Bill Davis
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I’m actually kinda shocked at how many people in the other X groups are asking questions about the 360 stuff. Threads on equirectangular Video, “small planet” mapping, etc popping up as users explore the new tools. Tim D even very casually weighed in earlier to provide some guidance. (The web is so cool that way – providing exceptional access to expertise sometimes!)
As to the color stuff – the communities seem positively delighted with the new capabilities.
Haven’t seen any real grousing about what or how Apple approached this.
Serious full-time colorists likely still find plenty of things missing that they might want. But overall the new tools appear to have earned a lot of initial fans who are quite excited to dive into them.
That’s my reading from the past few days.
The only significant Apple grousing currently appears to be from those that feel $5,000 for the iMacPro is too much – apparently feeling that Apple needs to compete with PC solutions more on price. Oddly, there’s quite a bit of push back saying PC builds with the same performance and build specs – particularly with an equivalent monitoring solution, isn’t that far off base.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere – I actually think the less discussed HDR and Rec2020 stuff might have more “punch” in the long run, cuz before Long – that might have the biggest effect on the “look” of modern video – and not having it in place might end up making your work appear “old fashioned” in a few years.
Interesting week.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
The huge Facebook groups relative to X, Twirrer hash tags, web articles – The 10.4 discussions are all over those.
Largely around the three big change areas Apple demo’d for us in Cupertino in October
The new integrated Color Tools
Integrated 360 – VR – AR.
and the plumbing to handle all the HDR/wide dynamic range content barreling towards us.The most discussion has centered on Apple’s implementation of the new internal color tools – and that has been the source of LOTS of immediate praise in their design, utility, and implementation.
There has also been a ton of focus on the transition from Sierra to High Sierra and how those underpinnings are settling in – and how that might have effected the stability of the App.
The general concensus has been that there were some early glitches in the S>HS move but those patches have been done and things are stabilizing nicely.
Purely on the FCP X front, the 10.4 release has been notable for its lack of issues and general stability.
Anything outside of the usual plugin glitches requiring third party developers to update their code.
It’s been gloriously smooth for such a large set of fundamental changes and improvements.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[David Lawrence] “Who’s using High Sierra in a production environment? How’s it working for you?”
I’m on deadline with a mass of year end corporate work so I had to stick with Sierra til after delivery out of an abundance of caution.
But I was on Richard Taylor’s live Facebook meeting earlier with Steve Martin and Mark Spencer and Mark said he’s had no issues at all with High Sierra and FCP X.
It appears they did a solid QC pass before the release.
Of course now that it’s in the wild, I’m sure edge cases will appear. That’s kinda inevitable.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I dunno.
One can spend $5-6k on a DSLR with a few lenses without breaking a sweat.
Or on a half way decent basic field sound and lighting package.
A whole super fast turnkey editing editing computer in that same range doesn’t seem all that excessive to me.
Be interesting to see how the base level machines perform for media creation. Not everyone needs 8k or VR stuff right now. But a LOT of operations need to crank out media for the web. And can easily justify one of these, I suspect.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
To clarify, if for any reason you have decided NOT to do the High Sierra update at this time, you can still update and get allthe benefit of the new color tools and even the VR and 360 tools.
Yes, some high level processes “switch on” if HS is available.
But the software will benefit all FCP X users with reasonably modern machines – not just those using the latest hardware or OS.
Hope that’s clearer.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Shane Ross] “Yes Bill…we get it. Apple is “Mary Poppins” to you…Practically perfect in every way. “
Dude, chill out.
Yes, X works incredibly well for me. So I say so.
I say so specifically – and I say why. It’s getting the work I need to do most often – done much faster than ever for me.
Yes, you feel emotionally betrayed by Apple and feel they are not meeting your needs as an editor and should do something different and YOU say so here. Regularly.
We are two different types of editors. Working in different parts of the industry. With different goals. Different skill sets. Different preferences.
If editors reading here need to get work done like mine – than my “in the seat” experience is valid for them.
