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The Paradigm of the App Store
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Andrew Richards wrote:
“What were the critical workflow capabilities missing from 10.0?XML I/O = solved
…”Hmm, at least for this point I can’t say it’s solved. It’s there, but that doesn’t mean it’s working as expected by some users.
I think it’s good step, but no solution.
If you can’t do a XML round trip from FCP X to FCP X that doesn’t sound like a solution – at least for me.Not that I dislike FCP X. For example I love how the did the Motion interactive FCP generator options – they are not perfect yet, but pretty cool. Everybody can build effects now.
Regarding the shop and updates I got a mixed feeling. If I’m in a region where internet connection is slow and expensive it’s bad – very bad. My temporary provider tried to charge me about 4000 USD for the FCPX download (took 10 days).
On the other hand it could be very convenient and maybe a bit more environment save.
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools -
[Franz Bieberkopf] “You have just listed – almost in its entirety – all communications Apple have made about their plans. It may take another sentence or two to complete the picture.”
When Avid had their preview event for MC6 where they started off with a huge disclaimer stating nothing they were showing was a promise. How much more communication do you need? Does Randy Ubillos need to host a weekly call-in show? The FAQ said everything they needed to say about the immediate future of FCPX, and then they walked the walk.
[Franz Bieberkopf] “One assumes they’ve taken down the FAQ because that communication is no longer relevant to their plans.”
I assume they took it down because they did everything they said they were going to do in the FAQ, save for two more features they still list publicly as being forthcoming with a timeline. Discussing future product plans is a dangerous exercise. Go mention “Longhorn” in Redmond and see what kind of reaction you get…
[Franz Bieberkopf] “It is ridiculous that you have to qualify “candid” (“for them”) and you don’t see the irony …”
What irony? Everything is relative. They are habitually mum on new products and with FCPX they have been unusually forthcoming. I’m not sure what standard you are holding Apple to, but I can’t find the blogs on Adobe’s site telling us all about the ongoing development of CS6 or on Avid’s site telling us all about what they are working on for MC6.
[Franz Bieberkopf] “Apple is a company that doesn’t communicate – it uses marketing.”
Everything a company does in public is marketing.
Best,
Andy -
[Andrew Richards] “As an aside, for anyone still doubting Apple’s corporate commitment to pro media, I ask why they are putting so much exclusively professional media handling capability into the core of OS X?”
What “exclusively professional” media handling are they building into the OS?
I’d argue that users want media-rich apps, so developers want to build media-rich apps, so Apple wants to provide developers with the tools to build media-rich apps.
If you’re going to build a new media architecture anyway, why not make it as generalized and powerful as possible (supporting things like arbitrary resolutions and color management) so you can provide your developers with some stability, and not have to scrap the whole thing in a few years when we all have 4K iPads?
This doesn’t change the fact that Apple has some really wonderful technologies upon which professional applications may be built — but isn’t it also plausible that they’re just good, forward-thinking engineers without a deep professional media master plan?
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] “What can I do with FCPXML today? What other apps support it? Can FCPX successfully roundtrip an edit to itself via FCPXML?”
You mean other than Smoke, Resolve, and CatDV? That is just the launch-day list. AJA and BMD are hot on the trail.
[Walter Soyka] “Where do I buy this? Not from https://www.automaticduck.com — that’s a news release about AD’s new relationship with Adobe.”
Yeah, curious, that. Adobe and Automatic Duck need to crap or get off the pot. Is this an acquisition? Are the products going away? Apple isn’t the only company with questionable corporate communications.
[Walter Soyka] “Isn’t this extremely limited?”
It is, but we are one week hence from the release of 10.0.1. I’d be very surprised if more folks don’t try to attack this problem. The demand is certainly there.
[Walter Soyka] “Of coures, by then, we may also have a better idea what to expect from CS6 and MC6. I don’t expect it to get dull around here anytime soon.”
We’ll need to lobby for renaming this forum “NLE Wars” or something broader than the FCPX debate.
Best,
Andy -
[Andrew Richards] “Except I would argue that the one minor rev we have so far added significant critical functionality and it did so in a very short time (by software development standards). The long tail Townhill is referring to is software that can grow with Moore’s Law for a long time, not that they will drag their feet getting features added. They’ve already proven they can deliver big features on a short schedule. If the updates slow to a crawl after the next promised rev in “early 2012″, then I’ll eat crow. For now, they are doing just what they said they would.”
I fear I disagree. They were under inordinate pressure because of the PR backlash. IMHO, it’s not like they made these alterations based a normal time table. And look at the promises in the FAQ. Certainly, they managed to just deliver on the “this summer” promises, but failed on “in a few weeks…” promise. Also, there was a fairly strong implication that i/o was just around the corner. Now its next year. I’m saying this, not in judgement of the Apple people, but because I disagree with your argument that we can make behavioral assessments based on the last few months. Also, I think I have to disagree with your definition significant critical functionality. I just see a few steps forward, which are welcome ones, but small.
