[Andy Neil]

[Bret Williams] “But why would you think you could add them with their tabs open? Nothing else in X works that way. That’s a clip by clip thing. Not a terrible idea though.”

I don’t expect it. OP was bemoaning the ability to have easy access to an opacity bar and I was just illustrating that unfortunately X doesn’t work that way.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[Bret Williams] “I’ve never seen this behavior. I can add clips all day long with the animation tab open.
“

You must be misunderstanding me then. Because you cannot mark an IN and OUT on a clip in the browser and add it to the timeline in such a way that it appears with it’s animation tab already open. Each clip is added to the timeline collapsed and if you want to see the animation tab, you have to select new clips and hit the shortcut (CTL+V). Existing clips in the timeline can have their animation tabs open when you add new clips, but the new clips won’t come in with their tabs open.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[James Orphan] “Is there a way to retain the opacity levels on video tracks in the timeline at all times (for quick and easy adjusting) rather than the inefficient process of ‘Show Video Animation’: ‘Compositing:Opacity’ etc)?”

The short answer is no. Blade tool will collapse the Animation tab, just as you can’t add new clips into the timeline with the animation tab showing. Not sure why it was designed this way, but perhaps they felt having the opacity bar out in the open like that led to too many instances of accidentally adjusting opacity when just selecting clips. I know things like that could happen fairly easily in FCP7. Regardless, it’s much harder to get to now (too hard, I know).

As advice, I’d suggest leaving your inspector open to the video tab instead of adjusting opacity in the timeline. The opacity slider is at the bottom of the video tab and is easy to get to and use. And the inspector updates depending on what clip is selected or where the playhead is (in the event nothing is selected) so you can just jump to the next clip and adjust.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

If you want to see all your retimed clips, just select your whole timeline and hit CMD+R as Doug said. This will toggle visibility of the retime bar. You’ll be able to tell at a glance what’s slow (orange), frozen (red), fast (blue) or normal speed (green).

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[Dean Neal] “Getting hung up on the nomenclature for the sake of comfort to me is missing the premise of X.
“

I seriously doubt anyone’s really getting hung up so much on the nomenclature that they’re unable to work. However, it’s not unreasonable to acknowledge that changing the name of sequences to that of “project” which already had an existing definition within the editing community was needlessly confusing. The mere fact that you might have to have a clarifying conversation with a person about whether you meant ENTIRE PROJECT (all assets, sequences, video, etc) or just the PROJECT (sequence) is strong evidence that they probably could have chosen a better name.

And if you’re making the argument that the names were meant to be clear within the program itself, a way to distinguish the various containers X uses, let’s look at the name Event. Personally, I’ve never had a problem with the word Event being used to mean a container holding clips and sequences and other assets. But the name Event implies a specific workflow. You shoot an “event” and all the files for that “event” go in that container. Bin, on the other hand, is completely generic. It implies nothing about the workflow and as such is used in varying ways.

Of course, just because Apple calls a container, an “event” doesn’t mean we have to use the container the way it’s implied. I’m merely pointing out that the nomenclature they’ve created isn’t always the most clever or improved way of handling it.

Upon reflection, I don’t necessarily think they should’ve kept the name “bin” to mean events or collections. They work quite different from Avid or Premiere bins and should have a different name. I also don’t have an issue with Library or Event or Collection as a naming convention either. You have to call them something, and at least those names don’t have a pre-existing meaning in the editing world. But in my opinion, there was never a good reason to change timeline or sequence to Project. Particularly when many people work on single projects that require multiple sequences in the final output. It was a bad decision.

Will they change it? No. I don’t expect them too. But I can love editing and working on FCPX (and I do) and still acknowledge that calling a sequence a “project” was dumb.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[Mike Warmels] “Now, my computer is much faster, the drive is much faster and still, working HD on FCPX needs unlimited power it seems.
“

No, there’s something else going on. I have a much worse setup than you do and I don’t see the same issues cutting hour-long shows. I’m running a 2011 Mac Pro with eSATA and internal drives. Sometimes FW800. I have 32GB RAM which helps me, but everything about my computer is slower than yours and I haven’t suffered from slowdowns since the pre-library versions of X.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

What computer are you cutting on? If you’re on a Mac Pro (pre-trashcan), then you don’t have USB3 so your drive will be USB2 only.

Unless you’re using a newer MacBook Pro or iMac?

Also, when you were complaining about Library size, I thought that meant that you were using managed media (clips stored in the library). Is that not the case?

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[Mike Warmels] “I wonder though: do you guys immediately update/upgrade when something comes out. “

I have FCPX on two systems. My Mac Pro tower (which contains my Avid and Adobe CC as well), and my laptop, which just has FCPX.

After a release, I typically wait to hear from the early adopters for any up front issues. But I’ll update the laptop within a couple days to run my own tests on it. I won’t update the tower until I have a need to cut with it or until I’ve fully vetted the program on the laptop. Of course, I always zip and archive my previous version so if things blow up on the tower, I can revert to the older program. One of the benefits of having sandboxed programs.

I’m never in a hurry to upgrade, unless I have need for a new feature in a release. Best to see what bugs pop up and let Apple address them before jumping in.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[Mike Warmels] “The new Compressor gets extremely bad response in the App Store. Is that justified?”

I’m not sure what they’re saying about it, but it’s probably for the most part unjustified. It’s a pretty good app although since it went through it’s makeover, I’ve found some of the features are tucked away so they’re difficult to find, and there are certainly things it can’t do.

Media Encoder is probably more comprehensive of the conversion programs although I find it a bit clunky to use. Compressor is pretty easy, but as I said, comes with the price where some of the advanced features are more hidden than they used to be.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Andy Neil]

[Mike Warmels] “Still, AVID went 64bit with MC6. (We’re on MC 8.3 now, a couple of years later) and it can do all that. And always has.
“

Not entirely. Avid and other programs that maintain compatibility with 32 bit codecs have to have 32 bit code in the program to handle it. Apple decided to keep FCPX completely free of legacy code and let’s face it, it was probably the smart idea since they were writing a brand new application from the ground up, and probably didn’t want to hunt for that code when it finally goes away in the near future. In the case of Premiere and Avid, you have a program that was 32 bit to begin with, upgraded to 64 bit except where it was necessary to maintain 32bit code.

As I said, this was how it was explained to me. Since Compressor handles legacy codecs and is well-integrated into FCPX and is only $50, I’ve not found it a particular hardship to use Compressor in concert with FCPX. After all, Adobe has Media Encoder and Avid has Squeeze bundled with it so all the major NLEs include programs to supplement their export capabilities. In the case of Premiere and FCPX, the integration is deep. In the case of Avid, it’s not really integration at all.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos