Remaining enhancements

[Kevin Patrick]

This may be implied in 3 and 4 …

A better method to manage which Events and Project open when you launch FCP X. Like Event Manager. (sorry Event Manager)

[Mark Dobson]

Great list.

I would add:

1. Ability to increase the size / length of the viewer window in the Event Library when in list view. It’s quite hard to navigate a long clip accurately when creating favourites etc. If one could zoom in to a solo clip it wold save a lot of time.

This window is now the de facto 2nd viewer – well certainly for processing clips on ingest.

2. Ability to be able to nudge or position graphic / text elements in the viewer when creating composite images.

3. Ability to access the timeline options via keyboard short cuts. So that one can quickly switch between the different options / sizes.

4. A switch to turn off all images in the project library. Don’t really need to see thumbnails all the time and they really slow things down. If you can turn them off in the timeline and event browser why not in the project library.

5. An in app facility to share / export compound clips from timeline to Event library.

6. The ability to split / resize all of the various windows in the app just like we could in FCP7. Even with 2 monitors the timeline is not big enough for complex compositing etc.

so really just re introducing some basic UI conventions from FCP.

[Andy Neil]

I suspect any “second” monitor like the angle viewer will be only for specialized tasks and not as a basic clip viewer.

Regarding 2: Roles based mixing tool. The ability to double click a clip and show all independent audio channels (similar to Avid’s “step in”), edit them independently and then collapse back to original clip view.

My list (in addition to your fine suggestions):

Fix Open in Timeline so that when done from the project, clip opens to the matched frame point.

Fix Loop Playback so that if you’re adjusting an audio or video effect the playback continues to loop even when making adjustments.

Be able to hold a key down when slipping a clip that prevents a connected clip from moving as well.

Shortcut key for trim window access so keyboard trims are easier.

Ability to “collapse” multiclip so that audio can be broken away and video can be slipped without affecting audio.

Windows layouts that can be saved. And have FCPX remember layout when angle viewer or scopes windows are active.

User-defined criteria for search/smart collection. Ability to add any metadata category to search.

Definable “Work Area” (like AE) where portions of a timeline can be exported.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Craig Seeman]

[Andy Neil] “I suspect any “second” monitor like the angle viewer will be only for specialized tasks and not as a basic clip viewer.”

Given what they did with the Angle Viewer, I don’t think it would be too far fetched to see a “Gang” feature since that’s needed and I can’t see another way around that.

I think what will also happen is better contextual use of the 2-up view.
For example, currently trimming by mouse calls the two up but if you trim by keyboard, no 2-up. That should change (one hopes). BTW FCP7 behaved that way as well but it was less critical because you had Viewer, Canvas.

I don’t think Apple has much motive, given the GUI philosophy, to have an alway on Viewer Canvas. I do thing Gang and Contextual 2-up are viable though.

One way to look at it:
1) the need to see two things in motion such as Angle in Multicam and Gang.
2) the need to compare a changing point to a stationary point in time.

Apple’s bifurcating the function that was always on Viewer Canvas for more contextual purpose.

[Simon Ubsdell]

Great list, Oliver – absolutely agree about all of this.

For anyone thinking re: no.6 that xto7 is a complete answer to the whole OMF question, please note the issues I have had with my first attempts at using it for audio:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/7958

OMF is absolutely critical and it has to work impeccably every time under all circumstances, something that FCP legacy managed far better than AVID ironically. Third party solutions which may or may not work under all circumstances are worse than useless in a time-sensitive professional environment.

So my only quibble with your list would be moving OMF right up to the number one slot. And while we’re at it, let’s have OMF import as well which is the one thing that I still really like about Media Composer.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Craig Seeman] “Given what they did with the Angle Viewer, I don’t think it would be too far fetched to see a “Gang” feature since that’s needed and I can’t see another way around that.”

I will be really interesting to see how soon they address this. It’s an absolutely critical function for many of my workflows that simply cannot be done without.

I’m not surprised they got around to multicam as soon as they did because it’s an on-the-surface-sexy, sell-more-units-to-unsuspecting-punters type of gimmick that they would see the advantage of devoting some time to, even if not the time necessary to actually make it work as it should in the more demanding real-world situations that we actually encounter.

Ganging, however, is deeply unsexy and probably only required by a tiny handful of editors. How quickly they get around to it will tell us a lot about their real priorities. I’d expect a lot more superficial flashy nonsense to appear before that.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Andy Neil]

[Craig Seeman] “Given what they did with the Angle Viewer, I don’t think it would be too far fetched to see a “Gang” feature since that’s needed and I can’t see another way around that.”

Exactly my point. The specialized use of a second monitor, but not one that sits there all the time. Gang can be useful, although Simon is correct in that not many editors require that functionality.

I’d be more interested in a 3-up monitor for color correction.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Craig Seeman]

[Simon Ubsdell] “Ganging, however, is deeply unsexy and probably only required by a tiny handful of editors. How quickly they get around to it will tell us a lot about their real priorities. I’d expect a lot more superficial flashy nonsense to appear before that.”

What I find interesting about 10.0.3 is that it wasn’t all flash. Some of the under the hood stuff, even if still a work in progress (Photoshop layers) show attention to improving core functions. Remember the scope is another one (but obviously they have to get to multiple scopes).

It would be interesting to speculate what flash vs what core professional features will appear throughout the year. My guess is it’ll be a mix of flash and core. They’ll have to be at least one flashy feature for each quasi major update but they’ll be key core features as well. Was XML 1.1 flash? No, but it opened the door to a third party utility 7toX. I think we’ll see a year of primarily catch-up features. After all multicam is an old feature, reintroduced and improved to fit the new paradigm . . . with good old Viewer Canvas Ganging.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Craig Seeman] “Some of the under the hood stuff, even if still a work in progress (Photoshop layers) show attention to improving core functions.”

I’m afraid that “Photoshop Layers” was just another bit of flash, as I’m calling it – see this thread for more details:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/7866

In its current form it has pretty limited value, though it clearly has bragging appeal at a certain (not terribly advanced) level.

I don’t want to see more of this kind of stuff – I want to see features that work properly/have been thought through before they are bolted onto Frankenstein’s neck.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

This is absolutely the same list I have been keeping.

Performance/stability should be A-#1. 10.0.3 did not improve performance for me, that’s for sure.

I would also add,

– Change the motion x,y attributes from a weird percent number to actual pixels, and have values update accurately (scaling an image in the viewer doesn’t always update the scale value in the inspector).

– Tighter audio timeline organization (and no, it doesn’t have to be tracks).

– Fix the ratio of audio size and video size of the clip in the timeline and allow me to adjust it (Just like I could adjust the physical height of tracks in FCP7).

– The ability to physically edit the name of a Role.

– Ability to work with multi audio track sources in context of the timeline (a more specific version of your second request). Expanding clips should show all available audio tracks instead of a fake compound audio clip

– Ability to trim/manipulate multiple selections of clips at once instead of one at a time or compound dance.

– An option to turn off all the GUI animations.

– Ability to use preentered metadata as easily as you can use the current FCPX metadata set.

– A multichannel audio mixer of some variety

– More non-QT native format support (pretty please).