Some overlooked FCP7 Improvements

[Andrew Keil]

I know that when someone complains about the quality of the user interface, it is seen as a pretty shallow request, as if you’re more interested in how an app looks than how it acts.

However not in this instance. Yes ultimately it’s just a tool, but we’re talking about a company that puts ease of use as the biggest seller for pretty much everything it makes.

As for UI interface improvements, how about these to get an idea where I’m coming from on this.

1. More resolution independent. FCP was made long before HD 30″ displays and the UI doesn’t reflect that. It’s not a massive problem for me but I do feel there needs to be a little more than making the browser text bigger.

2. Quicklook direct from the browser window, it would allow you to quickly skim through a lot of shots without having to load into the browser

3. Alternating shading of rows in the browser a-la-finder list view, there’s a lot of info in there and it would help you better identify at a glance.

4. How about an FCP floating dashboard just like in motion? Do we have to go into the filters and motion tab every time for basic functions? yes it’s only saving a few seconds here and there, but it adds up.

5. group moving of audio tracks in the patch panel, why do you have to move tracks individually?

6. Much more detailed safe zones, Motion has cinema safe, why not Final Cut?

7. Mentioned before, but Guides and rulers on the canvas window

8. Again mentioned before, but search fields and spotlight in the browser, heck the sequence window too, how good would it be to type in a quick search in the sequence to zoom to that specific clip in the timeline? Or “show me all clips with x effect applied” etc

9. A progress bar on the icon in the dock to indicate renders and export, with a sound played when finished

10. Again as mentioned before, direct text editing in the canvas. The text tab is horribly outdated.

Now that’s ten off the top of my head, I’m not trying to turn this into a feature request thread, I’m just saying that when I say the interface needs an overhaul and that the apps need to start working more like each other, it would improve my productivity, and I’m pretty sure other peoples too.

And yes, a little upgrade to the look of the app, a little cleaner, a little more polished would be nice, heck we look at it all day, it may as well be pretty, I mean yes my Macbook Pro may not work any better because it’s beautiful and shiny, but damn I’m glad it is.

[John Pale]

A really big new feature, if true….

Kevin Monahan reports the new ProRes 4444 codec with an alpha channel plays in real time… Real time graphics keying…. Now FCP can do something every Avid could do since 1998. All joking aside, this is a huge timesaver for graphic intensive shows…have not tested myself.

[Chris Poisson]

I agree that LiveType is still viable, and Zane, where did you get your 1% data from regarding FCS users who use it? LT is much more integrated with FCP than Motion, which requires HUGE amounts of horsepower just to run, at least in comparison.

Tom,

Let me know if you get it to work!

Have a wonderful day.

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Zane Barker] “As for the BlueRay support, how hard is it to understand that BlueRay is NEVER going to catch on like DVD has. Im willing to bet the the growth of online distribution of movies (things like Netflix, Blockbuster, AppleTV, Hulu etc etc is growing faster then the growth of BlueRay.”

I agree. The market for BlueRay hasn’t really gelled. At least not yet. And the licensing fees are still quite high.

I do expect to see BlueRay as a screener for festivals and art houses, though. Like a poor man’s DCP. But screeners don’t need menus, they just need to play when you tell them to.

the format war of HD-DVD vs BlueRay ended up with VOD and online downloads as the winners. Meanwhile the public yawned, rolled over and clicked over to Netflix, iTunes and Hulu.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Christopher Wright]

Yes as Tom has stated so succinctly, my clients, peers and film festivals are the ones who want their content authored on Blu-Ray. That is why so many of us are disappointed in this FCP release with no real improvement in DVDSTPro and Blu-Ray authoring. Blu-Ray players are very affordable now, and my best clients actually all have one. They are amazed at the difference in a Blu_ray Master versus the old DVD proofs. As Arnie mentions, there is no real reason to want Blu-Ray tools if you are a consumer passively and mindlessly viewing Hollywood content, or watching compressed YouTube video on your cell phone, in fact that is all the big media corporations want consumers to do. The story is different if you are a content CREATOR and want people and clients to see see your work in the best quality possible, in the cheapest way possible.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Octocore 8 GB Ram, Radeon card, MBP, MXO
Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 8.0, Lightwave 9.3, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 5, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Russell Lasson]

Andrew, you’ve got a good list there. Ever consider trying to get hired as a consultant by Apple:)

As you’ve pointed out, there are several ways that Apple could innovate with the interface. And seeing your perspective, I think your criticism is valid.

