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on the PPro product manager popping his head around the door to give a heads up.
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[Alan Okey] ” And I can’t fathom why there’s still no per-vertex mask feathering in AE without a paid third-party plugin.”
Absolutely!!!!!!!!!
One of the reasons (and there are several others) which it’s nonsense to talk about AE as a grown-up compositor. This is a really key function – can’t believe they still haven’t got round to it.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Alan Okey] ” And I can’t fathom why there’s still no per-vertex mask feathering in AE without a paid third-party plugin.”
[Simon Ubsdell] “Absolutely!!!!!!!!! One of the reasons (and there are several others) which it’s nonsense to talk about AE as a grown-up compositor. This is a really key function – can’t believe they still haven’t got round to it.”
It’s a common feature request. From Todd Kopriva’s blog entry top After Effects feature requests for the past year or so [link]:
variable-width mask feather: We definitely hear you on this one. You can use variable-width feathering for masks brought in through mocha shape, and you can also use the reasonably priced PV Feather plug-in… but those methods aren’t as convenient as just having variable-width mask feathering built in. Feel free to submit more feature requests to let us know how much you want this. But we already know that it’s important.
You can file a feature request or bug report with Adobe here [link].
That said, I spend an inordinate amount of time in AE, but even I personally think of After Effects in terms of motion graphics before I think of it in terms of pure compositing.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] “That said, I spend an inordinate amount of time in AE, but even I personally think of After Effects in terms of motion graphics before I think of it in terms of pure compositing.”
I’d never waste time compositing in AE – nodal compositing is the only sensible way to go. AE just isn’t buit for it, but you keep hearing that it is and a lot of people try (with frequently indifferent results), hence my observation.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
me motion graphics grading editor guy, doing *a bit* of compositing = me likee AE very very much.
It surely isn’t a functioning nodal compositor, and I know enough smoke guys (like dan!) who would simply state that a functioning compositor is a nodal compositor – by definition.
At its heart AE is an incredibly hulked out photoshop with a timeline bolted onto the layers, but for a lot of people, that is a highly desirable thing.
For its sweet spot, AE is a mad hotrod. Just think of how many multi thousand dollar plugin packages that were absorbed into that thing – all of Maffits stuff, CC, grain surgery, keylight, colour finesse – in that sense alone there is a Viking hoard in there…
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
Many of us dislike how Apple publicly operates; however, don’t assume that they don’t have private meetings with key customers to get input and their reaction on upcoming features. These tend be handled with a Mission Impossible level of deniability, but they do happen. Not as public as Adobe, which is also more active with public betas, but still there.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
“Don’t assume that they don’t have private meetings with key customers to get input and their reaction on upcoming features. These tend be handled with a Mission Impossible level of deniability, but they do happen.”
The fact that Apple DID talk to FCP users during the development of X makes it a lot harder for me to forgive them for the train wreck of last year. That means there was a lot of good input on things that could be added or improved in Final Cut that all got tossed aside because Apple wanted to do things THEIR way.
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“THAT’S our fail-safe point. Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.” -
I think that’s only partially true. I get the feeling Apple folks tend to live in a bubble. It’s that reality distortion field thing.I think they do take and absorb input, but they also have these meetings to gather feedback and reactions on directions already taken. Sometimes it seems like they are genuinely shocked when the pro community doesn’t embrace these ideas with open arms. Then they either ignore the pro users or take the reactions to heart and tweak the direction in the future.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
yes,
but we now know that meetings very much like you describe took place with say – oscar winning FCP based editors pre-FCPX launch, apple actually presented to some of them, and that Jordan and many other primary beta testers sent Apple sheaf pages of feedback (jordan’s words) on mission critical failures like ganging clips, eyelines matching via source, closed island then, radical simplistic departure etc – I’m not saying those features are the be all and end all, but it is notable that jordan and others – including the oscar guy – (failed to google find his interview, it might have been on variety or something – in the interview he referenced his three view setup of source, selects, and monitor, said apple were very nice tho?) – the point is that all of their feedback came to near naught.
Apple just went off and did exactly what they felt like. Critical feedback came to absolutely nothing. For a creative livelihood industry mainstay.
Apple may have been having deep throat conversations with lots of people: but in the end, they just decided to release this thing FCPX.
And this thing FCPX, in terms of getting paid cash to walk in and edit on it, is a goldfish in the sahara.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos
http://www.ogallchoir.net -
[Aindreas Gallagher] “Apple just went off and did exactly what they felt like. Critical feedback came to absolutely nothing. For a creative livelihood industry mainstay.”
To play devil’s advocate, look at it from Apple’s point of view. If their intention was to create an entirely new paradigm for editing that dispensed with all of the legacy baggage of past NLEs, and they wanted to redefine the future of editing software, why should they have cared what the old dogs thought? They were more interested in starting from a blank slate, not in catering to old habits and traditions just for the sake of making things more comfortable for some stodgy old pros who work in the isolated bubble of a tiny niche market.
I’m not implying that I agree with that philosophy, but Apple’s apparent disregard for “pro” feedback does make sense from a certain perspective.
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Mate: Apple went so crazily far with their zero day editing policy that their motivations almost don’t matter at this point.
[Alan Okey] “why should they have cared what the old dogs thought? They were more interested in starting from a blank slate, not in catering to old habits and traditions just for the sake of making things more comfortable for some stodgy old pros who work in the isolated bubble of a tiny niche market.”
the old dogs, if we’re going to start saying stuff like that, were, and say are, on avid. They’re eating cake right now.
We were Apple’s dogs, I for one was their dog; younger mixed mongrels coming into editing from the turn of the century who grew deeply attached to a truly open, professional blank slate: a non modal editing environment that could handle all media and sit on open hardware. And it was bloody easy to learn.
given the ridiculous contortions involved in Ubillos’s reduced use case methodolgy in FCPX, I find the notion that FCP was failing through complexity or outmoded conceits pretty hard to listen to.Realistically, editing is a verb – it has to encompass amazingly broad applications. FCP did that fantastically well.
The critics of FCPX are not the stodgy fuddy duddy’s, or the luddites: they comprise near precisely the entire body of creative editing raised on FCP.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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