If other editors do work more like you (and especially if they still feel “abandoned by Apple like you appear to) then your posting about THAT gives them the benefit of your opinions and commiseration on that stuff.
Nothing wrong with a spectrum of opinions, is there?
Happy Holidays regardless.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Shane Ross] “Sorry, I’ve been a mac fan and mac user for 30 years, and when the MacPro tube came out…my confidence in Apple was shaken. iTunes fiasco making it worse, the FCX bomb (IMHO…mainly how it handled the transition and announcement)…it’s just going downhill.
“Then I PRAY it continues to “go downhill”like this!
I’m about 2/3rds of the way through my big end of the year production agenda and I’ve been comfortably multiple days early with every deliverable so far this cycle.
In fact, this past weekend around my work I managed to watch all six movies in the entire Dragon Tattoo trilogy (subtitled foreign language version) on Netflix while waiting for client notes – because I kept getting my edits and review uploads done so rapidly!)
These are generally 2-to3 minute corporate end of the year recaps, 1920×1080 each with an average of 350 or so edits* – weighing in at about 4.5Gigs as an H-264 export. (*timeline index count)
So not super huge, but not trivial. And probably a pretty typical corporate deliverable these days.
My MacBook Pro isn’t breaking a sweat.
THIS is how editing work is supposed to work, in my book.
Smooth, dependable, easy.
What you see as “continuing to go downhill” – I still see as… “burn down the old building, so you can build a super high efficiency new one that will make things way easier every day of your career, from this point on.”
Superb trade in my book!
It metaphorically reminds me a bit of my just arrived two weeks ago, iPhone X.
Out of the box, it actually seemed maybe a bit simple and kinda SMALL – (it replaced my 7plus.)
Now, I can see the point.
But ONLY after a few days to get used to the missing home button – and after I sucked it up and learned the necessary a small passel of new operational commands – and after I had to learn how hold it the proper distance and elevation so that the facial recognition accuracy soared up and up to where it is now – and only after all that, did my understanding of the rest kick in. Now I’m noticing the pure speed of the thing.. How fast iOS runs. How beautiful things look.
And I’m coming to expect the new reality.
Its a matter of setting NEW expectations about what is the best way to do things. Not just mentally comparing what I’m already comfortable with – against something that annoyed me to have to re-set in my thinking.
It’s an interesting evolution.
To me, what you describe as a “downhill slide” feels more like trip back to Aspen.
To each their own. ????
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
This is the thing for me.
For the first 15 years I worked in desktop video production, if you didn’t get the machine specs (processor, buss, drive speed, etc, etc) “just right” your workflow was rife with problems.
For the past five years (after I realized how fluidly my laptop could work with X on my most commonly used formats and raster densities) I started thinking VERY differently.
“Off the shelf” Apple hardware – started crushing it for me in ways that my “bespoke” earlier systems just couldn’t.
I’m sure that’s true of “off the shelf” Dells or Acers running PPro as well.
Face it. The computer hardware industry has cracked the video processing nut in general purpose terms.
You can argue that there’s still a lot to discuss at the edge-case high-end where many of us live. But video editing is today – where spreadsheet calculating was in the 1990s. Something EXPECTED at every level of machine – full stop.
It addresses the issue of how far and how fast can I go – without needing to build my own machine from scratch.
In another thread elsewhere, it was noted that if if just half the 2 million active App developers feel they want to optimize their hardware for more speed and efficiency – this machine could see HUGE sales for just that alone.
It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of high performance computing on a laptop or “all in one” machine was a silly thought.
Now it’s not. Thats all.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Part of the charm of the original is that it at least “looked like” some guy did it himself in his spare bedroom.
Since we’re now comparing major $$$ Pro Music videos – I personally think it’s hard to beat this one from Chinese artist Jane Zhang.
In both concept and execution, state of the art.
(pun intended)
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
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[Andrew Kimery] “Well, that song is going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the weekend. Thanks, Bill! ;)”
All hail the “ear worm.”
????
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.