Brad Hurley
Forum Replies Created
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Apple may think they ticked that box when they introduced Frame.io integration. Yes, it’s not built in and it’s an extra cost, but that’s consistent with the “ecosystem” approach Apple has taken where missing features are provided by third parties. On the other hand, Apple has been gradually bringing some of those features into Final Cut, such as noise reduction, better color grading tools (and hopefully they’ll add tracking for masks etc. before too long), so maybe built-in collaboration tools will come.
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Wow, that’s strange! I don’t have my color workspace set up the same way as yours but will give it a try in the next few days to see if I can replicate the problem. If it’s a bug, hopefully it’s been reported and will be fixed in the next update.
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I think of editing and color correcting/grading as two separate tasks, so I set up a separate workspace for color grading. I use custom workspaces for organizing media, color correction/grading, and audio (I use the default workspace when editing clips into the timeline), and you can set up keyboard shortcuts to instantly switch between workspaces. I never show the scopes in the editing workspace as they serve no purpose (for me) there, I only use them the color workspace.
If all else fails, you could give that a try; it doesn’t solve your problem but it should be a functional workaround.
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I found the software registration process pretty painless, actually. I get that software registration needs to be considered in context: one registration is no big deal, dozens of them take time when you switch to a new computer.
I just copy the email with the activation instructions to the MacOS (and iOS) Notes app, which is where I keep all my serial numbers so they’re easy to find when I need them. Notes has a fast search function, so I can find anything very quickly.
I’m impressed with Color Finale 2; it comes close to convincing me to use Final Cut as an all-in-one solution, but Resolve still rules when it comes to color correction and grading. I love using Resolve Color Management, which eliminates the need for camera LUTs, and my footage (which is all from Blackmagic Design cameras) just looks better in Resolve. But Color Finale comes pretty close and definitely does a better job for me than Final Cut’s built-in color correction/grading tools.
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DaVinci Resolve’s new Cut page has a stringout function built in, which is convenient for reviewing all your footage in one go.
The preferred metadata-based workflow of smart collections and favorites isn’t unique to Final Cut, nor is it mandatory of course. I use the same smart collections approach and “favorites” in DaVinci Resolve and it’s almost as fast and just as effective: when you create keywords, Resolve automatically creates smart bins for them (the equivalent of smart collections), and you can pretty much duplicate Final Cut’s “favorites” functionality by setting in-and-out points on any clip, hitting option-b to create a subclip (you can have multiple subclips per clip, just as you can have multiple favorites in Final Cut), and then setting up smart bins to filter the subclips. All subclips in Resolve automatically have “subclip” added to the clip name, so it’s a cinch to find them and create smart bins that collect all your subclips by keyword or other attributes (e.g., all subclips from a particular camera or camera angle).
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Just following up with a few more details on workflow:
There’s nothing inherently wrong with creating a stringout and doing selects in the timeline; lots of people like to work that way. But the more efficient workflow in FCPX is to spend more time prepping your footage (eliminating rejects, marking favorites, assigning keywords, assigning audio roles) before you ever drop anything into the storyline. If I had two weeks to edit a project, I’d probably spend the first week getting everything prepped before I drop a single clip into the timeline.
The beauty of this approach is that once all your favorites are selected and your audio roles assigned, editing happens “at the speed of thought.” You can settle into the creative flow of telling your story, without the distraction of having to set track destination controls (imagine a film with multiple characters and every time you edit a clip into the timeline you have to set the track destination controls to ensure the audio lands in that character’s track) or disabling tracks to avoid collisions. Everything is set up beforehand so you can focus on telling the story. It’s more work up front, but it pays off once you get to the stage of doing the first assembly and subsequent editing.
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You can select any clips you want to move back to the gap clip beneath them and hit option-command-down arrow to move them back into the primary storyline. You can do this with multiple clips by command-clicking them or (if they are contiguous) shift-clicking them.
However, I want to note that the workflow you’re using is inefficient and you’re basically trying to shoehorn a traditional track-based editing approach into Final Cut Pro X. You’ve created a stringout of all your clips and you’re making the selects in the timeline. There’s a better way.
I strongly urge you to spend the time (and money) to take the Final Cut Pro X Core Training tutorial from Ripple Training. It’s the best one out there that I’m aware of, and the investment you make in watching that tutorial (and following along with the actual footage, which is key; just watching the tutorial without following along on your computer isn’t enough) will save you hundreds of hours of frustration and inefficiency in the years ahead.
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You could add a gap clip. Place your playhead where you want to add it, and press option-w on the keyboard. By default it’s fairly short but you can drag it out to be as large as you like.
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Have you tried Final Cut Pro X? That’s optimized to run on Macs and ultimately could be the cheapest NLE for Mac users since you can get by with a lower-spec Mac than you can with even the free version of Resolve. Its metadata-based workflow and the magnetic timeline take some getting used to if you’re coming from a traditional track-based NLE, but it’s a pretty fantastic editor and very efficient. It doesn’t come anywhere near close to matching Resolve as a color grading tool, but the built-in color correction tools are quite good and can be augmented with a plugin like Color Finale, or you can export an XML to Resolve and do coloring there (but probably not on your MacBook Air!).
Resolve relies a lot more heavily on the GPU than other NLEs do (this is explained in the Configuration Guide), which is why it doesn’t run so well on lower-spec machines.
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FYI, for those considering the new XDR, colorists are giving it a major thumbs-down as a grading monitor; see the full thread (especially the more recent posts) at https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=104153