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Okay, so what do you REALLY think?
So now that you’ve had a few days to kick around the new FCS, what do you think? Is it working okay for you? Anything broken? Do you have any new favorite features?
This is intentionally an open-ended question, so please take it away.
Please note – if you’ve got some things to say at length, consider throwing in a couple of screenshots, and sending it along. We’d LOVE to publish as many reviews as people send us. Doesn’t have to be super-comprehensive, either. It might even go into depth on a single feature. Just let me know, tim at creativecow dot net.
In the meantime, kids, start letting us know here — what do you REALLY think?
Best,
Tim Wilson
Creative COW -
32 Replies
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I’ve been using the new FCS since the first week it was released. As usual tried it out on my laptop first, things went so well and a few of the features were so compelling for my workflow that I upgraded my work machine, in the middle of delivering a show. Not something I usually do, actually cloned to an external drive and installed FCS there in case I had to back pedal. Opened the one hour show from FCP 6.06 and all was good, in a couple of days swapped drives so the clone was now the internal and haven’t looked back. We’ve finished two shows now and are on the third.
This isn’t the sexiest upgrade but the timesavers and workflow enhancements are worth the price of admission. I really like the following.
1. Share export- Made one off DVDs and small movies for review without locking me out of my machine. 90% of my dvds are review or just need simple menus and this works great. Love being able to put chapters in and give them names from the timeline.2. Markers- Love the color coding and the ability to drop markers while the timeline is playing. Searching for named makers means I don’t have to zoom out so much to find places on my timeline. Being able to drag them is also nice. As annoying as it can be when I’m trying to drag a maker, its nice to be able to delete a marker by dragging it off the timeline.
3. Droplets- I have to make a variety of different types movies when I’m delivering a show. I’ve got custom settings in Compressor, but now I keep droplets for the diffent versions I need to make on the desktop and drop the files onto them and off they go.
4. ProRess4444- Animations with alphas are now much smaller 265mb instead of over a gig and they play on the timeline without rendering, very nice
5. Misc- speed changing is now fun, and works very intuitively. Ripple training has a good free tutorial. Reveal affiliate clips and batch transitions.
So, like I said, not the sexiest but some excellent timesavers.
My two cents, I believe Apple released this before Snow Leopard to give us some great tools, now without tying it to any issues with SL. Once SL is released, I’m guessing a great .5 upgrade shortly thereafter, hopefully around NAB. They’ve done it before, it won’t surprse me if they do it again.Thanks,
Vince Sanchez
Intel Quad Mac 2.66
AJA LHe
HD link
OSX 10.4.11
FCP Studio 2 -
I can’t be happier…there SO MANY new things that came out that I use.
MARKERS – Good lord, not only are they color coded, THEY MOVE with the sequence when you add footage. HUGE workflow improvement.
ProRes codecs. This is so major words cannot express. offline/online workflows are now more solid, and tapeless ones just took a giant leap.
P2 Import options. You can now map USER CLIP NAME and see more metadata than before. You can’t map all of it…so there are shortcomings. But I don’t use all of it…and there are great options out there if you do.
The big timecode window. My producers will now be happy in every bay. I bought the Digital Heaven one, but not everyone did. Now, there it is…big as day.
iChat Theatre. Now my producers don’t have to drive 2 hours to see a cut…and they don’t have to put up with the horrid quality of my isight camera pointed at a monitor. And this includes VISIBLE TIMECODE…even though your sequence doesn’t have that filter on there. Anyone notice that?
Media Manager has HUGE improvements when dealing with speed changes and copying footage, deleting unused and having handles. SO much so that going back to FCP 6 I feel crippled.
Color 1.5 deals with these speed changes better too. And you can visible see when you turn off your grade…the timeline says so. YAAY!
I haven’t used the SHARE options…not my ball o wax at the moment.
Overall…i am VERY happy. Great improvements. ProRes alone does it for me, but then Markers and P2 import options, AVCI support! Did I mention Markers? ProRes Proxy…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Good note Shane. It was amazing to me how many whiners we had on release day when so many of the nuts and bolts things we’ve been asking to have fixed for so long were finally addressed. All everybody looks for is “new stuff” when it’s the old stuff that needed fixing all along. Now we finally seem to have a very solid editing tool with the nuts and bolts stuff now working as well as the “whiz bang” stuff.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
The new FCP sounds awesome, but Shane, what do you mean when you say the markers move when you add footage? Do you mean the markers move down the timeline if you perform an insert edit? How does this help you out when you edit? I can’t say I’ve ever needed that…not that I’m knocking what you have to say about the new FCS. Just wondering if you’re doing something that makes for more efficient/organized editing that I don’t know about.
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com -
[Rob Grauert] “Do you mean the markers move down the timeline if you perform an insert edit?”
Yes, it does. They move when you do an Insert edit. NOT when you perform a TTTT move though, so you have to be careful.
[Rob Grauert] ” How does this help you out when you edit?”
Well, I make notes on my cut. “Trim here” “Fix audio here” “Add Music” “Temp footage, replace ASAP” …stuff like that. I also work on shows with multiple editors, and assistants, so we will put markers on the timeline and ask the other editors to address those notes, or for the assistants to address those notes. Well, I did this on Avid, where we have locators that are also color coded and move with the timeline. Stuff like “please address all the yellow markers” that might contain notes. Or I might use the WHITE markers as the location of Act Breaks…then yellow for notes that need addressling, red for temp footage or stock footage that still needs master footage…all sorts of things. When the markers don’t move when you make a cut, or add something, then they are darn useless for ANY task I use markers for.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Ahh..making notes. That’s a really good idea, especially when working with multiple editors. I’ve been working all on my own up until recently, so I never thought of that. Huh, I wish I would have thought of that.
Thanks.
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com -
Well, it was pretty useless for that until FCP 7, so no wonder you didn’t think of it. All editors with Avid backgrounds do this (well, most) and when they tried, they cursed at FCPs implimentation.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
How about…MOTION people? This got a huge chunk of cool features. I like the behaviors and features associated with the camera: Focus Behavior, Framing Behavior and Depth of Field are huge. Reflections and Shadows are also very nice too. Anyone had a chance to play? 😉
Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro -
I only use Motion for simple things, like some text and moves on stills. I know there are HUGE advancements made in Motion, and that made a buddy of mine very happy. I just don’t use Motion enough to notice that. Just like a lot of people don’t realize how the new Markers are simply 100% …1000%…better.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Great point, Kevin. I’m going to go start this thread up in the Motion forum too. See you there. 🙂
tw
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