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[Andreas Kiel] “Hmm, at least for this point I can’t say it’s solved. It’s there, but that doesn’t mean it’s working as expected by some users.
I think it’s good step, but no solution.
If you can’t do a XML round trip from FCP X to FCP X that doesn’t sound like a solution – at least for me.”Apple held up their end of the bargain, anyway. And why can’t you round trip? FCP X writes and reads FCPXML. I don’t have details for Smoke and Resolve round tripping, but CatDV 9.0.1 round trips. That many users don’t really understand what XML is and in turn projected a false hope for native XMEML/FCPXML interchange is just the natural outcome of that (reasonable) ignorance.
[Andreas Kiel] “Regarding the shop and updates I got a mixed feeling. If I’m in a region where internet connection is slow and expensive it’s bad – very bad. My temporary provider tried to charge me about 4000 USD for the FCPX download (took 10 days).”
This could be a VAR opportunity. But like they did with Lion, I think it would behoove Apple to offer alternative distribution methods for larger app payloads. Not everyone is on unlimited broadband and multiple GB downloads are impractical for a lot of people.
Best,
Andy -
[Walter Soyka] “What “exclusively professional” media handling are they building into the OS?”
CoreMedia specifically lists codecs like ProRes and DVCPRO HD and container formats like XDCAM. This is deep OS-level stuff, brand new in Lion. Any developer can write an app for Lion with native 64-bit GPU-accelerated support for broadcast acquisition formats. There is no consumery web use case for XDCAM.
[Walter Soyka] “This doesn’t change the fact that Apple has some really wonderful technologies upon which professional applications may be built — but isn’t it also plausible that they’re just good, forward-thinking engineers without a deep professional media master plan?”
The big difference is at the corporate level, Apple has decided to have the Core OS team shoulder load that can only be useful to the Pro Apps team (at least internally). The old way was silted QuickTime teams, OS teams, and Pro Apps teams all working in parallel, instead of in concert. I’m not saying that Apple’s market target for FCP hasn’t changed, I’m just saying that there is clearly some level of commitment to pro video when you have support for handling XDCAM at the OS level.
Best,
Andy -
[Andrew Richards] “You mean other than Smoke, Resolve, and CatDV? That is just the launch-day list. AJA and BMD are hot on the trail.”
Really? Resolve 8.1 [link] is still unreleased.
Like Resolve, Smoke’s FCPXML support is coming [link], but not here today.
Andrew, I think I am coming across as way more argumentative with you than I really mean to be, and I apologize for that. I agree with your general point that all this is coming, but suggesting that interchange is a problem that’s totally solved today isn’t accurate. Soon — but not now.
[Andrew Richards] “We’ll need to lobby for renaming this forum “NLE Wars” or something broader than the FCPX debate.”
I like Craig and Tim’s suggestion of “Industry Trends.” I’d love to see this level of interest and debate broaden significantly. I’ve learned a ton here.
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 -
[Chris Harlan] “Certainly, they managed to just deliver on the “this summer” promises, but failed on “in a few weeks…” promise. Also, there was a fairly strong implication that i/o was just around the corner. Now its next year.”
We only saw an update “this summer”, but in order for Blackmagic, Autodesk, and Square Box to ship launch day FCPXML support for Resolve, Smoke and CatDV, they almost certainly had access after “a few weeks”. But I’ll grant that the FAQ sure made it seem like public access to the new XML would come in a few weeks, not a few months.
[Chris Harlan] “I disagree with your argument that we can make behavioral assessments based on the last few months. Also, I think I have to disagree with your definition significant critical functionality. I just see a few steps forward, which are welcome ones, but small.”
Fair enough, it isn’t an adequate sample size to really know for sure. It is just so far, so good.
As to critical functionality, I’m thinking of that as the aspects of the software that make it able to operate in a modern post workflow. Aside from what they have already delivered (XML, Roles, SAN support) and what they have repeatedly stated they will add (Multi-cam, Broadcast I/O), what else is missing? The XML feature makes all manner of interchange possible, even if FCPX itself never exports OMF or EDL files. Others hate the idea of third parties being responsible for features essential to their particular workflows, but I’m OK with it. As I look through the lens of the last shop I worked at, the next rev will deliver everything needed to tick all the requirements boxes for their workflow.
Best,
Andy -
[Andrew Richards] ” Others hate the idea of third parties being responsible for features essential to their particular workflows, but I’m OK with it.”
Surely the fact that Automatic Duck OMF export was something you could buy at the start of this week and now no longer can says quite a lot about how fragile the third party support model actually is – especially since AD is/was about the only third party solution yet available.
This is not to say that Automatic Duck won’t be back to business as usual next week but it’s not a good precedent.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com
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