macbook pro question re: FCP 5.1 & After Effects

[John Dickinson]

Well Michael you aren’t the only one wondering I’m sure. I guess it all boils down to what you need the most; if it’s FCP then buy the Macbook, if it’s AE and PS then buy the G4. I don’t think there is any perfect solution at the moment while we are in this transitional stage.

By the way, I saw your reel on the manager’s desk 🙂

JD

John Dickinson
Motionworks
http://www.motionworks.com.au

[Michael Duff]

thanks for the reply – I think I will go for the G4 as 90% of my work is AE, I’m just going to be really frustrated in 6 months time when AE 7.x comes out with macBook support.

I was in there a few weeks ago to chat and drop my reel off and saw you working but didn’t want to interupt you….you looked like you were “in the zone”… I really liked that Fox Classics spot you did and could ask you a million quiestions about it. As well as the birthday thing. It is great watching the before/after edit side by side.

Cheers

Michael Duff –
Southern Cross Ten, Australia

[John Dickinson]

You were here???? You should have tapped me on the shoulder! Glad you like my work 🙂

JD

John Dickinson
Motionworks
http://www.motionworks.com.au

[Bj Ahlen]

At least it looks like you’ll be able to use AE plug-ins in FCP on a MacBook Pro, see this COW thread.

I also made a personal bet that AE will be running on MacIntel much sooner than Adobe initially indicated (I bought a MacBook Pro).

There were several things going on outside of the limelight that made me think this was a reasonable assumption (but there are of course no guarantees).

[Mitchji]

[duffbeer911] “thanks for the reply – I think I will go for the G4 as 90% of my work is AE, I’m just going to be really frustrated in 6 months time when AE 7.x comes out with macBook support.”

Hi Michael,

If you don’t need to run on batteries how about using an iMac G5 until AE 7.x comes out with Mac-Intel support. It would be much cheaper. You could sell it and upgrade to a Macbookpro for a minimal loss.

A friend got an iMac G5 for location editing. This is what he had to say:
“I just got my iMac today – infinitely faster than any powerbook I could have bought at three times the cost. I got the cheapest I could find: a new 1.6gHz 17″ with a CDRW/DVD and 256 RAM on eBay. I upgraded to 1GB RAM and got the iLugger bag.”

and:
Can you capture DV with the G5 iMac to a drive other than the boot drive (one firewire bus)? If so are there any problems or tricks?
“Absolutely no problems. I upgraded the imac’s drive to a 320gb and could capture to that drive but I have a firewire drive workflow. I capture to a FWHD on the iMac. I use a Buslink 6 port FW hub on the imac. I really like the imac G5.

Check this bag that he got for location use:
https://luggerbags.com/G5.htm

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Joel Berry]

> I also made a personal bet that AE will be running on MacIntel much sooner than Adobe initially indicated (I bought a MacBook Pro).

So, what is After Effects 6.5 performance really like on a core duo? Is it really THAT bad (not necessarily rendering speed, which I know will be hindered, but what about UI responsiveness, stability, etc.)?

I am looking at getting one of the new 17″ MacBook Pro Core Duos with 2.16GHz processors. It’s either that or buy a Quad G5 — and I would really be upset if, in a few months, Apple introduces a 2xDual Core Intel-based Mac that is 3-5x the speed of the current Quad G5 for $3,500 and then two or three months later After Effects 7.x comes out in Universal Binary, and I am stuck with just having bought a slow, antiquated Quad G5!

So, are Photoshop and After Effects 6.5 pretty much usable on a core duo? At least for a few months until Adobe releases updates? What’s are your opinions from using the Adobe software on the Intel Macs?

Thanks,

jdb

[Bj Ahlen]

After Effects UI and stability and UI performance are no problem on MacBook Pro. Deep effects and compositing are not so hot maybe 3-4x slower than a quad G5 (depends on codecs and disk performance also).

Photoshop is absolutely fine for normal interactive use, feels about like a regular G5.

It is highly likely that Apple will introduce the new MacPro towers at WVDC in August, and you can already preorder them from at least one dealer.

And yes, you could expect to have a hard time getting any reasonable bids on eBay for your new Quad G5 at that time…

[Bj Ahlen]

After Effects UI and stability and UI performance are no problem on MacBook Pro. Deep effects and compositing are not so hot maybe 3-4x slower than a quad G5 (depends on codecs and disk performance also).

Photoshop is absolutely fine for normal interactive use, feels about like a regular G5.

It is highly likely that Apple will introduce the new MacPro towers at WVDC in August, and you can already preorder them from at least one dealer.

And yes, you could expect to have a hard time getting any reasonable bids on eBay for your new Quad G5 at that time…