What happened to the APIs Apple was going to release in the next “few weeks”?

[Chris Harlan]

Sean, we DO bow down.

[Mike Guidotti]

i misunderstood your question – most of the stuff it needs to do has been mentioned already

[Mike Guidotti]

It needs to talk to Pro Tools and Fairlight. Those are the most common Audio post softwares.

[Andreas Kiel]

Now, XMP is metadata, whereas XML is for data transfer through a packaged markup language.
So two completely different things, but I can see where it might be confused.
XMP is VERY useful when storing extra info about a clip and FCPX, while it creates info about a clip like Shot angle, faces, etc, you can't export that data with a clip.
So perhaps what you would like is a way to get clips from FCPX to export with XMP data. That would be cool, eh!


Sean,

You’re not totally right.
XMP is just another approach (from Adobe) for interchange work which might work with ‘containers’, like AAF, MXF, OMF or QT, and even PDF. Finally it’s just another XML based format.

Since years you could use XMLs to transport metadata and data.
It’s always about the way it is used. Different from container formats XML metadata often is embedded in one of those to hold the metadata. Sometimes a XML file is used as an additional file to provide metadata for a file.

Broadcast Wave files do have an embedded XML for metadata (mostly meanwhile), they easily can be opened by any app which just reads WAV format. This doesn’t mean metadata are really read by every app.
On the other hand you can add metadata to any QT file – which is a container format – and for example add the audio XML info to it (like common scene/take/note). Applications which are able to read that embedded XML – like legacy FCP – do extract those metadata, beside those which are embedded in a different format, like timecode tracks, reels, date etc.

What do you think about the Alexa when working with Prores, what is the XML on the card for? Data or metadata.
P2? Canon 5D/7D?

The old DVDSP did contain both references and binary data when saving to XML, and it was/is all about metadata – whatever you define as metadata. Same with Motion.
FCPX Events can include XML (meta)data from Motion, but different from Motion projects they are not saved as XML but only embed those XMLs.

So let’s wait and see what AXEL will be in some month.

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Sean Cole]

Sorry Andreas, you too have slightly misunderstood me. My fault I suppose though. I know only full well that xml is used for lots of things, not least databases and in HTML for providing plenty other information. I also use the EX3 which also has XMLs on it’s cards for metadata. So yes, XMLs DO resemble XMPs in this one regard.

However, what I was specifically talking about was it’s use for FCP exports. In a similar way to how Avid, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Grass Valley, and crap loads of other software use it 😛 for sending edit and effects information to each other – or anything potentially in fact.

So, Tell me please how XMP is like that? It’s not. It’s extended metadata. That’s it. It can’t transfer edit information over to FCP, After Effects, Avid. It could, but it doesn’t. Not yet anyway. – But of course you don’t need me to tell you that (forgive my apparent insolence. It wasn’t meant for your benefit, it’s for anyone else who may stumble across this thread in search of valid information).

FCP’s XML interchange protocol is to address this (the transfer of edit/sequence AND clip specific information) and is what the Original Poster was writing about when he spoke of the API’s Apple were going to release.

Who’s AXEL by the way? :/ Is he/they creating a new solution for data interchange.

What do you think about the Alexa when working with Prores, what is the XML on the card for? Data or metadata.
P2? Canon 5D/7D?

Que? Oh, sarcasm. I see 😀 Like it

So to sum up, when I said ‘XMP is metadata, whereas XML is for data transfer through a packaged markup language’ what I should have added (for those who couldn’t be bothered to link it with the rest of the post) was ‘from Final Cut Pro to some other edit or sequence based application – because obviously if I wanted to send just a clip I would export a quicktime with a crap load of metadata’ 😉

Sean
Pi Digital

[Tim Wilson]

[Eduardo Serrano] “Dont forget to get davinci in your list. It seems that it is quickly becoming the new Apple color. “

I think you have that backwards. 🙂

The first da Vinci (the spelling then) was introduced in 1984, the first version of Resolve came 20 years after that, in 2004. Sort of in-between, da Vinci 2K in 1998.

Final Touch HD was released in 2005, handling only (as the name suggests) 2D only.

I’m oversimplying of course, but if you mean that DaVinci Resolve followed Color as a software-only system, then yes, true…but if you’re saying that Resolve is becoming the new Color and disappearing after several years of little development by its parent company, then no, I don’t believe so. 🙂

[Andreas Kiel]

@ Sean
I didn’t want to be offensive, not at all. But you wrote some comments and I commented your comments. :).
Just adding my comments to help people to think about metadata.

‘AXEL’ is still not born and I don’t know how long it will take to ‘incubate’ and how it will look like. Only thing I know: It will be the replacement of the legacy ‘xmeml’ XML way Apple used with FCP – and it is easier to pronounce.

I know Helmut Kobler since a while and I do know a bit of his work(flow).
He does know something about the way I interpret metadata and manage them.

The main thing at this point is: when will Apple release specs. Without specs no tools can be released. With no tools available there can’t be any interchange or collaborative work.
In former times Apple supplied 2 kind of ‘hooks’ for developers. One for very selected developers to create importers/exporters, the other one for handling XML (to communicate with FCP without clicking buttons, menus, files) for the rest of the world.

The quote you used from Walter Biscardi Jul 28th who obviously quoted another person.
Apple will be releasing the XML code, or “hooks” to developers in 2 weeks so they can start developing third party XML apps – Evan Schectman from Outpost Digital.

Funny thing is that Outpost Digital is way closer to Apple than me, but they do use a metadata helper app I created – and now trying to work with FCPX it’s not working for them. There is no metadata exchange at this time.
And metadata (as data over data) where made for this.

Regards
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Misha Aranyshev]

One of the actual tasks I use EDL’s for is “pulling” shots. I cut two features shot on Arri D-21. The footage comes on a bunch of hard drives with hundreds of thousands DPX files on them. I like to call it “digital negative”. I strike “digital workprint” from the footage — QT movies with timecode, a LUT and metadata burned in, log, sync and edit. When picture is locked I have to pass it to a colorist and to VFX. That means going back to DPX. That’s where EDL’s come handy. DPX contains timecode in the header and there is a Spotlight plugin that allows searching for timecode. Of course it would be much easier to have a small app that would import EDL, search all mounted volumes and copy only the frames used to a specified location but doing it manually isn’t as bad as it sounds. In fact Pomfort was considering having this feature in the next Silverstack and even had working code but it didn’t make it into a final release.

[Anders Teigen]

Manipulating logs, markers, subtitles etc is a very useful side of FCP XML to me, and I am looking forward to see what Spherico can do with FCPX, when the time comes.

XML is also possible to put to use for a technical interested editor, so I would very much like to se AXEL available for the public, not only for developers.

regards
anders