 choose to do them with X. The other two will use PPro, usually because they have a PC at home and therefore PPro. To date I have yet to see a single one choose Avid. Scott having reported more or less the exact same thing from experience at his school as well btw. Go figger.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
I’ve taught beginners both FCP 6-7 and now X. X is a much easier initial learning curve. I have HS kids editing a rough cut in 2 minutes and then can teach the basics of audio editing in about 5. Titles and transitions in a 1 min. Now this is 1 on 1 teaching with simple demo and being around if they forget a step. Which I find is way better than a group lesson where every student is trying to follow a teacher that always assumes everyone is on the same step but as soon as someone misses a step is lost. This is a student body that for the most part has trouble with directions and attention span. That said, I found learning FCP X was easier for me only because I already had a basic understanding of what a NLE does. It’s not that different in terms of what it does, just a different UI. I think for advanced editors working with many layers of media that traditional tracks are a better fit; but for modest complexity projects, it’s pretty equal with X being a faster initial learning curve for new editors. My only reservation about having made this choice is that it is the exception to some standard UI components of NLEs. But I have no way to fund monthly payments Adobe and found AVID the hardest to learn and manage of the three majors.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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I guess that makes it 3:1 then. ;D
[Craig Alan] “I think for advanced editors working with many layers of media that traditional tracks are a better fit;”
Really? How so? I really don’t see any difference as far as that’s concerned. In fact, I’d say that the Clip Skimmer by itself is one component that makes multi-layer editing (e.g. a large PS file) exponentially easier and faster.
BTW, Mr. Murch himself even says:
[Walter Murch] “I think [Apple] saw not only the future future, but almost the immediate future. Which is: you are not going to graduate from high-school now without making a movie. […] And Apple’s Final Cut 10 is positioned very nicely to fill that need.”
And again, as a teacher of both old and new, I think he’s clearly a very smart and astute man, and he doesn’t even use X. People can scoff at those supposed “skateboard video” makers all they like, but from what I’m seeing, the next (and ultimately far more relevant and important) generation is very prone to go with FCP X after getting to know it. And be it just for financial reasons alone. But also because the “pros” of yesteryear had and have entirely different needs, workflows and expectations. Some of which Apple plain isn’t looking to fill by default. But seeing what I get instead and what BTO options I have, if needed, I see no shame in that.
[Walter Murch] “I think, frankly, [Apple] are just not interested in babysitting professionals”
Something I also find easy to believe and is also quite understandable. IMHO meaning “pros” that are only happy if they get a pre-configured system slapped on their desk and a phone number to call if ANYTHING goes wrong or not the way they expect/want. So as not to have to deal with “unnecessary technical details or options”. And no, that company isn’t Apple, but for lots more $$ there are alternatives. Again, “pros” with specific (maybe even niche) needs, but certainly not professionals in general.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
[Robin S. Kurz] “That of course being anecdotal.”
Of course. 🙂 Exactly my point. Anecdotes are of limited use, but there are a million of ’em. The idea that any one experience is “THE” experience is nonsense.
I’ll go further and say that they’re entirely useless for anyone besides the one telling the anecdote. That’s why statements like “young people choose X” and “only old stubborn people stick with what they’ve been using.” Absolutely, entirely false.
Unless it’s true for YOU. In which case it’s entirely true. But mostly, in the way that most people use such generalizations, absolutely false.
[Robin S. Kurz] “To date I have yet to see a single one choose Avid. “
Except for people who would like to work at the highest levels of Hollywood-style workflows. As has been noted MANY times here, the market share of Avid has gone UP.
Anecdotally. 🙂 But that was certainly the trend that was actually, verifiably counted — ie, NOT merely anecdotally, but surveyed and counted — by ACE, a group at the heart of those workflows.
Don’t want to work in Hollywood/Pinewood? Maybe don’t bother.
It is all very good to pick on Avid, but having worked with thousands, yes THOUSANDS, of Avid editors when I worked at both Boris FX and Avid itself, I can assure you that nobody is more familiar with the limitations of Media Composer, or complains more loudly about them, then full time Avid editors. If it had not been for Adobe After Effects in particular, the avid ecosystem would have collapsed many years ago
But it also doesn’t change the fact that there are contexts where Avid works better than others, as indeed contexts where Premiere, and yes, X, works better.
I just find it…let’s say “interesting”… that the only people who tend to say “one tool to rule them all” are X-philes. And for them, perhaps it is.
And perhaps they are skipping over a tool that could work better if they could get over their a priori objections on principle.
Rather like they suggest everyone else do.
And which, in fact, most people have done. Very few of us live in an either/or world.
Anecdotally. 🙂
Note again that I was a very early advocate not just for FCPX, and ALSO for the immediate EOL for FCP 7. It was long past the point at which it needed to die, imo (not that it’s dead for the many people still using it), and I am in fact a “burn the boats” kind of guy. 🙂 If you believe it’s the future, go all in, and don’t look back.
So please don’t take what I said as in any way critical of FCPX or your feelings about it…which was also my point. None of these choices should be taken as a judgement on one’s own self worth. 🙂
I just don’t think it furthers the discussion to overgeneralize to the point of demonstrable inaccuracy. Talking about what works for each of US, though — that’s the heart of the matter. The more of that, the better.
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