[Andy Neil]

[Shawn Miller] “That’s why I think it’s unfair to call this capability clunky, it’s essentially saying that anything that you don’t use in your workflow is unnecessary. “

I know we’re only ever going to agree to disagree here, but my opinion of the clunkiness of expressions isn’t rooted in my workflow. GUIs exist for a reason. Mograph and VFX guys may need to create specialized effects with scripting and that’s fine. But you’re telling me that AE can’t produce a basic Wiggle effect with a GUI interface like it can for all the other effects it has available?

Expressions could be designed like functions in a spreadsheet program where the interface could list them and prompt you for the parameters that need to be shown as values. Essentially make expressions easier to write so that you’re not dealing with a situation where your animation doesn’t work because you didn’t put the right number of parameter values between parentheses.

Or why not just create a GUI for expressions? Type in the expression you want to apply, and then the parameters you need to express values for show up as sliders in the effects editor where you can make adjustments in the same manner that you do for any effect that you apply.

Basically, I think expressions were created to fill a need years ago, and their implementation could be a lot better.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[Shawn Miller] “Fine if you don’t want to learn programming, but I’m not sure it’s fair to call it clunky.”

Having to learn programming as an editor is the very definition of “clunky” in my opinion.

Motion behaviors sacrifice some flexibility for ease of use. AE expressions sacrifice ease of use for flexibility. I think there could be some kind of middle ground and I wish Apple or Adobe would pick up the gauntlet to figure it out.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Unfortunately, there are no behaviors or filters that read or store information like that although that would be a wonderful and useful addition. Suggest it in a feedback to Apple.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[David Mathis] “For more complex stuff I find After Effects a better choice. Expressions save time and cut down on the number of keyframes needed.”

Expressions can have a lot of flexibility, but they’re also clunky in implementation (too much like a programming language, and requiring specific numbers that don’t tell you much in context about how it will animate). Behaviors in Motion do most of the same things that expressions in AE do, and they’re ridiculously easy to use. I almost never use keyframes when animating graphics in Motion.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “but is it easy currently to do push pull changes within the shadows and highlights in FCPX for cooler shadows and warmer highlights?”

It’s very easy. Pretty much the same workflow as the color wheel.

[Aindreas Gallagher] “do you find there are unique advantages to the collapsed square grid apple colour science layout?”

The only advantage I see is that the color board is bigger in the imposed area you’re working from. Because the inspector is rectangular, you’ll always have more screen space with the color board than you would with a color wheel confined to the same dimensions.

It may also be easier for those just learning color correction. When they look at a frame and think, “I need to add more blue, or pull blue out,” the color board is intuitive to that kind of thinking.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Not that I have a problem with a toggle mode between color wheel and color board, but I just don’t understand all the clamoring for a color wheel interface. It’s not like the color board is hard to use; it’s least as easy to use as the wheel. I for one would rather see other functionality added to color correction than worry about the damn wheel. You know, like keyframeable color changes, or a trackable mask.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

That sounds more like corruption than a bug. Have you deleted preferences, created a new project and copy/pasted and all that jazz? Was the malfunctioning project an updated project?

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

I can confirm. Definitely a bug. I’d write it up as I did to Apple. Here’s what I noticed:

Happens when you try to set a keyframe on a clip you’ve just added to the project.

Only happens in the Inspector. If you set the keyframe in the viewer with the transform tool in the viewer, the keyframe sets properly.

FCPX registers that “something” has happened even though the keyframe is not placed. In other words, you can “undo” the phantom keyframe, and re-set it.

This occurs on all keyframable parameters in the video tab.

Something similar even occurs in audio. If you set a keyframe in the inspector on the volume parameter and then move the mouse away, the keyframe will disappear there as well. But the keyframe does in fact set (you can see the keyframe on the clip in the timeline). If you hover the mouse over the clip in the timeline, to make the timeline active, the keyframe automatically shows up in the inspector. This does not happen in video.

Also, I noticed a frame or two shift in the displayed video when I try to set that first keyframe. I’ll set the playhead over the clip, go to the inspector and hit the position keyframe button and the video in the viewer will shift a few frames even though the playhead doesn’t move.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Are you running Mavericks? Because you can’t update to 10.1 unless you’re running OS 10.9.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Andy Neil]

Don’t get caught up on the 200 editors thing. No one has 200 editors working on the same show. What Mark is describing is a facility that cuts dozens of shows with thousands of media clips being accessed by not only editors, but story producers, logging PAs, and other people who don’t actually edit with the clips but sometimes need to view them.

The most important logging info that is added to clips in these shops by the AEs is right there in the name of the clip. That’s why most shops use some kind of logical naming convention like Mark said. Avid has numerous other ways that individual editors organize their clips. They copy clips into separate bins, they color label, the assign markers and type comments into the markers, they create sub-clips and store the sub-clips in their personal bins.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com