I think I’ve been caught up in what has appeared to me as a bunch of users that have been criticizing FCS3 based on what they hoped Apple would do. Much of what I’ve heard has seemed to be more about whinnying and moaning instead of people looking deep into the upgrade to see what’s really there and how they can use the tool. Many of those people sound like Apple owes them something, like a free Blu-Ray authoring application.

Anyways, I’m very excited about FCS3 and looking forward to a FCS4 someday.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Color Mill
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.colormill.net

[David Heidelberger]

I’ll chime in, I guess.

I really don’t care about Blu-Ray. Very few clients I’ve dealt with have even mentioned it, let alone requested it. I suspect the Blu-Ray Lite, if you will, in this edition will pretty much cover my needs in that area for the next few years until FCP4 (are we back to that again?) and holographic discs or whatever.

I’m also really happy with the FCP interface. I take Andrew’s points, but I’d also be perfectly satisfied if they didn’t change a thing.

That said, I’m still lukewarm on this update. There are definitely some cool features in there. The iChat thing could have saved my company some money a few months ago, for example.

But I’m disappointed that more hasn’t been done for multi-core rendering and speed enhancements. I guess we’ll see how it performs in the future with Snow Leopard, as others have said.

I’d also love to be able to edit H.264 and some of the other temporal compression formats coming out of the more consumer-oriented cameras in realtime or in multi-format sequences. I just had to do a job where the B-Camera was the Canon 5D (A-cam was the HVX-200, so I was cutting in a DVCPROHD720p sequence). We didn’t use enough of the footage and were on too short a schedule to justify converting it all to ProRes, but it was a real nuisance to deal with, having to render each time. The images were beautiful, but the hassle on the post-side does not incline me to recommend it for future jobs. I think, in general, the Apple endorsed solution of “Just convert everything to ProRes,” is often not practical. I wish they had made it easier to work with all these new formats. H.264 (or similar) is showing up in a lot of cameras now. Dare I say, it’s the future of the consumer camcorder market? There really ought to be a way to deal with it without taking major render hits. And I take your point, Russell, that’s merely what I “hoped” they’d do. Still, somewhat disappointed there.

Finally, I realize they’re not going to tout on their front page “Hey, we’ve fixed all the bugs that were driving you crazy,” but there are several (I’ve filed the bug reports) that I’d really love to see fixed. Things like text and other generators being distorted in widescreen renders using Export Using>Compressor. Getting around this, doubles the number of renders you need. So I’m very curious to see how the new Compressor integration deals with that and other minor render bugs in that workflow (Timecode Overlay filter in Compressor being just flat-out wrong for 24p sequences or Quicktime files, for example). I’ll play around in the Apple Store before I upgrade and see if that’s all been sorted.

I know I’ll upgrade, I just wasn’t as thrilled by this release as I was by the last couple.

– David

[Michael Sacci]

[Christopher Wright] “That is why so many of us are disappointed in this FCP release with no real improvement in DVDSTPro and Blu-Ray authoring”
But what they did was to add away to get your movies/videos onto a playable BluRay disc in Compressor. I think this will fill a gap for the time being. True BluRay authoring is just such a different beast verse DVD that it really needs to be its own product, what you see on most of the low end BR authoring is basic DVDs with HD content and not taken advantage of what BR is all about.

[Joseph Owens]

Frankly, I like LiveType a lot, as well… its single-character editing allows for very detailed kerning, and it updates very quickly back into Final Cut. and thats all I use it for, and I don’t like Boris, either.

Its a lot more like the first Inscriber which I loved dearly.

I do NOT use the Live fonts or any of the cheese animation gak…

I do not like Motion, not on a bus, nor a car, I think its spam, fond of Livetype I am.

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Ron James]

[Zane Barker] “I don’t know one professional editor that has even opened Live Type in well over a year, if you want to use the cheesy life fonts then use monition”

So? I don’t personally ever use LiveType, but someone creative can do wonders with an app like this. Just because the results are “cheesy” in your hands, doesn’t mean someone clever can’t spin amazing results.

Sorry, I just don’t respond well to attitudes of superiority.