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Motion TRACKS versus FCP X Trackless
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[Franz Bieberkopf] “Why would you discourage this? It’s pretty much the only way I get things into the timeline.”
Because it’s an inherently slow way to edit versus the keyboard.
If you have a 10 min. clip and drag it to the timeline and then trim, that’s very cumbersome. If you open it first to mark in/out and then drag & drop, you are taking any extra unnecessary step. Also the location to where you drag it on the timeline is very imprecise resulting in further adjustment of the clip once it’s on the timeline. It also limits your use of the interface to one-handed operation when using keystrokes utilizes both hands. Lastly the more you use the mouse, the more you run the risk of repetitive stress disorder to your wrist over the years. Working the keyboard or maybe a tablet eases that strain.
No offense, but many people edit that way because they were never taught otherwise. I discourage it because it is poor technique in the same way a music teacher discourages music students from learning their instrument with bad posture, bad hand position, etc. But, I realize that some people like to work that way, so I don’t have a heavy-handed attitude about it as a teacher.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Groups can be containers, which can compliment X’s clip container system very nicely. A group can be a compound, a storyline, an audition, a multiclip…a role.”
I like this Jeremy, It’s how I’ve been thinking of Motion lately, and putting it in context with X is a good way to visualize the overall concept.
I’ve had the unique (for us) opportunity to do a ton of stuff in X and Motion5 the last few months and now I’ve been reworking a lot of stuff in 7 and Motion4.
I’ve evolved a pretty solid opinion from the experience – along with doing a lot of audio post directly in X and separately in DP.
I think I’ll post my “conclusion in a new thread FWIW.
Jim
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Send a link when you’re done, Jim!
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[Oliver Peters] “The “send to Motion” in FCP 7 now only sends to Motion 5 – no longer Mtn4. BTW – it works pretty well, but I haven’t really tested the trip back into FCP 7 to see if everything is right. “
Hmm… After doing some testing it now appears that this function is completely broken with FCP 7 and FCP X on the same machine. FCP 7 does indeed “Send to Motion” opening Motion 5, but then you have to relink media in Motion 5. Any changes you make are not updated in FCP 7 at all or it ends up with the Motion project on the timeline as “missing file” that won’t relink. Broken!
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
There’s a document for this, Oliver, and I can’t find it.
It had to do with launching motion 4 first, then installing motion 5. Let me do some more digging.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “It had to do with launching motion 4 first, then installing motion 5. Let me do some more digging.”
Thanks. Yes, I did all that. It has to do with the apps even working in the first place, because it sets the routing to their supporting files. Apparently it doesn’t prevent the Send To Motion from getting broken.
Also, that document was written with the initial launch. It could also be that something about the update (which also included a Motion and Compressor update) may have broken it. In the end, it doesn’t really matter to me, because I never send to Motion anymore, because it has proven to make my FCP 7 projects unstable. I prefer AE anyway.
FWIW – existing Motion projects (from 4) that are in older FCP 7 sequences are just fine.
But I appreciate the help. Thanks.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] ”
Because it’s an inherently slow way to edit versus the keyboard.”… select batch of clips, check that no ins and outs are set and drag into timeline; proceed to edit with keyboard; quite fast. The ability to easily set the clips into whatever tracks you wish (bypassing all that assignment nonsense in most cases) is a bonus functionality.
But your intentions seem pure.
Franz.
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[Franz Bieberkopf] “select batch of clips, check that no ins and outs are set and drag into timeline; proceed to edit with keyboard; quite fast.”
Yikes! I typically work with hundreds of clips on file-based projects, so I do use the bins for organization in much the same way as Bill has been advocating for the FCP X Event metadata functions. OTOH, when I’m cutting long documentary pieces where I’m trying to “find the story”, then the soundbites all go to the timeline and I cut down from there.
[Franz Bieberkopf] “The ability to easily set the clips into whatever tracks you wish (bypassing all that assignment nonsense in most cases) is a bonus functionality.”
Yes, I can see that. Although I prefer my students to fully comprehend the track assignments. Having said that, I do acknowledge that for some it’s a completely confusing concept.
[Franz Bieberkopf] “But your intentions seem pure.”
Thanks 😉 That’s why it’s not a big sticking point for me. Just something I encourage in my teaching. I’m glad it works for you, though.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Steve Connor] “I’m just about to finish the first cut of a feature I’ve been working on. I planned to organise all the media before I started, but once I began playing with shots on the timeline, things just moved quickly and I’ve ended up hardly logging any of it!
Steve Connor”
Steve,
I’m all for you working the way you like. And I’d never stop you for a second concentrating on what you need “now” to get your work done.
But I want all the editors reading here to keep in mind, that while X won’t requireyou to pre-organize anything – at some point when you look back at it after you’ve cut 10 more programs – you might start to see that doing clip categorizing and similar organization from the beginning – compounds in usefulness as you go along.
That’s nothing but the simple truth of all databases. The more info they hold, the more useful they are as a class of constructs.
The overall arrangement of X – and the split between the Event Browser and the Timline is an excellent example – encourages you to think about what I want to do now that I can subsequently call upon later – and what I want to do now, that I will likely never want to use later.
Put simpler, there’s no penalty for not applying the keyword “Jenny” to a clip of her. Drag and drop the untagged clip of her it to the timeline and rock on.
But hours, days, or perhaps even years later – if you want to “find all clips containing ‘Jenny'” the fact that you got caught up in doing the necessary work of “diving into the cut” and decided to forgo applying any Keywords to your clips in advance, means you can’t ever benefit from that nice “search” capability that is built into the very fabric of X.
You have to KNOW it’s in there. Learn how it works. And implement it to benefit from it.
But it’s totally up to each editor how much to value it.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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