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Why is Keyframing in FCPX so shite?
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Where is Bill Davis saying “you’re holding it wrong!”?
Andy Field
FieldVision Productions
N. Bethesda, Maryland 20852 -
[Andy Field] “Where is Bill Davis saying “you’re holding it wrong!”?
“to Bill’s credit – this is one area he admits X needs work on and has already stated as such in this thread.
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Not even Bill can defend key framing in FCPX
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What is odd is that one can set a range around some audio keyframes and drag them , but it can’t be done with video key frames. Seems like an odd omission in the area of video keyframing.
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[Paul Golden] “I much prefer After Effects’s much more robust implementation for several reasons.”
Okay, so the premise of the whole thing already is just plain ludicrous, since you’re actually comparing a COMPOSITING app with AN NLE and are surprised that the options aren’t congruent??! ????
Oh please. If anything, maybe compare it to MOTION to make a mildly legitimate point? Let me do that for you.
AE vs Motion, as it should be, if anything:
[Paul Golden] “1) Lack of hold frames: “
Got ’em.
[Paul Golden] “2) No roving keyframe expansion:”
Check.
[Paul Golden] “3) Copy Paste a drag:
In AE, you just copy/cut and paste keyframes as normal. In FCPX, you have to find a special copy Keyframes command in the menus, which gets old real quick.”Wait… so you’ve been in that menu so many times and not ONCE have you noticed the various COMMANDS for each and every one of those? Four in all. Or are you saying you’re actually not able to remember to simply put a ⌥⇧ in front of an X, C, V and ⌫ key? ????
[Paul Golden] “4) Not all things are key-frameable”
Like what? Anything that actually makes SENSE to keyframe most definitely is keyframable. Or are you wanting to keyframe the SPATIAL CONFORM or something else that would be completely nonsensical to want to keyframe?
[Paul Golden] “5) Keyframe in Timeline awkward:”
Again. FCP is NOT a compositor to begin with. But I will grant you that what it has certainly needs overall improvement, which I’m sure is coming.
[Paul Golden] “6) No twirl down values in Timeline: “
Ditto. But if you need more than FCP has to offer, you go to Motion. Exactly as you’d do with Premiere, too.
In which case Motion’s integration with FCP in fact far exceeds that of AE’s integration with Premiere as well btw. But they’re trying hard.
[Paul Golden] “7) No scripting or expressions in FCPX:”
Called “Behaviors“… check.
– RK
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[Tom Sefton] “you can just elastic band them all and move them down the timeline”
You mean like you can “Range Tool” them in FCP and move them down the timeline? Yeah, that’s cool.
[Tom Sefton] “In FCPX you need to manually click on each individual one and move it with a shift click, or right click and delete”
Yeah. Oh wait. No, you don’t. Since that would of course be complete nonsense, right? Which is why you can shift click first and last and move them (without the need for ⇧ btw, since they are automatically contained vertically or horizontally) or hit ⌥⇧⌫ to delete. Go figger.
– RK
____________________________________________________
Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich!
Youtube | Facebook -
First off, the distinctions between NLEs and compositing programs are artificial at best. AE is as much an editing program its own way. Of course AE is a more robust compositor and animation tool than FCPX, but my point is that AE’s implementation of key framing is something where FCPX could take a lesson.
There are some times that I will do elaborate amounts of compositing in FCPX because I like the tools there and the fluidity of the experience and real time playback compared to AE or Motion. As FCPX adds a multitude of EFX capability (3D, masking, etc.) , to say that we need to be hobbled with primitive keyframing because FCPX doesn’t “aspire” to being a compositing app is unhelpful.
The points I made about the keyframing differences are where AE does something in a more user friendly way that requires less steps or offers more precision than what you can achieve with FCPX. For example, a hold key is one click in AE, and it requires having two identical keys (one at the front, one at the back) to accomplish the same in FCPX. Yes you can remember a modifier before Command-C in copying keyframes, but why have that when Command-C is more straightforward and fewer keystrokes?
There is nothing inherent in the design of FCPX that precludes improvement of the key framing abilities. But anyone who has used both will tell you that AE has FCPX beat by a long shot.
As for Motion, it is irrelevant because going to Motion is as much a pain as going to AE when you’re working primarily in FCPX. There’s no advantage from a workflow standpoint. Motion offers some nice tools, but it doesn’t really replace the lack of decent keyframe support within FCPX.
This is not an Adobe vs Apple thing. I vastly prefer FCPX to Premiere, but I also prefer AE to Motion.
But to give me an elaborate excuse about why FCPX can’t improve its keyframing because it’s only an NLE is like saying the color correction couldn’t be improved because its not Resolve.
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Fine, those two points completely change my opinion and now fcpx has incredible keyframing abilities. It’s totally defensible that I can see key frames appear in random parts of the timeline despite the playhead indicating where they should appear.
Go figger
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk
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