The missing Source Window

[David Roth weiss]

[Walter Soyka] “Apple isn’t alone here. Smoke used to work this way, too, and many Smoke editors still use the single viewer. It is worth noting that Autodesk added a source/record view some time ago. Hopefully Apple will, too.”

Smoke isn’t an editing tool, it’s a finishing tool. Matching action isn’t really needed in Smoke by the time most projects arrive in a Smoke suite.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.

[Andrew Richards]

[David Roth Weiss] “I think you must have missed a dose of the Kool Aid. 🙂

Next, you’ll be wanting tracked audio.”

Never! 🙂

I think roles are conceptually superior to tracks, at least for the way most users seem to use them: identifying, sorting, and routing audio. That is not to say there isn’t a lot of improvement I’d like to see, like more flexibility when dealing with audio married to video, adding effects and making adjustments to roles as busses (a la compound clips), and sync markers. I like the collision avoidance that comes with not having rigid tracks, and roles let me have my cake and eat it too in that respect.

Best,
Andy

[Brian Mulligan]

[David Roth Weiss] “Smoke isn’t an editing tool, it’s a finishing tool. Matching action isn’t really needed in Smoke by the time most projects arrive in a Smoke suite.
“

Funny because I have been editing in Smoke for 6 years. Never conformed an edit. Never imported an EDL. And I can edit well with 1 viewer.

Brian Mulligan
Senior Editor – Autodesk Smoke
WTHR-TV Indianapolis,IN, USA
Twitter: @bkmeditor

[Craig Seeman]

[Andrew Richards] “I think they ought to have a persistent second viewer as an option”

I’ve thought they need to improve the Two Up display. It shows up when you’re trimming in the timeline with the mouse but not the keyboard. One should also be able to call it up to compare the out point in the Event Library clip to the in point of the timeline clip.

I’m thinking that maybe rather than persistent or not but something that can be invoked by keyboard or context when comparisons are needed.

[Liam Hall]

[Rafael Amador] “For me that’s enough to reject FCPX.
A source and a program window is the minimum to consider a system as pro.
Even the times of the U-Matic LB we had two monitors.
rafael”

My Steenbeck only had one screen. In those days we considered people who edited on U-Matic as amateurs. Funny that…

Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net

[David Roth weiss]

[Brian Mulligan] “Funny because I have been editing in Smoke for 6 years. Never conformed an edit. Never imported an EDL. And I can edit well with 1 viewer.”

Here’s Autodesk’s description of Smoke from their website:

All-in-One Editorial Finishing on the Mac

“Autodesk® Smoke® software is a leader in professional editorial finishing for high-quality commercial and broadcast projects. Smoke is an integrated finishing solution that combines intuitive editorial timeline navigation with advanced 3D finishing tools. Native support for industry-standard media formats and GPU-accelerated interactivity when compositing mean you can finish projects faster and deliver your best work, even against tight deadlines.”

So, the fact that you use Smoke differently at your TV station proves only that there are exceptions to every rule. Does your limited exception actually negate the validity of my statement? If not, then I ask you to please explain, how exactly does your post “further” the ongoing discussion in any way other than to add unwanted or unneeded noise and distraction?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.

[Walter Soyka]

[Brian Mulligan] “Funny because I have been editing in Smoke for 6 years. Never conformed an edit. Never imported an EDL. And I can edit well with 1 viewer.”

It’s funny you should pop in, Brian — I was just going to mention the thread [link] where you opened my eyes about skipping offline editorial and cutting from scratch in Smoke.

Whether Autodesk added the source/record view to allow more users to originate editorial in Smoke, or whether they added it to make the application more accessible to editors already familiar with other platforms, I think the salient points here are that they offered the option, it’s useful to many editors, and Apple would do well to follow suit.

On the interface point I raised earlier, Smoke presents a pretty interesting comparison — its UI is very touchable (it was built for use with a pen), it works in panes within a single window, and it’s highly contextual, but it doesn’t draw the “dumbed down” complaints that FCPX’s UI does. What’s the difference?

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

[Jim Glickert]

Thanks, Dominic, for starting this thread. The very first time I saw FCP X, it was the lack of a source viewer that turned me off immediately. But since the vast majority of complaints regarded the lack of support for XML and other things (most of which I don’t use), I thought there was something wrong with me. Now, thanks to this thread, I feel better about my complaint. Yeah, it’s obviously possible for me to edit without a source viewer, but then it’s also possible for me to do so while kneeling at my desk instead of sitting in a chair. Apple, appease me and give me a source viewer. I’ll provide the chair.

Jim

[Daniel Annefelt]

[David Roth Weiss]
“Here’s Autodesk’s description of Smoke from their website:

All-in-One Editorial Finishing on the Mac
…
So, the fact that you use Smoke differently at your TV station proves only that there are exceptions to every rule. Does your limited exception actually negate the validity of my statement? If not, then I ask you to please explain, how exactly does your post “further” the ongoing discussion in any way other than to add unwanted or unneeded noise and distraction?”

Interesting.
Website info tops six years of experience.
Let’s follow this train of thought.
Here is what it say on Apple’s web site:

Final Cut Pro X:
– Built from the ground up for pro video editors.
– Revolutionary Video Editing.
– Built-in professional audio editing features.
– The Magnetic Timeline eliminates the restrictions of traditional, track-based timelines.

So that, by the same logic, would make it true, correct?

regards
.-daniel

[David Roth weiss]

[Daniel Annefelt] “So that, by the same logic, would make it true, correct?”

Daniel,

Silly post Daniel!

Evidently you are unaware that Smoke is very well-known primarily as a finishing tool. It’s way too expensive for most as a primary edit station. My quote was from the website was simply to support my message to Brian, who knows very well that he is among very few users who actually use Smoke as an edit station, which is clearly not what it was designed for.

Anyway, what exactly is your intent, to get into a discussion of truth in advertising, or do you really have something to add here, such as that you are actually knowledgeable about Smoke and it’s usage, and that you can say with authority that both my message and the message on the Autodesk website are invalid?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.